I don’t know about you, but I have used a year planner for well, years. I had used ordinary bound desk diaries, but I found it hard to visualise the year as a whole. A friend suggested a wall planner as the obvious solution, and a superb piece of advice that was.

The year planner enables me to relate time to the work I have to do. I place holidays and other events on the planner each December for the following year. I can then at a glance instantly see any clashes or issues I may have if a client commissions some work.

I had used flimsy poster type wall planners as they were cheap. But after stumping up the £20 for a mounted Sasco planner I’ve never looked back. The rigid board that these planners use is ideal. The surface takes stick-on dots and other visual aids and comes with a write on wipe off pen for quick notes.

Also, I had used to attach the planner to the wall with massive blobs of Blue Tack until I discovered that it was leaving unsightly grease marks on my walls. After some investigation I found a new 3M product called Poster Strips. They’re basically Velcro with a sticky backing. But they come in various sizes to attach posters and heavier objects. I’m using them to secure my year planner and my magnetic message board to my wall. I tested removing the strips. They came off easily and without any grease marks. If you need to attach anything to your walls, Poster Strips are perfect.

Sun Jar Solar Lamp

Lighting is very important in a home office. There are all manner of desk and floor lamps to choose form. But how about capturing the sun in a jar? Simply leave the jar on a sunny window or in a bright room and the jar magically stores the light ready to release it again automatically turning on when it gets dark. The jars are waterproof allowing them to be used outdoors as well as indoors (though when not being used they should be kept inside). The frosted glass produces a magical effect, hiding all the equipment inside the jar but allowing the light to radiate as a soft orange glow (much like a candle), making it look as if the sun really has been caught.

I just saw Emma Jones’ latest post on Enterprise Nation about Your Business Channel. Its a business portal like no other as it is based on video content and not simply text-based features. Even a quick look at the site reveals masses of information that you could spend hours watching. If you want to keep your finger on the pulse of the latest business trends, bookmark the site now.

There may well be millions of homeworkers across the planet, but it seems that employers are still reluctant to embrace this kind of working. In the UK we have enhanced flexibility legislation, but this is only for specific groups of workers. For everyone else that would like to work more flexible hours, employers are not looking positive when their staff want work from home, at least according to the latest research from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.

Despite the reports findings that state that 8% of employers believe home-workers are less productive than their office-bound colleagues, while 30% say they are more productive, bosses are still not emabracing the homeworking cluture.

It seems that the fear of lack of control is a major contributing factor to the view that more flexible working isn’t good for business, even though many companies report that they believe workers can be more productive at home.

Bosses really need to put their money where their mouths are to ensure that their employees are working efficiently. If this means working from home, then they ought to adopt this working format ASAP. The report also stated that employers don’t expect the percentage of their workforces that do work from home to increase this year. It looks like we aren’t going to be joined by legions of new homeworkers any time soon.

miShare

Music is certainly an important part of the homeworking experience. You no longer have to suffer the musical choices of your colleagues in an office environment. How often have you had someone around who asked you what song was playing in the background? If this is a regular occurrance and you both have iPods, then the miShare is the perfect way to share that track with your colleagues and friends. The device is a smart little handheld gadget for connecting iPods and sharing files. No computer or cable is needed, and it’s super easy to use.

miShare works with all Mini, Nano, 3G, 4G, Video (5G), and Classic (6G) iPod models. (The “G” here refers to generation, and includes models of all storage capacity from 1GB — “gigabyte” — to 160GB.

On the HomeOffice Warrior website you’ll find some pics of Alex Johnson’s office. Alex is the undisputed king of shedworking with his blog becoming a mecca for all shed dwellers. Alex will also be writing a regular column in my forthcoming magazine for all homeworkers.

If you like to see the home offices of other homeworkers don’t forget to checkout Home Office Snapshots and Office Snapshots to see the offices of leading business.

Emma Jones the founder of Enterprise Nation and the author of Spare Room Start Up recently launched her book in london. From the photos that are on her website it looks like there was a great turn out. If you aren’t aware of Emma’s new book, checkout my full review and don’t forget to order your copy.

I just noticed that Freelance UK’s website has had a radical makeover. The new design looks great. The site has always been a good source of help and advice for the freelance community. They also have the Freelance Alliance that you can sign up for that the site describes as a: ‘network for media and creative freelancers based in the UK. It is a unique sales platform where companies, agencies and indeed other freelancers, can search for freelance workers.’

Pencil sharpener

Electric pencil sharpeners are all well and good, but I like the mechanic type as you have more control over the position and speed of the sharpening process. You also don’t have to find yet another outlet for the plug for the electric variety - last count 17 devices plugged in under my desk! I also like the white slick look of this sharpener from Muji. If you have one of those glass desks, this item would look superb on it.

Aerogarden

I’ve been thinking lately about how I can make my office even more of a comfortable and healthy place to work. As luck would have it I was watching the Gadget Show on Channel 5 on Monday. They have a regular group test. This week was garden gadgets.

One gadget that caught my eye was the Aerogarden as I have been thinking that perhaps more plant life in my office would be a good idea. The Aerogarden seems to solve a number of problems in one very hi-tech piece of kit.

Completely self-contained the unit was developed in association with NASA. It’s basically a hydroponics garden. You decide what plants you want to grow from exotic flowers to specialised fruit and vegetables. The problem I’ll have it finding the space to locate the Aerogarden in my office. Still working on that one at the moment.

If you have any recommendations for good plants for home offices post them here. The view from my office window is very green, but I think I need to bring some of that green into my actual working space.