As a workshifter, I work everywhere. I work at home, I work in the car, at a shopping mall, and even in the office. After arriving home from the office recently I realized I left my precious blackberry sitting on my desk. The office is 24 miles from my house.  That's not a quick, turn around and get what I forgot. And it was such a long Monday... I couldn't even face the possibility of driving all the way back just to get my phone. So I buckled down for a night of withdrawal.


Phase 1: Panic
I do admit, I panicked when I realized I didn't have my BlackBerry. It doubled when I realized that if I were to choose sanity, I would not have my phone for the evening. Commence deep breathing techniques. In.... Out. In.... Out. I. Can. Do. This. But what if there's an emergency?

Phase 2: Denial
No one calls me. No really. I never pick up my phone. I don't need my phone. It's just a phone for goodness' sake, Erica!

Phase 3: Depression
I do need it. I don't exist without it. No really. I don't exist. What if someone needs to reach me immediately? What if in my travels tomorrow my car breaks down? What else will I do when stopped in gridlock, how will I get my fix in the Dunkin Donuts parking lot? What will I use to tell the time? I need my BlackBerry. I am nothing without it.

Phase 4: Acceptance
Wait a second... Erica, you still have your laptop. And access to email. The best way to get in touch with you. It'll be a short 13 hours and then my BlackBerry and I will be reunited. And for now, I'll relax with a nice glass of wine and watch mindless television without, for once, my BlackBerry interrupting. I'll just be using my laptop instead ;)

Do you have any withdrawal stories?

We know that you never, ever miss a post around here, but, just in case you have, here are the top 5 posts for May:

• The Dollars and Sense of Workshifting
• Workshifting Could Save the United States $650 Billion a Year
• Keeping Track of Ideas: 3 iPhone Note-Taking Apps
• 3 Lessons Workshifters Can Learn from Justin Bieber
• Workshifting DNA is the New 401k
  

We hope you enjoy looking back at these popular posts from May and join us for another month of fun with the workshifting team.  If you haven't subscribed yet, why not make it easier on yourself and ensure you never miss a post by subscribing.

Photo Credit: sparkieblues

First and last is just fine when you're renting an apartment, but not when you are a company's first full-time workshifter. Someone has to be first, of course. You just don't want to mess things up so badly that you are also the company's last full-time remote employee.

I know the thrill of being first. It's exhilarating. It's liberating. It's what I'd been dreaming of for years. In the interest of full disclosure, I wasn't completely green at workshifting. I won't speak for all writers, but I've always had the ability to work (and sleep, incidentally) anywhere. I'd enjoyed project-based freelance writing gigs for years. Full-time workshifting was a first for me though. And a first for my company.

It just so happened that the year I relocated 2,000 miles across the country to embark on a new journey, the country was celebrating the 200th anniversary of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. The parallels between the famous expedition and my own lesser known one were not lost on me. I felt like an explorer for my company--breaking out of the traditional office to see what was beyond the four walls I'd painted industrial green to encourage productivity.

Being first also made me nervous because I knew the task ahead of me was more than just doing my job remotely. I was setting out to prove that workshifting full-time could actually be done and that it could be beneficial for both me and my company. The journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition document important discoveries made along the way. Similarly, I knew that decision-makers at my company were documenting discoveries made during my workshifting journey. If I failed, it meant that colleagues would likely not be able to workshift full-time in the future. It was an enormous responsibility, and I took it very seriously.

Here are a few lessons that stood out for me during my transition to full-time workshifting:

Stay calm during emergencies. I lose composure and my grasp on reality when I encounter a technical problem. Out of necessity, I've learned a few basic troubleshooting tricks over the years. But that doesn't prevent the immediate rise in blood pressure, creative strings of profanity and general mayhem that ensues when a glitch arises. This was especially true in my first few months 2,000 miles away from IT. As a workshifter, I learned how to take a deep breath, communicate problems better and recognize that the world was not ending. The use of remote-support technology helped me to let go and let IT do what it does best.

Get out of the house. Occasional workshifters might think that full-time workshifters experience that I'm-not-in-my-office-and-yet-I'm-working euphoria every single day. The novelty wears off after a while. And that's perfectly fine. Full-time workshifting means that day in and day out, workshifters workshift. I set up shop in my home office and became freakishly uptight about noise volume inside the house and also on the street. On more than one occasion, I hissed in my sleep: "SHHHH! I'm WORKING!" And with no official end-of-day departure after work, the lines of time blurred. A day of not leaving the house turned into a string of three days inside the house. Upon realizing this, I promptly left the house with no destination in mind except out.

Play by the rules. Being my company's first full-time workshifter made me feel like the official steward for all things workshifting. I was devoted to ensuring the stage was set properly for future workshifters. Soon after I went remote full-time, a few other employees were granted similar privileges. One colleague in particular drew my ire because she showed a complete disregard for the critical relationship between workshifter and HQ. She was difficult to track down during business hours, missed remote meetings, turned projects in late and was, generally speaking, a complete flake. Her unprofessional behavior wasn't just affecting her reputation at the company--it threatened to reflect poorly on her small tribe of fellow workshifters.

Deal with the 24/7 expectation. Truth be told, I was available 24/7, but that's not the point. It's just the way I'm wired. Inspiration strikes writers at unpredictable times. I was used to scribbling ideas at 3:25 AM in a bedside notebook. I had no qualms about working on the weekend. I longed for work while on vacation. But workshifting full-time wasn't about me as much as it was about nurturing a balanced relationship between me and my company. Every healthy relationship has boundaries. I had to guard my personal time carefully. I made sure colleagues knew my hours of availability and every possible way to contact me. I promptly answered email, IM and phone calls. To offset a two-hour time difference, I adjusted my workday to cover HQ's business hours.

Grieve a little. Even though I was already comfortable working alone, I missed my coworkers who were now 2,000 miles away. I also pined for the seaweedy smell of the air and dangerously close mountain views back at HQ. At first, it was hard to be so far away from everything I was used to seeing on a daily basis. (And to be honest, I shed a few tears on the company's dime.) I worked with some truly talented, fun folks who were also my friends. Not bumping into them in the kitchen, grabbing a quick lunch or staring at them across a conference table made for a difficult transition. The upside is that I also no longer saw the one or two folks who I considered, ahem, a tad challenging. Sure, I still worked with them, but I no longer had to endure the awkward chitchat in the HQ hallway.

Create a new routine. Within a few weeks, I found my rhythm. I worked through the separation anxiety. I adapted to my new surroundings. But most important, I was patient with myself and also my colleagues back at the office. We all came to the table (figuratively, of course) with a unique set of experiences and expectations about the working life. I wasn't the only one learning new ways of working--everyone back at the office was exploring new ways of interacting, collaborating and working with me, a full-time workshifter.

These days, occasional workshifting is commonplace and full-time workshifting is gaining ground quickly. Fewer people stare blankly at me when I explain what it is that I do and how I do it. We've all seen the IDC predictions about the mobile workforce. In case you haven't, here it is: "The world's mobile worker population will pass the one billion mark this year and grow to nearly 1.2 billion people - more than a third of the world's workforce - by 2013." (IDC) That's a whole lot of workshifters workshifting. I'd like to think I had some influence over the numbers, thanks to my efforts in setting the stage as the first full-time workshifter at my company, but that's just silly. The way we work has shifted. And I, for one, couldn't be happier to take part.


Photo Credit: Bob Travis

When you have a flight delay, it's annoying.  When you have to pay 20 bucks to check in one bag, it's ridiculous.  But when you have WiFi on your plane, it's perfecto.

Thanks to the innovators at Virgin America, anyone can now access the Internet while sitting in their cramped, overpriced seat.  Delta, American and Southwest are even catching on to this fabulous trend.  Finally, an airline perk and not another snack charge (5 dollars for a bag of chips--come on now).

This new Internet option will drown out the crying baby two rows behind us, end the armrest war with our neighbor and get our jobs done faster.  Accessing our office computers and meeting remotely with co-workers is now possible from the air, thanks to GoToMyPC and GoToMeeting.

Technology lets us synchronize our work and lives once again.  So my fellow road warriors, tweet to your heart's content; update your Facebook page with video of your cat flushing the toilet, or whatever you consider funny enough to share with the world; and meet with colleagues and access your work applications and files.  Getting the job done and harmonizing your work-life balance are now possible no matter the altitude.

It's a new age--with a new flexibility to work, play and connect from anywhere, even 30,000 feet above the earth at 600 miles per hour.

Here are the advantages I see from having Internet access on planes:

• Travel updates: letting family, co-workers and clients know if there is a change to my itinerary
• Finishing projects: accessing my office computer to work on projects using GoToMyPC
• Keeping in touch: replying to the emails I've been meaning to get to, sending eCards, etc.
• Meeting with a colleague or client: using GoToMeeting's screen-share capabilities, chat, etc.
• Entertainment: watching my new favorite TV show, "Modern Family," or sending a picture of my aerial view to friends
• Staying in the loop: what if a natural or political disaster occurs while traveling?
• Studying up: catching up on industry trends, reading blogs, opinion articles, etc.
• Distraction: focus on the stuff I want, while tuning out the pains and discomforts of modern-day travel

As we know, the advances in technology and the benefit of mobility keep us connected.  The balance and mix between life and work will only become more integrated as the options to access our office computers, social networking sites and email accounts are available no matter the location.  So now, it's a coffee shop, it's a cubicle, it's super work in the sky.

Do you find any other advantages to having in-flight Internet?


More about Internet in planes


Photo Credit: davipt

During the recent Ash clouds over Europe and the ensuing workplace disruption, we logged a record number of online meetings and remote computer access sessions.

I'm always fascinated by usage stats during a crisis.  Year after year, be it an act of God or that of man, hundreds of thousands of people suddenly scramble to connect remotely.  This speaks to our general lack of preparedness.  I'm not immune to this either.  I've been procrastinating for months to put together a home emergency kit.  At best, I've gathered enough supplies to last about an hour...not good.  

It's not only the headline worthy events that disrupt our lives.  In most cases, it can be something as simple as a car problem or a broken laptop that will cause workplace disruption.  The difference between me, and many of the people caught in the Ash, is that I'm ready for it.  Bring it on!

Let's play out a scenario and you tell me if you'd be ready.  You're alarm clock didn't go off because the power is out.  You wake up because the light coming in from the windows is hitting your square in the face.  You scramble for your cell phone and check the time.  Simply put, you're late.  Then you realize that no power = no computer, no lights, no breakfast, etc.  In this scenario, what do you need to be productive when everything around you is failing?

1. A fully charged Smartphone with email access and backup battery
2. Two designated workshifting locations (in case one is not available)
3. The nearest hotel with wifi and/or a business center
4. A license of a web based remote access service, and one for web conferencing
5. Protein bars
6. A good sense of humor

Did you notice that "laptop" is not on the list?  Many hotels and co-working spaces will let you use their computers for a fee.  All you need to be armed with is access to a web browser and your passwords (memorize your passwords).  

Lets play out this scenario even further.  Your laptop is busted so you decide to workshift at the business center at the local hotel.  While en-route, you drop and break your Smartphone (it's happened to me).  Believe me, this isn't that far-fetched.  Could you still work?

If you remember your passwords, and have the right web based apps, you're good to go.  If your web conferencing service has integrated audio, even better.  Now you can access your important documents, have meetings and make phone calls, all from a computer.

The last couple of tips are equally important.  Leave a couple of protein bars in your backpack or travel bag.  Being hungry is very distracting and will effect your mood.  Lastly, keep your sense of humor intact.  The first few places you try and workshift from may be a bust, so keeping your humor intact will help keep things in perspective.  

Lets reverse engineer this and put things in order of priority:

1.  Access to the web (hotel, co-working space, friend's house, etc.)
2.  Web based remote access and online meeting services with integrated audio
3.  Sense of humor
4.  Food
5.  Designated workshifting locations
6.  Smartphone

My Smartphone is the first thing I grab in the morning, so I was surprised when I put it last on the list.  In a pinch, you could get by without it and in most cases, you'd be just as productive.

So next time you walk out the door, think about your workplace disruption plan.  Think about what you would need, what your family would need, your employees, etc., and then put it to the test.  Walk out the door with your wallet and keys, and see if you could successfully workshift for a day.  

What is your workplace disruption plan?


Photo Credit: BBC World Service

Today's post is by David Romm, a writer, blogger and thinker from Watertown, MA.

There is a really interesting new app that I enjoy using on my Blackberry called Note2Self.
 
Let me preface this review by stating that I would recommend this application to people who use Blackberry's Voice Notes on a regular basis. But to the people who have yet to use voice notes, I have a few reasons to switch over. 

There are too many places on one's Blackberry to enter notes and deciding whether to use MemoPad, the Calendar, or The Inbox, can be a daunting task. Writing extended messages can be tricky and frustrating on the small blackberry device.

Note2Self solves these problems. Like VoiceNotes, Note2Self is a voice recording device, but rather than simply saving the file, it asks you who you want to email it to, and allows you to enter a new email address or pick one from the contacts list.
 
There are times when a written email is insufficient to communicate a message and a phone call is necessary. But what if you want to leave someone a detailed instruction for accomplishing a task without clogging up that person's voicemail? Notes2Self would allow you to record your message (without restriction on note size) and email the message to up to 3 recipients. My coworkers have used this app to communicate project instructions to me; my brother has left me messages that keep my voicemail from getting full; and I can send all my grandparents a single message to brighten their day without making 4 individual phone calls. Note2Self is a simple device with a lot of uses. My only recommendation is that the developers change the name to independent voice messaging, to more accurately describe its capabilities. Definitely worth $4.95 in the Blackberry App Store.

Photo Credit: BlackBerry App Store

Today's post is from Jennifer Marcus Newton, a freelance writer located in Saint Paul, Minnesota. She routinely works from all the usual workshifting haunts--cafes, park benches, airports--and also maintains a tidy writing studio and messy home office. Her most remote work location was among the yaks in Shangri-La. Work/life balance for her means using both a Mac and fountain pen. Contact her at fidhlear@gmail.com.

Did you know that since 1963, the U.S. President has declared an official National Small Business Week every year? This special designation is a way to "recognize the contributions of small businesses to the economic well-being of America," as stated on the National Small Business Week Web site.

Contributing to the economic well-being of America is a tall order and, quite frankly, an extremely critical task. From Boston to Berkeley, an estimated 27.2 million SMBs in the U.S. conduct business, create products and provide jobs and services every single day. It's difficult to fully appreciate the enormity of a number like 27.2 million.

While we're talking numbers, consider this:
 

• "More than half of Americans either own or work for a small business. They also create 60 - 80 percent of new jobs in the country. Small businesses drive innovation, create 21st century jobs and increase U.S. competitiveness."
  

• "Small businesses are major contributors to the strength of the American economy."

  http://www.nationalsmallbusinessweek.com
  

As the 2010 National Small Business Week kicks off, Citrix Online is abuzz with the topic of SMB mobility and productivity. In a recent survey, Citrix Online polled SMB employees on their work habits. Survey findings paint an intriguing disparity between mobility and access to productivity-enhancing tools. In the last 5 years, the majority (54 percent) of survey respondents have become more mobile. Yet, 60 percent of those surveyed report that their current employers do not provide mobile tools and resources to increase productivity.

That's kind of appalling, especially when you consider IDC's predictions about the mobile workforce: "The U.S. is expected to remain the most highly concentrated market for mobile workers, with 75.5 percent of the workforce mobile by 2013." Mobility has certainly taken root in the U.S. workforce, and the demand for greater mobility will only continue to grow in the near future. So, too, will the demand for productivity-enhancing tools.

This week is an ideal time for SMB organizations to think about how to strategically address the mobility and productivity needs of their current and future employees. There's no denying that the economy is showing signs of recovery. Companies of all sizes - including SMBs - will be looking to hire top talent in the coming months. In the candidate pool, there will be plenty of Gen Y workers, a group increasingly identified by its attraction to workshifting.

Indeed, SMBs (all 27.2 million of them) play a critical role in the economic recovery. And to make the greatest possible contribution to the well-being of America, mobile SMB employees need the right tools to be as productive as possible.

What do you think?


Photo Credit: ThinkPanama

So, about a week ago, I was 5 minutes from producing a premium Webinar, which we do many of at my company.  And the thought occurred to me ... Here I am, based in New York City but working in Stratford-upon-Avon at the moment, about to produce a premium (meaning "not free") webinar where over 50 organizations will be participating, representing 5 different countries on two continents.





My immediate thought, "How the hell did my little company become an international business?".  We drive over 50% of our revenue from International relationships.  The answer of course lies in the times we live.  There are SO much incredible software available, like GoToWebinar, that allow small business to act like big business.  

Tools like this have democratized the playing field. They empower those with ambition and ingenuity to economically maintain even international relationships that drive revenue and awareness.  If you are a small business and do any sort of teaching/training, I strongly suggest you check out GoToWebinar.

What do you think? Do you have any Webinar hosting experiences?


Disclosure:  I have had a sponsored GoToWebinar account for a few months now.  Also, from time to time, my company does some interesting projects with Citrix Online ... mainly because we think they kick ass ;)

By the time I was 6 months old, I'd traveled by train, plane, ship, and automobile. A few years later, my brother and I each had a "toy bag" for travel into which we could put any combination of books and toys. The only caveat: we had to be able to haul, drag, or carry the bag ourselves on car trips and through airports. So we constantly shoved items in and pulled items back out, experimenting between must have and too heavy. Is it any wonder, then, that by college I shunned library carrels and did all my studying ensconced in a big chair in the very open lobby of the law school?

While I was born into workshifting, sometimes it's a learned behavior. I have a friend who works for a large multinational corporation. Even after many of her colleagues gave up their offices, she thought it was important to go into hers. When, occasionally, she worked from home, she was restless, unproductive, and wondering whether she'd made the right choice.

That was so last year. Now she's working out of coffee shops, running loads of laundry while on conference calls, and scheduling her day so that she can squeeze in a workout with her coach. In other words, she's blossomed into a true workshifter.

What about you? Is workshifting nature or nurture?


Photo Credit: ikeX

I'm dusting off my blogging shoes to share a personal story.  I admit I haven't written much lately but I'm back ... and I want to tell you about a recent workshifting  experience.

Life happens. When you're a twenty-something, things just seem to change every day. About 4 months ago my girlfriend began a nursing program in the Washington, DC area. Being a naïve young man, I was sure that I could do the long-distance thing and work remotely from DC every month or so. It didn't work - and I was left in a position trying to prioritize my personal and professional life. Not a fun place to be.

But what's different about my story is that I work for a company that totally supports workshifting. Citrix Online has developed a workshifting DNA. I believe this is far different than just saying employees can work remotely. A company that has a workshifting DNA makes a conscious effort to support remote people beyond just answering their calls. So fortunately, I'll be working from my new home in the DC area for the next year.

There are a few things that define a workshifting DNA, in my mind.  First, every in-person meeting hosted at Citrix Online includes a virtual meeting invitation. It's automatic. No questions, no second thoughts. If there's going to be an in-person meeting, you add a virtual meeting. Who knows who's going to be at home, on the road or working from Starbucks? Think about it. Who are you leaving out of your in-person meetings?

Second, we have an official remote work policy. This policy requires a signature all the way up to the Vice President. Why does this matter? Because it's an acknowledgment by the management team that they will support you remotely. Remote employees are often forgotten. This simple acknowledgment says, "we'll support you and your growth while you're remote."

And probably most important, goals are solidified before going remote. Without clearly understanding what is to be accomplished remotely, employees will soon be lost. Managers need to meet early and often to discuss key initiatives and goals with remote employees. This includes goals all the way out to 3 years.

Why does this matter and why should you care? As much as I like to think I'm unique, I'm not. There are millions of people who want to workshift. Some of these people are the most qualified for the jobs you're hiring for. And some of these people are working for you right now and are considering leaving. As a company strategy, talent should be prioritized over location. Companies with a workshifting DNA are like those early adopters of full 401k policies for all employees. And there is no doubt in my mind that like the 401k, workshifting will soon be available through all successful companies. Cheers to those companies who are on board with workshifting already, as it will pay off to their bottom line.

What do you think?


Photo Credit: Mark Cummins

Our just released eBook "Workshifting: Bottom Line Benefits" (sponsored by Citrix Online) quantifies the business, individual, and societal impact that regular telecommuting could have on the nation and for small to mid-size companies.

Less than 2% of U.S. employees work from home the majority of the time (not including the self-employed), but 40% hold jobs that are compatible with telework. If those employees who wanted to (about 80%) did so just half of the time (roughly the national average for those who do) (*):


Businesses would:

• Increase productivity by over $235 billion
• Save $124 billion in real estate, electricity, and related costs
• Save $46 billion in absenteeism
• Save $31 billion in employee turnover
• Improve continuity of operations
• Avoid environmental sanctions, city access fees, etc.
• Improve work life balance and better address the needs of families, parents, and senior caregivers.
• Avoid the 'brain drain' effect of retiring boomers by allowing them to work flexibly
• Be able to recruit and retain the best people
• Better address the needs of disabled workers, rural residents, and military families
  

Individuals would:

• Achieve a better work-life balance
• Recoup 2-3 weeks of free time per year--time they'd have otherwise spent commuting
• Save $2,000-$7,000/year
• Save $15 billion at the pumps
• Suffer fewer illnesses
  

The Nation would:

• Save 289 million barrels of oil--equivalent to 37% of our Persian Gulf imports
• Reduce greenhouse gases by 53 million tons/year--27% of the President's 2020 goal
• Reduce road travel by 115 billion miles/year saving $2 billion in road maintenance
• Reduce road congestion thereby increasing productivity for non-workshifters as well
• Save 100,000 people from traffic-related injury or death
• Improve emergency responsiveness
• Reduce pollution from road work and new office construction
• Preserve open spaces
• Reduce the number of latchkey kids
• Alleviate the strain on our crumbling transportation infrastructure
• Reduce the offshoring of jobs and homeshore some that have already been lost
• Raise the standard of living in rural and disadvantaged areas
• Open new avenues for workforce retraining 
• Reduce terrorism targets of opportunity
  

In total, that's an economic impact of almost $650 billion a year!

At the TeleworkResearchNetwork we've synthesized over 250 case studies, scholarly reviews, research papers, books, and other documents on workshifting and related topics. And we've interviewed the nation's largest and smallest virtual employers and their employees, corporate executives, telework advocates and naysayers, top researchers, legislators, legal representatives, leaders of successful telework advocacy programs in both the public and private sector, and venture capitalists who have invested in the remote work model.

Using the latest Census data, and assumptions from dozens of government and private sector sources, we've developed a model to quantify the economic, environmental, and societal potential on telecommuting for every, city, county, Congressional District, and state in the nation.  It's been used by company and community leaders throughout the U.S. and Canada to quantify the extent to which workshifting can reduce greenhouse gases and petroleum usage, save money, improve work-life balance, increase employee loyalty and turnover, reduce absenteeism, increase productivity, and reduce highway congestion and traffic accidents. You can find it over here along with a model that allows companies and communities to quantify their own potential telecommuting savings based on dozens customizable parameters such as real estate costs, turnover, absenteeism, participation rate, frequency, labor costs, etc.

More about telecommuting, the pros and cons, who's doing it, and other resources for companies, individuals and researchers are available at TeleworkResearchNetwork.com.

"It's time to make the road less traveled the way to work."

Want to get your hands on a copy? You can download it over here.


Photo Credit: Tyler Ingram

When I first started workshifting, I believed it was the best thing since sliced bread.  It gave me freedom, and it gave me flexibility.  Overall, I loved it.  Then, a funny thing started happening. Even though my total number of hours at the office were less, my total number of hours working were more.  A lot more.  I caught myself responding to e-mail on evenings and weekends.  I got sick, and while I didn't go into the office, I was still working from my sickbed.  I started answering my cell phone while out of the country.  In short, workshifting was taking away my freedom.

The worst part about all this was that no one had ever said to me, "We need you to be on call all day, everyday."  I had started doing this all by myself, simply because I could.  It started off innocently enough.  "Well, if I reply to this e-mail now, I won't need to reply when I get to work in the morning."  Every workshifter knows that train of thought.

But once that starts happening, workshifting becomes a cage.  It takes away freedom, and it makes you a prisoner of your own work habits.  Shouldn't the goal of workshifting be to do the exact opposite?

I understand that there are certain hours that need to be maintained.  Most people have jobs that require them to be available during the middle part of a day to take client calls, or troubleshoot with colleagues, etc.  However, very few of us have jobs that require us to be available all the time, and that's why workshifters need to learn how to fight the urge to work at any time, because more often that not, the prison is of our own making.

Once you start answering e-mails at 11pm or on a Sunday, it becomes expected that you will always be available.  The best way to avoid this is to never start, but if you're like most of us, and have already developed that bad habit, begin scaling it down.  I used to check work e-mails every day and on weekends.  Now I cut that back to checking e-mail only during work hours, and even then only at pre-determined times.  A few ways I've done this:

Separate work e-mail from personal e-mail.  I used to have all e-mail forwarded to one inbox. That was the easiest way to go from dropping a note to a buddy, to responding to a 2-page e-mail from a client or sales rep.

Realize that most e-mails are not urgent.  I believe that my work is important and that I'm helping people run their businesses successfully, but I also recognize that I'm not saving lives.  In my line of work, there is nothing that needs to get done right now.  Everything can wait a few hours, so there's no need to reply to every e-mail the moment it hits the inbox.  That's inefficient, and an easy way to start spiraling out of control.

Unplug damn it.  You know that blackberry that's sitting in your pocket dinging every thirty seconds?  Turn it off.  Everything will be okay, and the world will not end.  If you're worried about missing a call from your family because you turned your 'Berry off, just turn off the e-mail alerts, and leave the phone on. Or, better yet, have two numbers and two phones: one for work, and one personal.

Now that you've set your colleagues' and clients' expectations, there are a few more things you can do to make sure you work on your schedule, not a schedule that's been defined for you.

1. Less real-time meetings.  If you enjoy meetings, either there's something wrong with you, or you don't really have much real work to do.  Meetings are a the biggest productivity sink in the corporate world, and the bane of most knowledge workers' existence.  Luckily, there are alternatives.  Most meetings can be avoided by sending concise, well-written e-mails to the right people and asking for specific responses by a specific time.  Alternatively, there is software that allows people to post notes to a communal board, and you're free to respond when you can.  Google Wave can be used for this purpose (for all its over-hype, the tool works), or 37Signals' Basecamp, or a company Wiki could work.

2. Have something you'd rather be doing, and enjoy doing it.  Oftentimes, we check in with work because we're bored.  Well, if you have the freedom of a workshifter, you have the freedom to do whatever you want.  Pick something you'd rather be doing than working, and do it.  It doesn't matter if you're going for a 10-mile run, writing a manuscript, or whittling furniture.  If you're doing something you love, you won't be tempted to check in at work.

3. Go some place you can't possibly be disturbed.  If all else fails, find a place where you can't be disturbed.  Believe it or not, the whole world isn't connected... yet.  Usually, this is an issue for workshifters who can't find good wifi, but use it to your advantage.  Find a place with no wifi and no cell phone reception and shack up there.  Extreme?  Perhaps.  Effective?  Definitely.

4. Remember why you wanted to workshift in the first place. All workshifters turn to workshifting for one reason: freedom. When workshifting is imprisoning us rather than liberating us, we're doing something wrong. Take the hint, look at what you're doing and fix what's broken.  Reclaim your freedom.

What do you think? What have you done to make sure workshifting hasn't taken over your life?


Photo Credit: Rosh PR

Have you ever been asked that question, either by an adult (who might understand your answer) or a small child (who probably won't)? How do you describe what you do all day? Well, the answer might be simpler than you think; it all depends on how much detail you want to go into. In truth, there is an infinity of different answers, all of which lie on a spectrum that, at one end, provides no detail at all, and at the other, an excruciating amount. Useful answers tend to be somewhere in between these two extremes.
 
Here's an example: to what extent are people the same? You could categorise us all identically, by saying that we're mammals. Or you could claim that people fall into two categories - male and female. Or you could divide us up by other characteristics: eye colour, hair colour, ear shape, foot size,  .... or you could choose so many descriptive characteristics that everybody, even an identical twin, falls into a category of size 1. In fact, the technique of deciding how detailed your answer needs to be is an important one (as it determines the level of abstraction at which you are operating), and can help us solve some of the problems of remote working.

If you are trying to come up with a technological "solution" (and I use quotes because it will only be a solution if it works for you), then you don't want a view of the world in which all remote workers look different; you want one where they look the same. That way, you only have to devise one solution, not millions. So we need to take a highly abstract view of what remote workers do. An important first distinction is between task workers and knowledge workers; we can lump task workers together, because all they need is access to whatever software lets them carry out their allotted tasks (such as a CRM system for a home-worker who would otherwise be a call centre operative), plus any comms equipment (such as a phone to talk to customers). There's probably a bit more to task workers' lives, in that they may need to communicate with their coworkers, but they generally live at the task end of the task-knowledge spectrum.

So what about knowledge workers (and the knowledge-working component of task work)? Here the situation is more complex, but we can attempt a broad classification, with a small number of categories, which fits most jobs pretty well. It's safe to say that the vast majority of knowledge workers undertake a subset of the following activities, in some proportion:

• Decision-making
• Generating new or improved "material" (any kind of artefact, output or information),
• As a solo activity
• As a group activity
• Finding material
• Which is new to you
• Which you've seen or worked on before
• Communicating with others
• Synchronously (at the same time, e.g. phone)
• Asynchronously (at different times, e.g. email)
• Pre-communication activities
• Discovering who can help you or answer your questions
• Determining someone's availability
• Determining the best way of contacting someone
• Sharing your material with others
• Dealing with incoming material (shared with you by others)
• Filtering (removing the dross)
• Prioritisation (sorting the non-dross)

Some people may carry out other minor activities that don't fall into any of these categories, but the list above is complete for most purposes. Now go down the list and look at each item: with the exception of decision-making and solo material generation, all activities require access to remote people, remote information, or both. Therefore, any software that can realistically claim to be a "solution" must provide the remote worker with help in all such activities. Instantly, we can see that many touted solutions are nothing of the sort, because they only address a fraction of the problem space. And the more solutions you need to get all the bases covered, the less well such solutions will be integrated.

But does integration of these partial solutions matter? You betcha! The brain works through chains of association, by following links between remembered people, places, things and experiences. If software isn't chained together in the same way, it won't keep up with the way in which you think; you'll be dragged down to its pace and way of doing things, not freed up by it. The best overall solutions will be designed around the way you want to use them - that's largely what a great User Experience is about.

In my next post, I'll start exploring some of the technologies at our disposal today, and examine the degree to which they can help the remote worker. But I feel fairly confident in saying that we haven't yet seen the killer app in this area.

Do you agree?

Photo Credit: mkosut

Today's post is from Rebecca Morgan, CSP, CMC, an internationally sought-after management consultant, speaker and bestselling author specializing in creating innovative solutions for workplace effectiveness challenges. She's appeared on 60 Minutes, Oprah, the Wall Street Journal, National Public Radio and USA Today. She's authored twenty books and co- authored five more.


I wrote my first book, "Professional Selling: Practical Secrets for Successful Sales" on a Toshiba laptop in airports, airplanes and hotel rooms -- in 1988. I've worked from a small island in Indonesia to an Indian city where the electricity went off every day from 1-4 p.m.  I've created seminars, sent client proposals, updated blog postings, and written over 20 books from Brunei beaches to a ship in the mid- Atlantic, to Canadian forests, to an Italian villa.

While "workshifting" may be a new buzz word, some of us have just called it "work," no matter where our bodies happened to be. It's allowed us to integrate our personal and business lives seamlessly, so we put in a load of laundry while we finish that important presentation from our bedroom. Or clear our heads from that gnarly proposal by gardening or taking a bike ride before returning to our work with a new insight.

What I've seen change in the last few years is the enthusiasm for workshifting. Not only have entrepreneurs embraced it, but employers have too. As a result, old paradigms are being busted about how we perform nearly every element of work life.

I've seen dramatic changes in my specialty of helping companies grow their key talent. In my first 25 years in business, nearly all of my services were delivered face-to-face via speaking at managers meetings, conferences, retreats or trainings. However, around 10 years ago I started conducting teleseminars and Webinars to provide my services to clients with remote employees or preferred to save costs by having attendees sit at their desks instead of traveling.

This remote delivery of information and training has rattled the people-development field to their core. Fewer and fewer companies are engaging speakers and trainers to do stand-up training. Some have cancelled all but a few in-person training courses and have gone to nearly all virtual training.

Of course, there are many reasons to still have in-person events. 

There is no substitute for interacting face-to-face. However, the benefits of place-shifting and in many cases time-shifting one's learning has its advantages. Unfortunately, most training providers have no idea how to use this "new" format effectively and most drone on narrating to boring PowerPoint slides, just as they did in person.

Learning to provide stimulating presentations -- whether in person or virtually -- takes rethinking how you can best provide your service. I once had a training with 10 people in the room, 4 people together in another room at a distant location joining us via video conference, and another 6 dialed into a phone-only conference. I had to creatively design how to engage all attendees in dyads and small group exercises. If I'd just lectured the whole time nearly everyone would have zoned out and the interactivity would have been lost

Distance learning is not the wave of the future; it is very much the present. If one has not embraced how to get their own development needs met through virtual presentations, they will be left in the dust.  And if you offer any training, you must learn how to use the technology -- and how to present engagingly through it.

For an in-depth look at Workshifting trends, view Rebecca's recent Citrix Webinar, "Workshifting Trends from a 20-Year Veteran."


What do you think?

Photo Credit: Jace

Today is a special day around here for the Workshifting team because it's our first birthday!  Yay!  When we launched this project last year we didn't know where it would take us but in the past year we have been fortunate enough to have gained a great group of contributors and a ridiculously awesome community.  

Over the past 12 months we've shared over 200 blog posts (subscribe!), 1,600 tweets (follow us!), hundreds of updates over on Facebook (like us!) and tens of thousands of links in Google.  I've spent some time digging up our most popular content over the past year, just in case you missed some of it.  The nice aspect of workshifting is that though some of this content is a year old, it is still relevant now.  So, here are our top 10 posts, in order of popularity, of the past year:

• Board Room or Bored Room 
• How I Convinced My Boss to Let Me Become a Workshifter
• Don't Be "That Guy" While Workshifting
• What Does Gen Y Want from the Workforce
• Why You Need to Know About the Telecommuter Tax Fairness Act
• Five Things in My Work Bag
• Generation "Y Do I Have to Work from the Office?"
• Lifestyle Design Tips that Rock Stars Can Teach You 
• 7 Considerations for Setting Up a Home Office
• 5 Sites for Better Flights
  

So what's next for Workshifting? Over the next year we're looking forward to adding more contributors (want to become one?), providing more resources, hold a few meetups (hopefully internationally) to meet you, and a few other ideas that are being worked on in a top-secret, undisclosed workshifting location.

Besides what we're already up to, we also want to know how we can be most helpful to you over the next year.  Let us know in the comments below what you want to see from Workshifting in the coming months and years.

We hope that you continue to join us for this ride and thank you for everything over the past year!

Happy birthday workshifters!

Photo Credit: Omer Wazir

Meetings. There seems to be a love hate relationship with them. Most of us love to hate them. 

Have you read Rework by 37Signals founders Jason Freid and David Heinemeir Hanson? They call meetings "toxic."  I think they are right 90% of the time. How many hours have we spent in nonproductive meetings where nothing is accomplished? Thousands? Millions?  I used to feel like Superman on an iv drip of Kryptonite as meetings droned on without a solution in site. Today, I look at meetings differently.

My shift in thinking is to not be so focused on efficiency that we miss our opportunity to build relationships. This is the hidden value of meetings that I have overlooked too often. Nothing is more productive than creating a stronger relationship with your internal team or with your customers. Discussion opens many doors to edify, promote, and connect to people.

Last week, I set up a brief meeting with a client for the sole objective to strengthen the relationship. There was a real agenda and relevant issues to discuss, but the time on the phone gave me an opportunity to listen to his concerns and ideas. Listening helped me get a better understanding of his expectations and brought more clarity to his perspective.  I have found allowing a platform for discussion creates better communication between the parties involved.  This can be accomplished in ten to fifteen minutes.  Meeting face to face is better in building relationships if it can be organized. If it is not feasible, use the phone or a good web conferencing tool (wink wink).


When you need to meet here are few guidelines that will help:

1. Meetings should involve as few people as possible.
2. They should have a clear objective that is communicated to the participants.
3. They should be timed (use a real timer) and end with a solution or action items to find a solution. Try Agile Stand-Ups (great post by David Baeza).
4. There should also be a meeting summary sent out from the organizer to the participants.

Have you discovered this hidden value to meetings too?

 
Photo credit: Amanda Woodward

Today's guest post is by Phil Montero the founder of YouCanWorkFromAnywhere.com and an evangelist for distributed work. For more than a decade he's been teaching how to work effectively from a home office, the road, or practically anywhere. On his blog, TheAnywhereOffice.com, he shares tips and articles about living a digital lifestyle and navigating the changing world of work.


As a reader of this blog, you know that business as usual no longer involves working in a traditional workplace at set hours. Today's professionals are working from virtual offices, client sites, home offices, coffee shops, airports, hotels, and any number of remote workplaces.

International Data Corporation (IDC), in a forecast released in February 2010, Worldwide Mobile Worker Population 2009-2013 Forecast, projects that the world's mobile worker population will pass the one billion mark this year and grow to nearly 1.2 billion people - more than a third of the world's workforce - by 2013. The global economy and increasing speed with which we conduct business makes the rise of distributed work and virtual teamwork inevitable. What is more, the benefits of workshifting are real.

The biggest problem is that most organizations take an ad-hoc approach to workshifing, which has been thrust upon them. The business landscape began to change; they increasingly found themselves working across time and distance with team mates, remote offices, clients, vendors, and other outsourced professionals. And they mostly left individual employees, project teams, and offices to decide for themselves how best to conduct business. Virtual teamwork was not deliberate, and not undertaken with any real strategy.

The key to success with distributed work is getting a handle on how you interact. In order to help with this process I have developed what I call the Information, Communication, Collaboration (ICC) Workflow Audit™. It's a way to wrap your mind around the methods of your distributed teamwork and determine how to best use your technology, regardless of specific field or industry. Choosing the right tools and thoughtfully applying them to your business processes can turn your office into The Anywhere Office®: allowing you to work with people around the world as if they were across the hall.

Regardless of what stage of workshifting you're in, or which flavor your individual remote work comes in, you can benefit from this simple exercise to organize your thinking. Look at your workflow and workstyle, and separate all of your tasks and responsibilities - the day-to-day functions of your job - into 3 categories: information, communication, and collaboration.

Then, with those lists in front of you, consider what tools and technology you are using and how; think about what types of strategies and guidelines you have in place or need to institute; and think about how to better manage your process and solicit feedback from your team members and distributed employees.

I will briefly outline below the thought process and the key questions and consideration involved in performing your own ICC Workflow Audit™. It is intended to allow you to take a step back and get a perspective on your workflow process and the mobility of your work.

INFORMATION
When it comes to your information needs, your primary concern is access to files, data, and research. How it will be synchronized, updated, and exchanged. If you are someone who works from the road or remote locations often, the challenge is how to access your files or take your data with you when you are away from the office.

QUESTIONS

• What does your team need?
• Documents
• Contact management
• Shared calendars
• Research
• Reports
• Are special programs or data needed?
• Should data be centrally located?

Your primary goal is to determine if the data that your group needs is as current and easy to find as possible.

COMMUNICATION
Choosing the right tools is only part of communicating well. It's also important to discuss certain communication guidelines within your organization or team.

Setting up these simple guidelines will make sure there is no miscommunication and that everyone has a clear understanding of expectations.

QUESTIONS

• Methods/Tools
• Phone
• Instant Message
• Text Message
• Email
• Discussion Board
• Online Meetings
• Timeliness
• Presence
• Clarity
• Synchronous vs. asynchronous

I often say it's important to "communicate about how you are going to communicate." This will help you develop clear guidelines and create an environment that supports an open and free exchange of ideas.


COLLABORATION
Look at synchronous vs. asynchronous methods of collaboration and try to incorporate both. It is also important to determine if decisions are often made as a group during meetings. If so, you'll want to consider tools that support live polling or other features that support rapid decision-making.

QUESTIONS

• Asynchronous or synchronous?
• Are decisions made as a group during meetings?
• With what style or tool does your team seem to be most comfortable?
• Do project teams work as unified groups? Or do teams tend to get broken down into smaller groups that work in tandem?

For many teams, collaboration is enhanced by developing more structured policies. Look for things the group is doing successfully and use these as models and ideas for future development and best practices.

You can conduct the ICC Workflow Audit™ for yourself, but if you're managing a team you will want to get your people involved in answering these questions. This will ensure that you have an accurate picture of how work gets done and what tools can best help improve productivity and communication flow.

Once you've chosen the best tools for your workstyle, learn to really use and manage them: Get some training or coaching to help you master the features and maximize your efficiency.
Also, remember that technology changes daily and new tools are cropping up all the time, so it is important to make this assessment part of your ongoing process.

For more information on how to implement the ICC Workflow Audit™, read my white paper or attend this recent Webinar.


If you have any ideas on how you can use this workflow to better your organization, please share!


Photo Credit: the_tartanpodcast

As a consultant and blogger, I keep a pretty full plate.  There's always a client project or a post I'm working on.  Staying organized is key to me getting everything done.

So I live by my Outlook calendar.  I schedule project milestones, blogging deadlines, etc.  I've always known that I was pretty dependent upon my calendar, but didn't realize how much until my computer crashed a few weeks ago.  Lucky for me I didn't lose much. 

But where I really felt it was in the notes I kept on my calendar.  I lost some of the data I had been collecting for future blog posts or business ideas I wanted to research.  I was able to recover quite a bit via my iPhone, but not everything.

That's when I realized it might be time to find a note taking application that could not only make my life easier but provide a better way of collecting information.  So when the folks at Workshifting were looking for someone to test drive a few note taking apps, I jumped at the chance.

The three I looked at were Simplenote, MobileNoter, and Evernote.

Couple of things worth a mention:  all of the apps I looked at offer some kind of tutorial whether it's a blog, user guide or video.  Kudos to them for helping users get the most out of the app.  All of them also offer a free account as well as a premium account.  You have the flexibility to get what you need.  I'd suggest checking out the free versions, see what you like best and then decide if you need the premium model.  None of the premium models I looked at seemed cost-prohibitive.  And they all have the ability to sync to the web.

Simplenote is exactly that...a place to create simple notes.  On their blog, they do mention a challenge with notes that contain hyperlinks.  This is a bummer for me because many times my notes are reminders to visit a website.  Hopefully they will quickly get that fixed.
Once you create a note on your phone, you can sync it to the web or email it.  The email did seem a bit redundant, because I can send myself an email.  But maybe I'm not thinking broad enough and there would be a time when I need this feature - just can't figure it out right now.
Where I saw Simplenote working well for me was for things like errand lists or shopping items.  It's a great place to jot things down - versus if you want to cut/paste a file for reference later.

MobileNoter reminded me of Microsoft Word.  So if you are familiar with Word, you'll find MobileNoter very similar and easy to learn.  With this application, you can create notebooks that contain similar ideas.   It also gives you the ability to share a notebook.  I thought this would be very cool for my volunteer projects - many of the people I volunteer with have iPhones.  We could have a shared document for an event and all contribute to the notebook.
In addition, it was very convenient to cut/paste.  With MobileNoter you can add not only text but entire files.  You can also insert maps, photos, images, etc.

MobileNoter connects to MS OneNote.  That means once my MobileNoter files are synced with OneNote.  I can create tasks within Outlook from my notes. 

In Evernote, you can set up folders and collect information for each (similar to MobileNoter).  But one of the things that Evernote really highlights is their search capability.  You can attach keywords to your files (whether it's a text file or an image).  This would be especially helpful when I find an image that inspires me but I don't exactly know what to do with it.  I want to keep it but I don't want to forget about it.  Having the ability to attach keywords would be great because I can do regular searches.

And speaking of searches, Evernote allows you to save searches that you do on a regular basis.

As you can see, there's a lot to choose from in the note taking app department.  And I'm sure I've only scratched the surface with these three apps.  What I realized in looking at Simplenote, MobileNoter and Evernote, is the decision of whether an app is good or not belongs to you.  It's what you do with it.  If it makes you successful, then it's fabulous.

What note taking apps are you using these days?  Drop a note in the comments


Photo Credit: ChicGeek

The idea for this post hit me this morning as I was struggling to balance Workshifting with my personal life.  I finished a video call and than was scrambling to get out of the house when my daughter grabbed me and asked, "Daddy, can't you stay home?"

At that moment I thought, "do I really need to be going into the office?"  I have all the tools I need to workshift successfully, including a supportive work culture, yet I was compelled to go into the office.  As it turns out, it was my insecurity.  I believed that to be effective in my meeting, I had to be face-to-face.

So out the door I went, I got to the meeting, grabbed a coffee and found a great seat.  I looked up at the presentation screen and watched 3/4 of the attendees join the meeting online.  This got me thinking about challenging accepted norms.  Not just my personal norms but traditional meeting norms, and norms in terms of process, technology, marketing, social media, and more.  What I blurted out next was purely coincidental, "...always be challenging!"

A: Always
B: Be
C: Challenging

Sometimes I get comfortable with how things are; how I interact with my peers, the technology I use, when I should meet face-to-face, etc. This also got me thinking about "sacred cows" at work.  What is their real value, and is it productive to even allow a "cow" category?  In my view, the problem with norms, like sacred cows, is it may breed a sense of complacency.  I guess it could be called a Complacency Cow, which is not to be confused with the infamous Purple Cow (thanks Seth Godin).



However, the terms Cultural and Sacred are powerful forces within a company, and are to be treated with respect.  The ability to influence or lead change needs to be candid but measured.  Be sensitive to the words you choose, but in all cases be an effective voice.  The key to being effective is not about being right.  It's about convincing others that there is a better way.

So next time your faced with a cultural norm, a scared cow, a must-have report, a can't-miss meeting, think about the A.B.C.'s.  The point of A.B.C. is to stimulate creative thinking, which is nothing more than figuring out a better way of doing things.  Next time try this, put your "sacred cow" on a mind map and draw out all the dependencies.  This is a great visual way to spot inefficiency, which can help slaughter a sacred cow or two.

What do you think?

Photo Credit: Mattack

If you haven't heard of Justin Bieber, you either don't have a tween or teen living in your household or you've been living under a gigantic rock for the past 6 months.

I admit that, until recently, I was living under that rock. Thankfully, all that changed during a recent outing to a bar, when a collective cheer erupted from the 30-something crowd on the dance floor when Bieber's newest hit "Baby" started playing. Whaaaat?

For those of you who are not yet initiated into the Bieber-mania, here are the basics: The 16-year old singer from Canada was catapulted to superstardom when he competed in the "Stratford Idol" at the tender age of 13 and posted the videos on YouTube. He has since been signed by Usher, had numerous hits (My World, One Time, and Baby) and has generated more than 100 million views on YouTube. Some have described him as "arguably the biggest pop star ever launched by YouTube."

What, you ask, could this teen pop sensation possible have to teach us about Workshifting? Well, a few things actually:

Be flexible enough to live in two worlds.

Bieber and his managers are experts at straddling two worlds to promote the pop star: social media world, along with its new marketing tactics, and the traditional mediums. As Sheila Shayon put it in a Huffington Post article "Bieber is a new phenomenon - spawned by digital/viral social media; a crossover digital/analog/print phenomenon... one foot in Internet stardom, and the other on old-school TV, with print sandwiched in between."

I look at Workshifting in a similar way. We have to be able to play in two worlds - the traditional office environment and the remote location. Although we may not work in an office setting we still have to know how to work with people who do and to play by their rules. Similarly, we have to adapt to the "new" Workshifting environment in our daily lives.
 
Don't be scared to put yourself out there

Bieber made headlines across the blogosphere when he told Details magazine that he's had girlfriends in the past, but is "waiting for Beyonce to call." He has made similar flirty statements about Rihanna and Barbara Walters. It's clear that Bieber certainly isn't afraid to flirt with the Hollywood elite and is totally comfortable laying his feelings out there for everyone to see.

In many ways, Workshifting requires a similar attitude. It's certainly not the time to play coy or "hard to get." A lot can be lost when you communicate only via email or phone conversations. I've always felt that it's important to be as upfront and clear about your feelings as possible. Open communication is a key to successful remote working environments.

Be willing to do anything for your fans/clients

Bieber has earned himself a reputation to do just about anything for his fans. He's surprised his fans on Ellen, Jimmy Kimmel, and given impromptu concerts in his Paris hotel room.

I realize that it's equally important for our office counterparts to do all they can for their clients. However, as Workshifters we often have to prove that our Workshifting environment doesn't impede on providing top notch client service. Going that extra mile doesn't only prove to your clients that they are your top priority but also helps reduce any stigmas they may have associated with Workshifting before they met you.

Though I'm not so sure I'll ever become a fan of his music, I guess there is something to learn from Bieber-mania!  What do you think?

Photo Credit: Kindofadraag

I've always related to those who dare to dream big. They come in many shapes and sizes, whether they are inventors, entrepreneurs, researchers, or other professionals. Dreamers change the game and are the ones behind the curtain of all of today's biggest innovative movements - think mobile technology, alternative energy, and the internet (thanks Al Gore).

These daring individuals thrive in today's information age. Ground breaking technologies have equipped armies of collaborative communities with the tools they need to pump out valuable products, tools, services, and content. 

That's not to say that all dreamers create value. It's one thing to dream. To deliver on that dream is a whole different ball game.

It's the disciplined dreamers that deliver.

Disciplined dreamers don't make excuses. They don't care about the crappy economy or that they don't have any money. They don't care they're a small fish in a big ocean and that they don't have a wealth of experience. They just execute.

Commandments like "ship early and ship often" are the mantras of the disciplined dreamers. The people who wake up each day and do what's difficult are the ones who are the pioneers of progress. They're the ones who consistently work hard to create something out of nothing, and they're often the ones who get tagged as the "overnight success."

The sky's the limit.

I'm inspired by the innovators and influencers who are disciplined enough to follow their dreams. Innovation and ideation only spurs further growth and awakens more of the dormant dreamers. With this growing ecosystem of execution, the sky is the limit.

How about you? What's your dream?

Photo Credit: KayVee.INC

No one is perfect, right? 

I have a small confession to make. Some of those tech best practices that everyone says that you shouldn't do... I sometimes do them. I always have the best intentions but just like all of you, sometimes life happens. Its easy to do, I sign up for a lot of new services and a lot of the time I am just trying to get something done so security gets sacrificed for speed. 

I have lots of tools in my workshifting toolbox and I wanted to share some of my sins and some good ways that you can avoid them while on the go. 

Sometimes I use the same password on different systems
 
Like I mentioned above, I am constantly trying out new services. Seeing what is good, and not so good, is part of my job but unfortunately it can lead to a lot of user names and passwords to have to remember. Its a pretty big faux pas and it is also one of the linchpins that helped Twitter get hacked over the summer. 

I know that its tough but as you sign up for new accounts (email, Facebook, Twitter, etc) take the time and try to come up with a different password for each system. As in the Twitter hack, once one of your passwords fall, its an easy process to figure out what systems you are active on and try the same user name and password combination to gain access to each. 

I don't do a good job of backing up my data 

This is another one of those things where time is a killer. Unless you have an automated system in place you just will not back up the data on your computers consistently. Again, I always have good intentions but data backup is one of those things that we all will "get to a little later". 

The good news is that there are a couple of free tools that can help take this burden off of us. 

Mozy is a super easy backup and recovery tool for your computer. An extra advantage to Mozy is that they actually back up your data into the cloud on Mozy's servers. In the case of a disaster, your data is off site and safe and can be restored back to your systems when you are ready. Installation couldn't be easier, simply sign up for the service, install a small program on your computer, tell the program what folders on your computer you want to protect, and Mozy handles the rest. Mozy will give you two gigabytes of storage just to try it out. Beyond that you can back up all of your data for five bucks a month. 

Dropbox is a fairly new application that handles backups a little differently than Mozy. With Dropbox, you store your data in the cloud but you can also sync your data across multiple systems in your home. The sync feature is nice if you want to share some files across your system and changes made on your documents are automatically synced between all systems as the changes are made. Dropbox also has a web console where you can log in, see your data, and download files to other systems as needed. A very slick little app, and they also provide for two gigabytes of storage for free. You can increase your storage to fifty gigabytes for ten dollars a month and go with one hundred for twenty dollars a month. 

I sign up for too many systems and then don't clean up after myself 

Like I noted above, I am constantly trying new online applications out. The other night I decided to kick the tires on HootSuite and I am trying to see if it will be an addition to the list of apps that I love. The problem with this is that sometimes I leave a lot of baggage behind me that needs to be cleaned up. With all of these extra accounts lying around, it widens the footprint that someone could leverage if they were looking to hack your accounts. This came into play in the Twitter hack as well. One of the Twitter staffers had an old Hotmail account that they didn't use any longer but then never closed the account. The problem was that the staffer used their old Hotmail address as one of the alternate email addresses when a password reset request was made. Once the hacker compromised Hotmail, they simply requested a password reset on the system they wanted access too, and it was all downhill from there. 

To try to combat this I have created a list that I add any new services I try too. From time to time I review the list, see what I am not using anymore, and then go about deleting the old accounts that are not needed. One annoying thing, a lot of these services don't want you to delete your account, deflates their number of subscribers, so sometimes you have to go digging to find the account delete feature. 

Hopefully you got some tips to help you avoid some of the mistakes that I have made. Any you would like to share?  

Photo Credit: D.C Atty

As I sit on a terribly turbulent flight home from a day where I accomplished exceedingly less than I had planned due to travel and simply no chance to utilize my netbook and wifi, I'm looking at a full night of workshifting from home, in bed, in my pajamas, burning the midnight oil. Many tasks and reports still need to be completed and sent out, clients to be serviced, and the better part of a day to be made up. Part of me is in dread: it is going to be a long night. Another part is rather thrilled. I frequently produce high quality work in the dead of night, working away without interruption from my sleepy network online. There is a serene quality of working at night that you simply don't get during the daylight hours.

That is not to say, however, that sleep isn't important. If you're not well rested, your productivity can/will go down. Sometimes though, it is worth it to go the extra (midnight) mile and not just catch up, but get ahead.  With the right motivators, a lot can be accomplished. Three necessary items for late night workshifting for me are:

• Comfortable working situation. I tend to drift towards comfort while workshifting, but during late nights, pajamas and my favorite blanket are key. Rather than working at a table, I'll drift to the couch or my bed for a comfy change.
• Music. A little bit of my favorite music goes a long way. It can set the tone and pace of an evening.
• Ice cream. It's not the healthiest choice but it gets me motivated!

What do you think? Do you enjoy burning the midnight oil? What time of day are you most productive?


Photo Credit: Fossil Watchman