August is here and the summer seems to be speeding by! Hope all of you are keeping busy with fun and exciting things. Creating new cards and updating my website have certainly kept me very occupied! It is fun to be creative and design new cards, but I must admit, the work involved in maintaining a website has been overwhelming! (I have learned so many things in doing this myself – but I still need to know 99% more!) 🙂 I have an appreciation for professional web designers, but their services just don’t fit into my budget! 😦
So, I have been a bit behind on my blog postings, but thought I would check in and wish you all a wonderful day, week, and month!
This cute ‘music’ chair s one of my sitting places.
When I create my handmade cards, I am sitting at my work station. When I am composing my blog posts, I am sitting at my computer. When I am updating my facebook page and twitter postings, I am sitting. Ok. You get the idea. There is a lot of sitting that happens around my house. Luckily, since I work at home, I am able to take short breaks and get off my ‘sitter’ and onto my feet. I have found simple ways to stop sitting and get a bit of exercise throughout the day. I know I need more ‘get up and go’ in my days!
Not only does it feel good to move a bit, but I think short breaks help my creative mood. If I get stuck with an idea for a card, I can take a break to do something else, like:
My ‘creative’ room is upstairs, so at least I get a bit of exercise letting my two dogs in and out of the house by way of the 15 steps I need to travel to get to the backdoor. (It just dawned on me that it is a 30-step round trip, and I travel that route many times a day!) Up, down, Up, down….these stairs are used many times a day!
My washer and dryer are frequently used, so laundry is something that gets me up and down the stairs for another break from sitting. I put my bleach higher on the shelf so I have to stretch a bit to reach it!
I am also a guest teacher, so when I teach first, second, or third grade….well, need I say more? Sitting? What’s that?
There are many ways we can accomplish little tasks and get a bit of exercise along the way. Walk your dog (and you!), clean a mirror, empty your trash baskets, change your AC/Heater filter, do a quick chore. Dust a light fixture…anything that makes you reach and stretch. I even put things I use often on a higher shelf so I have to stretch a bit to reach it!
Dust this dog…..…or walk this dog!
We are usually thinking of other things when doing something…that’s part of our creative DNA! If you’re like me, I use up extra steps when I walk into a room and forget why or what I was going to get or do! (Senior moments is an entirely separate blog! Hopefully I will remember to post that at a later date!)
I know we all do not have the luxury of working at home, but working in an office also presents opportunities to take a quick break. Taking the stairs instead of the elevator, standing up and stretching or moving around while you’re on the phone. Stand up and bend down to reach a file or open a drawer instead of doing it from your chair. I’m sure you can think of many other little ways to get a bit of exercise in your office while also being productive.
This is my contribution to fitting in a bit more ‘get up and go’ into our lives this year. Just a bit at a time! This also ties in with what I am going to try this year…taking things a little at a time so I am not overwhelmed with all the things I have to do. I think I will be more productive and less stressed.
I hope your days are filled with lots of creativity, less stress, (they say some stress is actually good for us…not sure who ‘they’ are!), enjoyable times with family and friends, and good health. Just remember to keep moving and ‘get up and go’ when you can! I must also share a saying my dear grandpa always said after a hard day’s work, “My Get-up and Go, Got up and Went!”
You are probably sitting as you read this now, but when you finish, where will you ‘get up and go’ to?
Sitting at your computer, with your faithful cup of ’joe’ at your side, you begin your workday. You check your e-mails and decide which ones require your immediate attention, which ones you can delete, and which ones you need to ‘mark as unread’ so you won’t forget to check them later. Your attention turns to the project you began yesterday and immediately you become involved and focused on completing it before lunch time. The doorbell rings…your UPS delivery waits on the other side of your front door. You get up to answer it, when you realize you are still in your pajamas!
A home-based business. One of the advantages of working from your home is that you don’t need to ‘dress’ for the traditional office. You are free to choose whatever outfit you feel comfortable in to complete the tasks to manage your business. Terri Libenson, author of the popular comic strip, The Pajama Diaries, illustrated the “Popular Work-At-Home Uniforms” recently. Such a playful way to show home-business attire!
Popular Work-At-Home Uniforms
There are so many individuals that operate small home-based businesses. A few positive advantages of working at home:
You can be a bit more relaxed in your home environment.
You save fuel costs and the hassles of peak traffic congestion.
You can set your own time schedules, within limits.
You are your own boss!
Many of us already know some of the disadvantages of having your own home business. I won’t discuss those at this time; I want to focus on more positive issues today!
I would love to stay in my pajamas all day; they are so comfortable. Slippers, or better yet no shoes, are much easier on my feet than high heels! However, I feel that in order to get me in the mood to conduct a business, I must dress the part. Most people feel better when they look better, so I feel that if I am dressed I have a more professional attitude and conduct myself in a more business-like manner. (I still don’t wear shoes, but I am out of my pajamas!) I feel more productive when I am dressed for the part, even if I take a break from creating a handmade greeting card or working at my computer to throw in a load of laundry!
When my doorbell rings at 2:00pm, I don’t have to tell the UPS delivery person that I am ‘under the weather’ because I am still in my pajamas! What about you? How do you dress for your home-based business? I would love to hear your thoughts on how you get yourself into the working mode!
Thanks for reading!
Vickie Horsfall
Special Thanks to Terri Libenson for granting me permission to use her comic ‘Popular Work-At-Home Uniforms’
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