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Daniel Smulevich

About Daniel Smulevich

Daniel is a young blogger from London with a passion for business. He now works for Franchise Sales, where he helps people find the best sports franchise for their needs. You can email directly at danielsmulevich@gmail.com.

Survival Guide for Work at Home Dads

October 15, 2012 By Daniel Smulevich Leave a Comment

‘Working from home has got to be awesome?’ – Many people definitely think about the great advantages and freedom of working at home instead of coming into the office. But have you ever thought about the downside of this type of work?

Let’s begin with the positive aspects. Working from home means avoiding the commute, being able to spend your lunch in the garden or get some household chores done, when you take a break. Think about the rising costs on petrol or train fares, which will definitely make it unaffordable and not worth it to travel to work every day. Moreover, if you are a business owner, saving up on the commuting costs, you will also cut down costs on buying or renting office space.

So what could destroy this wonderful dream job scenario?

Initially, you will start to work solo at home, which can leave you isolated and demotivated if you don’t take care to keep cabin fever at bay. This is one of the main motivational drivers of being socially interactive at work. Hence, the work-balance between the employees at work and at home would be nearly non-existent. Getting quick answers or data from employees working from home will also likely take longer.

Another problem will always be the temptation of checking your social sites every now and then or watch some TV at home. Obviously, at work you won’t have this amount of free space.

But to make this ‘work at home’ experience as efficient as possible, I have listed five helpful tips. Those guidelines should help you in being productive and happy at the same time, while only working couple of miles away from your office.

1.     Separate Your Workspace from Your Leisure Space

How difficult this is to achieve depends largely on the size of your house or flat of course. Ideally you’ll have a study designated for work and be able to escape to your living room in the evening. If you don’t have the luxury of a separate study, then whether you work from your kitchen table or the living room sofa, be sure to tidy away all your documents and other work-related paraphernalia at the end of a ‘shift’, so you can properly switch off without work reminders floating about.

2.     Get Your Social Interaction where You can

If you’re running a business where you need to speak on the phone with customers or suppliers frequently then this problem looks after itself to a large extent. However, if you’re, say, running a website and there’s less need for sales calls, you could make the occasional call to family or friends. Humans are social animals so visit friends and family rather than resorting to talking to yourself!

3.     Escape the Office at Lunchtime

Break up your day by visiting clients or attending exhibitions or networking events. It doesn’t have to be work-related, you need respite from work, so go for a long walk occasionally. This is invaluable insulation from becoming stir-crazy.

4.     Relocate Your ‘Office’ Occasionally

OK, so you can’t justify paying for an office, but think creatively. There are plenty of alternative places to work. Visit your local library or a coffee shop one day a week. Although some of these places may not be quiet enough or equipped for certain types of work. However, you could save less demanding work – reading documents, for example – for sitting in the park or a café. You know what they say about life, variety and spice…

5.     Go Out in the Evenings

Whether it’s the cinema, the pub or a friend’s house, it’s more imperative for a home worker to leave his flat/house than for someone based in premises. If you’ve spent all day at home then cabin fever might stalk you at night if you stay in during the evening as well.

Top 5 Christmas Gifts for Moody Teenagers – By a Moody Teenager

September 27, 2012 By Daniel Smulevich Leave a Comment

Something happens to some kids when they hit their teens. They say it’s something to do with their hormones but all I know is that some teenagers have mood swings that can be hard to deal with. Take my word for it, I was one of those moody teenagers, and I remember my parents struggling with buying Christmas gifts for me and my brother. Every single year.

I just hit my twenties, so I thought I would write down this little list of ideas to help you during your research into what impresses a teenager at Christmas.

Music Gifts

Nearly all teenagers like popular music so a voucher could do for you, or if you are feeling really brave, buying an actual album would be a good safe bet. If you are going down the voucher route there are a number of different websites that can make your life easier.

Apple’s iTunes is the big daddy of music retailing and there are easy ways to buy gift vouchers from their website; you can get a voucher emailed to your intended recipient or you can print one off yourself, or you can even choose a predesigned card and voucher to be sent to your address. You can also buy films, applications and books in the same way. The same can be done through retailers like amazon and hmv, so shop around and see what deals are there to be found.

Car Breakdown Coverage

If the teenager you are spoiling has a car then find out if it’s covered for breakdown recovery. This is a great gift idea as most teens have very old cars that are more susceptible to break-downs.  If your teenager doesn’t have a car then what about a contribution to driving lessons or even a contribution to a car fund!

An Experience

This is getting to the more expensive end of the scale but you can get a driving experience for your moody teen in a Lamborghini for as little as $89. The only real restrictions are that they must be under 6’6” and not be over 252lbs, which should make it open to most teens, I hope!

You could also look at a flying lesson. These also start at about $77 for an hour and the age restriction is as low as 12 years old. Flying can really help confidence and give your moody teen some sense of achievement…plus, sunglasses are recommended all year round, so your teen can look cool too!

A Subscription

A subscription used to mean a copy of ‘Just 17’ delivered to your door for a year, however subscriptions have moved on and now you can buy a number of different services that will appeal to your teenager. The first big leap in subscriptions is mobile phone top ups and subscriptions. If you are a Vodafone subscriber you can add a certain amount each month to another account you are controlling. You can also top up data usage if your teenager has a tablet or dongle for wireless internet access. Anyone who gives more access to the internet is going to be held aloft like a God in any teenager’s eyes. If you have a moody teenager who is a console game player it is possible to pay for their online connection subscription, which allows them to play online games. Or you could look at buying a subscription to a film database, like LoveFilm or NetFlix, starting at $7 per month.

A Gadget or an Accessory

What about an iPod Shuffle for $52? Most teenagers will already have a phone and a laptop, so what about buying something to complement their gadgetry? You can buy phone cases and laptop covers, starting at $13 or you could buy some headphones for your moody teenager. If you really wanted to be helpful and see into the future, you could buy gadget insurance for you teenager, but I can imagine the teenagers face when on Christmas morning they open a card with an insurance document in it….

Hopefully this article has given you some ideas of what to buy your moody teenager. They are growing so quickly and they cannot control some of their mood swings so forgive their mistakes and brighten their day as they try and deal with all those mixed emotions.

It’s tough to be a teen.

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