As a home worker, chances are you’re too busy running your business or trying to hit deadline AND do the school run to dedicate much time to personal development. Although many people turn to home working to reduce work stress, it certainly doesn’t eliminate it completely! If you want to be more focused and resilient, to be able to handle all kinds of challenges in a level-headed manner, you need to be in control of your own destiny. It’s never too late to get started on the self-improvement process and work on personal growth. You just need to have the right motivation and resolve.

These free personal development tests are a good place to start – they will help you identify your strengths and weaknesses in areas including time management and even likeability! One you know what you need to work on, a few small changes in your daily routine can make all the difference. Try these for starters…

1. Sleep Well and Wake Up Early

Research suggests that people need at least 7 to 8 hours of sleep per day to remain healthy and productive. Unfortunately, most people only manage 4 to 6 hours and that can affect their health and productivity. Lack of sleep also makes it very difficult to wake up in the morning because the sleep deficit makes the body crave more sleep to compensate.

If you maintain a regular sleep schedule and go to bed early at night, you’ll have an easier time waking up early in the morning. That gives you more time to incorporate new habits and tasks into your daily schedule.

2. Plan Your Day

Planning and organisation is a great way to meet all your goals and make room for new habits and tasks. Daily planning doesn’t require a lot of effort. You just need to spend a few minutes at the end of your day to plan for the next. Organise your day according to priorities and complete the most difficult tasks first. This will help you get through the day better and allow you to schedule your personal development tasks and plans accordingly. When you create a plan, try to stick to it as much as you can.

3. Don’t be Afraid to Step Outside Your Comfort Zone

Personal development involves challenging yourself and pushing your abilities. For example, if you have a fear of public speaking or socialising, you should step out and try to socialise more and participate in public speaking events. This will have a positive impact on your personal and professional life as you’ll be more confident and willing to speak at networking events. Every step you take in personal development requires a little commitment and time, but it offers rich rewards in the long-run.

4. Learn Meditation and Be Active

Many people don’t believe that meditation is actually effective and not a waste of time. The practice has been around for thousands of years and its effects have been noticed and documented by many researchers. Supermodel Gisele Bundchen, singer Sheryl Crow and film director Martin Scorcese are amongst the highly successful celebrities who meditate.

Meditation is very easy and doesn’t require much time. You can spend 10 minutes at the start and end of every day to centre yourself and calm your mind for a few brief moments. Meditation will help you feel rejuvenated and energised.

Similarly, if you exercise every morning, you’ll feel energised and accomplished. The rush from exercise will give you the motivation and determination you need to move through your day in an enthusiastic and energetic manner.

6. Challenge Yourself

It isn’t easy to stay on track when you want to learn new skills. If your professional life gets a little too busy, you may be tempted to stop learning and let your personal development slip. The best way around this is to challenge yourself for a limited period of time. For example, you can challenge yourself to finish a new book in a week or learn the basics of a new language in 30 days. That way, you’ll ‘trick yourself’ into staying on track, ensuring you reach your goals.

With daily habits, you take small and manageable steps towards personal development. These changes will have a significant impact on your professional, personal, and social life. You’ll have more confidence and will be more productive. Personal development is a lifelong process – and the end goal isn’t perfection, it’s to be a better-rounded and, above all, happier human being. Isn’t that the most important thing of all?

Ashley Andrews is an Inbound Marketing Strategist at Activia Training, a UK-based training provider specialising in improving delegates’ workplace performance in business skills, management development and IT applications. Ashley is passionate about personal development, and regularly blogs about this – and many other topics – on the Activia blog.

Not many people can proudly say that they are very good at writing academic essays and research reports Etc. well, there is truth in the fact that writing essays is not an easy task. You need to come up with something that is creative, and informative as well as interesting for the reader. A lot of college students face a lot of trouble when they are asked to write an essay on any topic. They often find themselves with a bad grade when they fail at providing the best in their essay. It can happen that you need the help of experts to write an assignment and assignment.essayshark can help you online.

Well, here are some tips that can really help you in your essay writingjourney.

Teachers help:

If you are in school or in college, you can take the help of your teacher. There is absolutely no harm in asking for a little guidance and help when you cannot find the right way to write an essay. Your teachers can help you out tremendously because they will know how to train you in this field. You can also learn a lot of other things from your teacher along the way.

Books:

Remember that a good academic essay is the one in which you have given a good amount of references. One can only do that when one reads the books that will be helpful concerning your essay. You can also take help from the books that are a guideline on how to write essays. These books are very helpful for the beginners as well as students who are in universities and are required to write a well written essay. Many students can take the boos that can help them write a good essay from their local or school library. They do not have to spend their own money to buy these books.

Internet:

The internet is a whole other world in itself. Therefore, you can also find a lot of help regarding essay writing on the internet. There are many websites that offer guidelines on how to write essays on different topics.

Online experts:

Another way you can get help regarding your essays is that you can get a well written essay from online essay writing experts. These experts can write down your essay for you if you have reached a deadline on your essay. This way you can also have an idea on how they have written the essay and you can learn things from that essay as well.

So, what is the solution for such students? Well, this is where the following tips will help you in your essay writing.

1.     Research properly:

The first thing you have to do regarding your essay is research. Research about your essay topic and find out all the relevant information and the data that you might need. There are many ways you can go about researching. You can find the information from your course books, or you can also visit the school or the college library and find out whatever material you need to add in your essay.

2.     Focus on the topic:

A lot of times, we try to make our essay or our research reports more lengthy by adding information that is not very much related to the topic. Do not do that. This will make your essay lacking in quality. Do not just focus on increasing the word count. Focus on keeping the quality of your essay very much high.

3.     Get help from peers:

Another thing that can help you a lot in your essay writing is getting the help of your class fellows. The students who have learned the art of good ad quality essay writing can help you out a lot in this regard. You can take your rough drafts over to them and get their opinions on your progress with the essay if there are any missing points they can help you out tremendously.

4.     Teacher’s guidance:

Your teacher has probably seen thousands of essays. They have seen the better ones as well as the bad ones. You can take some helpful tipsfrom them on how you can write youressay perfectly. They will be providing you professional adviceon how you can make your essay stand out from the others.

5.     Online help:

There are many samples of academic essays that you can find an online essay writing website. You can also view them and take help from them as well.

There are multiple things that must be considered prior to buying a home. Whether in regards to their budgets, mortgage packages, or other requirements necessary to finalize the transaction, buyers have a lot on their plate. One crucial component of completing the home-buying process is getting approved for homeowners insurance.

Unfortunately, however, some prospective buyers may find themselves in a difficult position, as their lifestyle or financial history could get in the way of their approval. There are numerous factors that go into consideration when insurers are reviewing your application, including home insurance history, the types of pets in your household, or the home not being up to local codes and ordinances. Depending on your perceived risk level, insurance agents then have the ability to deny your claim if they believe the liability to be too high. In order to increase your chances of being approved, you must understand the different reasons why insurance companies may deny your claim, and adjust accordingly to meet their requirements.

Here are a few common reasons homebuyers are denied coverage:

Excessive Material Wear and Tear

When it comes to insuring your home, the extent of wear and tear on the home itself can strongly influence the decision of insurance agents. Having a roof that is past expiration, and is now falling apart and deteriorating, can cause insurance claims to be denied as a result of poor maintenance. If the time for repairing major components of the house has passed, this generally means the time and cost of replacing has also increased, thus increasing the liability seen by insurers. Making sure to fix any necessary wear-and-tear damages immediately will increase the chances of getting your insurance claims approved.

Prior Claims Made

Your running track record with home insurance companies is a big determinant of whether your claim will be approved. Insurance agents view homeowners with excessive claims made to be an increasing liability, and having too many can jeopardize your chances of being approved.

Some insurance companies will refuse coverage of an individual who has had a claim within the last three years, which will result in a lengthy waiting period before you’re eligible for coverage again.

Types of Pets in Household

Depending on the type of pet you own, insurance agents may have the right to deny you homeowners insurance. Most often this is an issue with dog owners, given the fact that certain dog breeds have a history of being overly aggressive and causing liability for insurance companies.

Specifically so, the amount of home insurance claim dollars paid out due to dog bites was one-third of the total claims made in 2015, totaling more than $570 million. This provides insight as to why some home insurance companies are hesitant to approve dog owners.

County Codes are Compromised

Most people want to improve and remodel their home to fully customize it to their desires. However, depending on the types of adjustments made, this could run the risk of falling under the standards of county codes, which will lead insurers to deny your claim.

Depending on the upgrades you want to make, it is crucial to research the codes that are required in your location, so as to keep your homeowners insurance intact. Each city may have different regulations that need to be upheld, and forgoing them can cause major headaches when it comes time to renew your insurance.

The process of comparing homeowners insurance quote is usually fairly straightforward, and often happens smoothly. However, certain things can compromise your claims for home insurance, and therefore it is vital to understand the things that affect your standing with insurers. By keeping a close eye on the requirements and general guidelines, homebuyers and homeowners can increase their chance of approval, and significantly reduce the risk of denial.

Infographic created by https://coverhound.com

Working from home has definitely many perks: you don’t have to commute, you can spend more time with your family, and you can enjoy being at home more. But what happens when you want to start working from home but lack the necessary space in order to make that happen? This is where loft conversions come in with everything they have to offer in terms of extra space.

Let me tell you why a loft conversion is so great for a home office. First, you get to get some extra space that can add you some privacy. In your loft conversion, you are far from your neighbours, post man, or any other passers by who might wish to disturb you. You are less likely to hear the voices from the street and this is very likely to increase your productivity, which can be a factor if you choose to work from home.

Having your home office in your loft has also the benefit of being separated from the rest of the house. This can be especially valuable to you if you like the idea of separating your professional and family life. You know that the moment you step out from your loft your work is over for the day and it is now time to spend with your family members and enjoy being with them. After all, this is something you want to accomplish, right?

Loft conversions are a very efficient and cheap way to add some extra space to your home. If extra space is something you are looking for, you will be happy to know that you can find it by having your loft converted into a usable space that has some value in it.

Working in a converted loft might give you the feeling of order and tidiness, something that might be sometimes hard to achieve when you have children. While the rest of the house can sometimes be rather messy due to having children around, this does not have to be the case with your loft. This can be your own personal space you can choose to decorate whichever way you want.