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