How to Create a Home Office That Will Promote Health While You Work at the Computer

It's not exactly news that office jobs aren't good for us. This is something we've known now for a long time and more and more evidence is only supporting this view. Perhaps most damning are the recent studies on the negative effects of sitting at work. These show us that sitting for long stretches at a desk can take years off our life, and undo all the good work we've put in at the gym. 

 

The problem is that most people don't have much choice – they work in an office to make a living and as such they don't get to make the rules regarding how long they're sitting. 

 

That's where creating a home office makes all the difference. If you're fortunate enough to be able to work from home at least some or all of the time, then you can make the rules yourself. Here are some of the things you can do to design that office to promote better health. 

 

Standing Desk 

 

One of the first things you can use to improve your health when you're working in the office is to invest in a standing desk. Now you're not going to want to use this all the time, as it's hard to concentrate and get real work done when you're standing up. Nevertheless, for short bursts while you check e-mails etc., standing up could be a very useful way to feel healthier and even to burn some calories. 

 

Multiple Seats 

 

One of the things that makes working in an office so bad is simply how long we're remaining in the same position for. The position isn't great, but staying in any pose for this duration would be bad for you. 

 

So a solution to this issue is to work on a laptop or a 'hybrid slate' computer, and to then have multiple seats around the office that you can move to. 

 

One of these seats could be a 'kneeling chair'. These encourage you to take up a somewhat kneeling position, which while still not perfect will at least straighten out your back allowing you to breathe more naturally and reducing the shortness of your hip flexors (which is one of the things that contributes to lower back pain). 

 

The Desk 

 

Of course, your regular desk should also be at the right height for these chairs – make sure that your head is able to stay upright and still see the monitor well. 

 

Make it Light 

 

Natural light is highly important for promoting health. Not only does natural light naturally improve our mood and stimulate the production of vitamin D, but our body uses it in order to gauge its sleep-wake cycle. The more natural light in your office then, the better you are going to sleep come bed time. 

 

Natural Décor 

 

Something else that helps you to naturally reduce stress is to keep a natural looking décor. Having plants in a room has been shown to help reduce our heart rates for instance, while using stone flooring, fountains and other more natural items can all have a similar effect. 

 

The Technology 

 

You should also aim to avoid letting the tech itself negatively affect your health. For instance, using software that reduces the brightness and wavelength of your monitor can help you to avoid messing up your internal body clock. Likewise, you should look into software that encourages you to take regular breaks from your computer. 

 

Regular Breaks 

 

Oh, and take regular breaks. This is crucial not just for your eyes, but also just to keep you moving. Don't work more than an hour without getting up, walking around and looking at something other than the monitor for a while.

 

How to Look and Feel Like a Highly Successful Digital Entrepreneur

There are many reasons that you may have been attracted to the idea of working online. For many, the allure of being completely free to work when and how they please will be enough. For others, it comes down to the feeling of satisfaction that comes from financial independence.

 

But for some, it’s the allure of being highly successful. For some, it’s the appeal of being successful, accomplished, powerful and wealthy – of being able to live that hedonistic lifestyle of travel, partying and womanizing/manizing (?).

 

In other words, some of us just want to be highly successful in the traditional sense and to get the feeling of reward and power that comes from that success. Internet marketing makes this possible because it gives us a way to earn money that isn’t ‘limited’ by conventional career trajectories.

 

You have the prestige that comes from being an entrepreneur, and you have the theoretical ability to learn limitless money. You just need a good idea, a little business savvy and the dedication to put in the work. Do all that and you can quickly become highly successful.

 

You can rub shoulders with bankers, lawyers and other highly successful individuals, enjoying tailored suits and lavish parties – all without putting in the time at the bottom of the heap.

 

The Problem

 

But there’s a problem and that is the fact that many of us don’t know how to live this lifestyle. Many of us want that successful lifestyle but we miss the vital steps. Many of us end up simply working our behinds off at home, not remembering to brush our hair or do our teeth, and then looking completely dishevelled whenever we do leave the house.

 

Working alone is not highly conducive to presenting ourselves will and what many people don’t appreciate is that running a business is a lot of hard work. Without a boss to motivate you, you can end up falling behind quickly. And then you end up making up for it in the evenings, or by diving straight into work without getting ready for the day first. This is especially true if you are so driven by being ‘successful’ or wealthy. Kind of ironic!

 

The Solution

 

The solution is actually to make sure you leave space in your day for looking after yourself and investing in your look. We all know the saying: dress for the job you want. This is just as true when you work for yourself because dressing well will make you feel more successful and effective. 

 

But knowing that and actually acting on it are two very different things. If you want to spend time on yourself, then you need to ensure you give yourself that time – and more importantly that you give yourself that energy. That means clocking off at a set time and dedicating some hours in the day to getting dressed and ready.

 

Develop a morning routine. This will make it easier to ensure you get dressed and ready the same time every day and will ensure you start your day with the right enthusiasm, mood and footing.

 

How Working Online Will Change You

Lots of articles have been written about the kind of person who becomes a blogger or an SEO, and the ways that you can make yourself better at blogging or running a website. What is less often discussed however, is how working online can actually change who you are as a person and influence your personal development. There are many ways that this can happen and a number of common effects that blogging can have on your personality and your attitudes. Read on to meet the person you might become... 

 

How Jobs Impact On Us 

 

I used to proudly claim that I hadn't changed, because I became a blogger and never bowed down to the man. I have no colleagues as a blogger meaning that there was no one for me to become ‘more alike’, but this in itself can have an effect on you. And likewise, working from home and earning passive income has probably had some impact on me too. Blogging/optimizing changes you just like any other job, only it changes you differently. Once I was self-aware enough to recognize this, I set about finding out what had changed about me. Here's what I came up with... 

 

Care Free 

 

I would say that compared to my other friends, I am more carefree and less restricted. While my friends have to work 9-5 jobs and get very stressed if they stay out too late one night, I can remain flexible and free to work when I choose and where I choose. If I'm honest, this has also led me to somewhat resent those people who aren't free to hang out because they have work the next day. I guess it's fair to say that I've become somewhat detached from the 'real world' and regular routine. 

 

Opinionated 

 

Writing online regularly has also made me somewhat opinionated. Sure, I'm opinionated in my views on employment (and self-employment), but I've also become very used to expressing myself a lot online and sharing my opinion. This undoubtedly crosses over into my daily life, as I tend to wax lyrical about pretty much any subject that I get the opportunity to talk about. 

 

Independence and Confidence

 

You also get a lot of confidence from working online. Once you’ve made money yourself – completely yourself – you realize you’re capable of anything. This helps you to feel more successful and generally means you get used to ‘being the boss’.

 

And with that comes increased independence too. You don’t rely on anyone, and you have countless projects to pass the time when you are alone.

 

An Unusual View of Money 

 

In some ways, being an online entrepreneur has made me stricter with my money. The money I've earned has been entirely down to my own effort and is a reflection of my success, so I feel more personally affronted when I spend it. On the other hand, though, I also think of money now very much in terms of overheads and profits. Spending a little money on a friend is just another 'overhead' and I can earn it back by working a little extra hard for a while. 

 

These are just some of the ways you change when you become a blogger or a digital marketer. Of course, the precise changes partly depend on who you are to begin with. Either way, expect to grow and change and to get more from the experience than you necessarily bargain for…

 

Loneliness and Working Online

Being a successful blogger, digital marketer or other form of internet entrepreneur is an amazing achievement and in many ways it can improve your life to a huge extent. Not only does becoming a successful marketer/blogger grant you financial independence and the ability to set your own wage, but it also gives you creative freedom and theoretically it allows you to accomplish the kind of work/life basis that many of us are missing. 

 

But of course, like anything there is an element of the ‘double edged sword’ here and there are downsides to that independence too. One of the very biggest ones here, that a lot of us don’t anticipate before going into this business, is loneliness. When you strike out on your own and are able to give up the day job, the commute and the office politics it can feel like a breath of fresh air. But then later when you hear about your friends’ Christmas parties and their office romances, you can start to miss the camaraderie that working with other people provides. 

 

And in fact, as you sit there typing away most days, you can even start to find yourself getting rather bored or going out of your mind for the lack of people to talk to. Here we will look at some ways you can avoid this, and how you can avoid letting your blogging drive you mad... 

 

Go Out 

 

Many people want to blog for a living because they want to ‘work from home’. Do note though, that work from home here is really more of a figure of speech rather than a literal description of where you are going to work – because actually when you’re self-employed you can work anywhere. Why not then go and work in a café in town? This way you will at least get to chat to the staff that work there and maybe some other people sitting in. Or alternatively of course you can sit in a bar or pub, or when it’s sunny relax on the grass in the sun with a glass of juice. This way working for yourself becomes a much more desirable, and at the same time you’ll be likely to encounter more people, have more conversations and possibly even meet attractive members of the opposite sex. Of course, you also need to be open to chatting to people for this to work. 

 

Meet Up With Others 

 

You can also make blogging more sociable by using the opportunity to meet up with people you don’t normally see. For instance, you can meet your friends for lunch on their lunch break, or you can meet them after work if they finish early. You’ve got the time, and you can even do things like design work while you chat. And in fact, this will be a lot more sociable than most people are in the office anyway. Apart from anything else you’ll be chatting to people who are actually your real friends rather than just colleagues. 

 

Network 

 

Networking and interacting with other bloggers, writers and your visitors is very good for your website and a great way to promote your business and make contacts. At the same time, it can make your business less unsociable, so try attending networking events, working face to face with designers and marketers, and responding to your fan mail rather than locking yourself away. It’s good for your site, and it’s even better for your mental health...

 

Power User Tips for Internet Marketers

Being a 'power user' is a term that sounds much cooler than it is. Actually of course this just means being able to 'work even quicker on the computer' which when you think about it isn't something you'd probably have bragged about back in the playground. 

 

Nevertheless, being a power user means that you can get more done, be more efficient and ultimately earn more and create more in a shorter timeframe - which is pretty cool. 

If you’re a digital marketer, then this is especially important. So read on and learn these power user tips that can help you work faster and smarter.

 

Use Google Keep 

 

Google Keep is a web app that Google designed with similar note-taking features to Evernote but a less steep learning curve. The concept is great - allowing you to quickly take a note in your browser then access it from your phone, and in practice it really is very convenient for accessing your ideas and photos from wherever you are in an intuitive, minimal and quick way. 

 

Use Your Bookmarks 

 

If you aren't using your bookmarks properly then you are missing out as they can help you to work a lot more quickly online. Bookmarks can let you navigate instantly to the pages you use regularly, and that can include your work e-mail or the collaborative site you use at work. If you want to prevent yourself from procrastinating so much in the morning, then just make the page you need for work your homepage - that way this will be the first thing you see, and you won't be tempted to browse Facebook before getting down to it. 

 

Better yet, consider using the Google Chrome app ‘join’ which can be used to send tabs, bookmarks and more directly from a phone to a PC and back again.

 

Get a Headset 

 

Having a headset for your computer can liberate your hands while you're talking on the phone or taking notes, and this can be incredibly useful for multitasking. Use a headset and you can chat to clients while answering e-mails, or dictate notes with voice recognition software. 

 

Learn Keyboard Shortcuts 

 

Learning keyboard shortcuts can save you a great deal of time when it comes to getting through large workloads. A few taps of your keys and you can have opened new documents replaced elements and saved and once you get used to doing this it will become almost like breathing. 

 

Have Multiple Monitors 

 

Working with multiple monitors is something that almost every power-user swears by. This way you have more screen real estate for running multiple applications and you won't find your workspace so crowded. If you don't have space for two monitors, then bear in mind you can use a television or even an Android tablet as your second screen (the latter of which will probably also impress colleagues). 

 

Another option is to get an ultrawide monitor, and studies suggest that this can increase your productivity by as much as 30%.

 

Organize Your Folders 

 

If you want to work as quickly and efficiently as possible then it pays to think ahead and to set everything up to be easy. One way to do this is to organize your folders so that everything you need is right at the top and in a logical place where you can find it quickly. 

 

Step by Step Instructions for Becoming a Digital Nomad

A digital nomad is someone who works entirely online in order to be able to travel freely wherever they want. A digital nomad will normally be found wearing just a single backpack with a small laptop or hybrid slate computer slipped in, and will spend their time moving from WiFi-providing café to WiFi-providing café in all kinds of sunny countries. 

 

The idea is that they get to travel and see the world, while being able to easily fund their movements and not have to worry about getting into major debt. Sounds ideal right? 

Well for the right person it is. As long as you can bear to be away from your creature comforts and you don't need the social stimulation that comes from working in an office, then you can use this as a way to live the kind of life that most people only dream of. 

 

But how do you go about making that leap? Going from an office worker to a digital nomad? Here's the process in a simple step-by-step form. 

 

Speak to Your Loved Ones 

 

What stops most people becoming a digital nomad is not their jobs really, but rather their relationships. If you're in a romantic partnership now, then you'll need to talk seriously with your partner about the prospect of you travelling the world. Hopefully they will be supportive and recognize it as something you need to do. If not? Then you'll have to decide what's most important to you. 

 

Speak to Your Employer 

 

Before you give up your job, you should first ask if there's any way you can set up a remote-work arrangement. Explain your ambition and your manager may help you to make it a reality with no career-change necessary. If not, you'll need to try another tact… 

 

Start Earning 

 

The next thing to do is to start earning some cash off of your own back online. Do this by writing articles for webmasters, by creating web designs or even by providing proof reading services. You can advertise these skills on a webmaster forum or a site like ODesk or even Fiverr. The aim is to start generating just a little work so that you can start to gain confidence and 'wean' yourself off of your 'main job'. Once you're earning enough to be confident you can quit – remember you don't need that much money to do this. 

 

Better yet, consider becoming an internet marketer. By selling affiliate products, PLR products or your own digital products, you can earn money even while you sleep. Or how about becoming a travel blogger and that way turning travel into a financial asset rather than a burden?

 

Speak to Your Mum and Dad

 

You will need a lot of money if you want to pay rent and travel the world at the same time, but if you are willing to throw out a lot of your things and get your Mum to look after the rest then you can free yourself of this financial burden. You might have friends who can do this, but Mum is your best bet seeing as it’s a rather big ask. Otherwise consider storage, but make sure you'll have somewhere to stay when you get back. In general, you’re probably going to have to cut back a little on your possessions!

The Best Places to Work if You Work Online

If you work online, then you have the freedom to be physically located anywhere in the world and to still earn an income. This is an amazing freedom that so few people are afforded, and it’s one of the top reasons that many of us are attracted to the notion of working online in the first place.

 

It’s a minor tragedy then, that so many people who manage to make their income online, will not take full advantage of this. So many people who work online equate this to working ‘from home’ in a very literal sense. That means working out of a home office, or working in bed. Sure, this has its appeal too, but it’s not exactly taking full advantage of this untethered way of working.

 

You can go anywhere if you work online. So where should you go?

 

Working Abroad

 

Of course, the natural conclusion is that working online should mean working abroad. That way, you can see more of the world, experience other cultures and truly live a kind of life that wouldn’t be possible any other way.

 

I have done this a fair bit myself. One of my favorite memories was finding a friend who also worked online and travelling to Croatia. There we explored and saw the sites during the day (and had some great adventures!) but in the evenings we would work in cafes and bars.

 

Sure, many people would rather be out partying during the evening, but my friend and I are introverts. And we love what we do. So, the idea of being able to sip a beer and watch the world go by, immersed in the atmosphere of the nightlife… it was incredible. One evening in particular, we worked in a bar listening to some Euro music while watching rain hit the cobbled streets outside and watching people pass by on their holidays. It was a great feeling and really made us grateful that we had the opportunity to work this way. On another occasion we hired a small log cabin from AirBnB in the mountains of Switzerland. There we worked while sipping tea and enjoying a view of the mountains from our wooden balcony.

 

For the Non-Digital Nomads

 

I’d like to point out at this junction that I am not a digital nomad. That is to say that I do come home in between trips and you can do the same. You don’t have to give up all your creature comforts or your relationships in order to enjoy travelling as you work. Working online means you can just travel more.

 

And even in your local area, there are no doubt more exotic and exciting places you can work. Anywhere with an internet connection where you won’t get kicked out can make a great place to get work done.

 

Working in a coffee shop is the most popular and sensible option. As long as you spend a little on coffee, you should be able to stay there as long as you like and most will have free wifi and power. Plus, you can enjoy people watching and listening to the background chatter, all while avoiding the many distractions and temptations that come from working at home. Libraries are great too!

 

The Most Useful Tech for Online Entrepreneurs

Are you interested in working online? Thinking of becoming a full-time entrepreneur? Then what you need to realize is that your lifestyle is going to change in some big ways. Simple things like no longer having an office and no longer having colleagues will make a huge difference to the way that you spend your days and your workflow.

 

And with those changes will come new requirements for your tech. In order to get the most work done, you will need specific hardware to help you get there. You will no longer be able to rely on an office desk being there every morning when you get into work. So what tech should you invest in? Here are some important and useful considerations.

 

A Laptop

 

Firstly, you will likely want a powerful computer for handling some of the more demanding parts of your work. If all you do is basic SEO, then you can get by with something simple, but if you intend on doing any video editing etc., then you’ll need something with some more impressive specifications.

 

Getting a laptop is also a good idea, because that way you’ll be able to work from anywhere. The only problem is that getting a computer that is at once highly powerful and highly mobile is not so easily done. 

 

Good options include: the Surface Pro, the Macbook, the Surface Book, the Razer Blade and the Dell XPS 13 and 15. My pick of the bunch has to be the XPS 15. This device comes with a Kaby Lake i7 processor, a GTX 1050 GPU, a 512TB SSD harddrive and 16 GB of RAM and is considerably less expensive than a Macbook.

 

A More Mobile Device

 

Something I highly recommend to any digital entrepreneur though, is that they also invest in an even more mobile device to work on. One of the great things about working online is having the freedom to be able to work from anywhere. Use something like the GPD pocket – a tiny 7” laptop – and you can slip it in your pocket when you’re done. Another option is to get a folding keyboard for your phone, such as the Microsoft Universal Folding Keyboard.

 

A Great Phone

 

You’ll find that you can also actually end up doing an awful lot of work on your phone. Whether you’re chatting with clients and business partners over Slack, or you’re managing your content via the WordPress app – there’s a surprising amount of work that can be done from a phone these days. Invest in a good one and consider the requirements of a power user: such as a large battery, lots of screen real estate for multitasking etc.

 

Kit Bag

 

You’ll also need the right bag for carrying your stuff around. If you’re going to stay productive, then you’ll need to be able to carry a lot with you and you’ll need to have all of this to hand when you need it.

 

Some things to keep in your bag should include:

 

·      Powerbank for getting extra charge

·      Portable harddrive for extra storage

·      Noise cancelling headphones for working on planes and trains

 

Why You Should be a Content Creator and Not a Marketer

Labels are important. Most important are the ones that we give ourselves. How you define yourself will color the way you see yourself, and this in turn is going to influence the way that you interact with others, your happiness, your confidence and much more about you.

 

This is particularly true for people like internet marketers. If you’re someone who works online, then you will work a job that isn’t easily defined and that many people won’t really understand. What is it you do again? How do you make money without leaving the house??

 

And it also changes the way you feel about the work you do and the work that you will end up pursuing. I recommend considering shifting the way you describe yourself from ‘internet marketer’ to ‘content creator’. And here is why…

 

The Same Thing Really…

 

You might be wondering how you can just go ahead and change your label if you’re still doing the same job. Isn’t a content creator something entirely different from a digital marketer?

 

Well, not really!

 

These days, content marketing is the most effective option for any brand wanting to increase its visibility and status online. Content marketing is necessary for SEO (because SEO is predicated on having content for Google to crawl) and it is synonymous with social media marketing (because one of the most important aspects of social media marketing is sharing content through your various channels). 

 

And if you’re a content marketer who creates articles and videos for a blog, then chances are that you have the precise same goals as the marketers: getting your content seen.

 

The only difference is that a content marketer is someone who puts the ends first, whereas the content creator puts the quality content first. They put the value first. The content creator builds a brand and then promotes that brand with great multimedia content. The marketer on the other hand looks at the market and asks how they can make money…

 

Why the Content Creator is the Better Outlook

 

But the content creator – ironically – actually often makes more money. That’s because they have a brand they believe in and they are putting more work into their content. 

Both these things are not lost on readers who will end up wanting to spend more money as a result. And thanks to Google’s more recent changes, they’re not lost on the search algorithms either…

 

Then there’s the fact that content creators are happier. Why? Because they are working on something they love. Success doesn’t come online quite as quickly as some marketers will have you believe. It takes a lot of time and even more work. If you’re going to avoid letting this crush you and make you miserable, then you better ensure that you are doing it for the love and not because you have to!

 

Think about all the most wealthy and famous people online. How did they get there? From pedalling ‘make money’ ebooks? Or by creating an amazing YouTube channel and sharing a vibrant personality and talent for writing and production?

 

Choosing The Right NFT Marketplace

It is really important that you list your NFTs for sale on the right marketplace. Some marketplaces appeal to a different audience than others so you need to know who your target audience is and where they hang out to look for new NFTs.

 

Two Types of NFT Marketplace

 

There are actually two different types of NFT marketplace that you can choose from. The self-service NFT marketplace allows anyone to create any kind of NFT. This means that you can create image based NFTs, video based NFTs, audio NFTs and more. Most self-service marketplaces will permit you to associate royalties to your NFTs as well.

 

A curated NFT marketplace is the other type. Here you will need approval from the management of the marketplace to create and list your NFTs. The reason that curated marketplaces exist is to ensure that only NFTs of the highest quality are listed on them.

 

You will always need a Crypto Wallet

 

No matter which of the NFT marketplaces you choose to use, you will always need a crypto wallet for the storage of your NFT information and also to hold the necessary cryptocurrency to pay for any gas and listing fees.

 

Check the Blockchain Networks the Marketplace uses

 

Although the Ethereum blockchain network is the most popular for creating NFTs it is certainly not the only one available. A lot of NFT marketplaces will have support for the Ethereum network but this may not always be the case.

 

There are a number of different blockchain networks that can be used to create NFTs. Some of these networks are closed such as “Flow” and are not interoperable with other blockchain networks. Always check that the NFT marketplace supports the blockchain network that you intend to use for your NFT creation.

 

Most Popular NFT Marketplaces

 

OpenSea is by far the most popular of the NFT marketplaces. It gets millions of visitors each month and there are always millions of NFTs available. Almost anything goes with OpenSea and it is a self-service marketplace.

 

Rarible is another popular NFT network that is self-service. It is owned by the community and members can be awarded the ERC-20 RARI token. If a user is active on the marketplace with NFT creation and trading then they are likely to receive the token. While you can mint different kinds of NFTs on Rarible, the main focus is on digital art.

 

Mintable is a good choice of NFT marketplace if you are looking for self-service and a variety of auction options for your NFTs. The minting of NFTs with Mintable is “gasless” which makes it unique.

 

Nifty Gateway is an NFT self-service marketplace that accepts fiat currency through the use of credit cards. If you want a curated marketplace then one of the best is SuperRare. They are very choosy about the kind of NFTs they will accept because they want to ensure they only list NFTs of the highest quality.

 

Niche NFT Marketplaces

 

NFTs are not just about digital art. There are niche NFT marketplaces available for the creation and listing of things such as in-game items and fantasy sports cards. You will find some of these marketplaces tied directly to games such as Axie Infinity and Decentraland.

 

If your NFTs are focused on sports, you can check out the NBA Top Shot marketplace and others such as SoRare which specialize in collectible cards.