Yet Another Wet & Windy Morning.

There's always a deep sense of sadness on Remembrance Day, and somehow even the weather today has decided to go along with the mood of grey depression. It's been blowing a gale and raining for hours. As I write this, I'm watching a lady struggle down the street with her umbrella trying hard to turn itself inside out.

I'm not normally too badly affected by wet weather, but we've had a lot of deeply grey days over the last couple of weeks and I think it's beginning to seep into my soul. This morning has found me moping around the house, not settling to anything much and for no good reason, other than that I simply feel low. I wander if we're meant to hibernate? It's certainly what I feel most like doing right now.

It's days like this that make me glad I'm not out in the corporate world, because if the urge to snuggle up  on the sofa with a hot drink and a crossword should become too compelling, there's nobody to stop me doing just that. On the other hand, if I had to be out there 'doing' something, I wouldn't be moping at all.

From past experience, I know that this glumness isn't likely to last very long - thank goodness. Quite often although I'll feel that I've wasted a day, come the evening I get a sudden boost and find I can actually get things done. So I'm hoping that's what will happen today.

Having said all that, I have achieved one thing this morning - I've managed to press out thirty clay Christmas tree shapes, ready to make into cards and bookmarks, number two daughter can sell at her forthcoming school Christmas Fayre.  We had a bit of an experiment last week and were sufficiently happy with the results to go for it on a larger scale. That's not something I could have done in the corporate world either.

Do you have any foolproof ways to get your motivation back on track? I've read umpteen books on the subject, most of which I think I can summarise as 'just get on with it'. Although last week I read Tom Hodgkinson's book, HOW TO BE FREE and so I'm now wandering if I should even worry at all about not being productive. Maybe it's entirely natural to just want to cuddle up with a blanket and do nothing.

Oh and one more thing, if you're affected by low light levels, put back your old energy inefficient light bulbs. Ditch the nasty new bulbs. I've recently replaced two blown energy efficient bulbs - yep, they don't last that long do they - in the kitchen, with the old type and guess what, it feels like a summer's day in there. Tells me something - I NEED LIGHT!

Right, off to sit in the kitchen now.

Give Me Some Space!

The fundamental requirement for successful working from home, is a dedicated space where you can keep everything you need to do your work efficiently. Now for me it's what was once the dining room. The fact that we had to give up dining in here, was really due to not wanting gravy or custard dripped over my work-in-progress files.

So we took away the dining table and chairs and I was left with a wonderful space, plenty of room for my desk, cupboards, shelves and a small sofa. It was heaven.

But the tranquility was not to last. Gradually, almost imperceptibly at first, other people's 'things' began to creep into my room. Well alright, some of it was mine too, like the tapestry wools and spare frames, the art materials, the 'cello and of course a load of books. But I have never played the bassoon, and there are two of them sitting on the floor here, next to me. I don't own a viola a violin or an electric keyboard either, but here they are too.

The roll of cable must belong to the other half. Very useful when cable is what you need, not so handy when you'd rather have two square feet of clear carpet. I admit that the pile of handbags and briefcases may technically be mine, although I do occasionally lend them to the rest of the brood, but the beer brewing kit is definitely not mine. I am not now nor ever have been a brewer.

I like the old horseshoe in the window, but the huge telescope tripod that is propped up against it really could do with another home. The sewing box next to my printer comes in handy from time to time, but I should put it back in the cupboard upstairs it once came out of. 

I won't go into any detail about the considerable tower of ancient computers stacked in the corner of the room. Needless to say, they're his, not mine, but to be fair they are over in the half of the room I've practically given up any title to, it being stuffed to bursting with electrical detritus of unimaginable origin.

The sewing machine that you need to be a weight-lifter to pick up, is on the floor, right in front of the cupboard where I keep my envelopes. A tad annoying when I'm doing my post. But my leg muscles must be enjoying the exercise I get pushing the machine along the carpet.

Despite all this, I generally manage, with just the occasional rant, to keep my desk space clear of other people's stuff. And so I must conclude that it could be worse. And I really would fight my way through any amount of instruments and electricals, rather than commute every day like I used to do.

My space may be pretty cramped, but I have a great view across the front lawn and a friendly squirrel comes and nibbles his acorns outside sometimes for my entertainment. Not a pleasure I had in all my employed years.

But take a tip from me, be protective of your own work space, guard it jealously if you can, or before you know it, you'll be surprised about what you're sharing it with.

Office Hours? Don't Make Me Laugh.

One of the great joys of working for yourself is that you get to decide when you'll work, no need to sit at a desk just because you have to be seen to be there, no desperate watching as the minute hand crawls round to 5.00pm before you can grab your coat and run.

Working at home gives you tremendous freedom, especially now that with mobile phones, we can be almost anywhere and still be available for our clients and suppliers.

But as any work from home business owners will tell you, that's only part of the story.

A couple of weeks ago, a fly on the wall in my house would have been able to see me simultaneously writing copy for a 6.00pm deadline whilst cooking spaghetti bolognese and overseeing some rather unpleasant maths homework. Why? Because ten minutes after I'd decided to call it a day and start cooking the dinner, my biggest client called to say he'd been offered a last minute deal and could I put something together quickly? And of course being a nice sort of person I said yes, rather than 'don't be absurd, I've a pound of mince browning and what time of day do you call this anyway!'

And this is the sort of thing that happens because when your home is also your office and when your phone goes with you everywhere, it is incredibly difficult to impose 'office hours'.

When I first started my own business, I'd refuse to leave the house at all, even when there was no work to do and nothing I actually wanted to work on, simply because after years of working 9 'til 5, I felt that I had to be there 'just in case'. I also worried that my clients would think I wasn't serious if I wasn't at the end of the phone when they called.

But gradually, I've adopted a rather more flexible approach.

My own preferred work pattern is to work fairly early in the day and then again later at night. I do the admin type jobs in the mornings and sometimes draft copy and have calls with colleagues, then at night I'll do the more solitary creative stuff. I'm not much good with afternoons, and teatime is all about feeding the family and ferrying children about. So when I can, that's how I arrange my work time. But it doesn't always work out that way, as the bolognese incident proves.

And of course it does depend to a greater or lesser extent on the nature of the industry in which you work. If your clients require you 'on-hand' 9 'til 5, you don't have much choice.

But the explosion in the numbers of people now choosing to work flexibly from home, makes me believe that more and more people are finding ways to work that do accommodate their needs for juggling work time with other things, be they family responsibilities, hobbies or even other jobs.

And the more of us that are working this way, the more our clients - I believe - will accept that it is normal and entirely agreeable. In fact, so long as we continue to offer excellent service, they're really the winners too, because as micro businesses, we're very much more responsive and flexible than bigger outfits, able to give our clients top notch service at a leaner rate than the big boys.

So I don't publish any official 'hours' to my clients. If I think they're being persistently unreasonable, I either charge them extra for the hassle factor, or decide to let someone else have the pleasure of their business. After all, we have the choice too.

Is Silence Golden?

When you were still at school and had to do homework, did you do it in silence, or did you have the radio or TV on at the same time?

It's something that interests me because when I'm working at home, I've begun to realise that for some projects I nearly always have the radio playing in the background, but for others I work in silence.

As a rule, my default position is to have speech radio playing all day. Living in the UK, that means either BBC Radio 4, or BBC Radio 7. Now these stations play a great variety of content. To be honest, I tune out to a lot of it. It's more of a background noise that I seem to need, rather than me actively engaged in listening to what's on.

Sometimes I'll find that I have been hooked and I'll actually listen carefully, but mostly it's just company.

But this morning I've been doing some more planning and I've done it all in silence. It was only when I got up for a coffee break, that I even realised that the radio was off. So why is it that for some tasks I seem to need background noise, but for others I have to have quiet time?

I used to think it was all to do with how much concentration was required, but I'm not sure that's true. Certainly when I'm copywriting, I do tend to keep the noise low, but not always, and quite often I'll actually play music while I write.

When I was doing my 'A' Levels, I did practically all my revision either listening to the cricket match commentaries or with the late lamented John Peel playing in the background. It didn't seem to do me any harm.

So I'm no nearer an answer. Do you have any ideas? My current 'best bet' is that it has something to do with the mood I'm in rather than the task I'm doing. If I'm happily engaged in something, I'm less bothered about company or distraction, if I'm less connected, I want noise around me. Well it's a theory...

Any budding psychologists out there care to elucidate?

Oh The Power Of A Good Flow Chart!

I've spent a large part of today planning out some new work I'm going to be doing in the next few months, and as usual, I've been using the tried and trusted flow chart to get from my initial brainstorming, to a detailed plan.

If you have difficulties putting your good ideas into action, then perhaps flow charts could be the answer you're looking for.

The brilliant thing about flow charts, is that they force you to break down your big ideas into simple, manageable steps.

To begin with, I'll get myself a big sheet of plain paper - I don't very often use lined paper at all, because I find I can be much more creative with plain paper.

On this sheet, I'll write in the middle what it is I want to achieve. This could be any goal you're working on. Then I spend time brainstorming all the things that I will need to do in order to achieve my goal. Sometimes this is quite simple, but for complicated projects, it can become quite complex.

I write down all these sub-stages, around the centre project title, in no particular place, although if stages seem to go together, I'll write them in the same area.

Once I've managed to collect all my thoughts, I then take another piece of plain paper, and on the very far right hand side, write the final goal - what I'm aiming to achieve - and put a circle around it.

Then I take the sub-stages I've noted in the brainstorming sheet, and consider each one - can I do it now? If not, what would I have to do first in order to do it? Now by working in this way through each sub-stage, noting down actions in the sequence they need to be done, you eventually work out a structure that has the most immediate actions on the left hand side of the sheet, flowing across the page to the final outcome.

If there are things I need to do, but I'm not sure how to do them, I'll still put them in the chart, but circle them and put a question mark there too, to remind me to work out the detail.

For every separate, that is non dependent action, I'll draw a new line in my flow chart, so that for a complicated project, I might have lots of lines coming into the final circle.

On really complicated charts, I might makes sub-charts for complex sub-tasks - but frankly, that's not very often.

But at last I'll have a chart that shows me the order in which I need to get things done.

Now this is the magic part. When I get to this stage, I get out my calendar - actually I'm very old fashioned here - I use a printed planner, but you could use whatever method of time-planning that makes sense to you.

I'll give my final goal a target completion date, or if that's already fixed, maybe a copy deadline or an exhibition date, I'll add this to the end circle.

Now I go backwards through the chart, working out when everything has to be done by, and estimating how long each stage will take. That tells me when each preceding stage has to start. Working backwards, I'll end up with a chart that tells me when every stage has to be started and finished to meet my deadline.

Then all I do is to make notes on my calendar of what has to be started on which day.

The beauty of this system, is that once I've created my chart and transferred the actions to my diary, I know what I have to do, without having to worry about the big picture. I can concentrate on each of the detailed actions. It's a bit like the old saying about 'how do you eat an elephant? By cutting it into small pieces'.

As I'm working on my projects, I'll have a regular check to see that I'm on target, and adjust the timings if necessary.

I've been doing this simple system for years and years and I can assure you that it's still one of the best ways to make progress on what you're doing, because it forces you to translate ideas into actions and give those actions a definite date by which they need to happen. It also allows your brain to let go of the big picture, so you can use your energy to put it into practice, step by step.

It's a funny thing, but when we make dates, we have a much higher chance of actually doing what we planned.

So, if you're struggling to eat your elephant, grab some plain paper, a pen and your diary, and see what happens.

Wishing A Merry Christmas To Your Network.

Now I have personal rule, which is that I will not do any Christmas shopping until after Bonfire Night (November 5th, for those of you outside the UK, who don't get to spend the evening oohing and aahing at firework displays that commemorate the Gunpowder Plot). It's one of my little quirks, I just can't bear the thought of Christmas preparations going on for months.

But with my business woman's hat on, I do have one exception, and that's buying Christmas cards.

The reason is simple. Sending Christmas cards is one of the easiest and most effective way for me to stay in touch with my network of clients, prospective clients and 'influencers' - the people I know who are able to help send new clients to me.

Now being just a micro business, I don't have a huge number of people to send out cards to, which means that I can write a personal message to each one. Obviously this isn't going to be so much fun if your list runs into the thousands, but then again, if you're in that position, you can probably prioritise the list and still send a personal message to your top fifty or so contacts.

Now in case you're wondering, this isn't the only time in the year that I contact my network. I think they'd be pretty hacked off with me if they only had something through once a year. But at Christmas, it's a really good opportunity to send a very gentle reminder that I'm here and open for business.

I make it another rule never to try and sell anything at this time. If the contact has been particularly helpful, I'll say 'thank-you for your help this year', but otherwise, I keep it pretty simple, but personal - use their first name, mention family members where appropriate - wish them luck in the New Year for any particular activity or hobby I know interests them - that kind of thing.

What I'm aiming at, is giving them the feeling of a warm greeting from a valued friend.

In absolutely no circumstances would I send one of those hideous circulars, recounting a list of my - or worse, my family's achievements over the last twelve months. I'm afraid if I receive a similar communication, it makes me think rather less of the sender, and I award a mental black mark against them... But of course that's just me - quirky.

Keeping in touch with your work network is one of the most important ways of fuelling your businesses development, and staying on good terms with them is vital. So I use the Christmas card as one of my regular marketing activities. Around this time of year, I'll usually sit down - or more often go out for a walk - and think through the other ways I'll aim to communicate with the network over the coming six to twelve months.

By knowing what and when I'm going to communicate, I can keep my network warm and friendly.

So I'll be off this afternoon to buy a nice selection of charity Christmas cards and give myself time to write them carefully, ready to send out a couple of weeks before the Christmas holiday begins.

De-clutter is a disaster.

Well I've decided to forget about daily de-cluttering for a while, it's just not something you can do, well at least it's not something I can do, while I have the children and/or husband at home. My time seems to be much more focussed on the regular provision of food, clean clothes and an 'on-demand' taxi service.

Any attempt to enthuse the others with my de-cluttering passion has fallen on deaf ears. Indeed the children managed both to not hear and provide a 'what us? you must be mad' kind of sneer at the same time.

So although they've gone back to school this week, I don't think I'll be resurrecting the mission just yet.  If I have an idle moment, I might have a quick purge on the area closest to me - no need to worry, I'm not spoilt for choice - but I'm not going to be allocating time specifically for the purpose.

One small, but gratifying success to record however, I have cleared and what's more, kept clear, the top of the cupboard where I keep my art materials. Might not sound much, but in this house a tidy and clear worktop, table top or shelf, is pretty well guaranteed to be covered by a new pile of detritus with a speed that would astonish you. In fact, I think scientists should study this phenomena. It's the only 'law of attraction' that I can say I one hundred percent agree with.