What holiday habits will you bring into your working life in 2012 to make it more fun?

Each weekday at 11am, we invite Enterprise Nation followers on Twitter to take a short break and join us for a chat. We call it the #WatercoolerMoment and we’ll often pose a question to get the conversation started.

Last week we asked: ‘What holiday habits will you bring into your working life in 2012 to make it more fun?’  We had so many great tips from our followers we asked regular contributor Rickie Josen thought to compile her favourites and share a few with you.

What holiday habits will you bring into your working life in 2012 to make it more fun?

1. Turning my phone off and shutting down Outlook for an hour so thoughts don’t get interrupted.  @andrewdlevey

2. Staring into space more and letting the brain free-associate. @colinshelbourn

3. Being a freelancer means you can work whilst wearing your swimming trunks in the house and not just by the pool. @Timmy666

4. Try something new. Go to a training course or event or something to stimulate your ideas.@andrewdlevey

5. Enjoy the really good stuff while you’re working. E.g. occasionally have the best coffee and the luxury cake rather than just saving those for the weekend. @RickieWrites

6. Knowing when not to work is important. On my recent holiday I learned not to take my laptop with me everywhere. @Timmy666

7. Try to use time positively when technology occasionally lets us down! @aptanet

8. Best holiday bonus is the enforced shutdown, so u can follow ideas knowing you don’t HAVE to do something. @colinshelbourn

9. If I’m working on a specific project I always go somewhere else to review for a fresh perspective.@andrewdlevey

10. I have a trip to the gym most days which energises me – missed this over xmas!@LyzzyBee_Libro

11. I find a change of scene definitely helps if energy levels are dipping. @andrewdlevey

12. It’s important not to get isolated and to keep up friendships – I missed when doing two jobs so I’m doing now! @LyzzyBee_Libro

13. Holiday time – savouring each moment rather than stacking up mental notes. @lubnagemarielle

14. Making time for the lovely things you do on holiday: eating well, lots of fresh air, walking more, always being excited. @Timmy666

15. Getting away from it all. Get out of the usual work setting to help with new ideas and different thinking. @andrewdlevey

16. I got into a habit of meeting a friend a day over the xmas break and will try to work that into daily life. @LyzzyBee_Libro

The wonderful thing about Jelly…

Regular Enterprise Nation contributor Rickie Josen is a big fan of Jelly. No, not the wobbly stuff you eat with ice cream, but the loose co-working group for freelancers and homeworkers that meets in cafes, home, offices – and other locations – across the US and, increasingly, the UK. This is what Rickie has to say about the virtues of Jelly.

I first encountered Jelly during a long stint in New York, thanks to EN’s very own Emma Jones recommending it (she does a lot of that – Ed).

All I knew about Jelly when I RSVPed to my first one was that it’s about co-working for people who otherwise work alone, at home. When I came back to the UK, given that we have all moved towards home-working, portfolio careers and entrepreneurship – not to mention the more general acceptance of social media as a way of connecting – I was surprised Jelly wasn’t already in a huge city like Birmingham. So, eventually, I added it to my list of community tasks.

Read article as published by Enterprise Nation

Freelancing means…….Freedom

Yesterday, we drew attention to the rise in the number of start-ups in 2011. Unsurprisingly, the number of freelance workers has also gone up – quite a lot, in fact. According to research released by Kingston University in November last year, there were 12 per cent more freelancers in 2011 than in 2008, the start of the financial crisis – that’ll be a rise from 1.4 million to 1.56 million in three years.

EN contributor Rickie Josen is a freelance evangelist. In the second of her occasional musings on the joys of freelance life, she draws attention to all the things you can do when working alone that you can’t necessarily do when working for others. Read the article as published by Enterprise Nation here

Freelancing means…never having to say you’re sorry

As published by Enterprise Nation

Is the old work/life balance mantra is out of synch with today’s working environment? And surely if you love what you do, you want to do it as much as you can?

So why do we have to stop ‘working’ when the corporate world does to have this said balance?Unquestionably, laptops, smart phones and the internet mean we can squeeze in some tasks anytime, anyplace, so why don’t we take the pressure of ourselves and let our work fit around our chosen lifestyle?

Here are seven reasons why being a freelancer means never having to say you’re sorry:

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Jelly in Birmingham

What: Jelly is an event for solo workers to come together to work and chat. I attended a few Jellies when I was in NYC a couple of years ago. We had them in people’s apartments there and once in a shoe show room over-looking Central Park! It was essentially an apartment used as a showroom and not something I have come across in Birmingham as yet. Only in New York….
Just bring your laptop, grab a coffee and get to work in a lovely friendly atmosphere with like-minded people.

Why: Because it doesn’t exist and Birmingham needs a place for Jellyheads© to come together every now and again.

Who: freelancers, home workers, solopreneurs, small business owners, field workers – in fact, everyone is welcome to drop in.

When: Next dates

• Tuesday 1st February – Church Street
• Friday 11th  February  – JQT
• Friday 11th March – JQT
• Friday 1st April – JQT
• Friday May 13th – JQT
• Friday June 10th – JQT
• Friday Aug 12th – JQT

From 9am onwards or you can get there earlier and have breakfast with the daily papers.

Where: Urban Coffee Co JQT (Big Peg) 

Feel free to come and put your laptop down then go grab a drink.

How: RSVP to me write@rickiejosen.co.uk or via Twitter @RickieWrites

See latest article on The Business Desk

8 advantages of working from home (published by Enterprise Nation)

Following last week’s #watercoolermoment here are 7 (light hearted) advantages of working from home.

1. Let’s start with what most conventionally employed people always say – you can wear what you want. Realistically, most of still get dressed for work but many probably start on the emails whilst still in our PJs.
2. We have flexible hours. Of course we need to be available to clients and colleagues during ‘normal business hours’ but we still have a degree of flexibility. Have BlackBerry, have freedom.
3. My personal favourite is we can have what we want to eat. I’ve never been a sandwich person so to be able to make scrambled eggs on toast, an egg muffin or bagel and cream cheese in less than 5 minutes is a massive perk. No 45 minutes out of the middle of the day to walk down to the shops, wait in the lunch hour queues and walk all the way back only to then eat at the desk. That’s not even a break.
4. Being able to put the washing on and out. It takes you away from the screen for a few minutes, clears your mind a little and it’s one less thing to do tonight.
5. Save on commuting time and stress. A no-brainer.
6. Not feeling guilty for being on Twitter as it’s our lifeline to the outside world and quite frankly a support system, plus we make loads of contacts and friends.
7. Talking of Twitter, the 11am #watercoolermoment is what inspired this article. We don’t have to make everyone else a drink just because we want one, as suggested by @fishbowlhq. Of course that means no-one makes it for us but the pros sure outweigh the cons.

A new one: don’t get as many colds as people sharing germs in offices.

 Enterprise Nation