Tips for organizing your work at home

Working as a freelancer gives you a lot of freedom, but it also requires a certain amount of self-discipline. Planning your day and organizing your schedule can be challenging without direct supervision, but it’s necessary nevertheless, and here are some tips on how you can make your working at home more organized and efficient:

First of all, planning is an absolute must even if you hate it with burning passion. With so many distraction that the coziness of your home provides, not having a plan for a day will make it so much more complicated to roll up your sleeves and start doing the job. Without proper plan you are most likely to get lost in your tasks and waste your time trying to do everything at once. Make a habit of putting up a plan for the following day every evening and soon you’ll see how easier it is to keep yourself organized when you have your day planned.

Even if you are a night owl, try waking up at the same time every day. It’s not only healthy for your body, but it also helps your self-discipline and keeps those late night “floods of inspiration” under control.
Keep in mind that this is important to have a rest and not miss lunch or coffee breaks even if you are close to missing the deadline. It’s been proven that after several hours of doing the same job we start losing concentration and focus and start making mistakes. So do yourself a favor and take a break from time to time, it will help you get to the job with a new found strength.

Since you probably spend significant amount of your time behind the desk, make sure you keep it tidy and uncluttered to create some sort of professional atmosphere that will always remind you that even though you are at home, you still have some tasks to do.

As for organizing communication with your supervisors, you have to make sure that you are always in touch in your working hours. Most of people who work from home communicate with their supervisors via cell phone, Skype, IM and email, so having stable Internet and cell phone connection is a must. If, for some reason, you constantly struggle with weak signal, you can deal with this problem with the help of wireless 3G booster such as AnyTone AT4000. The device amplifies the signal for every single cell phone and laptop in its coverage zone, so your family members will also be able to enjoy stable and high signal. If you are living in a densely populated area or your building has thick walls you may also suffer from drop and missed calls, weak reception and pour audibility while talking on the cell phone. That problem is solved the same way as in case with weak 3G signal – by installing cell phone booster. If you live in a middle-sized house or apartment the perfect solution for you is AnyTone AT 500.

And one last thing: avoid social media websites like the plague while you are working. Those sites are time-sucking black holes and “five minutes” can easily turn into several hours. So leave that for your leisure time and try to keep your work related web browsing separated from those sites you browse for fun.

Author Byline
Hi, my name’s Jannet Sparts and I’m working as an editor of Online Issues. I write for several blogs sharing my experience and observations. For the moment I run several blogs that cover the latest trends in technology.

How homes have changed, then and now

Over the years the real estate and more noticeably homes in general have changed dramatically. House builder, Miller Homes has taken a look at how the properties you can buy today differ to those that were lived in back in the 1950’s. Over the last sixty years, the world around us and the environment has changed drastically, now we take a look back at home the home related trends have changed and moved on since then.

Nationwide released data that has revealed that the average cost of a home in 1952 was £1,891. This is figure that many will find astounding given today’s average of UK homes said to be at £164,134. £1,891 today could possibly put two sofas into your living room. Back in 1952 an average of 4.2 lived in each property – 2.2 children and a husband and wife – and many couples began married life still within the home of their parents.  Today however, is again different however, the number, very slightly. The family unit is not so typically defined and with the trends such as a big rise in the number of people living by themselves, sharing with friends and couples living together before they are married. Each property in the UK has moved up slightly to the average of 2.3 people living in each property.

Back then in 1952, only a small 33% of homes possessed a washing machine and a smaller 15% had a fridge or a freezer. This statistic is virtually unthinkable in today’s world and almost £5 million was spent on major household appliances throughout the United Kingdom in 2011 only a tiny 14% of households back then had a television which is even more unbelievable than the previous stats as today we are bombarded by technology within the home.

However, it is also particularly noticeable that some 1950’s house trends come back whilst incorporating newer trends such as enhanced home security and uPVC windows. Post-war era, life at home had the focus of the wife who generally assumed the role of ‘homemaker’.  Front covers of magazines and adverts showed women smiling in pressed, clean linens ironing and baking and we are seeing some slight return to these very traditional values. Examples include the ‘Keep calm and carry on’ slogan which has reappeared. Cath Kidson-style home wares have become extremely popular again which are favoured by a new generation of females who wish to make their homes homely.

Creatine or Protein Shakes?

Although this may seem like a pretty simple enough answer to those who are advanced level athletes however, those who have never used bodybuilding supplements such as these before may not know. In a quick explanation, both creatine supplements and why protein shakes will enable you to advance your physical ability and appearance quicker and to a higher level, this is why;

What Do Protein Shakes Do?

Protein shakes are often cheap and they are an easy way in which to get protein into your system for a diet or to gain muscle. Having protein shakes will work out cheaper than consuming tuna, chicken or any other normal food high in protein. They are made from milk, via complicated processes that retains the protein quality, whilst removing the sugars and fats. The fact that protein shakes are very low in carbs and fats means they are low calorie and you can therefore drink 3 or 4 them per day.

Your digestive systems digests up to a total of 40g of protein every 2-3 hours and small regular meals avoid you gaining fat, hence the 6 meals per day recommendation. 6 meals a day may sound like a lot of eating however all that is require dis breakfast, lunch, dinner and a protein shake 2-3 hours after each meal. When you consume protein every 2-3 hours, it keeps your body in an anabolic muscle building state, as opposed to a catabolic muscle losing state which occurs when your body hasn't been supplied with protein in the last few hours. This is why a high protein breakfast as soon as you wake up is vital; similar applies for a protein shake before bed.

For every second of the day, your body is either gaining or losing muscle, sometimes both. The overall gain or loss is important; your diet controls this more than any other factor. Additional factors include being well hydrated, performing regular intense exercise, avoiding stress, not over heating and also getting enough sleep.

What Do Creatine Supplements Do?

Creatine is used by the body muscles for intense exercising and lasting less than 60 seconds. Creatine can be found within beef and other natural foods and supplementing with additional creatine provides more energy that can be used resulting in greater performance and a longer performance. If, your diet is sufficient for muscle growth, you can literally gain 7 pounds in 7 days, but it will be mostly water, associated with the super hydration effect that creatine has on your muscles. When you stop using creatine you lose this water, but the net result is that you have trained heavier over the last 8 weeks or so than you would have normally and you should have therefore gained a lot more muscle than you would have done without using creatine.

So Creatine or Protein Shakes?

Protein shakes are the only realistic and doable way of consuming 6 high protein, low calorie meals daily and is essential for muscle growth. In conclusion, the simple short answer is protein shakes over Creatine. If you are still not contempt with results, use a creatine supplement at the same time, but not instead.

How to make online marketing work for you

You have probably heard the phrase “If you're not online, you don't exist” so many times that you’ve lost count, but the truth is that this phrase pretty neatly describes current state of any business field. Long story short - if you want for your business to get noticed you are going to have to get online. For those who want to know about how to get into online marketing we will tell about some strategies that will fit your business goals and your marketing budget just right.

The first thing you should remember is that often the key is in diversity, so try using at least a couple of successful online marketing strategies.

Having a website or a blog is your number 1 online marketing strategy. Even if you don’t sell anything website is still a must for you. Why? Putting it simple, having website is like having web-based home address. With blog or website your current and potential clients will have a convenient way of referring to your business and they will be able to keep in touch with you. So having a website is something that can sufficiently boost your online marketing efforts. If you regularly post relevant news and have some interesting opinions sooner or later you will get followers who will help you spread the word about your products or services.

The other thing you should pay close attention to is online advertising. Some people neglect this specific strategy calling it “rather pricy” but nothing is free when it comes to business, because even when you use so called free marketing online strategies you put a lot of your time and effort into them. And while free methods are pretty time-consuming, traditional online advertising takes not so much time and is rather effective. You can use different strategies according to the needs of your company and your budget: CPM or CPC models, advertising your company with the help of online videos.

Directory listing is another way of online marketing that is both effective and not so expensive. A lot of local business groups allow posting ads on their website and you will definitely be able to post some information about your business there.

Once you choose appropriate marketing strategies you should find specialists who will bring them to life. If you don’t want to hire full-time marketer, you can always outsource your marketing tasks.
In case you decide to outsource your marketing to freelancers you should provide your hr team with appropriate software that would help them automate HR operations and deal with an increased number of tasks and requests.

General advice for those who want to cut down on the budget without damaging your marketing – use management software. It not only helps dealing more efficiently with daily routine tasks, it allows tracking the process of every single one of your projects from any place that has Internet connection. With web-based workflow software you’ll be able to create and assign tasks, make changes in already active workflows and communicate with your team within one system.

Author Byline
Hi, my name’s Jannet Sparts and I’m working as an editor of Online Issues. I write for several blogs sharing my experience and observations. I have worked as a project manager in several companies. So I have tried different PM tools, collaboration programs, including tracker and task management software solutions. For the moment PM software is my primary field of interest.

3 gadgets of today’s businessman

Nowadays, it is hard to imagine any business company that would be able to get around the idea of presenting their services and products to the public or to the potential investors. In fact, these presentations are probably the most frustrating thing in the world, since the presenter does not have a chance for a mistake. In order to feel confident on the stage, it is important to make yourself confident about the technological gadgets that you will use and make sure you will get help in case something goes wrong. Here are 3 ways to make your presentation perfect.

Use your own media devices. Your confidence in the presentation has to do a lot with being sure that your multimedia devices will not fail in the middle of the presentation. That is exactly why you have to bring your own trusted devices. Since it would take a lot of space and effort to carry a full scale projector, the engineers invented a micro projector. This palm-size device is perfect to carry along for a business trip and is extremely easy to handle and set up. The gadget is also free of overheating problems due to the size of the lens and technology that is used to build them.

Use remote control. For the past years the high tech market developed a huge variety of different remote controls to suit anyone’s needs. Why use a remote control? For obvious reasons: the audience never liked people who stood near the computer and whispered something from the prepared speech sheet. A presenter that moves around is somewhat emotional about the topic and that uses body language will always be far more successful than the one that barely moves. For these purposes a remote control will help you get through the slides and control the presentation without the need to stay near the multimedia device.

Use GSM earpiece. If you did not have enough time to prepare the presentation and practice it, chances are you might forget something and run into an awkward pause. A solution to this problem is a covert earpiece. With this invisible earphone you can receive help from a co-worker, who will be able to communicate you the information that was forgotten or left out from the presentation. This is the most efficient and most invisible way to avoid pauses and keep your presentation going.

Now that you are set up with gadgets and confidence, you are ready to do what you have to do. Happy presenting!

Author Byline
Hi, my name’s Jannet Sparts. I write for several blogs sharing my experience and observations. My primary fields of interest for the moment are electronic devices like mobile repeater, spy wireless earpiece or flexible OLED smartphone.