Garden offices defined

There are probably as many sheds as there are shedworkers, but the Arthouse Gardens blog makes a game effort at dividing them into three categories:
* The "closed" garden office, a small building, shed or converted garage with windows and own electrics
* The "open" garden office, the 'Bedouin' alternative, more patio than shed with plants as walls and no roof
* The best of both worlds, a shedlike building with wide doors so you can work either inside or outside on decking
I also like his more philosophical take on shedlike atmospheres: "Garden offices aren't necessarily meant to be 8 hour a day offices. Sometimes they're designed to inspire the creative type who needs a change of pace. They're designed for the work at home person that loves to watch their pets or children from time to time while they work away and everyone else plays. They're designed to relieve stress for the lawyer, the doctor, the business executive who wants to be close to family but has work to do. They're designed to be used as an extension of the home office when needing to pay bills, plan the grocery list for the week."

Top of the shed blogs

We're honoured to have come top of Uncle Wilco's list of Top Shed Blogs. Wilco - who runs the marvellous and world famous Readersheds site - also has his own Shedblog which brings you all the latest news about, well, guess what? To see the full post, click here.

How green is my homeworking?

Some answers to that question are posed at Green Business News which asks 'The digital home: green living or eco-disaster?'. James Murray writes about the imminent arrival of the interconnected 'digital home' and whether it's really very green to have your own server for the house and deluge it with energy-ravenous electronic goodies. However, he also points out that the latest technologies can actually limit damage "by delivering intelligent, automated household management capabilities" e.g. turns off lights when they're not in use. Well worth a read.

A very fishy home office

There was such a good response to the post about working with fish in the latest issue of The Shed magazine that I thought readers would be interested in this, the Office Fish Tank from Fred Flare. Measuring 7.25” x 6.5” x 5”, when you get bored with your desk, you can watch your fish swim under his. Important note - colours may vary.

Music while you work – Scott Pack

Scott Pack, the former Buying Manager for Waterstone's and now Commercial Director of The Friday Project, the world's first exclusively web-to-print publisher, has an interesting selection of music at his Me and My Big Mouth blog called Soundtrack To The Blog. "I tend to have 2 or 3 CDs on heavy rotation when working at home," he says and lists current favourites in his sidebar, with YouTube links. His choices include Bellowhead, Juana Molina ("a beautiful voice, a beautiful website and hypnotic songs. Her new album, Son, is her best yet and seems to be permanently on the stereo next to my reading chair") and Juliana Hatfield. There's also a couple of marvellous postings illustrating his bookshelves.

Turn your garage into a home office

If a garden office is out of the question, consider a garage conversion. Among firms offering this service is the confidently-titled Garage Conversion Experts (one of their conversions is pictured), Vogue Garage Conversion, Shropshire Garage Conversions, and Garage Conversions UK. For more details about things to consider (insulation, waterproofing, building regulations, fire regulations, party wall acts, etc) Mid Devon District Council has a useful list of dos and don'ts.

RSI Awareness Day

It can hit anyone, but homeworkers seem to be particularly at risk. Depending on who you believe, RSI Awareness Day is either on February 28 or February 24 when there will be a day-long series of events, stalls, and talks on the latest research, the law and RSI, and the latest news on treatments at University College London. For more details click here.

A good first stop is the new RSI charity RSI Action where you'll find a list of support groups around the country plus book reviews. Also take a look at 'The RSI Association site' which is actually run by IT specialist suppliers Keytools and the web site of Dr. Deepak Sharan, described by the Wall Street Journal as "something of a cult figure in the world of RSI".

There are a number of suppliers who realise the importance of keeping the various bits of your body at the right angle, among them Homeworking Solutions who supply ergonomic office furniture and software for offices of all sizes. Also take a look at Maltron who claim to sell the first keyboard "to achieve RSI recovery". Also ergonomically-sensitive are System Concepts who have their own ergonomics and health and safety consultants.

And naturally there are the blogs. RSI Relief is very useful and readable (which can't always be said of articles on RSI) and has stacks of links to other sites, while I also like the look of the optimistically-titled Goodbye RSI, again detailed but personal with posts like 'Beer - the great RSI anaesthetic'.