How powerful if your office PC? In the not too distant past every couple of years in keeping with Moore’s Law we all dutifully upgraded our computers to enable us to run the latest versions of our favourite software, or to use the latest peripherals that needed more processing power.

Today, however, we seem to be seeing somewhat of a plataeu effect in computing power. For homeworkers a computer is essential, but do you really need a very powerful machine humming away under your desk? Many homeworkers use laptop computers as their main PC. Today, every the smallest notebook PC can be just as powerful as its desktop counterpart.

Also, micro computers are becoming even more popular. PC’s like the ASUS Eee PC 4G, the Samsung Q1 and even the HTC Shift can all be used to run a small businesses. There are also the so called small form factor computers that cram all the pocessing power of a full-sized PC into a very small box. Good examples are the Shuttle series and of course Apple’s Mac Mini.

With more applications now available online such as Google Docs, Adobe’s move to the Internet with its PDF format and online word process or Buzzword, you PC just needs to be powerful enough to connect to the Internet and have a browser installed.

Clearly if space is a premium in your home office a PC with a small footprint is a great buy, but the good news is you don’t have to compromise on power these days. With a massive range of computers to choose from, we’re all spoilt for choice, but the same criteria when choosing a PC for your business still remain. Match the PC you buy with your business’s core needs. If you need masses of computing power, or simply a notebook PC to check email, there’s a PC for you, and what’s more it won’t break the bank.

This news item on the Gainseville site caught my eye and certainly rang true with me. Working on a Sunday has certainly become the norm for me. Working for yourself you become much more flexible with your time. I use Sundays to catch up on email and write my blog entries. I’m typing this as 12.35pm on Sunday June 27th for instance.

Gone are the days when we all sat about not doing a great deal on Sundays having over indulged with Sunday lunch. With extended opening ours and a rapid development of leisure time, Sundays have become one of the busiest days of the week.

Personally I try to kick back a bit on a Sunday and do the housekeeping I need to do for my business. Locking invoices and expenses into my accounts spreadsheet is a habit I have developed this year. The practical upshot is that when I need to generate my accounts at year end, this takes less than an hour. When I first started my business and simply stuffed envelops with invoices and receipts. End of year accounts would take all day - usually a Sunday.

I certainly get the impression that my fellow homeworkers are all logged on for at least part of every Sunday. It’s difficult not to check on emails, or blogs your monitoring, but I would say that you should try and throttle back on Sundays as much as you can. Preparing stuff for the forthcoming week is also a favourite of mine, but I still make time to relax and spend time with the family.

The latest research from the TUC indicates that we are still working longer hours than every before. The news comes as part of the TUC’s The Return of the Long Hours Culture report that shows that An extra 180,000 people across the UK are working more than 48 hours a week in 2008.

In the first quarter of 2008, the total number of people working long hours increased by 0.5% (180,000 people) to 3.3 million. The sharpest increases in long hours working occurred in the East of England (up 2.1%) and London (up 2%). Between 1998 and 2006, the number of people working more than 48 hours was reduced by 3.7% (707,000) from 3.8 million to 3.1 million.

The TUC report argues that the recent increase in the number of people working long hours is due to the challenging economic climate, which has made employers more reluctant to recruit new staff and instead work existing employees harder.

The analysis also finds that 85% of new long hours workers are male. The TUC believes that this trend, in which senior jobs are increasingly reliant on long hours, could hamper efforts to close the pay gap, as women with childcare responsibilities are likely to be excluded from these roles.

In order to reverse the growth of long hours working, the TUC is calling for a stronger the Working Time Directive (WTD) to protect employees. Since its implementation in 1998, the WTD has helped to reduce excessive long hours, although the UK’s opt-out has meant that this progress, in the TUC’s view, has been too slow.

TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: “After slow but steady progress over the last decade, long hours working is making its way back into Britain’s workplaces. Employees across the UK already work the longest hours in Western Europe and the recent increase will mean lower productivity, more stress and less time to have a life outside the office with friends and family.”

I’ve blogged about long working hours before. All homeworkers seem to work extensive hours as they run their businesses, but homeworkers in the UK in particular seem to put more hours in than anyone else.

Personally I’ve never worked longer hours than after I started my own business and started to work from home. But I think it’s all about perspective. I don’t mind putting in those hours as I know that I am the only person that will ultimately benefit. When I was employed silly hours was the norm, but of course my salary was fixed. These days the more I work, the more I earn.

Many people have blogged about the idea that you need to look at how much money you need to earn each week, and once you’ve achieved that, it’s time to down tools and do something else. I’ve always liked the idea that my standard of living is in direct proportion to how hard I work. It’s very motivational to know that you have to put the hours in to cover your mortgage etc.

But inordinantly long hours can of course be a symptom of a wider problem. Ask yourself if you’re working longer hours because you aren’t working efficiently? The old buzz phrase of working smarter and not longer definitely rings true these days. So take a look at the systems you use to run your business. Look for ways to improve them as in the end you’ll benefit. A four day week could be your ultimate reward.

If you are thinking of setting up your own business and are thinking twice about running your enterprise from home, think again. Renting office space can be very expensive indeed. A recent report has names Milton Keynes as the most expensive place to rent office space with a mindboggling cost of £2,500 per square metre!

Steve Jennings, director of business banking at Alliance & Leicester Commercial Bank told BT Insight:  “Our research shows that, despite its property prices and salaries being among the highest in the UK, the South East isn’t always the most expensive place to run a business, in fact there are hotspots all over the country.”

The Top Ten most expensive locations for businesses outside London are:

1 Milton Keynes
2 Cambridge
3 Oxford
4 Guildford
5 Edinburgh
6 Chelmsford
7 Reading
8 Stevenage
9 Bristol
10 Manchester

This is of course not including London that still tops the charts as the most expensive place for frankly everything you can think of. I recently moved away from Crawley in West Sussex. Being about 45 minutes away from Victoria station in London made it convenient, but costs were beginning to rise as more people realised that they could live a few miles outside of London and still comfortably commute.

So my move to Shropshire has proven to be a superb decision as my costs are much lower. But it seems that there are hotspots of very high commercial property costs all over the UK.

Once again setting up and operating your business from home is the ideal solution. You can keep costs at an absolute minimum and you don’t have to worry about a landlord. You also have complete control over your space, something that shouldn’t be underestimated when you’re trying to run a business.

If you want to try and divide your home and working life, you could of course look for dedicated live/work properties that are now becoming available in ever growing numbers. You’ll have to be pretty flexible where you live of course as every area doesn’t yet have a ready supply of these properties, but you never know, your dream location may have a live/work development.

I’m always looking for ways to save time. As I produce a lot of printed material templates are always of great interest to me. I came across a load of great templates on the Hewlett Packard site. Most are in Word format so you shouldn’t have any problems opening them once you’ve downloaded your favourites.

Yoropen 

My handwriting has always been a bit dodgy. Even at school my teachers tried to show me how to hold a pen properly and get my writing to slop the right way.  Needless to say I type pretty much everything these days. But sometimes you need a pen. The Yoropen is a fantastic invention that revoluionises the humble biro and projects it into the future with a pen that not only looks striking, is also an increadibly usable device.

As regular readers of this blog will know, I’m all in favour of more ergonomic office devices that help me work more comfortably and with reduced risk to my health, so I have an ergonomic keyboard and a well designed chair. So it looks like I’ve finally found an ergonomic pen as well!

You can buy the Yoropen from a wide variety of stockist, but the best one I’ve found is the Anything Left Handed website where you can see more details about the pen.

You may remember that I blogged a while back about a set of retro coasters in the shape of 3.5 inch floppy disks that would be great on any homeworker’s desk. The good news is that they have just come back into stock. You can see my original blog from this link. And nip over to the designer’s website and place your order now. Better be quick as I have a feeling they won’t last long.

RulerCalc

Keeping your desk tidy and free from clutter is one of the most important components of successfully working from home. I try and have as few items as possible on my actual desktop as seeing the clean space on my desk has a somewhat calming effect. Piles of paperwork and untold detritus has the opposite effect on me. If you can’t see at least 80% of your desk space, then it’s time for a desk laundry.

We all collect office devices. Two of the most common that we all have is a calculator and ruler. I’ve tried various hybrid devices in the past including a mouse mat with a built in calculator, but these were never that ergonomic. And I can’t remember how many plastic rulers I’ve lost over the years. Got to keep Staples profits up I suppose!

As a sucker for a great piece of design, I came across this latest hybrid device. The RulerCalc does exactly what it says on the tin. Measuring just 30cm x 2cm x 2cm it won’t take up too much desk space and offers just the basic funcations you need to measure and perform basic calculations. I have had scientific calculators in the past, but simply forgot how to operate them with their wild variety of function keys. Available in black or white and a snip at £13, it’s a worthy addition to your desktop.

One of the great advantages of working form home is that you have complete control over your environment that includes keeping it clean. Everyone knows that traditional cleaning products can be damaging to the environment, but can the so called eco cleaners really offer an alternative?

The Guardian newspaper wanted to test a range of eco cleaning products to see how effective they really are. The results were certainly mixed as were their prices. Expensive products certainly didn’t come out on top in their test.
Personally I don’t use any water-based cleaning products in my office as dust is more of a problem than anything else. My Mac seems to be a magnet for dust in the house as is the Microsoft ergonomic keyboard I use.

To keep the dust levels down I use the Pledge duster system. These are great as they actually pick up the dust from my desk and keyboard and hold the dust particles in the duster itself. When the duster is too dirty to pick up anymore you just throw this away. The duster comes on a handle to enable you to reach any nooks where dust might be lurking.

As you’re spending a large amount of your time in your home office it makes sense to keep it as clean as possible. Allergy suffers in particular can take control of their environment and ensure it remains healthy for them during their working day.

If any of you have cleaning tips you want to pass on here’s your chance.

HAL TV

Many home workers will have a TV in their office space to keep track of the latest events, or watch a bit of Neighbours when they need to take a break. TVs of course come in all shapes and sizes, but one of the best looking has to be the forthcoming HAL TV from Chauhan Studio.

The HAL TV certainly has a retro feel to it evoking the 60s sci-fi new wave, but would still look great in any office environment. No pricing yet, but I’ll keep you posted. Expect to put a large hole in your credit card though, if you fancy one.