Blog

Wellbeing

Health advice from 1890 that is still pertinent today

IMG_3875At the launch of Stride Treglown’s 10 Essays To Shape Future Places yesterday Duncan Cadbury, chair of the Bournville Village Trust, gave out a copy of George Cadbury’s ‘Suggested Rules of Health’ dating from circa 1890.

Among the often sage and surprisingly timeless advice, it contained this pearl of wisdom:

“Anger and worry will wear you out much more rapidly than hard work. Cultivate a cheerful and thankful spirit.”

It was really interesting to hear Duncan and Iain Tuckett, chief executive of Coin Street Community Builders talking about creating sustainable and viable communities and I’m proud to have had a small role working on this thought-provoking book.

Continue reading “Health advice from 1890 that is still pertinent today” →

workplace

How switching off makes you work better

adult arrival beard boss
Photo by rawpixel.com on Pexels.com

Rose Padfield wrote a really interesting piece about how switching off can stimulate creativity and working less is actually smarter as you tend to be more productive than working longer.

Presenteeism, she says, has become the badge of the busy and important.

Recently, a fellow freelancer told me that she went for walks to generate ideas.

And I must admit that it is during the quieter moments when I’m not attached to a phone or laptop that gems pop into to my head.

Who doesn’t have a brainwave when they are in the shower or just before falling asleep?

Four-day week experiment

Perpetual Guardian in New Zealand trialled a four-day working week while still paying a five day a week salary to see if a better work-life balance would be beneficial to the business.

Continue reading “How switching off makes you work better” →

analytics, SEO

3 things I’ve learned about analytics

Website and social media analytics reports can be a bit of a minefield for the uninitiated.

I’ve been there, looking at the numbers wondering if certain changes are as important as they appear and what a particular measure actually means.

So I decided to delve a little deeper with a course run by Adam Tinworth via journalism.co.uk and these are three key things I learned.

1. Don’t rely on one single measure

patricia-serna-415257-unsplash
Photo by Patricia Serna on Unsplash

Hits are easy to focus on but did you know the measure is also jokingly referred to as ‘how idiots track success’?

Joking aside, hits will only tell you one thing: how many people were potentially interested in your page.

Another example is the time spent on a page. If people are spending time on a page they are more interested, right?

Continue reading “3 things I’ve learned about analytics” →