My workshifting must-have is, without a doubt, my BlackBerry. It helps to keep me connected, organized and on task. My BlackBerry also makes me feel invincible, like I am able to handle any writing project or task thrown my way. I am Popeye after he gulps down a can of spinach: instantly strong and ready to kick some rear. My BlackBerry is my spinach.

I have unnatural obsessions with a lot of things: pens, bags and coffee topping the list.  My obsession with my smart phone is, by far, the healthiest and most productive. I used to feel self-conscious about my obsession with inanimate objects until I realized that most writers and journalists I have crossed paths with seem to have some fixation or other. For instance, I know several writers who swear by Moleskins and Sharpies. One broadcast journalist I know takes notes and outlines her scripts only on yellow legal notepads.

I felt even more self-assured about my BlackBerry obsession when I read an article on  NYDailyNews.com about the ultimate workshifter, author Peter Brett, who wrote his novels on his BlackBerry during his daily train commutes. Shortly after reading that article, I happened upon another article about a BlackBerry-obsessed writer. Songwriter and rapper Aubrey Graham, who performs under the name Drake, revealed in a UsMagazine.com article that he writes his rap lyrics exclusively using a BlackBerry.  

All of the above writers and journalists are very productive and very good at what they do. I think that is in no small part due to the fact that they have found the tools and routines that work best for them in their workshifting lifestyle. They have found their spinach.   

What is your spinach? 

Photo Credit: Honou

Recently I polled some fellow workshifters on the twitter network asking about what some of their biggest challenges were when working out of the home office. It was an interesting find because quite a few folks said that the biggest challenges included trust and communications. After having been a professional workshifter for the past three years I can honestly say that I concur with this challenge. So how do we deal with them? I've created a few methodologies in which I live by on a daily basis. I hope these help. Please share your thoughts and ideas in the comments. Would love to get your take.

1. Always be honest. Recently I fell ill to a nasty flu bug and needed to take a couple days off to recover. I was very open and honest with my team and did everything I could to minimize the impact on the team for those two days. Look, people will see right through a lie. I've always found that being honest whether it's for a sick day, a family event, or anything really is the best policy.

2. Keep Good Logs. I keep logs of everything I do on a daily basis. For me this happens in two places. I use Evernote for my digital logs and a yellow note pad for quick notes and a second hard copy of my daily logs. Evernote is an application that runs in the cloud. You have access to these notes on any computer with the app installed as well as the majority of all mobile devices. I am an iPhone user and absolutely love it!

3. Don't flood the email. I have found that throughout my career it's best not to flood coworkers email. This is inefficient and wastes a lot of time. If I have questions I try to note them on my pad and send one email with all the items if possible. As workshifters I know there often feels like there is a disconnect between you and the main office so email is a great way to let everyone know you're busy. Resist the temptation and be conscientious of others time.

4. Clarity in Communications. make sure that you are clear on the methods of communications used by your team. Maybe they use Google docs and spreadsheets, maybe they are heavy users of GoToMeeting and Citrix products. there are many ways to communicate but be sure to find clarity there. If your organization has no clear communications system or methodology it might be time for you to do some research and lay out a plan!

5. Do Amazing Work. This one is obvious right? It's really hard for your boss to come down on you with fury if your work exceeds expectations. This is the number one way to build trust and make sure you are always in the communications loop!
 
What do you think?


Photo Credit: Assbach

Much like the shirtless dancing guy in the amusing but compelling video above, workshifting is a physical movement--but instead of flailing your arms, you seamlessly move the location of where you do work. One day, you're meeting your manager online from a coffee shop.  And the next, you're prepping a client presentation while sitting at an airport gate.  This is all possible thanks to the World Wide Web and its wondrous ways of allowing us to use remote technologies.

• www.workshifting.com ;)
• "Work Unchained: Workshifting and the Competitive Edge of the Anywhere Office" [podcast, eBook]
• "Leading Virtual Effectiveness: Four Strategies for Effective Communication in a Distributed Workforce" [eBook]
• "The Top Ten Strategies for Managers of Mobile Workers" [white paper]
• "Presenting the Business Case for Web Commuting" [white paper, podcast]

Today's post is from Josiane Feigon, author of the bestselling book Smart Selling on the Phone and Online, the sourcebook for inside sales. Her Cubicle Chronicles blog is voted among the top 25 sales blogs. She is founder and CEO of TeleSmart Communications, a 20-year veteran and thought leader of the industry, Josiane is recognized as one of the world's leading experts on inside sales team and manager talent, providing consulting, coaching, and training solutions for hundreds of Fortune 1000 companies. Visit Josiane's website: www.tele-smart.com to read her blog, purchase her book, and download her latest e-books and white papers.

As a home office-based working journalist and corporate copy writer, my job sometimes takes me on the road. This coming week, for example, I'll be gigging as a reporter for a private organization's trade show daily. Not sexy, but a nice gig amid the otherwise doldrums of summer-- a remote work gig for a remote worker.

But how will I make sure it happens seamlessly and without jeopardizing existing projects? And how will I make sure I work as effectively as possible from the road?

First, I clear it up front with this client: Between work for you, I'll need to do some work for my other clients. They're cool with that. They have to be, or else the gig won't work.

Next, I set expectations for my existing clients. I tell them I'll be on the road, with limited timely access to e-mail and phone calls. They know I have my BlackBerry, and I've kind of spoiled them by responding too quickly at times (or at odd hours). Not this time, I warn. "If you need me, it might take a while to get back to you."

As for my gear, that's how the work really gets done. My Oakley backpack, which generally is packed and ready for remote work on a moment's notice, will become my mobile office. In it are my...

• HP Tablet laptop. Small and portable with fairly long battery life, this has been a workhorse of my remote-work life.
• Verizon broadband USB card. I've been told I won't need my own Internet access - that the press room at the event will have Ethernet or wireless. But the size of my thumb, it's better just to bring it along and be safe and connected.
• Mini Surge Protector and power strip - with four outlets and two USB jacks for charging. I won't have my camera to charge (an extra BlackBerry charger is always packed in my bag). You never know when power outlets will be at a premium. And I've learned that power in hotels and cruise ships can be "dirty" with spikes and surges. Best to clean it up with a good protector.
• Laptop cable lock. Always. Small and portable, its high tensile-strength cable and compact size mean it never leaves my bag. There will be times I will want to leave my laptop behind - if only for a few moments. I just make sure to loop it through something secure.
• Laptop desk. My LapWorks folding tray/desk has turned awkward situations into more comfortable work settings. Weighing less than a pound, it folds to stash beside my laptop. When open, it can be a laptop desk, or a angled, desktop perch.
• Analgesics. I go nowhere without my Excedrin (in a small Dramamine travel tube) and little vials of saline for my contact lenses. Headaches can be the curse of any creative existence.

What's not in my bag? My USB headphones for Skype, my card reader and portable accessories kit, simple tools, and a few other things. We'll get to those in a future post. But I generally bring things I know I must have. Anything else can be purchased at the hotel gift shop.

This Workshifter exclusively uses Gmail, Google Contacts and Google Calendar for all my email, contact management and scheduling. So it's as pervasive and close as my access to The Cloud. For those projects I'm working on while away at this gig, they're never farther than my Carbonite.com online back-up account. Everything on my desktop is backed up - and accessible from - "out there."

With my bag packed and assuming my Cloud's intact, my office is ready to go anywhere. If you need me, leave a message. I'll get back to you - even if it's 2 a.m.

What are your essential tools?



Photo Credit: Jon Dunning

Where do workshifters come from?  Obviously, they're dropped off by a stork. But, are they born workshifters or do they have to become workshifters?

Most workshifters were at one time or another sedentary office workers, before they took the leap to working independently.  Recently, I was preparing to make the shift from occasional workshifter to permanent workshifter.  It occurred to me when making the transition, that despite the fact that I had been working outside the office for several days at a time, the move to permanent workshifting required a lot of preparation.

And so, to help others who are just about to take the plunge, here are some tips for how to effectively prepare yourself.

Tip 1: Start preparing early.  If you stop reading here, that's fine, as long as you take this piece of advice.  It will shock you just how much prep work you have to do to transition to workshifting, especially if you hadn't been conscious of the fact that you might eventually need to.  Because you'll likely be doing this prep work at the same time as your day job, you'll need time to get it done, so start early.

Physical Documents

Tip 2: Develop digital habits. Physical documents are just a given when you work in an office, but as a workshifter, they're a pain in the neck.  No one wants to carry around manilla folders, take the risk of spilling coffee over them, having them get crumpled in your bag, or risk bringing the wrong folder to a meeting.  Instead, workshifters need to go digital, and so that means that while you're still an office worker, you should start developing digital habits: take notes with software, keep a digital calendar, scan documents, opt for electronic versions whenever possible, etc.

Tip 3: Take stock of all your hard copy files. So, all those manilla folders that you've stowed in your filing cabinets over the years, it's time to go through them and decide why you're really keeping them.  Chances are, you will find documents that you recall why you wanted to keep them in the first place.  Trash as much as you can at this point.  It's about streamlining.

Tip 4: Scan everything you need to keep. Now that you've gotten rid of the excess, get access to a scanner and scan all the documents you've decided are important.  Once you've digitized (and backed them up), you will go ahead and shred these paper documents.  They will no longer weigh you down.

Tip 5: Store everything else with colleagues. If you're leaving the office worker role, but remaining with the same company, there may be files that you don't quite need, but that you think others might, or that it would be a good idea if someone had them.  Lean on your colleagues, or your successor to take this stuff from you.  Make sure to explain what it is, and why they might need it, otherwise it will land at the bottom of a filing cabinet, never to be seen again.

Tip 6: Digitize notebooks. As much as I like to think of myself as a digital native, I still take notes in notebooks, on notepads, and on post-its.  When I went back through these notes, I found that most of the stuff was no longer useful, but was surprised to see that some notes I had taken over a year ago could still be useful today.  So, I went through my notebooks and recycled or shredded that which was unnecessary, but added all my notes that were still relevant to a text file, that I could keep at my disposal.

Tip 7: Keep your notes as simple as possible.  In the previous tip, I said put the notes in a text file.  Over the years, colleagues have laughed at me for my staunch devotion to Notepad, the hyper-basic pre-installed Windows text editor (actually I've upgraded to Notepad++, but still find myself opening Notepad out of habit).  While they laugh, I continue to use text editors for many reasons.  They are lightweight, and so I can have a ton of windows open at once and not experience any additional drag on my hardware (and for those who've worked with corporate PC's, you know this can be crucial).  They're also universally readable.  I don't need to worry about the compatibility of my text file if I move it from my office desktop, to my Macbook or to my Linux laptop.  In a pinch, I can even read my text file from a command prompt.  This flexibility will come in handy as a workshifter.

E-mail

Now that you've cleared your physical world of clutter, it's time to do the same for your electronic world, and where better to start than with every knowledge worker's biggest time suck: e-mail. Note that this is really only going to be important if, like me, you're transitioning from a local e-mail client (a la MS Outlook or Lotus Notes) on a company machine to a web-based client, or using an exchange server.  If your email has always been cloud-based, then things should be business as usual for you.

Tip 8: Pick a system and stick to it. There are as many e-mail organization systems as there are people.  I have a colleague who is the neatest most organized person I have ever met.  The consequence of this is that you need a blueprint in order to figure out the folder structure of his Outlook mailbox.  Tracking down an archived e-mail is like navigating a labyrinth.  I am a Gmail fanboy, and my e-mail classification of using only 3 folders spills over from that experience.  This can sometimes be slightly problematic because Outlook's search functionality is not as great as Gmail's, but overall, I still find I have an easier time searching for an e-mail than I do retrieving it from a labyrinth of folders.  In the end, though, which system you use, doesn't matter, as long as it's consistent.

Tip 9: E-mails that you think will be important, save on your company Exchange server. Remember that when you archive e-mails, by definition they're coming off your company's server and being saved elsewhere (by default, that's on your PC).  If you're leaving behind your old machine when you turn workshifter, saving those important e-mails to its hard drive won't be helpful, so instead, make sure important e-mails stay on the server, so that they can be accessed from webmail, your Blackberry, or other e-mail client.

Tip 10: Locally archive things that you probably won't ever need. Like with physical documents, there are many e-mails you will likely never need.  If you are sure you'll never need them, delete them.  If you doubt that you'll ever need them, but aren't sure, archive them.  After all, most companies give you limited space to save e-mail on the server and require you to archive.

Tip 11: Create a copy of your archive. Now, if you're leaving your old computer behind, archiving files that you think you might possibly need some day isn't going to do you any good, so go ahead and create a copy of your archive.  In fact, create multiple copies, because data can easily be lost on something as fragile as a CD/DVD or a web server.

Tip 12: Get used to using webmail services.  I actually spent my last month as an office worker accessing e-mail through webmail.  Partially by necessity (I'll get to that later), but also because it was a good habit to create for when i would be accessing e-mail this way all the time.

Electronic Files

Tip 13: Organize your files. Are you starting to see a theme here?  When making the switch from office worker to workshifter, organizing yourself is a great way to make sure nothing gets missed.  In terms of organizing your files, there are actually software programs that will do this for you (Belvedere for PC, Hazel for Mac).  Or, you can do what I did and take this opportunity to go through your hard drive and see just what all the files that you've saved since you started working for your current employer are.  You can then triage, organize, and delete to your heart's cotent.

Tip 14: Store everything in a specific folder.  For ease of back-up, and to make the next step painless, it's a good idea to save all the files that you will want to keep to the same folder.  That folder can have as many subfolders as you'd like, but it's important that everything be in one place.

Tip 15: Sync that folder to the cloud using Dropbox. As a workshifter, there are tons of applications out there that will promise to make your life easier.  For me, Dropbox wins the crown of favourite workshifting app.  Its potential uses are nearly limitless, but in this case, you'll be doing something very simple.  You'll install Dropbox (Dropbox referral link) on your machine that you're about to abandon (if you follow the above link, you'll get an additional 250 megs on top of the basic 2 gigs - I will also get an additional 250 megs - win win!).  Once that's done, you will take your folder that you've organized all of your files in and move it into your Dropbox folder.  Now, you can do two things with this folder.  First, you can install Dropbox on the machine you will be using from here on out so that you have access to those files indefinitely.  Second, you can share this folder with another user, so that if you want to leave your boss all your old files so he's not lost without you in the office, he'll have access to them too!

Tip 16: Backup to an external hard drive.  Honestly, this tip is mainly for those who work with large files that may be too large for Dropbox's free basic 2 gig limit.  In my case, the vast majority of my files were excel reports, databases, power point presentations and word documents.  Nothing too heavy.  But if you do video editing, or heavy design work, you may want to invest in an external hard drive to bring your old files with you.

Software & Hardware

Tip 17: Make a list of what kinds of files you use. As mentioned above, in my case, the majority of my files were spreadsheets, databases, power point presentations, word documents (and of course text files).  By doing this exercise, I know exactly what medium I spend my time working in.  That's important for the next tip.

Tip 18: Determine what the ideal tools for you would be. Here's where you get to have some fun and create your wishlist of tools you want.  Based on the file types you saw that you used, what tools would you ideally like to have?  Word?  Excel?  MS Project?  Photoshop?  Adobe Premiere?  Write this list down.

Tip 19:  Determine what on that list will be provided for you.  If you're workshifting, but are still an employee of a company, you may still get all the tools and comforts you're used to having at the office on the road, and it's just a matter of asking.  So, see what you can get your workshifting laptop set up with from your IT department.

Tip 20: Find open source alternatives.  If you're not workshifting on the company dime, or you prefer to use your own tools, shelling out for things like corporate editions of MS Office and Photoshop may be cost prohibitive, so find alternatives.  For starters, open source software is awesome.  I have been running Open Office on my home PC for years, and NeoOffice on my MacBook Pro with great success.  To find other open source alternatives for traditioinal software, check out osalt.com.  

Tip 21: Find cloud-based alternatives. Cloud-based software has come a long way in the past year or two, and many cloud-based apps are more than enough for most people.   Cloud-based alternatives can even be more convenient than traditional software because for a workshifter, it allows you to work from any machine with internet access.  Good starting points for cloud-based software are Google Docs, Zoho Docs, and the 37Signals suite of collaboration applications. There are tons more with price tags varying from free to pricey. Explore them all.

Tip 22: Determine your hardware needs.  I firmly believe that it is only once you've decided what software you need that you should decide on what hardware to purchase.  If every piece of software you need is Windows-based, buying a Mac is nonsensical, even if you can dual boot Windows on it.  (Although, it should be said that since having made the switch to Mac, the only file I have had issues with is MS Visio .vsd files, so perhaps I'm overstating the importance of picking the right hardware.)

Now, install your software, access your dropbox and your webmail, and it's like you never left the office!  The transition from office desktop to mobile workstation is complete.  If you've gone with cloud-based apps and webmail, your freedom is virtually unlimited.

Habits to Keep

Tip 23: Take digital notes. I'm horrible at following my own advice on taking notes one way.  In addition to text files, I use Evernote, moleskines, sticky notes and voice memos on my phone.  Don't be me.

Tip 24: Keep all your files in the cloud.  Whether you use Dropbox to keep all your files in the cloud, or Google Docs so that they're just cloud-based documents to begin with, keeping this habit means that you could drop your laptop in a river, and never miss a beat.

Tip 25: Save things in standard file formats. This is especially important if you start using some of the open source software I mentioned earlier.  Open source software generally allows you to save files in about 1,000 different formats.  Always pick the format that most closely resembles the standard file format for industries.  So, while I use Open Office and Neo Office, both of which have a .odf standard file extension, I save everything in MS Office XP format.  That way, I know just about anyone can open my file.

Bonus

Not so much a tip, but an anecdote that illustrates a bonus that comes with this kind of preparedness. I started preparing to transition to full-time workshifter about one month before my planned transition.  About two weeks before the move, my company laptop (an IBM Thinkpad T43 - a tank of a machine) died.  Had this happened to me two weeks earlier, I would have lost about two years worth of work that had been saved on my local hard drive, and that I had not been very diligent about backing up to company servers.  Because of my preparation to move to full-time workshifter, I lost nothing. All my most important files were already in my Dropbox, and ready and waiting for me when I booted up my MacBook Pro.

Being a workshifter is all about planning for eventualities, so planning to become one, has the fortunate byproduct of just plain making you better prepared.

What do you think?


Photo Credit: Matthileo

Some people workshift because they can.  Some view workshifting as a triumph of technology, others a triumph of humanity.  At my company, we workshift deliberately.  We believe that it empowers our staff as well as ourselves to add value and remain creative.  We believe that people work differently, and they should be able to decide how and where to do it.  We view work as "art", and artists always have distinct methods of extracting their best.  

If you are a small business owner and you workshift deliberately it's important to be able to articulate why you workshift  as you begin working with larger and more traditional clients.  

The reason is simple.  If you don't have a good answer, it just might make you look small.  But if you do have a good answer, it just might make you look innovative.

What do you think?

With Google Voice turning one year old and becoming available to U.S. residents, it's time to highlight the benefits to workshifters.

1. Choose a Local Number or use your existing mobile number
At my company I have the ability to forward my office phone to another number. However, the call can't be forwarded unless the number I'm forwarding to is in the same area code as my office. Nowadays, people aren't choosing to have home phones, they're using their mobile phone as their main contact number. And...why change your cell phone number if you relocate to that area code since almost all calling plans are national and don't charge long distance fees. With Google Voice, you can pick a phone number in any desired area code or zip code and set that as the forwarding number, which will automatically ring any and all phones you choose.

2. Transcribed voicemail
When you're in the plane, you can't make and receive calls over airplane wifi, but you do get internet access. If you miss a call and the caller leaves a voicemail it will be transcribed and sent to you as an e-mail, SMS, or both.

3. Visual voicemail
Having visual voicemail is such a time saver. I can see who called, when, see the message as a transcription, archive it, and not have to dial in and listen to a string of messages. Get in, get the info, and get out!

4. Personalized voicemail greetings
This is one of the BEST options; personalized voicemail. All you gmail contacts and groups are accessible through Google Voice. You have options to create personalized voicemails for groups (family, work, friends) or for individuals. Changing the voicemail message is quick, easy, and instant; taking less than a minute. It's especially useful if your work calls are forwarding to your Google Voice number because you can record the same greeting you have on your office phone and the caller/client won't know the difference.

How do you use Google Voice?

Photo credit: Google
 

Guilt is a funny thing. It's amazing how quickly that nagging voice can kick in, leading us to question our actions or feel that we have fallen short of some kind of accepted standard. Workshifting comes with its own set of guilty feelings.

First off, there's that little thing of the commute. My husband and I live in Chicago, a city that is renowned for its gridlocked highways and nightmarish commutes. While most days I have a commute of about 1.5 seconds - the time it takes me to walk from our bedroom to my office - my husband spends anywhere from an hour and a half to more than two hours commuting from our home just north of the city to his office out in the suburbs.

On most days I get up later than him and still start my work day a good 45-60 minutes before he even reaches his desk. While I jokingly tell people that he's commuting "for the both of us," there's not a day that goes by when I'm not marred with guilt about our huge discrepancies in commuting time.

Working from home can also lead to a pretty interesting mix of feelings of guilt. On the one hand, I often feel guilty about focusing exclusively on work when there are things to be done around the house. On the other hand, if I'm doing laundry or running errands, I often feel guilty about not working. 

I still find it hard to step away from my desk during the work day - even if it's for something like running to the bank or picking up milk. I know this probably doesn't make much sense. After all, I'm not taking advantage of the very things that attracts so many people to Workshifting. I guess there's just something about the 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. workday that is so ingrained in my system.

Finally, I also often feel guilty when I feel I'm not working "hard" enough. This is especially the case when my workload is low. There's just something about sitting alone, without deadlines and pressing projects that makes me feel extremely uncomfortable and almost "worthless." It's completely different than when you're in an office and everyone around you is having a slow day.

I wonder if these things will change the longer I work outside of a traditional office environment. What about you guys? Do you share similar feelings of guilt?


Photo Credit: Music2Work2

I recently wrote about a friend of mine who hosts a successful, productive workshifting collective from his home office. I'm a veteran workshifter, and to be honest, I really like working all by my lonesome in my office or studio. So I was especially curious to see how and why a group of workshifters had created a cooperative work environment. Here's what I learned during a visit to the team's HQ.

The Team
There are currently five people on the workshifting team -- four are founding members who adhere to regular work schedules and one member is a PhD candidate who occasionally uses the space to work on her dissertation. The regulars work in IT support, software programming and Web communications. Most of the gang boasts a comfortable level of technical proficiency, which is an advantage for troubleshooting glitches as a group and never leaves any one person with the responsibility of being onsite tech support.

The Scene
The group works in the master suite on the second floor of my friend's house. Garfunkel, the housecat, perches in a handmade cat tree steeped in southern exposure. Boxes of tea collect dust atop a side table (this is a group of coffee drinkers, mostly), and a Britta pitcher sits in the center of the large, multi-person worktable. The walls are painted a fresh shade of Mediterranean blue, and a red exercise ball rests in the center of the room.

Origin
With one member of the workshifting collective hailing from the UK, I wanted to know how all these remote paths had crossed. It turns out that the founding members of the group all attended the same church and had been working off and on in pairs at local coffee shops. My friend proposed that they officially set up shop in his house and see how things took from there. They've kept to a regular schedule ever since.

Balance
Opening up your house - and your work rhythm - to other workshifters certainly comes with the risk of personal and professional disruptions. Even the closest of friends may have radically different expectations and behaviors in the workplace. It shouldn't come as any surprise that workshifters absolutely must have compatible working styles to successfully share professional space. And they also need solid, straightforward communication skills to be able to say, "Hey, I'm taking an important call. Can you please turn the music down?"

Food
These folks may work outside of the traditional office, but that doesn't mean that the traditional office food culture doesn't factor in. One regular told me, "This is where I consume the best food of the day." The gang tends to eat en masse -- either cooking in the house kitchen, eating out together or bringing carryout back to the workplace. On the day I visited the group, I arrived during a lunchtime break. Food that day had been delivered courtesy of a workshifter's husband.

Benefits
According to the group, a significant advantage of workshifting as a team is being able to leverage the synergy of working together to increase personal productivity. Another biggie is creating a strong sense of community and supportive social network. For the mother in the group, having a greater work/life balance is key. Across the board, creating a space that has fewer "home" distractions (like responding to a stack of dirty dishes) is a perk of working with other workshifters in an office environment. And being able to leave workspaces intact at the end of the day without packing up every last office artifact (as one must do at a coffee shop, for example) is a huge benefit.

Recommendations
If you're considering hosting or joining a workshifting team, keep in mind the following:

•    Individual job types have a direct impact on the team. For example, if a workshifter's job requires her to spend the majority of the workday on the phone, she may not be a good fit for a group of folks who spend the majority of their time concentrating on writing code or copy.

•    Work styles must mesh well, period. Music in the background could be a delight for some and a distraction for others.

•    Create a designated workspace that doesn't interrupt the flow of the underlying household. The flipside is that a messy house won't negatively impact a designated workspace.

•    Build a workshifting community that feeds your own productivity and reduces any feelings of isolation that you might have.

•    Be wary of (and quick to weed out) candidates who treat the occasional remote workday as a day off. This type of energy can easily erode the productivity of the entire group.

When I asked if the group had a disaster plan - we live in Minnesota, the land of 10,000 types of weather - my question was met with uproarious laughter. OK, no disaster plan. Obviously not a deal breaker. But it's clear that this team of consummate professionals has discovered and implemented a healthy, productive workshifting cooperative. I'll leave you with the wise words of one of the regulars: Workshifting allows you to fit "work into life, not life into work."

What do you think?

If you go back and look at how Google started as a company, it's really amazing to see how much they have grown. Starting out with search, they have grown into many areas including collaboration, mobile, and productivity. While at times I wish that Google would focus, it's hard to argue against their strategy as they are leaders in the search market and challengers in many other areas.

So when they announced Google Wave there was a ton of hype because everyone was waiting for that next killer application from Google. Let's face it, these are the guys who did Google Search, Gmail, Adwords. All game changers in their categories, so expectations were pretty high.

But something happened along the way.. No one really knew what to do with it.

I am like a lot of people when I say that I honestly haven't used Wave a whole lot. When Google first announced it I rushed out and got an invitation, started a few Wave's with some buddies, but the interest quickly faded. That doesn't mean that Wave couldn't be a great tool for workshifting and after I revisited it some benefits bubbled up to the surface:

•    For team collaboration it quickly beats trading information back and forth via email. We have all been on those long email strings, soon you lose track of what came first, that important attachment that everyone else is referencing has been misplaced in your inbox. With Wave all of this information is contained within the Wave for everyone to see. One version of the truth.

•    Get new teammates up to speed quickly. As you add new people to your team you can quickly get them up to speed by using the playback feature found in every wave. The playback starts over at the beginning of the wave and you can quickly see the content and people who where added to wave as they happened.

•    Wave brings conversation into your project. How many times have you been working remotely on a project, needed some additional information from a team member, and you then had to use other tools to start these offline conversations. With Wave, all of these conversations can happen within the project where they are then stored for the whole team to see.

I decided to take another run at really using Wave to see if it fits into my workshifting toolbox and I need your help. A few weeks back I posted five reasons why your boss won't let you workshift and now I want to come up with a post that focuses on the reasons why you can.

I have started a wave so that we can collaborate on the responses. This will help me out by getting some feedback on my post and it will allow us to kick the tires on Google Wave to see the good and the bad. I will put out a follow up post on how Wave worked and if it meets the mark for workshifting use.

If you are interested in joining, make sure you have a Google Wave account, and shoot me an email at wave@itkgroup.com and I will email you the invite. Hopefully we will get a new post put together and we will see if Google Wave is a workshifting treasure or tease.

Have you found any workshifting benefits of Google Wave?


Photo Credit: Rafa Garces

Just recently, I found myself lying in bed at 1:30 am with my iPhone in hand answering emails and responding to people who I missed on twitter and Facebook that day. After switching off the device I realized that I was then spending another hour laying there thinking about the next day and how I might be able to work on the issues, problems or ideas presented in the emails. This sounds somewhat absurd doesn't it? I mean it wasn't more than a few years ago that you shut down the computer and that was the end of your day. Now we have mobile devices following us around and I know that I am not the only one perpetuating this issue!

I suppose you think that the rest of the article is going to be tips on how to find balance. Well, maybe a bit of it will be but I would really love to poll the readers of the workshifting blog on how you find balance! As remote workers and workshifters it feels second nature to pick up your phone during dinner to check your email. It feels natural to want to check the status on a project when you're really supposed to be focused on your kids school play. So what gives? Do we need to start setting up rules for ourselves? Here are two things that I am trying to reclaim a bit of sanity and hopefully make me more efficient with the time I am spending working.

1. Morning and Evening Email Redux - I remember hearing advice years ago saying that the worst thing you can do to yourself is watch the news first thing in the morning and just before you turn in at night. After all there is rarely anything good or uplifting on the news so why inundate yourself with that energy to start and end your day. I am going to apply this advise to email and social networks for now on. My advise would be to spend 15 minutes in silence each morning. Maybe visualize your day and set your wheels on the right track to move forward. Maybe it is talking a brisk walk before the morning shower. Either way I recommend clearing the mind every morning to get aligned. For those evening email and social media stints I recommend a good book. Read something enjoyable that settles the mind and leaves you with positive feelings. If you find yourself grumbling about the world forces around you each day, change the forces!

2. Reclaim the Weekend - Ok, so not all of us can afford to ignore our work life all weekend and maybe some of us are even scheduled to be actively working on the weekends. For those of you in that situation this should be called Reclaim a Day. I love my job and I love what I do. That being said it's important to disconnect and recharge for a day a week. I find this helps me immensely. Every Sunday i turn off the computers and leave the mobile devices to play sweet tunes in my ears rather than being a email machine or work device. I can't give you specific to do's here as we are all different but after chatting with a friend recently about this topic I told him to rekindle a passion. We grew up together golfing and fishing on the weekends as kids. Why not revisit some of those things? There is always time for yard work and chores. Go rekindle a passion.

These are two of the things I am doing to keep me fresh and creative. I would love to hear your thoughts. Are you able to put away the technology for a bit or are you checking your email at 1:30 am each night? What rules or habits have you created to help you stay fresh?


Photo Credit: Jorge Quinteros

I came across this thought-provoking article on BNET the other day about the impact of gender on how men's brains and women's brains function--and the impact this has on how we work.

The article cites Sally Helgesen, co-author of The Female Vision: Women's Real Power at Work, who says that women are more skilled multitaskers while men are great at single-mindedly focusing on one thing for a long period of time. According to Helgesen, this tendency to multitask well is one reason women often over-commit.

Another difference:

One major difference between the sexes that really impacts managers is that women are (in general) more likely to speak up if they're unhappy about their immediate circumstances and environment, while men tend to suffer in silence. (Helgesen's term for it is "men will suck it up and tolerate a lot more for a lot longer.")

As a longtime workshifter, I've never really thought about the question of how gender might impact workshifting - who is likely to take to it, and what that means for teams of workshifters and those who manage them. But as more people shift out of office settings, it seems that figuring out some of this stuff will be very useful.

So I turn it to you. What's been your experience? Have you noticed any differences in work styles or approaches between the men and women you workshift with? If yes, what's your takeaway?


Photo Credit: OtisArchives2

As a sales engineer at Citrix I spend a good deal of my time working with customers as they investigate our desktop virtualization technologies.This means I rarely work from the same location for more than a day or two at a time. I definitely consider my home office my primary workplace, but I could just as easily be at our local corporate office, a customer's office, one of our partners' offices, or camped out at the nearest Panera or Starbucks in between meetings. It's pretty obvious I'm a workshifter and I love the lifestyle, but even better is that I get to work with some of the best technologies for enabling workshifting.

I'm regularly brought into meetings to discuss topics like device mobility, desktops and applications that roam with the user and secure remote access solutions. Most of the time my customers are trying to target a specific problem area like disaster recovery, supporting their branch office desktops ordealing with the increase inlaptop usage across the enterprise, but lately I've heard more and more questions about supporting mobile devices like smartphones or tablets. It probably doesn't hurt that I'm a heavy user of my iPadin meetings, but when you're dealing with hospitals, media companies, law firms, or accounting firms - to name just a few - it's no surprise to hear these types of devices are already showing up in their user communities. What's great is that I can show them how I leverage my iPad in conjunction with our internal implementation of desktop virtualization to work from anywhere. It's just as easy for them to implement a similar solution for their users.

They may not realize it, but the organizations that implement desktop virtualization are paving the way for workshifting to become a more widespread and accepted practice. They may be looking to solve a specific business problem, but in the process they're changing the very nature of how their users interact with and consume their desktops and applications for the better. Don't get me wrong, I'm in no way implying that desktop virtualization begets workshifting, but I honestly believe that as desktop virtualization usage expands within the enterprise, the rate of workshifting will also increase.

If you work for an organization that's implemented desktop virtualization, do you use it on a regular basis? Do you have secure remote access to your desktop or is it only used internally? I'd love to hear if you've been able to use it to workshift and how your experience went. I think the two are a perfect fit, but I want your feedback.


Photo Credit: Aranath

Gear. It's an essential part of workshifting. While you don't want to be that guy or gal, you do need to carry a few things with you when you're working away from the office. And I don't just mean a laptop or netbook or tablet, either.

Whether you carry a little or a lot when you workshift, a good bag for all of that gear is essential. Here are a few pointers for choosing the bag that's right for you.

Size matters

Up to a point, anyway. You're probably not carrying everything and a microwave oven. But you're also probably carrying more than just your smartphone and wallet.

Look for a bag that has enough room to carry the tools of your workshifting day. At the very minimum, the bag you choose should have space for a notebook or netbook computer, your phone and MP3 player, some physical files, a paper notebook and pens, and a USB flash drive or two. You might also want to make sure that the bag has space for a book (or an ebook reader), your wallet, a bottle of water or travel mug, and some snacks.

The bag itself should have as slim a profile as possible, though. I've lugged bulky bags around and they've been an inconvenience to me and to people on transit. Duffle bags are out, as a some backpacks - way too bulky. A good messenger or courier bag is a worth holding on to. More about this in a little while.

Accessibility

I don't know about you, but I usually need to get to the things in my bag in a hurry. Whether it's pulling out my wallet to pay for a hot chocolate at a cafe, putting away my netbook, whipping out a USB flash drive, or getting to my Moleskine and pen to jot down a note, I don't want to struggle with too many zippers or clasps.

A usable gear bag should have enough easy-to-access pouches of varying sizes - small for things like your wallet and phone, and larger for ... well, for larger items. Velcro covers or straps for those pouches make getting to what's in them easier.

Durability

No one like a bag (or anything else) that doesn't last. It's more than annoying; it adds another expense to your balance sheet. Over the years, I've owned a few bags that didn't last 12 months. Straps frayed and broke. The outer shell tore. Pockets wore out. And I'm careful (almost paranoid) when it comes to my stuff!

You're going to pay a premium for a durable bag. Even then, you're not always assured of getting one that will last. There are a few things to look at when choosing the right bag.
First, make sure that the fabric is thick but not heavy. Thin nylon doesn't cut it. In fact, it's easy cut. Heavier nylon is good, and it's lighter than canvas. Canvas, on the other hand, is tough and it's a lot more resistant to water than nylon.

Next, look at the zippers. Are they thin or thick? Plastic or metal? And how strongly are they stitched to the bag?

Versatility

Chances are you won't just use your gear bag for ... well, just lugging your gear. If that's the case, then the venerable laptop bag just doesn't cut it.

My gear bag (more on this in a moment) is also my carry on when I fly. And I use it as an overnight bag when taking short trips. So I need something that can carry my gear and my travel items. That means a bag that's big, but not too big, and durable.

A few choices

There are a lot of bags on the market. Here are a few that I recommend, based on all of the factors I discussed earlier.

My favorite, and the bag I use daily is the Carry On Travel Pack from Mountain Equipment Co-Op (a Canadian outdoor and gear retailer). I've used that bag daily for over five years, and it's been everywhere with me from around town, throughout Canada and the United States, and to China. Best of all, whenever I need to I can turn the Carry On into a backpack.

The Tom Bihn ID, while pricey ($140 USD), is well worth the price. If I wasn't so attached to my Carry On I'd seriously consider one of these. The ID big enough for a laptop and your other gear. It also has enough pouches for any and all of your accessories. The main portion of the bag is also well reinforced with foam, which will protect your laptop.

While the design isn't quite to my liking, I'm impressed with the Ogio Hip-Hop. Once again, it's a bag that has more than enough space for your gear and offers quick access to your phone, MP3 player, and even your laptop's AC adapter. There are also a pair of pockets on either side of the Hip-Hop for bottles of water or a travel mug.

What gear bag do you use? Share your favorites by leaving a comment.

Photo credit: fotolia © 2happy

Today's post is by Tracey Webb, a 25-year business veteran with a depth of experience in high-tech, health care, software, and financial services segments. Having worked for global enterprises like Xerox, IBM, as well as some of the largest international learning and development organizations, Tracey has a long track record of producing success for her clients. Currently, she serves as the Director of Consulting Services for Cox eLearning Consultants.

For those of us who have spent years pouring over training manuals, being master-trained, or serving as master trainers, the advent of the virtual classroom can present a horse of another color (to quote that wonderful line from The Wizard of Oz).  We spent countless hours making notes and creating visuals (flip charts and PowerPoints) to use with our students.  Our goal:  to keep our students engaged and to make certain that they learned the material.  

What are the parallels between teaching in the virtual classroom and delivering training in a brick and mortar setting?  There are an abundance of skills that transfer between both mediums.  First of all, instructors have to know the material "cold" as we use to say in the training medium.  There is nothing worse than listening to an instructor who is obviously reading from the training manual.  The same is true in the world of the virtual classroom:  it is obvious when a facilitator is reading from a script, even if there is no visual.

The key to avoiding the boring "talking head" syndrome is to become extremely familiar with the material by making the contextual connections that make sense to us as trainers.  We might not use this color commentary in the deliver, but it helps us make the material "our own" so that the delivery is more natural.  

The Post-it technique works wonders in the live classroom as well as in the virtual "room".  As you are reviewing the instructor's training manual, PowerPoints, or other medium, you use no more than three Post-its per page to summarize the three key points that you must convey from that section.  This forces the brain to synthesize the material.

The next skill that is equally useful in both the virtual and the non-virtual classroom is the art of building in points of interaction.  Where do you ask a question?  How can the question be phrased in a provocative manner to illicit interest, responses, and discussion.  No one wants to listen to a talking head without some variation in the delivery.  Involving the audience is one of the easiest means of breaking up the delivery modality.  

Modern virtual platforms allow for a great deal of interaction between the instructor and the student and among the students themselves, such as in separate chats or break out groups.  These are the same tools that instructors use in a live classroom when they ask the group to break up into smaller sub-segments and to report back to the group at large.   This skill is very useful in the virtual classroom as long as the instructor becomes very familiar with the technological attributes of the selected e-learning platform.

There are two major differences between facilitating an on-line session and teaching in a virtual classroom.  

1.    Voice pitch, tone, and diction become even more critical in an on-line delivery session.  We have to test our voices and delivery through recorded medium to ensure that we are varying our tone.  In fact, one very useful technique is to use Post-it notes of a different color than those used for summary points as described above.  This other note color is used sparingly to make notes about tone (indicated where to emphasize a point by raising or lowering our voice for example) and about verbal content ("tell a short story" here or "make an analogy here").  This "coding" helps us remember that we have to be verbally interesting otherwise the delivery will fail.

2.    Pause a bit more to allow transmission of the data so that you are not verbally "running into yourself."  There is nothing more distracting than an instructor who is moving too fast through on-line material--faster than the students can absorb it.  Remember, in the on-line world, when you put up a slide, people really do try and read it--or at least most of it because the visual distraction of the live presenter is absent.  They focus on the material.  

The key to successful on-line delivery and facilitation of training content is to be mindful of the benefits and the challenges with technology.  The successful instructor understands that presenting in cyber-space requires that their voice, word choice, and intonation carry the weight of the delivery.  In other words, their voice is a very important vehicle for influencing the outcome of the training.  They also have to spend considerable time melding the content with the technology to ensure that interaction, engagement, and interest are maximized.

What do you think?


Photo Credit: Mr Flip

We started this blog with the goal of building a community by providing content and resource material that was tailored for workshifters. The community was not built based on promoting products or services, although the occasional promotion is ok (just don't be "that guy"), it's based on fulfilling the need for information and the desire of sharing a common interest.

Over the past year I've watched as solo-preneurs chat with large enterprise companies about a wide range of topics.  It's less about what they are talking about, and more about the fact that they are talking, discovering and to enabling. Many of the questions and conversations are fielded and managed by the community.  One of the biggest lessons learned, is that once the community takes off, the community is in control. However, their desire for a consistent diet of rich and tasty content only grows with the community. So stay on it.

Another lesson learned is that your services are talked about alongside competing services.  Gasp!  I know it's hard to swallow, but your services are not right for everyone.  At my company, we absolutely love our products, but we know one size does not fit all.  We hope we attract customers that are a perfect fit.  Sometimes we don't and we definitely hear about it.  If you're going to build a community you need to be ok with that, because much of the conversation extends beyond the blog and takes place on Twitter, Facebook and other community blogs.  

What's really fun is watching the conversations that have little or nothing to do with technology. Common topics include comfortable office chairs, pets, marriage, diet, travel and about everything in-between. This is a nice lead in to one of, what seems to be, the hardest areas in managing a community and that's being REAL.

You could also replace REAL with HUMAN, HONEST, TRANSPARENT, etc. The point is it must come from the heart. You really and truly need to care. The community has low tolerance for corporate speak and canned responses. If you do more listening than talking, it will start to come naturally.

Online communities are not the exclusive domain of companies. We all belong to communities, online and in the real world. There is your Facebook community which you maintain, monitor and contribute to. In this day and age, it will become most people's first experience with a community. Then you may be belong to a car club, or cooking group and neither of which are online.  

As workshifters we often build a community around our co-working locations. You probably know the person that works the espresso machine, a few of the regulars, etc. This real world community probably extends to the web in the form of check-ins on Foursquare (who doesn't want to by mayor of their joint?), photo uploads to Flickr and messages in Twitter. If you're thinking about starting an online community blog, take that same casual demeanor and move it online. Be consistent, be transparent, be real.

My top 7 lessons:

1.  The community is in control
2.  Be the best electronic version of yourself
3.  Listen more than you talk
4.  Keep it really interesting
5.  Monitor and contribute daily
6.  Don't let questions or comments go unanswered for more than 24 hours
7.  If you don't genuinely care, don't do it

These lessons aren't particularly earth shattering, and you may read similar advice on other blogs. What's important is the application of the lessons. Much like when you read a book on a topic that's important to you. The reading of the book is not the measurement of success.  You are not striving to be an excellent book buyer. What matters is the practical application of the advice.  

That's my opinion, what's yours?


Photo Credit: Niall Kennedy

The Telework Improvements Act (H.R. 1722) got a second chance in the House on July 14th and won. The same bill was narrowly defeated in May. A similar bill (S.707) passed unanimously in the Senate on May 24th.

While it's been a mandate since the year 2000 that every federal worker telecommute to the maximum extent possible, participation rates are only slightly higher than those of the private sector. According to a recent report, only about 100,000 of the government's 2 million workers telework at least one day a month--a number that's actually declined in recent years. While still higher than private sector participation, only about 5 percent of the total federal workforce telework and less than 9% of those who are eligible do so.
 
If signed into law by the President, the Telework Improvements Act would, among other things, direct the Office of Personnel Management to issue regulations on telework, require agencies to come up with policies that permit teleworking for up to 20 percent of the hours worked over two weeks, require agencies to designate a telework managing officer, provide training to employees, and ensure that there are no distinctions between teleworkers and others in performance appraisals. Independent of this bill, the Obama administration has set a goal of having 150,000 teleworkers by 2011, and 500,000 by 2014.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates program costs at $30 million over a five year period. In fact, the staggering costs of lost productivity from federal workers during last Winter's snowstorms--estimated by the government at $71 million a day--would pay for the five year cost of H.R. 1722 in one snow day.

The potential savings of the program were not presented by CBO. Using assumptions from a 2006 study commissioned by the U.S. General Services Administration (conducted by Booz Allen), we used our Telework Savings Calculator to quantify the potential governments savings if those eligible federal employees who wanted to work from home did so just one day every other week (half the level required in H.R. 1722):

Agencies would:
- Increase productivity by over $2.3 billion each year - equivalent to 26,000 man years of work
- Save $850 million in annual real estate, electricity, and related costs
- Save $2.3 billion in annual absenteeism
- Save $3.1 billion in annual employee turnover
- Improve continuity of operations
- 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
- Offer fuller employment for disabled workers, rural residents, and military families

Federal Employees would:
- Achieve a better work-life balance
- Save $400-$1,400/year in transportation and work-related expenses
- Collectively save $57 million a year at the pumps
- Suffer fewer illnesses

The Nation would:
- Save almost 3 million barrels and $233 million in imported oil
- Reduce greenhouse gases by 532,000 tons/year--the equivlient of taking 97,000 cars off the road
- Reduce road travel by 1.2 billion miles/year saving $20 million in road maintenance
- Reduce road congestion thereby increasing productivity for non-teleworkers as well
- Save 1,000 people from traffic-related injury or death each year and save $117 million a year in related costs
- Improve emergency responsiveness
- Reduce pollution from road work and new office construction
- Preserve open spaces
- Alleviate the strain on our crumbling transportation infrastructure
- Reduce terrorism targets of opportunity

Talk of a national telework initiative has been rattling around Washington ever since the start of the current administration. While the Telework Improvements Act does nothing for the private sector--except perhaps reducing traffic in areas with significant government workers and possibly shortening the wait time at downtown D.C. Starbucks'--hopefully it will send a strong message of endorsement of the concept to the private sector.

What do you think?

Photo Credit: Vinoth Chandar
 

We all think we know how to communicate, right? As children, we learn how to talk; as adults our vocabularies increase as does our knowledge of both verbal and non-verbal queues. To borrow from an overused cliche: "It's not only what you say, but how you say it..." Wellllll...maybe, yes, ok. But what about when you say it, how much of it you say and to whom it's said?

In the world at large, communication (much like knowledge) IS power - when invoked. Strong communication skills, both written and verbal, are key to the management of many of life's issues as well as professional advancement.  And, although the communicator may depend heavily on there being information at hand, it is his/her dissemination of that information to the right people at right time which results in the greatest benefit.

In the world of project management, communication is KEY. It's so key in fact, it's one of the Project Management Institute's nine knowledge areas. And, as any well-seasoned project manager knows - and as any new PM will soon find out - communication breakdowns can spell a project's certain demise. My mantra has always been, "when in doubt, OVERcommunicate." We all have too many emails in our inboxes anyway; leave it to the recipient to decide if they need the information or not.

If there is relevant and timely information which pertains to a project, disseminate it!!! I have never had a stakeholder nor project resource tell me to stop bombarding them with emails about a project, but I have certainly been involved in instances whereby a simple FYI would have gone a long way toward keeping stakeholder's anxieties at bay and resources and schedules on track.

In particular, if a project has met with any type of constraint ( be it a resource, budget or scheduling constraint) or dependencies are preventing a milestone from being met - communicating potential roadblocks will help a PM avoid having to ask forgiveness at best or admit project failure at worst. Although you do not want to instill unnecessary concerns or "cry wolf" if you will, when there is the definite potential for adjustments or parallel pathing, your stakeholders need to know.

Effectively, the art of project management involves delicately balancing a defined scope with identified deliverables, the resources involved in managing these deliverables, in order to ultimately reach milestones within an acceptable timeframe and budget. If any of these items stand to be affected, the three 'Cs' are your best friends: Communicate, Communicate, Communicate. Remember - one of the distinct advantages of being a project manager is the implicit trust you earn from those relying on you to steer a project to success; embedded in that trust is a willingness for your voice to be heard - so don't be afraid to use it. It's your "responsibility" !!!

At the same time, use the tools which have been created just for your project management pleasure  - tools such as MS Project and Visio are invaluable visuals which can communicate the progress of your project and any changes therein. I vividly recall managing a dual datacenter build for a methodical Japanese client (who also happened to be the parent company!), and when faced with project roadblocks for which I could neither excuse nor prevent, my constant Visio timeline updates won me all the brownie points that I needed to overcome an inevitable shift in delivery date. If you're not a techie, which I certainly am not, there are numerous tutorials and resources available to learn how to use these tools.

We all take comfort when uncertainties are minimized, and there is no better way to ensure that those who need to know are in the know than by communicating. And whether you are a professional project manager or managing a life project such as a new home purchase or renovation or enrolling in a new school, the same rules apply.

A...B...C is for COMMUNICATION. You would not settle for mis-information so don't settle for a lack thereof either


What do you think?



Photo Credit: Phantom of the Flicks

Where you work.
 
I know, I know--a cubicle is a far cry from a jail cell, but there are some similarities.  People who are outside of both are happier.

Telework Research Network reports that 41% of workers who have the option to workshift are "very satisfied" with their jobs, compared to only 27% of those who are office bound.*  And other research suggests that more virtual employees are "engaged" than their peers who work with their entire team present (34% vs. 28%).**

Clothing choices
When you work from home, you can wear what you want--that includes your most embarrassing (and comfortable) pair of sweatpants, something you'd never be caught dead in at work.

This flexibility, along with the other work-life balance benefits of workshifting, can secure your company the best, most talented employees, since 72% of employees say flexible work arrangements would cause them to choose one job over another.***

Driving to work.
 
Spare yourself the bird, please.  Workshifting saves you a headache and could take 10 million cars off the road, if a workshifting policy was in place in the U.S.  It's estimated this policy could also prevent over 95,000 traffic injuries and deaths, save over $11 billion in accident costs, and lower highway maintenance costs almost $2 billion a year.**

Now, let's put the brakes on for that!  Are you in?



I have to give credit where credit is due.  The concept of these graphics comes from Indexed (http://thisisindexed.com/). The ideas, however, were all me--so I'll take the blame for that.
*Lister, Kate. Workshifting Benefits: The Bottom Line. Telework Research Network, 2010.
**Preston, Camille, PhD. Leading Virtual Effectiveness. AIM Leadership, 2010.
***Montero, Phil. Work Unchained: Workshifting and the Competitive Edge of the Anywhere Office.  The Anywhere Office, 2010.
 

My husband and I both work at non-profit companies and don't make a lot of money. When our daughter was born, we knew there was no way we could afford daycare, so I convinced my boss to allow me to work part-time in the office and part-time from home. To my surprise, she agreed, and everyone thought I was incredibly lucky. My friends and family thought I had it made. I had visions of happily-working-away-in-my-pajamas dancing in my head.

Unfortunately, my romantic notions of working from home were short-lived. In my experience, working from home was a lot harder than working in the office. This is especially true when you have a demanding toddler fighting for your attention day in and day out. There were many days working at home when I yearned to be back in the office again to actually get some work done.

Somehow I survived the year through a lot of trial and error. Then my husband got promoted. His promotion meant a change in our schedules when turned me into the main caregiver for our daughter. I thought I would have to resign from my job, until my boss surprised me again and agreed to allow me to work from home full-time. Although I knew I was lucky to have a boss that valued my work and trusted me enough to let me work from home--and full-time, no less--I knew that double the hours could mean double the trouble for me in terms of juggling full-time workshifting with full-time motherhood. However, three simple lessons I have learned from working at home over the past year will be a strong foundation for my success in this upcoming year...and beyond.


Working in your pajamas is overrated. Showering and brushing your teeth are not.

Don't get me wrong, working in my pajamas felt extremely luxurious the first couple of weeks. Then slacking off on showering and brushing my teeth came next. Working in bed was the natural progression, followed by falling asleep next to my laptop in bed. Working in your pajamas may work for some people, but I had to accept that it did not work for me. It made me feel lazy and unfocused. I needed to start my day getting ready as if I were going to the office--on a casual Friday, of course. This act of getting ready prepared my mind and body for work. At my desk. With clean teeth and hair.


Having a set routine is imperative, no matter what your friends and family think.

A friend once said to me, "So, how does it feel to be a lady of leisure?" It goes without saying that that friend doesn't have kids. Many people think I just lounge around all day because I "work from home"--wink, wink--when, in fact, I have to create a very detailed and exact schedule for my days in order to be productive, and efficient in that productivity. I stick to a set routine so that I can get my work done and still have time for the other aspects of my life, including a little leisure, yes. So, when a friend calls to hang out during a time that I'm supposed to be working, I politely decline.


There's a time for work and a time for play.

This is probably the hardest lesson learned because it involves that tricky little monster. No, not my toddler! I'm talking about guilt--guilt about working while my daughter whines for my attention. This was the single biggest hindrance to my productivity when I first started workshifting. I couldn't handle the guilt! To make matters worse, often times my daughter merely wanted me to sit on the floor next to her while she played. I finally learned that I had to draw a line for both our good. So, I break up my day, alternating work and play. When we play, we play hard. But when it's time to work, I work hard and let her learn to play on her own. This is still a lesson we're both learning each day.

Of course, there were many other lessons I learned over the past year, and I'm sure many more lessons are waiting to be learned over the coming year. I look forward to sharing more with you here.

If you had to narrow it down, what are the three single most important lessons you've learned while workshifting?


Photo Credit: Bright Star

Hello workshifters! I hope everyone is enjoying their summer. A friend of mine took me flying in his Cirrus SR20 recently. It was great fun and quite a learning experience. One of the strongest lessons learned was the amount of attention and communication it takes. There is a lot going on for a pilot during take off, in the air, and landing.

Before we turned the engine on there was an exhaustive pre-flight check. The exterior and cabin inspections are critical to identify and fix any potential problems that may occur during flight. This is done in the same sequence every-time. This is a good practice. At the beginning of your day, go through a pre-flight check to make sure have everything you need to work productively. This is true especially if you are working outside the home. What is your pre-work checklist?

Another thing I noticed was the amount of talking between air control, our plane, and other pilots. I had no clue what the myriad of acronyms, call signs, and aeronautical jargon meant but the pilots spoke it fluently. It wasn't the talking that impressed me. It was the listening. After each command the pilot repeated his instructions back to the tower verbatim. When you are in the air, you can't afford to have miscommunication or, even worse, assumption. This is also true working remotely. More often than I like to admit in the past I have half heard another party on a conference call or made assumptions from an incomplete email. It is better to have someone repeat or clarify than act on something unclear. Try repeating back to the messenger what was said to make sure you received it clearly   

On our way back home we landed at a small airport to refuel. Once on the ground we were met by the airports manager.  My friend Chris and he started chatting and it was like they were old friends. Pilots have a tribe to themselves and welcome each other with open arms. They relate with one another on unique level of shared experiences and expertise. In the workforce as more and more of us trade cube farms for the world as an office, we need to welcome our new friends into the community. We can learn so much from each other and share great stories of digital nomadic adventure.

What do you think?

I recently spent a week in bed. No, not in the John Lennon-Yoko Ono love-in kind of way; rather, the "I feel like crap and don't want to move" model. I forsook Twitter and became strangely obsessed instead with the details of a murder trial on TruTV.

The problem is that, when you're a solo workshifter, the work doesn't end when you're not there. And there is a big distinction between planned absences (whether a vacation or a hospitalization) and those of the unplanned variety.

The challenge with unplanned work stoppages is to manage expectations as well as you typically manage the tasks on your to-do list.

From my experience, there are five actions you must take to avoid a workshifting meltdown:

1.    Check Your Calendar. Seriously, check it. I thought I knew what was on my schedule, but I would have missed a conference call on Day One if I hadn't double-checked and found it there. (It was instead rescheduled.)

2.    Triage. It's important to figure out what has to be done, and what you can reasonably knock out during the odd hour of lucidity. Either because of luck or sheer determination, I got sick three days after a major client conference--which saved me from pretending to function when I was actually quite useless. It's also important to figure out what's going to have to wait--and then take action to make sure everyone else is on the same page.

3.    Contact Everyone. Whether it's clients, colleagues, or co-workers, it's important to reach out and let people know that you won't be reachable for a few days.

4.    Renegotiate Deadlines. Most deadlines are negotiable in an emergency--and being unable to process a coherent thought certainly qualified in my case.

5.    Check Your Email at least Once a Day. I know some people will disagree, but business doesn't stop just because you're not there. Don't miss out on queries from colleagues or prospects. You don't necessarily have to answer their questions; but you probably do want to acknowledge their emails.

Of course, sometimes you just have to pretend to function. I don't get really sick often, but I once went on a prospecting call when I really should have stayed in bed because I was afraid I'd loss the opportunity if I tried to reschedule. (I won the business and somehow my new client didn't catch anything from me.)

Things you can avoid: Writing new blog posts, Twitter updates, and everything in your RSS Reader. Seriously, you can catch up later. Plus, would you tweet when you were drunk? So why tweet when you're drugged up on cold meds--or worse.

What have I missed? What have you done to avoid a workshifting meltdown?

Photo Credit: Snugg

GenJuice

GenJuice is a 13 city tour that aims to connect and highlight young innovators, influencers and go-getters across the nation. Hitting major cities like SanFrancisco, Atlanta, Chicago, New York and more, they have been sharing their adventures and workshifting along the way at co-working buildings, at empty desks at start-up companies's offices and filming every step of the way. With help from sponsors Justin.tv, BazaarVoice, The Cash Flow and more they have the support of the young tech and entrepreneurship crowd and bring an interesting unconference style that draws from the personalities of the co-founders, Arielle Patrice-Scott, Virgilia Singh and Danielle Leslie. Look for GenJuice coming to a city near you!

The Way Below Status Quo Tour

This adventurous journey is the coming together of 3 nomad and lifestyle design bloggers and entrepreneurs - Colin Wright, Andi Norris and Ashley Ambirge who wanted to bring interested, motivated individuals together to facilitate in-person, connect with the communities that have supported their respective online endeavors and create a link between both groups, essentially forging a network of remarkable people that's tighter than Fort Knox. Sounds pretty ambitious and it is. They will be dropping into most of America during the trek, navigating unconferences, volunteering with charities, organizing meetups and looking to find other inspired young individuals. I'll be hanging out with the crew at their Orlando put stop on July 12th.

What Are Your Summer Workshifting Plans?

With more and more young people going after their dreams, working from the road and joining co-working spots, there is an immense opportunity to collaborate, brainstorm and integrate your ideas with that of others. The advent of Workshifting is helping to make this more and more real everyday. So as the temperature gets warmer here, what are your workshifting plans this summer? Do you want to get out of the office more and work remotely (say from a nice beach) or do you want to take your show on the road, generate experiences with your customers, readers and fans? Whatever your plans are, feel free to share in the comments below.

Hello workshifters! We rarely ask for your help, but this is a pretty special opportunity. We're asking for it particularly as this will continue to spread the word on workshifting. It's also for our amazing friends at Citrix Online, co-founders and power behind Workshifting.com. So please help us keep the lights on around here, and consider voting.

Enterprise 2.0 is the leading conference and expo for organizations using collaborative technologies to accelerate information flow and drive revenue.  This forum is for key decision makers to see the range of technology available to add to their business but, often times, learning how to integrate technology effectively is a piece left out of the puzzle. With a new generation of workforce coming up, primarily made up of Millennials, organizations are now in a position to shift their structures to support the new generation's approach to work. There is a real need for educating companies on how to harness new technologies for this workforce, understanding that many of them are embracing the idea of workshifting.  

So what's next?  

Citrix Online's VP and CTO, Bernd Christiansen has been nominated to speak on how to drive adoption and organizational change in a way that encourages a more efficient, agile and highly productive workforce. He hopes to share the company's views on how technology can be leveraged to enable the next generation workforce, understanding and adapting to Gen Ys and Millennials' different work styles and approaches to work.  He will discuss how behaviors beyond the office are impacting the way the next generation workforce likes to operate: less hierarchy, more collaboration, less process and more results. Bernd's session will look at new work styles and how smart companies can support this change through technology and figure out how it can be leveraged to enable, as opposed to distract, employees -- the key to succeeding as a 'Next Gen Enterprise."

Your vote will help put Bernd's speakership entry and workshifting in front of the official voting committee. Please register and vote for Bernd.


Photo Credit: Lakeandlocal

A friend of mine started workshifting full-time about eight months after I took the plunge myself. I was still basking in the glow of my own good fortune at being able to workshift 2,000 miles away from HQ and was, of course, thrilled for my friend who, as it turned out, was a tad apprehensive about working day in and day out by himself.

In an effort to ease himself into his new workshifting routine, he invited me to work in tandem at a local coffeehouse called the Black Dog, a great workshifting venue with generously sized library tables, ample outlets and a tomato-basil pizza that makes my knees buckle. We made a few attempts to coordinate work schedules, but things never came together.

His craving for a larger group of colleagues led him to poll other workshifters he knew in the area to see if there might be any interest in working regularly from his home as a group. He discovered that there was actually a mighty big demand for this type of arrangement.

Soon after (and perhaps to the chagrin of his tolerant wife), the dining room table was recast as a permanent conference table. A post-it note went up on the front door inviting the crew to "Come In." A larger coffee pot was procured and a band of workshifting regulars poured through the front door of his home in the heart of a residential neighborhood to work independently, together.

My friend has since converted the master bedroom suite, which occupies the entire second floor, into a much larger collaborative workspace. (Like I said, his wife is a tolerant woman.) The setup looks less haphazard than the dining room table with its nest of cords underneath and allows the living space of the house to flow more naturally. The new office digs look incredibly professional and polished--just as you would expect any other office out in the world to look. It's less "home office" and more "office within the home."

The first time I saw the suite workspace, I said, "Hmm, I could see myself working here. Are you hiring?" Though I didn't land a permanent placement, I was invited to observe the collection of workshifters on a typical workday and interview a few folks to see how things looked from their side of the multi-workstation table.

I'll share my observations of the collaborative workday and my conversations with some of the regular crew next time.

Would this type of arrangement work for you?

I was playing Red Light / Green Light with my daughters the other day.  My favorite part is when I yell "red light" while they are running at me with the same intensity and drive as linebackers trying to sack the quarterback!  I usually cover up my man parts and hope for the best.

Red Light / Green Light reminds me of the constant stop-and-start of my work routine.  I workshift on Wednesday's because that's the day I've chosen to read, do research, write blog posts, and generally catch up.  What I've learned while workshifting is that distractions are literally everywhere.  Yesterday I was workshifting from my local coffee shop.  It has the classic steady hum of your typical coffee joint.  The steam from the espresso machine, the beans grinding, the cars passing by, locals and tourists stopping in, the shaking of my table because the legs aren't even, James Blunt playing in the background and a nice breeze coming through the windows.

Whether you're workshifting on a corporate campus, coffee shop, co-working space or by the pool, there is a steady stream of distractions.  When we choose to workshift, we eliminate the distractions of the traditional office setting, but we substitute them with new ones.  They are distractions all the same.  This got me thinking about the game, Red Light / Green Light.

As I was listening to the factory style hum of my coffee shop, I just wanted to yell, Red Light!  Can't you see I'm working!  Being the nice guy that I am, I started to think about alternatives to yelling and general mayhem.  What about noise canceling headsets, I thought?  People use them on planes, they should work perfect in a coffee shop.  I asked on Facebook and around the office and these are what people recommended:

Beats, by Dre

Monster Turbine In-Ear Speakers

Shure SE530 Sound Isolating Earphone 

Soon, one of these earphone, headset, in-ear, noise canceling, high performance, productivity boosting gadgets will be in my workshifting tool bag.  I like to work with and around people in a collaborative environment, but I need to tune out when I have to dig in and get work done without interruption.

I don't think Beats by Dre will discourage my daughters from pouncing on me at full speed, but hey, I never said I didn't want to be pounced on.

How do you tune out distractions at your workshifting spot?


Photo Credit: Andres Rueda

It's 2010. The web is allowing us to collaborate and connect with people at a rate higher than any other time in history and people are becoming more conscious about the earth with the "Green Movement". I am not an expert on green by any means but I have recently done some research on saving gas that I would like to share with you. The workshifting community tends to spend lots of time on planes and on the go in their vehicles so I thought it might be of some interest how you can lower your carbon footprint and save a bit of cash at the same time.

Gas Saving Tips:

#1 Warming Up - It is a common misconception that a vehicle needs to be warmed up for a prolonged period of time. It is really not necessary. Avoid sitting in a running car for extended periods of time and shorten your warm-up times to 30 seconds or less.

#2 Fuel When it's Cool - When fueling your vehicle try to do this during the evening or morning hours when the air is cooler. Gas is denser in cooler weather. I can't give you the science behind it but it has to do with how the pump measures the volume of gas being pumped. Less density = less gas for the same amount of volume.

#3 Don't Whine - When sitting at a stop light don't whine or rev the engine needlessly. This will open the throttle and consume more gas getting you no where.

#4 Electric or Hybrid Vehicles - These vehicles are still about 15-20% more expensive than their gas guzzling equivalents. However, it might be worth looking into if you spend a lot of time in your vehicle. The decreased emissions, cost of gas and possible tax benefits may make it well worth the investment.

#5 Maintenance - Keep your vehicle maintained. Old spark plugs, dirty filters, improperly inflated tires and old oil can cause an engine to decrease it's efficiency by 10% or more. Maintaining a vehicle will not only increase overall efficiency but help maintain resale and trade-in values as well.

#6 Stop Hauling - Don't be that person that never unloads his/her vehicle. Carrying excessive weight will decrease fuel efficiency. Unload your vehicle after shopping trips and save gas!

There are many small things you can do to improve the efficiency of your car but these seem to be the biggest gas guzzlers. Feel free to share your green workshifting tips in the comments!


Photo Credit: Sausyn

This afternoon's post is from Tracey Webb, a 25-year business veteran with a depth of experience in high-tech, health care, software, and financial services segments.   Having worked for global enterprises like Xerox, IBM, as well as some of the largest international learning and development organizations, Tracey has a long track record of producing success for her clients.  Currently, she serves as the Director of Consulting Services for Cox eLearning Consultants

I can remember the first formal training session that I attended at Xerox over 20 years ago.  Xerox was and still is a big proponent of training its people.  There was a huge complex in Leesburg, Virginia which rested like a monolith hidden in the woods, which included a veritable army of people in Xerox's training division.  The firm poured untold resources into sending its people to the training mecca for an in-person deep dive into various forms of skill and knowledge transfer.

The trek to Leesburg began from all over the country.  There were personnel involved in scheduling at the local branch level and at the training center in Leesburg.  Room assignments, airplane tickets, ground transportation, and of course the famous cafeteria!  The gravy budget alone must have been in the thousands of dollars.  It was northern Virginia and they put gravy on everything!  The cafeteria was huge, the selection large and varied.  The logistics and the budget to train the employees was a very large endeavor to manage and to fund.

Now it would be hard to imagine an organization flying all of its huge salesforce to one central location to train twice per year.  Training has evolved to the point where employees would probably balk at a learning and development solution that only centered on classroom training.  Today, employees expect to be fully engaged by at least a blend of modern technology and some version of classroom training.  

The technology employed had best reflect the tone, look, and feel of modern social networks with a beguiling user interface.  The days of participants sitting enthralled in classrooms by the dynamic instructor are over.  In fact, they probably never happened.  This is not to say that there aren't some fabulous instructors and facilitators out there, but the expectation of adult learners has changed.  Also, research has shown that repetitive learning in targeted doses after a training event reinforces and accelerates learning.

So what do adult learners in a more tech savvy environment expect now from training?  Well, given the scrutiny over budgets, bailouts, and layoffs, any firm that spends the kinds of funds in both human capital and actual training dollars that most of the major corporations did 20 years ago would be considered a pariah, even by its own employees.  Especially if those costs were associated with travel, given the myriad of distributed learning technologies available today.

Additionally, today's training populations expects to be given material to digest in "bytes."  This requirement is all about time and performance pressure:  the need is to be able to translate the skills and/or knowledge into useful information almost immediately.  Even the reinforcement must be easily digestible and applicable instantaneously.

So how do we develop the collective brain of the organization in a manner that has a reasonable return on investment in terms of time expended, dollars expended, and knowledge applied that results in concrete improvements?  We create a blended learning platform that includes classroom training only where necessary and cost-efficient (all of the targeted employees in one location with corporate real estate readily available for training sites).  

The e-learning portion of the platform must be carefully constructed and integrated with the brick and mortar learning methods.  The electronic methodologies must be easy to use without excessive links that must be clicked on and activated.  The user interface must have that sleek and modern appeal so common to the social media market now.  

Many of the modern electronic platforms have interfaces that replicate live human interaction in an on-line environment.  While one of the benefits of e-learning is the mobility of self-pace lessons and learning individually, there is also the crucial element of group on-line learning which provides a virtual classroom and encourages collaboration and additive learning between all students in the on-line session simultaneously.  

Technology now allows for student polls, chats, and hand-raising to facilitate discussion.  Instructional designers need to carefully consider how this technology can be leveraged in the integrated learning engagement to accelerate adoption of new skills and behaviors that produce business results.

The organizational training landscape has morphed tremendously in the last few decades, but even more so in the last five years with the advent and adoption of social media.  Participants don't quite expect to be entertained, but they certainly expect to be engaged.  They also expect that their organizations will optimize resource allocation, given the concerns about financial stability.  Integrated and blended e-learning solutions can help ensure that the organizational training metamorphosis continues on a positive trajectory that engages the learners and produces targeted results.

How has technology changed the way you learn in the past couple of years?


Photo Credit: Sir Watkyn

Successful workshifting is not only about being flexible and adaptable; it's about being resourceful.Having the right tools at the right time. To keep my productivity at a high level, I always try to talk with other iPhone users to discover their favorite apps. I've learned so much to help manage my daily activities.

We've already talked about note-taking and file storage, two app categories every workshifter must have. But what about the others? There has to be more. To get the conversation started, here's my list of go-to apps:

1. Ego ($1.99) - If you like keeping track of your analytics, Ego is a handy application. I can monitor my blog subscribers along with page views and unique subscribers. I can immediately tell when something unusual is happening with my website traffic and investigate.


2. Social Media Apps - Instead of separating them out, I'm just gonna lump the common social networking apps together. LinkedIn (free), Facebook (free), and your favorite Twitter app are a must. Speaking of Twitter, I can't decide between Twitter (free) or Tweetdeck (free), so I have them both. My connections/friends/tweeps tend to use these applications instead of email, so I like to have access and be in a position to respond.


3. Bump (free) - If you're trying to swap contact info with someone and don't want to do the old school business card, Bump is fun way to swap data. If both people have the app, you just open the app - do a fist bump - and viola! contact info is loaded on your iPhone.


4. FedEx (free) - Recently, I've had to send a couple of overnight packages while traveling. This app from FedEx is wonderful. You can load the tracking number and have peace of mind the package arrived on time.


5. Southwest Airlines (free) - Being a consultant, I travel quite a bit. And Southwest Airlines offers great rates (remember bags fly free!) But the secret to traveling on Southwest is checking in at the right time. With the Southwest Airlines app, you can check in using your iPhone.


6. Open Table (free) - When I'm at a conference or an out of town meeting, the conversation always turns to "where are we having dinner?" I try to do some research for cool places on the front end, but if time escapes me, I look to Open Table. I can search for restaurants in the area and make a reservation. All from my iPhone.


7. Starbucks (free) - And the same goes for that morning cup of coffee or tea. Need to find someplace for a caffeine fix or just looking for some free WiFi? The Starbucks iPhone app will take care of you.

And I can't resist tossing in a couple of apps to kill time between appointments or while you're waiting at the airport. Enjoy Sudoku (free and premium versions) and Zombie Farm (free) - two of my latest faves.

What are the iPhone apps that help you stay productive? Drop us your favorites in the comments.


Photo Credit: William Hook

Traveling, whether by air, sea or land, truly opens a window to the world. In addition to the natural wonders of the Earth, travelling exposes us to new and different cultures as well as to the new and different ways our own culture operates.

On a recent trip to Seattle [Washington] from my home base of South Florida, I went in search of inspiration and productivity at every corner Starbucks. Unable to connect to any of the available wi-fi networks (a much dreaded reality for any freelance writer, consultant or the like who envisions the world as an office), I retreated to the only spa/salon I could find - in as desperate need of a mani/pedi as of a wired hot spot. Imagine my surprise when I not only realized that the sticker prices of these services were triple what I am accustomed to in South Florida, but also when I was informed that I would be treated to bona-fide organically "green" treatments!  I felt indulged, special and strangely proud of myself for patronizing such an admirable organization. As I read over its literature (Julep hopes to expand, coming to a city near you, soon!) I realized that the terms "green", and "going green" are widely used - yet I was not certain how widely understood?
 
In simple terms, "going green" can be defined as the act(s) of adopting practices that "lead to more environmentally friendly and ecologically responsible decisions and lifestyles, which can help protect the environment and sustain its natural resources for current and future generations"
 
As an independent consultant, my perspective on the gradual switch to a greener existence is very different from that of a large organization or conglomerate. A greener workplace can mean many different things and translate into various behavioral modifications, so I wondered how I could best implement my own measures in my home office...?

1. Transportation - well, this one should be quite easy. My office is 20 feet across from the other rooms in my home. I rarely and barely need to drive into an office or to see clients; but when office duties or client-facing meetings call - I am best served to allocate specific office hours on specific days of the week and maximize that time to cover as many face-to-face meetings as feasible. Consider this: as a workshifter, every appointment or contract you do take is one that you did not take. So you would choose and juggle projects and clients carefully, wouldn't you? In the same way, every trip (by motor vehicle) you do take is one that could be combined or consolidated to produce a trip you don't have to take...


2. Tree Hugging - be they palm trees like I have in Florida or Pines to the north, we have a unique opportunity to please the trees by veering closer to a paper-less existence.
• With the onset of technology, smart phones and a plethora of online organizational tools, the need for hard copy calendaring systems and sticky note portraits is long gone. Although this may take some re-training of your mind if you are a sensual and visual worker who needs to see, feel and write - you may be surprised at the joy you receive from plugging in an appointment or task into your smartphone and having it magically sync with your work laptop or PC, or being able to color code your calendars and appointments... Welcome to the world of mindless, foolproof scheduling and tracking.
• Similarly, long gone is the need for drawers upon drawers of files. Even doctors are going digital nowadays! Create a logical filing system in your 'My Documents' folder, learn how to archive your email and most importantly - invest in a smart backup software and external drive. Most are simple, easy-to-install and affordable. Then, the only file cabinet you need is a fire-proof one in which to store the external drive...
• When you cannot avoid printing, make every effort to print double-sided. You will not only save yourself paper but also have smaller stacks to look at on your desk.


3. Power Struggle -Turn off your monitor/PC/laptop, set them to standby mode after 20 minutes of non-use, or - even better -  unplug! Before you turn any shade of green, BE INFORMED and understand what you're doing and what its effect will be. Did you know that if every notebook sold worldwide in 2006 was on standby 50% of the time... enough power would be saved on an annual basis to provide power to more than 45,000 households...? (citation) was shocked to learn that equipment continues to leech power in the "off mode" when still plugged in. So at night, or when you're away, it's best to "unplug" in more ways than one.


4. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle - while these terms have been around as long as I can remember, they have not always been actively practiced. Turn the A/C down or the heat up where you work. Reuse office supplies for as long as they last. Recycle all paper and plastic products and buy recycled wherever it can be found. If your community does not have a recycling program, contact your local waste management authority and demand one! Don't just think of yourself as an office of one, but rather as an army of one on a crusade to better the quality of the earth one less paper copy at a time..

So, no, it isn't easy being green, and it may take a more conscious effort on your part to live and work in a more environmentally friendly fashion, but the planet will thank you and so will many future generations. You may even surprise yourself and discover that a greener life is a cleaner one - in mind, office and spirit, too!

What steps are you/your organization taking/have taken to be greener? What small steps have you adopted to make your life's work more environmentally friendly?


Photo Credit: TheTruthAbout

As much as I love supporting local coffee shops, sometimes when I travel, particularly in Europe, I frequent Starbucks.  Why?  For workshifting purposes.  I ain't on a vacation, baby, I have a business to run.  They always have a multitude of outlets, plenty of open space, don't mind you camping out for a day.  And, of course, the seminal ingredient for any workshifters needs - WIFI (not free, though).  

But now, they have done something that will make workshifters the world over rejoice!



What do you think?

Imagine it's 1970 (unfortunately I can!), and you've arranged to meet a friend on a street corner, prior to a visit to the cinema. You both agreed to meet at 6 pm, but it's already 6:15 and your friend is nowhere to be seen. You find a public phone box and call her house, but there's no reply. Presumably she's on her way, but has just been delayed - except that you have no way of knowing. If she's not going to turn up, you'd like to cut your losses earlier rather than later, so that you can do something else with your evening. But you don't feel you can just abandon the evening, because she'll probably show up if you do. So what can you do, except wait?

This used to be a huge problem, played out thousands of times a day in a variety of circumstances, and which was largely solved by the invention of the pager (and more recently, the mobile phone). In a nutshell, the real problem was not that you couldn't easily contact your friend (although that was nigh-on impossible); the real problem was that you did not have enough information about your friend's whereabouts to be able to make a sensible decision. In today's parlance, you did not have her presence information.

The mobile phone, however, doesn't solve this problem; it merely sidesteps it. If you ring a friend on his mobile phone and he answers, you know that he is (probably) awake and is (possibly) prepared to speak to you. If you get voicemail, that could mean he's on another call, or has turned his phone off, or is underground ... or something. A lack of reply does not convey very much information.

Now think about this in terms of workshifting. You could be anywhere, and so could the people you need to talk to. However, unlike friends (who are probably not that far from you most of the time), your co-workers could be anywhere in the world, which introduces a non-zero probability that it's the middle of the night where they are. This is where presence information can be so usefully factored in. It is extremely useful to know when somebody is available to talk to, but it can also be really valuable to know not just that they are unavailable, but why they are unavailable. The reason: it can help you plan when you should try talking to them again.

Try thinking of it this way. People are continuously available unless (for example)

• It's the weekend (not always Saturday and Sunday, especially in the Middle East)
• It's a public holiday wherever they happen to be
• They're taking time off
• They're asleep
• It's too late in the evening
• It's too early in the morning
• They're in transit (and it's too awkward or not private enough to talk)
• They're in a meeting or otherwise engaged
• They're at the gym at lunchtime
• They don't want to talk to you

...which can result in few opportunities to talk, so you probably want to know when these opportunities occur in order to make the most of them. Now, there is some technological help available here. Many of us are Outlook users, and probably use the calendar facilities on a regular basis. However, it's not that easy to define all the different periods of unavailability in Outlook, and there's no support that I can see in the product for declaring yourself selectively available to some people but not others. Outlook also doesn't handle timezones that well.

But the provision of good quality presence information is not that difficult: you need to know which country somebody is in (from which the timezone, standard weekends and public holidays can be derived), and what their everyday routine is (bearing in mind that there may be several different schedules e.g. for shift workers). Implementing "selective availability" is harder, but not that hard; in the end, it's only another database. And you may well wish to tell people how you want to be contacted - IM during work hours, email if you're busy, mobile phone during the evenings, and not at all at weekends, perhaps. Finally, you need to be able to manage itineraries, so that a change of country at a certain time can be registered in advance, allowing people to schedule calls with you wherever you are (I'm making the assumption that this is a Good Thing; your mileage may vary!). And rather than hiding these choices away in obscure menus, allow them all to be defined from the same menu; make it easy, and people are more likely to take the trouble to keep their information up to date. Of course, if they don't, they may get phoned in the middle of the night.

For those seeking to get in touch with their co-workers, there are some obvious questions that you might want answered:

• Where are they?
• Are they busy or free right now?
• If they're busy now, when are they next free?
• What means of communication would they prefer me to use?

If you need to get in touch with several people simultaneously, then technology can compare all the answers and come up with a set that are mutually acceptable to all (or state that there is no suitable time for everyone to get together).
 
The advantages of this should be obvious: fewer wasted calls, better planned calls, less frustration, and shorter lead times for communications. The disadvantage is that everybody needs to participate, and further than participation only helps others, not yourself, which requires a certain amount of selflessness on the part of already busy people. And ultimately, it's down to the individual.

Can you see a scheme like this succeeding in your workplace?


Photo Credit: Darwin Bell

This morning's post is from San Sharma, online community manager at Enterprise Nation, the homeworking website, as well as the voice of @e_nation on Twitter.


I live in London, where - at this time of year - the daily commute usually involves travelling at temperatures officially too high to transport cattle. Luckily for me, I work athome. So, while commuters cram into stuffed carriages, I'm keeping cool in my home office - one of the many benefits of working from home. But the downside, for some, is the feeling of isolation that comes with working alone. Here are some ways to overcome that.

1. Close the door
   Working and living in the same space can lead to cabin fever, which is why it's important to make a distinction between your work space and your personal space. If possible, set aside dedicated space for your work - a study, a spare room, a garden shed, even! - somewhere you can close a door on at the end of the day.


2. Walk to work
   One of the best pieces of advice I've heard about working from home is this: trick your brain into thinking it's "going to work" by leaving your house in the morning, walking around the block and returning to your home office. It helps set up a routine, get into a mindset and kick-start a creative thinking cycle!


3. Always have an excuse to leave the house
   Another benefit of working from home is not having to shop at peak times. Do your grocery shopping when everyone else is at work and beat the checkout lines! But don't do all your shopping at once. I used to do a weekly shop when I worked in an office, but now I pop out when I need something, as it gives me the excuse to get out of the house.


4. A homeworker's best friend
   Keeping a pet is a great way to overcome isolation when you work from home. I talk things through with my cat, which doesn't make me feel as crazy as talking to myself! Dog owners have the perfect excuse to get out the house and get a little exercise and are, statistically,more likely to make friends.


5. Don't miss out on water cooler moments!
   Homeworking website Enterprise Nation uses its Twitter account to bring "an office vibe into your home (without all the annoying bits)". That includes a virtual 'water cooler moment', which it organises every day between 11am and 12pm BST. Homeworking 'tweeps' are invited to discuss non-work topics, like TV, cooking and, recently, "the best Bond" - and use the hashtag #watercoolermoment in their tweets. It's a great excuse for homeworkers to take a break and chat socially to others who work the same way.

If you work from home and don't already use Twitter, you really must! It's great for camaraderie and for sharing ideas - two things you might not associate with working from home.

What do you think?


Photo credit: Giampaolo Macorig

Thanks to all Workshifters who took the time over the past two weeks to fill out our brief one-question survey on what type of profession they were in. We had respondents from the US, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, France and Mexico.

Without further ado, here are the results:

Type of Profession	Percent
Other	19%
Advertising, Marketing, PR	15%
Information Technology	12%
Writer/Editor	8%
Education	8%
Salesperson	7%
Manager	7%
Programmer	5%
Creative Arts/Design	4%
Publishing & Journalism	3%
Healthcare	3%
Legal profession	3%
Customer service	1%
Accounting	1%
Engineering	1%

The goal of the survey was to determine the most common profession among Workshifters. With the exception of "Other", the top professions are pretty much in line with what I expected. Careers in advertising, IT, writing, editing and sales, all seem to be pretty easy to translate into remote working environments.

Many operate on a project basis and have clear deliverables and metrics, which is vital for both the Workshifter and the employer or client. These types of careers are also often computer based and involve solo work that can be done as a home-based business.
All could also be categorized as "knowledge workers," who are often defined as people with at least two years of college whose jobs rely on their minds, such as IT, engineering, management, etc.

I'm curious as to how "Education" fits into the remote working environment. I suspect these are people who perhaps teach out of their homes or maybe online modules?

The fact that "Other" was the top response either signifies that many Workshifters are in unique professions that don't fall within the typical categories, or that I simply didn't include enough career options in the survey. I suspect it's the latter.

In looking back at the answers, I realize that I likely should have included "professional services/consulting" or "realty" to the mix. Other than that, I'm wondering what other professions I am missing. What do you think?

Photo Credit: Carsten Knoch

Over the past year I was banished from cubicle-ville, where I more or less worked a 10 a.m to 6 p.m. shift five days a week as a print reporter. After my position evaporated, I spent the past year freelancing, looking for a "real" job, and finally launching a new career as a social media manager for a digital marketing agency. During this time I've come to appreciate five largely unspoken benefits to workshifting.

1. Safety in sickness. Earlier this month I felt miserable for three days. I ended up taking half a  Tuesday off and half a Thursday off. I was sick enough to have to take it easy, but not quite feeling so bad that I had to ignore work completely. What I really appreciated through this sick spell was that - and I'll admit this may sound a bit gross - the toilet was only 20 feet away, and the bed 15 feet. I could visit the bathroom 20 times and no one would notice, and I didn't have to worry that Joe from accounting was hogging the only stall. Then whenever I needed to rest for a little while, I didn't have to sneak outside, or try and relax in the company break room. I say this because the ability to toil away in the place I feel safer and more comfortable in than anywhere else in the world, allows me to be at least partly effective, instead of having to take the entire day off. In a traditional job, you either have to feel nearly fine, or go home. There's not a happy medium. You also have to be worried at work that others are watching, worried they might catch what you have. Had I been at my old post, chances are I would have had to take two or three days off, not so as a workshifter.


2. More windows. Because newspapers are traditionally old institutions, their buildings are often  drab, windowless structures located in cramped downtowns. In the winter it's too cold, and in the summer too hot. My home office is naturally located in a neighborhood I chose to live in, has lots of great windows, and on sunny days I can watch and hear ships slide in and out of the Duluth Minnesota port on Lake Superior. During the winter, I can light a fire in my fireplace and work in front of it. In the summer, I can open or close as many windows as I desire. In other words, the views and temperature controls of my office, are all in my control.  And parking's free!


3. Peer pressure nonexistent. While I have many friends, co-workers, clients and a boss scattered all over the globe, because they aren't sitting next to me I often find myself not spending as much time worrying about what others might say about my ideas. Obviously you always want to be very open to constructive criticism, but I feel much more freedom now, working solo, than I ever did when bosses and co-workers were always meandering about, reading what I was writing. Being physically alone allows me to feel freer to flex my own mental muscles more liberally.


4. Connected with others in ways that works better for me. One of my co-workers is in the Philippians. I'm working with a customer whose team is spread between the Silicon Valley and India. And many of my new colleagues and friends I've only met through Skype, blogs, e-mails and tweets. So while I work solo every day, I feel like I'm virtually surrounded by great people who are never more than a chat or tweet away, yet distant enough to not get irritating, or overbearing. I also have gained lots of input from forums like Third Tribe, with people who know exactly what I'm going through. Often because geography is no barrier, I meet more people whose thoughts and optimism about the world lines up with mine far more than I'd ever found locally.


5. Doesn't feel like work. There's something about working in the place you relax that helps make me feel like I'm not actually working. Most of the time I'm in my upstairs office, with my cats sleeping nearby. If I'm not there, a local Italian restaurant or coffee shop with WiFi, is where I can be found, meeting with clients. I don't worry about deciding what's for lunch. I hit the fridge when I'm hungry. I occasionally run an errand at 11 a.m., and do a couple of hours of work beginning at 11 p.m. I now work for myself, on what I want, when I want. And it feels pretty darn good.

What are some of the unspoken workshifting benefits you've never seen mentioned here?


Photo Credit: Stewf