work at home Archives - Mommy Ginger

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Whether you work remotely for a company, or you are running your own business from home, working more efficiently can make your day better and give you more time to focus on things that are important to you. One of the biggest factors that can slow down your work is your laptop or mac. When you first purchased your laptop, it probably ran fast and smoothly. Over time, its performance and speed will slow down. From slowly opening programs to not having enough space to download any files, it can become frustrating and impact your work.

Making some simple changes to your device will significantly improve your efficiency and the way you work.

Here are some of the best ways to improve your laptop performance and efficiency.

#1 Free up space

Freeing up space on your device can be one of the most helpful things that you do. Even if you don’t need to download files on a regular basis, your device will still need empty space available on the device for virtual memory, to perform tasks and run programs. You must aim for completely clean MacBook storage. Start by removing any old programs and files that you don’t need, delete any temporary files and uninstall any unnecessary or unwanted software.

#2 Check your device for malware

Sometimes your device might not be running efficiently due to a virus, adware, spyware or another malicious software or program. This can take up a lot of space, and use a lot of resources on your device, as well as put your security at risk. You should regularly check your device for malware by running a virus or threat protection check in the settings, to ensure your device is running as best as it can. You should also download anti-virus and anti-malware on your device. These steps will keep your device running efficiently, and ensure you do not hit any costly or detrimental disruptions later down the line, that may stop you from being able to work altogether.

#3 Service your laptop

You should get regular service on your device, especially if you use it every day. You can do this yourself by watching YouTube tutorials by professionals. Alternatively, you can find a reputable company that can service your device for you. This service will increase the speed and performance of your laptop, by making sure everything is running properly. A service will focus on the hardware, rather than the software. When dust and debris build up on your device, it can impact its performance. All the parts of your device, including the circuit board and other components that sit inside, require cleaning at some point. If you choose to service your laptop yourself, make sure you are careful and put everything back properly. You should also try to avoid eating in your workspace to reduce the crumbs that fall into your device and keep your workspace clean.

#4 Regularly reboot your device

When you regularly lock your device or reboot it, you are providing it with the chance to improve its performance automatically. During this time, your device will fix any bugs, reduce memory leaks, and flush the RAM. If you don’t have anything of importance on your laptop, you may also consider the option of resetting your laptop. Over the years, you may have built up many files and programs that you don’t want or need. A reset is quick and will get rid of all the files, and set it back to the way it was when you first purchased it.

#5 Increase the Random-access memory (RAM)

RAM is the short term memory of your device. While you might not be downloading a file during your workday, the RAM is used to process all the tasks you are working on. Without RAM or a sufficient amount of RAM, your programs or any activity to try to do on your device, will not work. It works by reading files, temporarily storing them for you to use, and loading applications. Depending on what you do for work, will dictate how much RAM your device requires. For example, if you just use your laptop for basic activities, then 4GB of RAM should be sufficient. If you are running bigger and more demanding programs, for activities such as programming, graphic design, or gaming, then you will need 8GB of RAM or more. Review the tasks that you complete regularly, and consider if increasing the RAM will help your device run more efficiently.

An efficient workday heavily relies on the performance of your laptop or mac. Follow these top tips to help you improve your working day.

Not doing anything at home? I’ve already shared with you that I take courses at SkillShare (just click on this link for a two month free subscription). But to also help out our kababayans and to support locally made course, I have come across this course. You may want to try Freelance Writing. This course is called Freelance Writing Side Gig FWSG): Road to Success program.

All you need to do is set aside one hour every day and learn about the freelance writing. The Freelance Writing Side Gig: Road to Success program is perfect for people who want to upskill while spending time at home during the quarantine period for Covid19.

If you are looking to be freelance writer, this course will help you check on what you already have and from there, Charlyn Awing, the creator of this course will teach you specific skills to level up and enhance your unique knowledge so that you can attract your dream clients.

Also, you will learn proven strategies on how to start a freelance writing side gig even if you are BUSY.

Discover Charlyn’s past failures and mistakes became an instrument for me to attract and get hired by my dream clients.

Get mentored also by a passionate and committed accountability partner who believes in your capability and keeps reminding you that YOU CAN while guiding you like a mom!

Charlyn Awing, the creator of this course, also mentioned that before she launched FWSG, she passionately trained 80 Beta Testers for a period of 2 weeks because she wanted to prove its effectiveness. She focused mainly on the Mindset and Focus part (which now comprises Module 1 of the full course), and here are just some of what the challengers said:

“My major problem was I didn’t know where or how to start Freelance writing. Now, there is more clarity to achieve my goal in Freelance writing. Before, I wanted to do a lot of things but this course helped me summarize and pinpoint my strengths and weakness. Overall, the time was well spent. The videos are informative and the activities help a lot by breaking down one’s strength in writing and makes you realize where you should focus on. Mother Ant’s video was engaging from start to finish. I made sure that the environment was less distracting so that I won’t miss any important advice. She’s also inspiring and encouraging especially to newbies that want to pursue a freelancing writing career.” – Dianne

“My major problem was insecurity and very little idea about freelance writing. I started researching about freelancing way back 2018 and I joined groups/network to help me get started. I kept trying until other opportunities came and I gave up freelancing. After the course, I realized that I’m actually cut to be a writer. Wow! I know now that I can be more than my experience of writing reports. More than that, I’m excited to go and start my dream. I know that along the way, I will encounter defeats, mistakes, and insecurities. But my courage will always be sourced from my humble beginning in our lesson 1. I will remember that “Mother Ant” rooted for me, and if she believed in me, why shouldn’t I? The course was personal! Like finding a jeans that fits you so well, it was almost tailored fit!” – Joanne

If you want to know more about the creator, you can check MotherAnt and follow here here: https://facebook.com/motherantcharlynjune

Please do check out her course at: https://motherant.com/freelance-writing-course/ The course will start this coming April 13 so hope you can read and consider this course.

If you have any questions about the course, just reach out to Charlyn Awing: https://motherant.com 🙂

Feel free to share this with other people who want to try this and to earn from home.

There are more and more people that work from home. And this is not just because government has mandated or suggested that people work from home at this time. Even before this, we had a lot of freelancers and online digital workers who work from the comfort of their own home. There are approximately 1.5 million freelancers who work online as virtual assistants, writers, tutors, etc.

So for this particular segment, not much has changed in terms of the working habits that they have.

I’ve been an advocate of professionalizing this industry and I love the Filipino freelancing community. I, too, have been freelancing (also was a full-time freelancer for a time) continuously since 2010. I just focused less on it when I decided to put up my own business back in 2013.

With this, there are a lot of tips that we can actually get from the people in this community. So feel free to follow the them by joining different freelancing groups on Facebook.

For today, I thought of giving you some things that you can try out a home. So just to give you a background of what I do, I’m currently running a SaaS tech company with my husband. I also have an events based business. I am and have been a professional blogger since 2008 and I’m also a mom to a little girl.

So fo the tips that I’ll share with you today, I personally and obviously do and follow these things. As a mompreneur, I juggle a lot of things so these may be applicable to moms and dads who are reading these, too. Some of them are even probably shared by a lot of productivity gurus, but I’ll try as much as possible to share my personal experience together with these tips.

I wake up at least an hour before my first task (in my case, it’s usually an online call for daily syncs with different departments of my business).

Lying on the bed for an additional hour or so is such great temptation, especially if you’re not used to working at home. I can’t stress the importance of following a daily routine and building a habit from that. From what I have experience personally is that if I don’t follow a routine and just go through the motions and follow how I feel on a daily basis, I feel depressed after a few days. That feeling came from thoughts like “what’s the ‘plan’ for my life?”, “why am I so unhealthy? or I feel so unhealthy!”or “How can I be so incompetent and unproductive?”. And when you’re in that state, it’s harder (at least for me) to get up and grab that rhythm again.

I track all of my tasks, online calls/meeting using Google Calendar

What I’ve noticed when you’re working from home, you easily lose track of time and easily get distracted. I have had a few times that I was late to online calls, because I was doing something with my daughter or watching a video online that suddenly caught my attention. So my tip would be to have all of these calls in an online calendar that you can track and set notifications so that it pops out on your screen.

Also, I keep different kinds of Calendars. You can go to the lower left of your screen and add your own calendar. You can even share this calendar with other people.

Eat a tech-free meals.

To be honest with you, eating for me is more of fuel to get me through the day rather than an activity by itself that I enjoy. So usually, it takes me less than 15 minutes to finish a meal. Working from home even cut this time into half. I’m done eating in under 10 minutes. My husband is the total opposite though and he loves having a good meal. He actually taught me how to enjoy eating and be present while eating.

We also made this rule at home to leave gadgets in our work / study area when we would go for a meal. I’ve noticed that having a tech free meal encourages conversation with the family, and we get to talk to each other (and I mean really talk… as compared to us “sort of” listening to each other). So this is actually one thing that I encourage you to do. Have a quiet meal time (when you live alone) or have conversations with your loved ones.

Exercise, peeps!

Working from home mean that you have limited space to move around (no pantry area or a workmates to go to). You should move and get blood flowing through your body. I would see a lot of IG stories of videos of people who work out, and they’re all so glamorous and nice looking. But don’t let that stop you from exercising. You don’t have to look fab, before start working out. Exercising is not just for fit people or people who would normally go to the gym. You don’t have to do burpees, 3 minute planks or 10 push ups at home.

If you’re just starting out this whole relationship with fitness, start by just stretching. A simple routine that I personally do is the following:

Crawl to plank (10 times)
Stay in Plank position (try to stay for 10 seconds than gradually increase time)
Jog in place for 1 minute or Jumping Jacks
Air squats (10 times)
Air Jabs – Front (alternate at 20 times)
Air jabs – Twist to the side (alternate at 20 times)
Cruches – 10 times

It’s important also that you encourage your kids to workout, too and to move and stay active.

Fix your files in your computer and sync it with a cloud storage facility

Most of us, including me, know where to find things even if our desktop and document folders are a mess. But I recently fixed all of my folders and had time to fix my files that are stored in Google drive, too, and I feel and I “think” I am more productive.

Having a cleaner desktop leads you to find files faster. I recently just used the Use Stacks feature of my Mac. It basically, stacks in one pile all of the same kind of files based on how you sort it. Super cool! My desktop is so clean now.

Make it a point to learn something new everyday!

What I like about reading a chapter of a book or going through 1-2 sessions of an online course is that I feel like I did something “substantial” for the day.

I take down notes every time I go through sessions or when I read a chapter of a book. I store it in an online tool also. You can also use a notebook if you like writing using a pen and paper. What I use is my Notepad that syncs to iCloud. My notes sync in all my devices, so I get to access it everywhere I go.

I hope this list helps you.

One of the people that I follow is Thomas Frank. I usually watch his YouTube videos.

If you want to check out his course on Skillshare, here is a link to a free 2 month subscription:

https://skl.sh/gingerarboleda

I highly recommend that you look for these two courses.

You can experiment on it these different things that I mentioned, combine it with what you have learned in Skillshare, and try it out. Some tips may work for some and might not work for others. The important thing is you try to find what will help you work happily from home.

Let me know if you have questions on productivity or how to be productive while working from home. I’ll be glad to reply.

Love,

P.S. Here are some other articles that you may want to read:

Upgrade your Freelancing Career With 5 Awesome Tips

Automate your Home and Get Clean Air with Dyson Pure Cool

Pricing your Freelancing Services

This blog post is part of Mommy Bloggers Philippines Blog Hop

Hope you will learn more tips from the moms to keep your mental and emotional health in check during this COVID 19 crisis.

18 P’s You Need During This COVID-19 Pandemic by Certified WAHM

5 Ways To Fight Stress During The COVID-19 Outbreak by MumWrites

God is Bigger than COVID-19 by Tipid Mommy

5 Ways to Keep Your Sanity During COVID-19 by Mommy Mhownai

How a Positive Mindset Alleviates Anxiety During the COVID -19 Crisis by All Around Pinay Mama

Life in the Time of COVID by Hits and Mrs Ph

Community Quarantine + Oratio Imperata by MajLife

Pause, Praise and Pray by Tweenselmom

First of all, I want to thank all of those who made it to The Freelancer Fair 2016. Thank you so much to all those who signed up (all 350) people and to the 280 plus who made it a point to show up on that day. Thank you to our Major Sponsors: Payoneer, Paymaya, Taxumo and Uber. Thank you also to our Minor Sponsors: Alfox Printing, Ideaspace, A Space, Evolve Yoga, Bean & Barley and Pioneer Mighty Bond. Thank you also to all the booth sponsors that we had. Most of all, thank you to the Department of Information, Communications and Technology team (Sir Mon, Miss Emmy, Merlin and Joy) for supporting us, and to all our speakers, our two lovely hosts (Marv and Jieneb), to our media partners and community partners who were present. Thank you all from the bottom of my heart! This will be the first of series of posts that will highlight or feature the people and brands who have joined us!

*photos by George Buid

Some of the photos of the event are here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1270331956342924.1073741938.392499244126204&type=1&l=c7c995a670

*Thank you George Buid for the pictures!

The Truth about The Freelancer Fair and our Why

We started conceptualizing and implementing The Freelancer Fair early this year. The Freelancer Fair was supposed to be a project of a big brand and Manila Workshops, but after a few months, we faced our first challenge. Manila Workshops had to shoulder all or the expenses and efforts to build the fair by ourselves. I had the option to drop and just let go of the project, but I decided to push through with it, because I knew that this will really help the freelance industry a lot.

To tell you honestly, I did not earn from this event and lost a pretty big deal of money implementing this event. Obviously, I knew about this a few months back during planning, and yet the team decided to still pursue the project. Why am I telling you this? I want you to know that this is how much we believe in this community. We know that this community will grow and in the future, a lot of individuals will opt to work from home and will start a freelance career. This is how much I want all of those freelancers, solopreneurs and small business owners to have the opportunity to learn more about different things so that they can grow their businesses and freelance careers. This is the reason why I am so proud of my team — Team Manila Workshops.

People are quick to judge about the little things, but what they don’t see is the time and effort that these individuals in the team give in order to make your dreams come true and in order to give you the opportunities that we know you deserve. I hardly mention my team in any posts, but for just this once, I want to share how amazing they are. All of them know that their goal is to make your entrepreneurial and business dreams come true. We know that we need to provide an avenue and create opportunities for you to pursue your passion. We all want to help you achieve that, through the little things that we do.

To my little team, thank you. Always remember that humility, honesty, and that drive is what will make the difference. Always be willing to serve and learn from the things that you do. Strive to be better by learning from mistakes. Pursue your dreams and make a mark!

We got a lot of feedback from participants that going to the Freelancer Fair was worth it. Some of you even approached me, and thinking of those people make me tear up (haha! yes, I am a cry baby!). I was deeply touched and moved by your words. These moments make all of these things worth it!

We also know that we have lot to improve on. First of all, we will find a more accessible venue. Yes, the venue was too big. A really intimate venue would have made it more conducive for interaction. If you have other comments and suggestions, please do email me directly at ginger@manilaworkshops.com.

For the brands and people that truly supported us and genuinely helped us build this event, thank you! I will mention a few of them here, because I really saw something that needs to be highlighted. We can all learn from how they did it!

First of all, Miguel from Payoneer, thank you very much! You truly are the embodiment of what a brand partner should be. I saw Miguel going around and genuinely talking to people and learning more about their business. This is what I love about the people behind Payoneer. They don’t think about metrics alone, but they really find ways to help build the industry and use these events to learn more about us — the people. Thank you also for that well crafted presentation. I learned so much about transferring payments. So on the 29th, for the Payoneer Forum, we will definitely be there. Everyone, please sign up here: http://register.payoneer.com/register-payoneer-forum-manila-29nov-kat/

Next shoutout is for JP or Orbitrr! I really love your booth and the activities in the booth were really engaging. I love how the team took time to talk and engage everyone in a conversation! Plus, I really love your stickers. Please share your supplier with me. haha!

For Marv, thank you so much for all the help! Thank you for even offering to lend your clicker. These small things matter!

To the communities, especially the Online Filipino Freelancers or OFF, thank you for the unwavering support! Thank you for always being there to support events for the community. Thank you to CJ, Althea, Liberty, etc. I love you all!

Thank you to DM, Sherry and the Yuneoh team! Thanks for all of the tips and the pro-activeness. You also embody what a media partner should be!

But still, to all of our partners that made this event happen, thank you so much! Again, thank you to our Major Sponsors – Payoneer; the easiest way to receive Cross-Border Payment at the Lowest cost, Paymaya – PayMaya is your app to pay online so you can buy the things you’d love to have, without a credit card; Taxumo – making it easy for every Filipino small business owner and professional to prepare and pay for their taxes! and Uber – the safest way to get around the metro!

Thank you also to our minor sponsors, Alfox Printing (Thank you so much, Abby!), Mighty Bond, Ideaspace, A Space, Evolve Yoga, and Bean and Barley. This event also wouldn’t be possible without our our media partners: WheninManila.com, POP Inquirer, Yuneoh, Manila Bulletin, Voice of the Youth Radio, Creativoices, and MommyGinger.com.

Thank you also to our community partners: OnlineJobsUniversity.com, Freelancing.ph, Freelance Blend, Tycoon.ph, Zarangola Media, Online Filipino Freelancers, The Virtual Nomad Podcast, Bloggers ng Pinas, Raket.ph, Work in Freedom, and Graphic Artists Philippines!

This is our first big event for the Freelancing community and I promise you that this will not be the last. We will continue to help this industry grow. We will continue to support and connect freelancers and clients. Manila Workshops will continue to create learning events and networking events for you!

Again, thank you everyone! I’ll be sharing the lessons that I have learned this week on Freelancing and starting a business. Watch out for it!

My site is up and running again. Super kakainis lang that it was down for two day. I was so stressed! I’m sure that most of you can relate to this feeling. If you’re a work at hom-ie, we get stressed over things like this — problems with hosting, losing internet connection or if the connection is super slow, getting locked out from our own site (haha! this happens to me!), etc. All of these impedes our growth as a work-at-homie (so serious!). Anyway, it’s time to set aside all your worries for just one day and party with us on Saturday! Just kidding… it isn’t a party! 😀

I’m not sure if you hear the happiness and excitement in my voice, but I am super duper excited for this Saturday! Who wouldn’t be right? Check out the roster of speakers and I will describe WHY we got them to talk rather than talk about their topics (because you can already read it here: http://manilaworkshops.com/events/wahe2015).

Joe Maristela – I met Joe just recently through Lyle, one of the speakers, and he is now one of my clients for Manila Workshops. I was really impressed with what he wanted for the Philippines. This guys has a really good heart and his passion to help start-ups in the Philippines was what impressed me!

Marilen Montenegro – I met this lovely lady in the MakeitBlissful event last year, but we really became close after bonding during an event this year. Marilen is the type of person whose loveliness just shines through, if you know what I mean. She’s exceptionally pretty (haha! admire admire!), and I think that it’s because she is also very beautiful on the inside.

Anna Meloto – Wilk – I haven’t really met her personally, but just like some of your, I am actually excited to meet her on Saturday. I am all for Social Entrepreneurship and making a huge impact in society and Anna is just one hell of an inspiration!

Teresa Dumadag – Teresa has been a good friend and she is definitely one of the people that I think has got it all figured out! When it comes to raising kids, writing, etc., she’s just one of those moms that you can actually ask for advice from.

Monica Manzano – I haven’t met Monica yet, but I am looking forward to meeting her, especially because of the fact that she love yoga. I think, each entrepreneur will have those moments when you need to stay grounded and become more focused. I think here talk will help us a lot in this aspect.

Don-don Crisostomo, RFP – I admire young people who know how to save and grow their money. I am looking forward to listening to Don-don’s talk as he shares tips on how to handling your finances as a work at homie!

Lyle Jover – One of the best ‘guy’ friends that I have in this industry (I can hear him chuckling at this!) Don’t let his stoic look fool you. This guy knows a lot of things about working from home, and I know this since I normally bounce off ideas with him every so often. You will definitely learn a lot from this guys and will be inspired with the passion that he has for his business.

Tippy and Anthony Pelayo – The power couple! I heard these two speak during a Nuffnang event and I was amazed with the amount of work and effort that they put into Googlygooeys.com. When you hear their story about how they went global and how they found audiences and a customer base outside the country, you might rethink how you do things with your business.

And last but not least, Martine De Luna and Frances Sales – These ladies are simply wonderful! These ladies have become two of my friends whom I trust and love dearly. I love the fact that I learn from these two everyday about life, love, marriage, blogging, fashion, etc. — anything under the sun! My sincere wish for everyone is to that you may find these kinds of people in your life to help and support you in your work-at-home journey!

The event on Saturday is not just a conference for me, it is a place where you will meet friends and people who will guide and help you in your work-at-home journet. If you are seeking for inspiration, this is where you will find it. If you are seeking for technical knowledge, this is where you will find it!

Thank you to all our sponsors for making this event possible! See you there everyone! Sign up now at http://manilaworkshops.com/events/wahe2015

Top Tips for Working More Efficiently at Home

#1 Free up space

#2 Check your device for malware

#3 Service your laptop

#4 Regularly reboot your device

#5 Increase the Random-access memory (RAM)

Freelance Writing Side Gig (FWSG): Road to Success program

How to be Productive while Working From Home

The Freelancer Fair BTS: A Post of Gratitude, Learnings and Why’s

Work-at-Home-Expo 2015: 3 More Days To Go!

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