If you do, we’d love to hear your favorite piece of advice for others who work at home or are looking to start working from home on the topic of how to work effectively.
Simply leave a comment at the end of this article and share your tip! That way we can all benefit as we read each other’s advice. I’ll try to compile everyone’s comments into a follow-up article for next week.
If you can’t think of your absolute number one tip, feel free to just share one or more tips that can help other Sparkplugging readers learn how to get things done as a work at home entrepreneur.
Once again, today’s question is:
What’s your number one tip for working at home effectively?
Okay, I’ll go first. I’ve worked exclusively from home for over five years.
My number one work at home tip:
Separate. Create a special space and time in which to focus on professional work, and try to keep it separate from your home life. I’m not saying you should lock yourself in your home office from 9 to 5 every day – just that you should carefully decide when is “work time” and when is “home time,” and where you want your home office to be.
Every time I’ve followed that bit of advice, I’ve found myself enjoying the work from home life much, much more.
Okay, your turn! What’s your number one tip for working at home effectively?
WordPress is a fantastic platform upon which you can build any website – even a professional website. You probably already know this – Sparkplugging itself runs on WordPress, after all.
And Headway 1.5 is a new theme for WordPress that makes updating the design of your website easier than anything you’ve ever seen before.
Hence the line about everlasting bliss.
An Offer You Almost Can’t Refuse
If you’ve been thinking about getting WordPress and/or buying Headway (which sells now for $87) to use on your business website, here’s an offer you might find practically un-refuse-able.
Website Habitat is offering to create a complete, business-ready WordPress website running the Headway 1.5 theme, plus a ton of expert support, starting at just $375. Since Headway 1.5 is currently only available for $164 (the developer license is the only way to get it at the moment), this deal is really smokin’.
Website Habitat is run by Easton Ellsworth (that’s me – hey) and Dawud Miracle, who is also a co-owner here at Sparkplugging.
In addition – the next 20 people to order this package from Website Habitat by Monday, November 9 will also get a $495-value SEO consulting package from me for free as part of their purchase.
Find the Right Home-Based Business to Start – With so many ideas floating around in your noggin, how will you know which one is the best? This guide will get you started on the right track.
When we think Calendars, we often think our personal calendars, using it to manage our promotional calendar or share with our virtual assistants or project partners. But it doesn’t always have to be that ‘dry’. Many marketers online use PDF’s, videos and audios to get their message out, hope they turn viral which eventually brings traffic back to their web sites and their name in front of others. This method works and works well. Guess what? Content can be in other formats too like calendars.
Here are a few example ideas I came up with that you can use a shared Google Calendar to help promote your web site or business.
If you are a speaker, publish a speaking schedule. You are probably already doing that through Google Calendar already. Maybe you are publishing the calendar to your website. If you are, people can also subscribe to the calendar via Google Calendars or iCal. Promote and publish those links too.
Is your site or blog all about soccer? Create a calendar around the different soccer matches either around the world or the locality that your readers are most interested in. Let them know how they can subscribe to that calendar.
Maybe your visitors are mostly business people or marketers. How about creating a calendar that shows when quarterly taxes are due, a reminder when to start their holiday marketing planning and when to start promoting? Enter the dates and weeks of holidays and observances they can use for promotions.
Similarly, if your visitors are moms, how about a calendar with suggestions of places to visit, things to do, seasonal reminders or shopping and menu plans.
If you are a coach. Create a calendar around a program let’s say, a 60 day organizing program that users can subscribe to and they be reminded or things they need to do each day or each week to help them move along.
Use your imagination. Think of the calendar as a free reminder tool for your visitors. Remember that you can enter a link in Google Calendar entries. This can encourage subscribed users to click through to visit your site, an offer or simply lead people to read old but timely posts.
Don’t think it would work? This is the third year I am creating a calendar for bloggers of the many blogging opportunities throughout the year. It is very popular and I get people asking when it will be updated each year. Great tool to keep you in front of your audience at all times through the year as well. You can get a PDF copy of this calendar as an example for your own project. This year, I will be creating both PDF and a online ‘live’ version using Google Calendar.
Image courtesy of yalcin Eren
Lynette enjoys discovering new ways to use technology or new technologies to use in a business and in turn help her clients apply them. You can find also Lynette at her blog, Twitter and Facebook
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It has been so many years since I’ve used Excel. These days, OpenOffice Calc is used exclusively around here. Still, I can’t deny there are some pretty cool things about Excel. Not saying Calc is not a good tool, there are just a lot of cool features and functions that I miss. Also, documentation and help is a little sparse with Ooo. I’m far from a spreadsheet guru. I can create formulas in spreadsheets and use it to help tabulate a bunch of stuff – my household budget is run on a spreadsheet, but that’s about it. Guess I just never found the reason to chart stuff until today…
After paying a visit to Pointy Haired Dilbert’s blog. WHOA! Now this guy can chart! From cool management dashboards to project management to creating a Twitter client with Excel? Now that is something interesting.
He’s also got a bunch of downloadable templates you can grab and utilize for your business. Kinda want to make me finally break down and get a copy of Excel. Well… maybe I’ll just go make a dashboard. That’s something I’ve found that I need to keep me on track lately.
Lynette enjoys discovering new ways to use technology or new technologies to use in a business and in turn help her clients apply them. You can find also Lynette at her blog, Twitter and Facebook
Would you like to get more done in less time with your work-at-home business so you can spend more time with your family doing the things that you enjoy most in life? Do you often dream of a balanced lifestyle that brings you success in wealth, health, and your relationships?
It’s time to make those dreams a reality so you can get on living the life that you deserve. The best part… it’s easier than you may think.
The key to increased productivity is to optimize your brain function. The more focused, alert, and efficient your brain operates, the quicker you will be able to get through your daily tasks.
The most effective tool that you can use to optimize your brain is exercise. But you don’t need to spend hours in the gym in order to boost your brain-power and increase your productivity. You only need 10 minutes.
Let’s put it to the test. I challenge you to take a 10-minute quickie break from the computer. Come on now… I know that you’ve got 10-minutes. Trust me, it’ll be worth it.
Here’s a fast and fun home office cardio workout that you can do right now. No excuses! It doesn’t require any equipment, it doesn’t require much space, and it doesn’t require much time.
OK, so how did it feel? Were your legs burning? Was your heart racing? Awesome!
Now it’s time to get back to work, feeling more energized and focused. You needed that break didn’t you? You feel pretty darn good about yourself to… right?
Please do me a favor and take mental notes on how this quickie 10-minute cardio session impacts the rest of your day. How it improves your productivity, quality of work, and time management.
Aside from your home business, I would love for you to share how the quickie home office cardio impacts your family. Did you have more energy to play with your kids or grandchildren?
The benefits of incorporating home office fitness into your workday are nearly limitless. This is a balanced lifestyle approach. You are using quick fitness to improve your business and quality time with your family. You really can have it all, and you deserve it! Begin today and experience a transformation in your business, fitness, and life.
You ROCK! Enjoy the experience!
Scott Tousignant, BHK has been helping busy work-at-home-moms and dads improve their #1 asset (HEALTH) for over a decade. Scott’s balanced and practical approach to fitness helps busy homepreneurs get more done in less time so you can spend more time doing what you enjoy most in life.
Backed by years of experience and the application of his education in human kinetics, Scott created Fat Loss Quickie, the fast fun home office fitness experience that will quickly transform you into the super-focused, highly productive, beautiful person you really are!
Now it doesn’t matter how busy you are… You’ll never have to neglect your health again!
Sparkplugging Founder Wendy Piersall is dang passionate about helping people start & grow a business while maintaining life balance (somehow). Wendy's Bio
Dawud Miracle is a well-known and highly sought after business strategist and social media expert who helps his clients find and leverage the hidden profits that exist in their business. Find him at dmiracle.com.
Easton Ellsworth
Editor in Chief & General Manager
Easton Ellsworth is owner of Visionary Blogging, and is widely known and highly regarded as an expert in blogging, SEO and social media strategy. He's produced exceptional results for a number of business blogs.
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