When I started my consulting business eight years ago, I heard tons of advice about setting up a home office.  Everything from - "don't do it" to "it will take two years to get used to it."  While on the surface, hearing the words "work from home" might conjure up the somewhat blissful vision of a person working in their sweats all day, having a home office does take some getting used to.  And in order to be successful, you have to plan the environment for your needs.

If you think about it, when companies design work spaces they do it for maximum efficiency and productivity.  When you make the decision to work at home, you want to focus on the same things.  Create a space that allows you to be comfortable, efficient and productive.

7 Considerations for Setting Up a Home Office

1. Location, Location, Location - Think about the best place in your home to designate as work space.  Not only should you think about how much space you will need, but whether or not the space needs to have a door or window.  For instance, having a window doesn't matter to me.  But having a door does.  I need to be able to separate myself from work.  And, the best way to do that...is by closing the door.
   
   I also considered the temperature of my house.  My home has an east-west facing.  Meaning the back of the house is warmer toward the end of the day.  So I intentionally have my office at the front of the house.  It stays cooler and I don't have to deal with too much sunlight.
   
   
2. Ergonomics - In order to do your best work, you have to be comfortable.  And, that comfy sofa in front of the plasma TV starts looking real good after a couple hours in a poorly designed workspace. Your office chair needs to properly support your back.  If you'll be working on a computer from home, make sure you have proper lighting and wrist rests. 
   
   I know this might sound elementary, but you'd be amazed at the people who don't consider taking good care of their posture in designing a home office.  It's one thing to jump in a chair and send off a few bills from a desk.  That takes minutes.  It's another thing to work for hours.  Reading a few articles on how to take good care of your movements will make you healthier and more productive.
   
   
3. Communication Musts - One of the keys to working from home is being accessible.  I've always found my clients didn't care where I was as long as (a) they could reach me and (b) I delivered on time.  This means how you communicate is key, because you are establishing your credibility and creating trust.
   
   Many people use their cell phones as primary communication devices.  Which is great.  I love my iPhone and use it all the time.  But I also know there are a couple of places in my home that the coverage is spotty and I could drop a call.  So I have a landline backup.  Nothing is worse than being on an important conference call and getting dropped off the line.  I'm not endorsing one way over another...just keep in mind how you need to communicate when setting up your office.
   
   Also when it comes to phone coverage, think about whether voicemail, forwarding services and applications like Google Voice make sense to keep you connected to your customers.
   
   My last two-cents about phones - one of the best investments I made was a wireless headset.  If you spend a lot of time on conference calls, this could be a lifesaver for you.  It's also great when you're on a call and someone wants you to sign for a package.  Multitasking at its best.
   
   In planning your communication needs, consider other electronics.  I know faxing can seem old-fashioned, but some places still use it.  A lot.
    
   
4. Technology - Talking about communication leads to discussions about the internet.  If you have multiple computers in your home, a wireless network might be necessary.  I've had plenty of occasions where the Ethernet cable wasn't working but the wireless network kept me up and running until a repair was made.
   
   Ever lost a document you spent hours creating because the electricity blinked?  Well, don't let that happen.  Get a battery back-up (also known as a UPS - Unlimited Power Supply) for your computer.  Trust me.  It's money well spent.
   
   I also can't resist sharing my technology indulgence.  Dual monitors.  Years ago, the graphic designer who worked on my website suggested it.  If you spend a lot of time on computers, it will completely change the way you work and your productivity.
    
   
5. Storage - As you finish projects and/or accumulate resources, you'll have to find someplace to keep all of this "stuff."  First, I'd suggest contacting an attorney who can offer some advice on how many years you need to store projects. 
   
   After you know how long to store files, consider how you'll maintain both electronic files and hard copy.  And how you'll dispose of them as well.  I've found a wonderful service that brings a truck to my door, destroys files on-site and provides a certificate they've been destroyed.  So I can rest assured that any confidential info that has been entrusted to me by my customers is safe. 
   
   It goes without saying that I use a personal shredder for everyday items.
   
   
6. Find Your Zone - Working from home can be a blessing and a curse.  Need to take 5 minutes to make a personal phone call - no problem.  Want to work in your pajamas, no worries.  But it also means that work is staring you in the face all the time. 
   
   While you might enjoy what you do...you still need time to disconnect.  Figure out a routine that works for you.  When I first started working at home, I was so concerned about falling into the trap of being undisciplined that I made myself miserable.  After settling into a schedule that allowed me to do some things that were important to me - like working out - I was happier and more productive.
   
   
7. Marketing your office - Even though you work at home, you still want to send the message that you're a professional.  So when I refer to where I work - it's called the office.  Not home.  

And since it's not feasible to hold meetings in my home, I also think about where to hold meetings.  Lucky for me, most of my clients want me to meet them at their site.  Or they want to meet over coffee or lunch.  But find good places to have meetings so you're always prepared when a customer wants to see you face-to-face.

With more people considering freelancing and consulting, working from home has plenty of advantages. A well-thought-out plan to establishing a home office can offer you a casual, comfortable, flexible place to work that's also easy to set up and relatively inexpensive to maintain.  Best of all, it's a place where you can really get things done!

Photo Credit: Paladin27

In the last week I have taken two flights, rode in a bus and on a train.  While on these three modes of transportation I evaluated what type of work could I get done.  How productive could I really be while in transit from one place to another.  I usually sleep on a flight or in a train ride, but recently I have tried to make that time productive.  

I have not been lucky enough to be on a flight with internet as of yet.  So my productivity is limited to what I can sync offline and finish while in the air.  I used my time on a flight from London to Barcelona to answer emails and work on blogs posts.  Once we landed I connected to the internet and synced my emails and sent out my blog posts.  This was a pretty good use of the three hour flight to Barcelona, considering I would usually have slept that whole flight.

On the train I had my broadband card so I was able to access the internet to work on a client proposal and record a screencast for an application.  The train was nice because the seats were spacious and if you get on the train a bit early you can get a seat with table.  The hardest place for me to work was on the bus.  The bus was really cramped and extremely difficult to work on.  The space was too small to try to work on my laptop and the ride was bumpy making it really hard for me to read because I get motion sick.  So I used the rest of the bus ride to catch up on some sleep.  So at the end of it I got some sleep but realized that I can be pretty productive on a train or plane.  

What do you do while in transit to stay productive?  What type of work do you do on planes, trains and buses?

One of the most fundamental elements of planning any trip is where to stay.  At the moment, I am on a very long trip that, in the end, will span 3 continents and several countries.  Locating and booking affordable accommodations that provide what is important to me can become a pain sometimes.  For the past year, I have leveraged the collective wisdom of both Yelp and Foursquare to assist in these searches.  Below is a quick video post identifying the items I look for in accommodations while on workshifting trip.
 

What are the things you look for when searching for a place to stay?
 

Inga hit my hot button with her recent post "What's in a Name". Depending on whom you ask, the number of U.S. telecommuters ranges from between 2.8 million people (consider home their primary place of work, not including the self-employed) and 44.4 million (includes anyone works at home at least once a year).

The counting problem isn't because no one has bothered to study the work-at-home population. The IRS, Bureau of Census, Bureau of Labor Statistics Small Business Adminsitration, and a number of private researchers all collect data about people who work from home. But they all come at it with their own needs and biases.

The big problem, as Inga points out is that no one agrees on whom to count. Bruce Phillips, a researcher for the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) called the task of separating out the real work-at-home numbers as a "statistical Vietnam--the data goes in, but you can't get it out."

The population of people included in various counts range from people who work from home as little as one day a year, to those who do so the majority of the time (Census). Some sources count incorporated and unincorporated small businesses, others don't. Some consider telecommuters to include road warriors whom, while they may be teleworkers, they are not not using technology to replace their commute--the classic definition of telecommuting.  BLS and Census even include unpaid family workers among the work at home population.

None of the studies separate out those employees and business owners who work at home from those who work from home. For example, while a plumber may be home-based, he only earns his living with his head under someone else's sink.

It seems to me the whole thing is a bit like studying meteoroids. We know there are a lot of them, we know there are different kinds, and we know they're important, but we don't know where they all are and not everyone agrees on which ones to count.

Of course I have my biases too. As a telecommuting researcher and author, I'm interested in the people who regularly work both from and at home because they offer the greatest potential to reduce global warming, energy usage, and traffic congestion. They're also the ones who derive the most work-life benefits from telecommuting.

For those counts, I lean toward Census data. They ask employed workers where their principal place of work was during the survey week. Granted, some may have had an unusual week, but the numbers for 2008 show that 5.9 million called home their principal place of work. Of those, 3.1 million were home based businesses. That means that only 2.5 million employees, 1.9% of the working population, worked at home most of the time. That's a long way from the 52 million people who hold telecommuting compatible jobs.

Of course, others, such as equipment and software suppliers, are just as interested in the mobile workforce counts (i.e. road warriors, plumbers, electricians). A reporter from Inc. magazine (they're doing a month-long experiment with telecommuting) asked if I knew the size of the mobile workforce marketplace. I was embarrassed to say I didn't, but as I thought about it, it goes back to the same problem--we're just not capturing the data.

Over two dozen local, state and federal programs aimed at promoting telecommuting have been proposed or adopted in the past year. Federal funds are already flowing to the cause. Without proper statistics on the growth of the trend, the return on investment for these programs will be impossible to determine. I've actually submitted several proposals aimed at doing the research necessary to get a handle on the existing telecommuting population and coming up with a way to standardize the counts going forward. Everyone I've talked to seems interested, but so far no one's been willing to put up the dough. Stay tuned on that.

Where do you get your stats on telecommuting?  Have any good sources?  Let's share them around and see if we can solve this, finally.

Photo Credit: RaeA

Celebrity Chef and Activist Jamie Oliver gave a fascinating and disturbing presentation at TED on how food is literally killing us.  We are eating ourselves to death.  We live in the most abundant time in recent history.  In the developed world, we have living standards which were unheard of only a generation ago.  We also have access to the great equalizer, the Internet.  Despite all of this, 2/3 of Americans are overweight.


What really stuck with me is how casually this can happen and how it affects all of us.  This really got me thinking about the Workshifting diet.  If you frequently work out of a coffee shop, airport or any other remote location, have you ever stopped and considered what you're eating?

Well...I did.  On occasion, I workshift from Bulldog Cafe in Solvang, California.  I happily enjoyed a latte with a ham and cheese quiche for breakfast.  Throughout the day I was snacking on whatever was there, muffins, juice and more coffee.  I don't think my story is unique so I started poking around the internet for tips on a healthy travel diet.

Much of the advice appears to be consistent:

• Pack you own food
• Eat breakfast at home
• Avoid the drive-through
• Be mindful of what your order
  

Sounds logical...but hell, I don't do that.  Doing a quick search I didn't find any practical advice so I reached out to Celebrity Fitness Coach and Nutritionist Rich Guzman.  This is what he had to say:

Meals:  One third protein (eggs, fish, chicken, turkey, tofu) and two thirds vegetables (greens, squash, or other less starchy ones) if you're trying to remain healthy and lean.  

Timing:  Eating every three hours is advantageous to keep the body from burning muscle for energy.  If you have the tendency to feel bloated or have indigestion after most meals you may have food allergies to yeast, gluten, dairy, or sugar.  Sugar is the real enemy when trying to maintain or lose body fat.  It sneaks into our diets via fruit juices, alcohol, packaged or restaurant food, and in our energy drinks.  The body can only manage small amounts of sugar in the system and uses insulin to keep the body on an even keel.  The body reacts in a defensive mode when sugar is introduced in mass quantities by pumping out insulin and storing everything as fat (carbs, protein, and fats).  

On-the-go:  Starbucks has oatmeal and hard-boiled egg choices.  The dried fruit and nuts also works if you're training hard and need a snack. Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf offers a yogurt parfait and a tuna sandwich.  My recommendation for a drink is Green Tea iced or hot, or a soy decaf sugar-free coffee drink (take all the fun out of it).  

If you have questions, you can reach Rich Guzman on Twitter @laroxdude.

The best outcome of this post would be awareness.  You are going to do some of the things Rich recommends and not others, but if you keep this top of mind and share information on lessons learned, we'll all be better off.

What are your tips for healthy eating on-the-go?

Photo Credit: sshb

One of the comments on my last post (Is telecommuting good or bad for the environment?) got me thinking about the various different ways we refer to people who don't work in traditional office settings.

It seems as though the number of terms increases almost as quickly as the number of people who enter this type of working arrangement. I started putting together a list of a few of the descriptors that seem to appear most frequently (I'm sure you will have others to add):

• Workshifter
• Mobile worker
• Road warrior
• Digital nomad
• Telecommuter
• Teleworker 
• Home office executive
• Remote worker
• Nomad worker
• Digital worker
• At-home workers
  

While many of the terms are used interchangeably, like "teleworker "and "telecommuter," others clearly have different meanings. Road warrior, for example, is someone who travels extensively for business - much like George Clooney's character in the movie Up in the Air.  A home office executive, on the other hand, would be someone who works exclusively from home. 

The question of terminology of course becomes interesting when trying to measure the number of people who telecommute, how this is changing over time and how it is impacting our culture. Let's say for example, you are trying to measure the impact of Workshifters on something like home office supplies. How can you be sure you are comparing apples to apples when so many people define Workshifters in so many different ways?

How can we even measure the number of people who are telecommuting if we don't have an overarching term or "guidelines" to qualify you for this category?

It appears that the Bureau of Census attempts to count us Workshifters by determining how many people "primarily" work from home. That clearly doesn't encompass someone who is primarily on the road. Shouldn't this type of person be classified as a telecommuter, too? (Note:  I contacted the Census Bureau Public Information Office to learn more details about how they will be counting Workshifters in the 2010 Census, but have not yet heard back as of this posting.)

What do you think? Should there be a set way to classify people who work outside of traditional office environment? Or, is it impossible to reach a consensus on these terms, since the "best" definition of telecommuting most often depends on your own point of reference?

Photo Credit: eshm

I have come across quite a few blog posts where the first paragraph is a general complaint about the hours we work; where we are the victim and technology is the weapon. To that I say, ignorance is bliss.  From my perspective, we CHOOSE to work beyond the confines of traditional work hours because we can.  We can, because we have the tools, not vice-versa.

It seems that just about everyday a new tool comes out that offers to pull the fabric of our self-made social web even tighter.  Some new tools on the block are Foursquare and Plancast.  Neither of which improve the quality of my network, but they are cool and fun, and I choose to try them out.  Now add these to Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, or whatever your social media weapon of choice, and there is some serious time spent in the name of connecting.

I am connected to the social web via TweetDeck.  I'm watching and participating in the conversations that I care about.  Does it add to my workload?  Definitely.  Do I like it?  No Doubt.  Is there value to my company?  Absolutely.  I think the debate stems from how "work-day" is being defined.

The view seems to be that of the old-school corporate time clock vs. workshifting.  One is focused on time and the other on outcome.  One is focused on the office and the other is location agnostic.

Therefore, if I'm focused on outcome and I'm location agnostic, does that equal a longer work-day?  No, it's equals a work-day that may include Monday morning at 4am or Sunday at 9pm.  It also may NOT include Tuesday at 9:30am and Friday at noon.  By re-framing perceptions of working hours and work space, you can quickly see that in most cases there are not more working hours, but the hours worked are more effective.  This also requires setting boundaries for when you're "on deck".  In other words, don't call me at home at 4am unless I'm expecting it.

By extending the definition of work-day to include workshifting, it opens up a world of possibilities on how to achieve an objective.  I can collaborate with social media tools, attend a conference or speaking engagement, have an online meeting and of course (at least in my case) go to the office for a dose of much needed corporate culture.  Despite how this post may read, I love going into the office because I need to connect in person.

So next time you read about how the evil social media tools are driving people to work 24 hours a day, stop and think.  The definition of work-day is growing up.  Are you growing along with it, or are you fighting for the status quo.

What say you?

Photo Credit: tranchis

February and March are two very busy workshifting months for AJ and myself.  We are going to conferences, meeting with clients, launching a client website and working on a charity project all while trying to keep our company and team productive.  We have traveled to the UK every six months for the past two years and have had many experiences with their internet options.  So here is what I have discovered. You have three options internet cafes, wifi in cafes or hotels or USB internet broadband cards.  

Internet Cafes usually give you decent speeds for up to 2 pounds an hour.  This is the only place I have been able to make Skype calls on a consistent basis.  However, you have to sit in the same, smelly place for hours.  And hour over hour you end of spending a significant amount of money.  

Wifi in cafes is extremely unreliable and can be expensive although it is available.  In most of my experiences with wifi in hotels I usually end of paying between 10 to 20 pounds per day, which just isn't a realistic option.  However McDonalds, of all places, has free wifi that is pretty reliable.

USB broadband cards are your best option for stable internet for email and general work on the internet.  You can buy a broadband card from Vodafone for 25 pounds which includes 3 gigs of internet usage.  You can also go with T-Mobile, the cost for the card is 20 pounds and you pay 2 pounds each day for 'unlimited' web usage. However, you cannot use Skype with T-Mobile and if you run too many applications at the same times (TweetDeck, Gmail, Facebook, Google Docs) then your bandwidth will be severely limited.  

Those are your options, here is what I suggest: Buy a Vodafone broadband card for 25 pounds for general use and if you need to have meetings with your team over Skype go to the internet cafe.  Also the UK has automatic content lock on all devices that access the internet so show your ID and ask for the content lock to be removed if you want to use Twitter, Flickr, Facebook, YouTube or other social networks.  

What are you suggestions for internet connectivity abroad?

Photo Credit: AJ Leon

There are thousands of books to choose from about what makes a successful entrepreneur; how to become a master at time management and so on.  Each of these books come with many nuggets of wisdom to be gleaned from them.  But as a workshifter, you probably just don't have the time to read all of these books, let alone put into place what you learn from them.

The fact is, solopreneurs are supreme jugglers, but even the most accomplished jugglers drop a ball at some point!
 
Over almost seven years of coaching people to run profitable businesses without running themselves ragged, the top five complaints I hear most often are:
 

1. "I feel overwhelmed and exhausted with too much to do and too little time."
2. "I know that I need to work ON the business, but I'm so busy working IN the business."
3. "I know what I need to do to grow this business, but there is never enough time to do it all."
4. "The business is doing ok, but it feels as if I can't quite make that leap to the next level."
5. "I feel like I'm just not planning my time effectively as I could.  I'm constantly fighting fires."
   

It's not hard to spot the pattern here - lack of time!  Solopreneurs tend to berate themselves for not having completed all of their gargantuan "to do" list at the end of each day.  But most of the time they have simply set themselves 12 hours of tasks to complete within a 6 hour day!  I know this because, while I'm superb at getting my clients focused and helping them to set up project plans to make their own businesses more efficient, I often forget to "take my own medicine"!
 
Solopreneurs are notoriously bad at setting themselves impossible targets and beating themselves up for not having achieved "the impossible".  The following tips are nothing new and you won't be bowled over with a magic formula for getting it all done.  There is no clever solution here, just time-tested stuff that you have no doubt heard before.  But whether they are old news or cutting edge to you, those who cultivate the following seven habits will find that they are more in control of their time, have less episodes of overwhelm and build sustainable businesses.

Seven Habits for Time Pressed Solopreneurs





Habit No. 1 - Learn to Prioritize


It is a truism that time is our most precious commodity and we just don't have enough of it. It's ironic that when you're doing something that you don't enjoy, the minutes seem to drag relentlessly.  On the other hand, when we are busy, time appears to fly and unless we grasp that time management is fundamentally about managing priorities rather than time, we are likely to feel overwhelmed.  

Professional coaching experts will tell you that time management is rule number one, but as we all know, time cannot be managed:  We each have 24 hours in the day, seven days in the week and no amount of wishing will give us that extra two hours a day!
 
Try this exercise for a week:  Evaluate all that you have to do for the week and take time to jot it all down in a list. You will need to allocate a priority to each activity and collate them into a realistic timetable. When you embark on this exercise,  it can seem daunting!  However, if you persevere, this can really pay dividends as you will start to grasp how you under-estimate and the importance of prioritization.   

Habit No. 2 - Don't Forget About You!



Remember to think about yourself.  Without rewarding yourself and enjoying valuable "me" time you will quickly burn yourself out and be far less productive.  The buck really does stop with you when you are self-employed.  Most solopreneurs are running micro-businesses where they are the chief bottle washer and cook!

So make personal time a priority and understand that this is not about being selfish, but is in fact a vital investment in your business and your life.

Habit No. 3 - Make Friends with a Little Routine in Your Life


Setting up a routine is one of the best habits you can practice. They say that it takes a minimum of 14 attempts at something before a habit becomes ingrained, and we all seem to work better if we adopt a routine.

While you might not like to be too structured, I would be surprised if you do not benefit from incorporating some routine into part of your daily business management.
 

Habit No. 4 - Block Out Time without Distractions


Don't let the myriad of communication methods become the enemy of efficiency.  You have to block out time when you can turn off not only your phone, but perhaps all those time-depleting social networking sites.  Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, IM... the list goes on and on.  All of these new social media tools can be great networking and business generation tools, but more often than not, they can be great excuses for not doing the stuff that brings in the business.
 
So make use of time blocking or "do not disturb" time to focus on larger projects.  You can then allocate time to return calls once you've completed the tasks and projects that are essential to grow your business.

Habit No. 5  - Create Sacred Space to Work


Habit number five is about creating your own special and protected area. Many solopreneurs  run a business from their home. If you are a work at home entrepreneur, don't try balancing a laptop on the kitchen table and putting your file cabinet in your bedroom!
 
Wherever it is in your home, make your workspace sacred and ideally place it in its own room, off-limits to the kids when you are working. Design this room with efficiency and ergonomics in mind and don't use it for leisure purposes. If possible, have another computer set up elsewhere for personal use.

Habit No. 6 - Healthy Body, Healthy Business


If you don't look after your health, all the other habits will be difficult to maintain. Exercise and fitness must become a habit and you should plan on getting at least three exercise sessions in per week.
 
Do whatever is easiest for you to take on as a new exercise habit.  So if you don't live near a gym, it's unrealistic to plan to go to a gym three times a week, as you'll find that you don't have the time to travel to and fro.   Keep it simple - walking, running, cycling or dancing in front of an exercise DVD are all examples of keeping your body moving that are easy to adopt into your life as a mum.  And do what you enjoy - if you're not a sporty person, it's unlikely that you'll stick to a new habit of playing tennis each week.  One of my clients who hates the gym and all form of sports exercises keeps trim with her Wii each evening. 

Think laterally and do what works for you!  It doesn't matter what form of exercise you choose, providing you just get your body moving!

Habit No. 7 - Build a Superstar Success Team



You've heard the expression "no man is an island"?  None of us can run a business alone and we all need support in various guises.  Ask yourself what sort of support you need to become a highly successful solopreneurs and start to look for ways of building your "superstar success team".

But however you choose to build your team, don't try to do everything on your own as there is so much to be gained from seeking the wisdom of good friends, confidants, associates and professional experts. They can be superb sounding posts and linchpins to your business success!

Having read these seven habits, it's likely that you will go away and forget most of them!   So,  rather than trying to adopt all seven at once, thus dooming yourself to failure, choose just one habit, focus on it and practice and practice it until it truly does indeed become a habit (i.e something you do without even thinking).  Then, once you have adopted one habit, choose a second and so on.   


Easy does it - and remember to acknowledge each little achievement along the way!

About the author:

Amanda Alexander is a Professional Certified Coach who helps work at home professionals who long for more hours in the day.  Through her coaching programs and online coaching courses, Amanda helps people to create fulfilling and successful businesses.  Learn  more at www.amandaalexander.com

Photo Credit: derekGavey
 

I was asked recently by a good friend on mine what was in my bag.  It was part of a blog post she wrote, What's in Yo' Bag, and I have decided to respond in a video.  My bag consists of many things to keep me inspired, connected and able to be on the go.



What's in your workshifting gear bag?  Empty out your workshifiting bag, take a picture, upload it to Flickr, tag it "workshifting" and link it up in the comments below.  We'll gather all of the photos and blog posts together for a future post.

Are you passionate about workshifting, time management, productivity, lifehacks, work/life balance, organization and everything else that we cover around here?  Would you like to become a regular Workshifting contributor?

If you're violently shaking your head up and down then we would love to have you submit an application to join our team.  We're looking for contributors who want to write weekly, bi-weekly or monthly.  If you want to join a fast growing and fun blog, then we'd love to have you.

If you're interested, please complete the form below.  We'll evaluate all submissions and if there seems like there is a fit then we'll reach out to you directly.


Photo Credit: xanxhor

Connectedness is a tricky thing it can be both necessary and debilitating.  This week has been incredibly busy and  got me thinking about productivity.  When it come to 'getting things done' sometimes disconnecting takes precedence. 

If you can't view this video, you can find it over on my Vimeo channel.

Are there specific times during the day that you disconnect?

I'm a little ashamed to admit that I hadn't given much thought to the overall impact telecommuting can have on the environment until I hit the "Google Search" button in my browser window. 

Wow - results galore! Apparently I'm a little behind on this issue. While most articles highlight the environmental benefits of telecommuting from home, others challenge this widely-accepted opinion.

The Environmental Benefits Argument

• By working from home, you eliminate the commute, reduce emissions of pollutants and save in energy and petroleum consumption.  

In The Green Book, authors Elizabeth Rogers and Thomas Kostigen report that workers commute an average of 10,000 miles per year and consume 67 billion gallons of gas. Telecommuting reduces vehicle miles traveled per year by more than 35 billion and saves almost 2 billion gallons of gas.

That obviously also reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

In the 2008 "Smart 2020" report, the Climate Group for the Global e-Sustainability Initiative found that virtual meetings and flexible work arrangements could reduce 70-130 metric tons of carbon dioxide each year. (The study was conducted by international management consultants McKinsey & Company and outlines the many ways the tech industry can reduce emissions - telecommuting was at the top of the list.)

The Environmental Damages Argument

• Many telecommuters end up driving just as much as their office counterparts, running errands or driving to lunch meetings.

• Employees also have to equip and power their work area, and often end up duplicating what's also shared at the company office. ("Does telecommuting help really the environment?"

Arpad Horvath, an engineering professor at UC Berkley has been researching the environmental impact of working from home, and advocates taking into consideration all the resources used while telecommuting. While telecommuting may lower the amount of carbon dioxide released into the environment, the "extra electricity used by dedicated home offices and electronics meant that telecommuters produced more nitrous oxide and methane."

Horvath and his research team have developed a web-based tool that can help people track the environmental impact of their telecommuting. The online calculator asks data about use of transportation and electricity, and then it determines the type and amount of emissions generated.

I'm not entirely sure where I stand on this issue. While I agree that it's important to take into consideration all resources used while telecommuting, I also think it's a little unrealistic to assume that office workers do not run errands over lunch or drive to lunch meetings. On the other hand, I agree with the statement that teleworkers are duplicating the power that's being supplied in their offices at home. Also - as Workshifters, we do a considerable amount of traveling, which likely wouldn't be the case (at least as much) if we were office based.

What do you think?

Photo Credit: Atwater Village

Since I know that many of you access this blog via RSS or email, you may not know that we have recently uploaded tons of new whitepapers and eBooks to our Downloads section.  To give you a little taste of what you can find over there, we have recently added:

• Leading Virtual Effectiveness: Four Strategies for Effective Communication in a Distributed Workforce
• It's Time to Review - And Renew - Your Telecommuting Policy
• The Top Ten Strategies for Managers of Mobile Workers
• Five Tips for Better Virtual Meetings
• 9 Management Practices for Exceptional Webinars
• Getting the Most from Your Marketing Events: The ROI of In-Person Seminars, Trade Shows and Webinars
• Emerge! How to Avoid the Seven Sins of Live, Online Presentations
• Beyond the Basics: How to Optimize Online Training for Maximum Impact
• How to Promote the Value of Online Training within Your Organization
• Five Keys to Getting Started with Interactive Online Training

Over the next couple weeks we will be making the Downloads section easier to navigate and more organized so that you're able to find the information you're after a little faster.

If there are whitepapers or eBooks you would like to see the Workshifting team focus on, please let us know in the comments below.

As always, thank you for continuing to make our little community around here so much fun to be a part of.

Photo Credit: ConanTheLibrarian