New Year, New Lockdown, New Podcast Season

How's it going?

New Year, New Lockdown... a joyous time.

Now I don't know whether it's because my son is nearly a year older than he was in home-school remote learning version 1.... but he's much more engaged with learning and embracing his Daddy's teaching "authority". This is a good thing, less shouting and arguing all round, generally a happy house.

It could have been something to do with my tip on this week's Lockdown Dad's podcast - get your children to help design the plan for the day / week, I think it does wonders for their sense of control in these difficult times.

or maybe I'm being more present, devoting both my mind and my focus to home schooling and then working in between?

Not everyone has this luxury but normally work can wait and multi tasking is doomed to fail anyway.

Whatever the cause it's a small win in a world of blank calendars and drizzle...

The podcast that won’t go away

Yes! the podcast is back. We joke that we'd love to kill it off, but bringing out great guests and hopefully adding insight and value to our audience's lives is still massively important, now as much as ever I reckon.

So it's season 3 and episode 28, this time James and I are joined by Louise Goss, founder and editor of The Homeworker Magazine.

One time self employed journalist based in Australia, we discover how interviewing and profiling home working entrepreneurs for a tech start up was the start of the idea that became The Homeworker magazine.

Louise draws upon her husband's experiences as we reflect on how attitudes towards home working have changed from both an individual and business perspective.

Plus...

Why her magazine is much more useful than googling the top 5 productivity tips

How The Homeworker blends key themes around business, productivity, mindset, well-being and your work environment.

and why James found another reason to hate fascists.

Episode 28 includes

02:30 James has the hump with fascists
03:30 Groundhog day - it's hard to hit the ground running in 2021
04:20 Ian misses flow
05:30 Less parental guilt this time
07:20 From Freelance journalist to celebrating the 2nd anniversary of the magazine
09:00 Louise back in UK with 2 children under 3
09:50 Blending business, productivity, mindset, well-being and your work environment.
10:15 I wish I could say I had this Eureka moment and this amazing foresight that we're all going to be doing it
12:10 Work and life are very integrated nowadays. And there's no real getting around that.
12:50 it's very easy to do a quick Google, you know, top five productivity tips working from home.
15:25 Branching out into a corporate subscription
16:30 There's working from home and then there's working from home during a global pandemic
17:30 Parenting and homeworking
22:00 Husband changing how he felt about home working
25:19 We actually turfed my daughter out of her room and made an office joining lockdown
26:30 Ergonomics advice - the best posture is the next posture

27:20 Tips

• Involving the children in the planning of home-school

• Leave the fairy lights up

• If you create an inviting and welcoming workspace you're going to do better work there

Photo Credit: Ray Hennessy via Unsplash @rayhennessy