Sometimes it's hard for me to believe I've been workshifting for almost ten years. That's how long I've had my consulting business. For me, work happens in many different places: home, airports, hotels, coffee shops, and sometimes client sites. One thing I learned early in my consulting life, which still holds true today, is that workshifting is about problem solving.

I'm not talking about the problem solving I do for clients (although that's certainly a type); I'm talking about the everyday problem solving that impacts me. Things like:

• I'm spending a lot of time on accounting and administrative work and not enough time on marketing and sales.
  
  
• I'd like to save more of my revenue for retirement.
  
  
• I need to find more time to read articles relevant to my business and my own professional development.
  
  
• There's a challenge working with [Insert name of person here] that's keeping me from doing my best work.

As much as we may not like to admit it, these problems exist all the time. And in order for us to resolve them, we must problem solve. For those in the workshifting world, the distance often means we have to figure out these matters on our own or reach out to a trusted friend or colleague for advice.

But regardless of whether we handle it alone or with the help of others, we have to know the steps for problem solving in order to manage the process correctly. Over the next two posts, I'll cover the six steps to effective problem solving. Today, let's talk about the first two, which deal with gathering information.

Analyze the situation

Ask yourself the following questions about the problem:

• Who is involved?
  
  
• What exactly is wrong?
  
  
• When did the problem first start happening?
  
  
• Where is the problem taking place?
  
  
• Is there a pattern to the problem?

To use the professional development example above, I have to determine if I'm the only person involved or if there are other people/responsibilities keeping me from reading more. I also have to be honest with myself and determine if this is a time or a motivation issue. It's important to decide if this problem is related to a change in the travel schedule--less travel time means less time to read in airports and elsewhere--or if it's something else. The solution is not as simple as just saying "read more." Figuring out the details about the situation will help move you closer to solving the problem.

Identify your goal for fixing the problem

Paint a picture of what things would look like if the problem were corrected. Ask yourself another set of questions to help formulate your goal:

• What would look different?
  
  
• What would feel different?
  
  
• What would be different?
  
  
• When is this happening?
  
  
• Where is it happening?

Let's use a different example: spending too much time on accounting and not enough on business. The best-case scenario might involve less paperwork, better time management when bills are due, and less stress about ensuring invoices are sent.

Asking yourself targeted questions and being honest with them will produce the answers you need for the next four steps, which involve developing and implementing a plan to correct the problem. I've always found these first two steps to be the most difficult. Sometimes I'm not ready to talk about the problem; other times I just don't want to deal with what's going on.

But once I'm ready, I've sometimes faced situations where the only thing I wanted was to just not deal with the problem anymore. Obviously, that's not good enough. I need to have some sort of goal for fixing the problem.

So the next time you've got a problem that's bothering you, don't just rush to do something. Take a moment to think about the situation and what you'd like to see happen. This creates the foundation for actually solving the problem.

Photo Credit: themanikone