soho

This is where you will find all the pages tagged soho.

10 New Ways to Make Money Online

So you want to ditch your corporate cubicle and join the ranks of web workers? But you have a mortgage, maybe a dependent or two, and a taste for Venti Mochas from Starbucks? You can make money in the new economy, though it might not be as easy or cushy as keeping your old economy job.

I’m not talking about advertising or affiliate marketing or selling your junk on eBay. Those are so last millennium! I’m talking about the new new economy.

Web Worker Daily � Blog Archive 10 New Ways to Make Money Online �

On Telecommuting, Telework and Alternative Officing

Do you have any questions about getting your telecommuting program started? About convincing your manager to let you work at home? About your technology decisions? These and many other subjects are covered in this FAQ section- so take time to search through it to find the answers you need.

Frequently Asked Questions - Gil Gordon/Telecommuting

Design your home office for comfort and ease of use

The notion of universal design in the home, or how to make interior spaces more user-friendly and accessible, usually comes up in kitchen and bath designs.

But what about accommodations for ease of use in home offices? According to the U.S. Census and Transportation Research Board, the number of Americans who work at home grew 23 percent between 1990 and 2000 to more than 4 million at-home workers.

It is routine for large businesses to consider ergonomics, lighting and other factors when creating offices to make work spaces more functional. Even reducing employee fatigue is part of the planning mix.

But not so in home offices. Without the same access to design experts as big business, homebound workers are generally left to their own devices to choose desks, lighting, storage, carpet and chairs. But an odd mix of products may not work cohesively to help workers perform at their best.

According to Dick Duncan of the Center for Universal Design at North Carolina State University, in-home workers tend to pooh-pooh the idea of function in favor of low cost and product appearance.

Home office physical health

I've noticed some minor symptoms of carpel tunnel syndrome in my 'mousing hand' and have started to examine some proper ways to set-up my soho work environment. It's nothing serious yet but I think those of us who spend hours everyday in much the same position doing much of the same thing should be vary wary. Perhaps this is yet another reason to be even more mobile than a home office will allow - pick a string of coffee shops to work in to keep you active and to change the positions in which you work. That is if you can work in that environment and it is available to you. Replacing a corporate cubicle for a home office doesn't always give you the freedom you thought it would - get out and work some place new.

Work station ergonomics
"Incorrect working posture can cause musculoskeletal disorders affecting the neck, back, shoulders, arms and fingers."

Carpal tunnel syndrome
"It's thought that repetitive overuse of the hand tendons causes them to become inflamed. This is one reason why keyboard use can be responsible for carpal tunnel syndrome."

Above photo is not the best example of good posture.

Work Smarter Not Harder

Do you end the day wishing for more hours? If this describe you, there are ways to get more from your day without having to need more hours. Time management is a very important skill for anyone working in a flex-based environment. For mobile workers it can be the difference between sanity and insanity.

Creating and keeping a schedule will require some effort initially but once you get into this routine, it will become second nature to make plans and stay organized. You will need to breakdown your activities based upon Work and Home/Chores.

If you analyze the time spent doing various activities over a period of one or two weeks, you will see patterns developing. Those patterns are what you need to track. They will be either time wasters or maximum use of time.

Analyzing Your Time - Work Smarter Not Harder

How to work from home

Some tips on how to work from home from Matthew Stibbe.

The benefits of working from home are obvious. If you’re a regular employee: you skip the commute and there are no office distractions for the day. If you’re an entrepreneur: reduced overheads, no commuting and a congenial working environment.

A couple of my favourite tips from his list:

Keep work and home separate. Ideally, you need a separate room or outbuilding for work. It’s good to shut the door on work at the end of the day.

Everywhere is your office. I use a local club for interviews and meetings. Starbucks or Cafe Nero are just as good. Other people rent meeting rooms from local serviced offices, such as Regus. I also use my server to give me mobile email on my Orange C600 smartphone. This means I can synch inbox, diary and contacts anywhere.

Bad Language / How to work from home