Take a break - for the sake of your health and your profits

I'm grateful to LearnStuff for sending me this infographic.

Although it turns the stats into an easy read, there's a lot to think about here, and I feel that us home workers may be even more prone to these problems.

A five-minute break can improve your accuracy and reduce wrist and eye problems and fatigue. Taking a walk at lunchtime can improve your sleep, energy and mood.

This is just an extract, visit http://www.learnstuff.com/take-a-break/  to see loads more important stats and advice.

More productive or less productive when working from home?

I've seen bosses and colleagues cynically equate working from home with a paid day off, and the title of my blog is a direct reference to this attitude.

But a survey says that we are more productive when away from the office because there are fewer distractions.

This item on the NY Times says that reading using a handheld device provides many distractions. I would apply this to working from home too - if I'm bored with what I'm supposed to be doing, the open tabs along the top of my browser or the apps in my dock become way too tempting.

I'm sure that distractions at home (household tasks, social networking, receiving a delivery...) balance the distractions at work cited in the survey (chatting with colleagues or walking to someone's office to make a request) and I would say that working unsupervised gives you more freedom to give in to the distractions than when working with others.

However, there are other benefits too. The article makes the point that for the employer (or the self-employed) there's a huge financial saving to be had from working from home, and for the worker the lack of a commute is a huge saving in time, stress and money. These things make working from home cheaper and more enjoyable, and I have no doubt outweigh a difference in productivity.

Don't feel bad about taking a break

When you're busy, it's difficult to take a break and spend a little time doing something apparently unproductive, but I've just read this report which justifies it.

I've often said that I do my best thinking when I go out walking. I've treated a break for knitting or a little surfing as a treat or a rest, but maybe these things also have real productive value.

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/01/how-do-we-identifiy-good-ideas/

More on prioritising tasks

I'm sure I'm not the only one who looks at the to do list and can't be bothered to do any of it.

And then picks up my knitting or picks the thing from the list that is most appealing. I've said in previous posts 'why not?'

How about this trick; write beside each task a monetary value and how soon that value could be realised. Then think about the next big goal - the next new car or holiday.

Suddenly the list looks quite different and it's more obvious which one to do first!

creating more time

Finding enough time has become a real problem.

One remedy has come, as discoveries often do, by accident.

For a completely different reason, I found myself noting details of my tasks with times. The exercise has been a real eye opener.

Certain activities which I suspected were eating up my time disproportionately were actually taking even more time than I'd thought. Dropping that part of the business has removed an unprofitable activity as well as saving perhaps an hour every day.

There has been another benefit too. Noting what you're working on keeps you focussed. When you finish one task it makes you decide on the next job and start it, rather than turning to Facebook. when you're working on a task, knowing that it's being timed curbs the tendency to get up and make a cup of tea. This has also created a noticeable amount of time in the day.

Being able to see a list of completed tasks at the end of the day also makes for a satisfying day.

I can't recommend this simple exercise highly enough.

Prioritising tasks

For the first time in a couple of days I'm on top of my orders and enquiries and on days like this I realise that the way I prioritise my work isn't ideal.

The sink full of washing up has been waiting for me to get on top of my orders, as have the accounts. I'm looking at them both and not wondering which needs doing most urgently, but which I'd least hate to be doing.

It seems that the way I prioritise my tasks is to decide which I like doing best. But hey, why not, it's my business!

I really don't want to do either, which is probably why writing this suddenly seemed very important.

Trying too hard?

In last week's Thinking Allowed on R4 (and followed up this week), Laurie Taylor covered the subject of working from home, or 'flexible working'.

The main focus of the discussion was whether people feel over-conscientious about sending and receiving emails and phone calls, just to prove that they're actually working.

I think this arises from some scepticism among colleagues about those who are not in the office (hence the title of this blog).

I find it easy to be distracted by social networking or (if I'm desperate for a displacement activity) some housework. I assume that the temptations are the same for others, but being self-employed means that I don't have a conscience about it. Time I spend working I'm earning, time I spend when I'm distracted I'm not earning, and the mix is entirely up to me.

I regard it as being the same as clocking on for an intense 8 hours and then being clocked off for the rest of the time. It's just that the time is more mixed-up.

It's a flexibility I like. A perk of being responsible for my own income.