Last year Australia watched while ash cloud plumes from Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull volcano caused the closure of 20 airports for nearly a week across Europe causing chaotic and major economic loss. While Australian businesses watched as Europe ground to a halt, they may have done well to consider their own business continuity plans as volcanic ash from Chile's Puyehue-Cordón Caulle volcano has forced the cancellation of more than 300 flights in Australia and New Zealand. Considering the vast expanse of this country, realistically, it's tough for a coach service to get you to that business meeting in a timely manner. Eleven hours on an overnight coach is not anyone's idea of fun - and certainly does not encourage productivity. Experiencing such a crisis may have previously seemed unlikely, our vast and sunburnt country makes it even more important to be prepared for when travel is not possible.

Although travel may be halted, your business doesn't have to encounter delays. Today, you can safely and easily conduct business just as if you are sitting across the room from your contacts or your office desk (if you so happen to be stranded en route home!). Whilst it may feel like the in-person meeting is the best way to get that human touch with customers and colleagues, there is something to be said for not having them wait or prolonging a decision that could inevitably lead to a better outcome for all involved. Think about your competition - just because you can't get to your customers doesn't mean your competition can't. So why let this unfortunate and uncontrollable event delay your business when the access, collaboration and connection tools you need to stay on track is a simple click away?

Want to learn more about business continuity best practices and options? Check out these reports to help guide your business continuity journey:

• Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery are top IT priorities for 2010 and 2011 - A whitepaper by analyst and research firm, Forrester this looks at how IT decision makers are disaster-proofing their businesses.
  
  
• Emergency Telecommuting - This is a quick-start guide to working well in a crisis - from wherever you are.
  
  
• Business Continuity Guaranteed - How to enable your employees to take the virtual road to work

Photo Credit: rwhgould

The only problem with short commutes is not having one.

My commute is 10 feet. I get up, wander into my office, reach down and hit the "Start Me Up" button on my desktop.

I do this daily, except for Tuesday mornings. That's the day of the week I drive 20 miles away for a meeting, the day I leave myself 45 minutes for a trip I hope will take 25. Sometimes I leave an hour earlier and workshift for a while at a coffeehouse near the client's office.

Frequently, when I have to drive somewhere (versus just hopping onto a Metro train), I time the commute to avoid traffic. For example, if a client is a rush-hour nightmare away, I will schedule meetings between 10 AM and 3 PM.

When I was in graduate school, I lived in a town with a commute that was 4 blocks long. I'd drive 10 blocks out of the way just to avoid getting "stuck in traffic." It seems laughable now - except I pretty much do the same thing today.

I know that when I see bumper-to-bumper traffic that stretches for miles, all I want is to be heading in the other, less-crowded direction.

When you're not workshifting, do you time your commute?

Photo Credit: Aoife city womanchile

In 2009 Forrester Research predicted that more than half the workforce would be teleworking by 2016:

"Fueled by broadband adoption, better collaboration tools, and growing management experience, the U.S. telecommuting ranks will swell to 63 million by 2016. Those 29 million new telecommuters lined up five abreast would stretch from New York to LA! Leading the surge are occasional telecommuters and regular telecommuters who work from home between one and four days a week."

Lots of other respected organizations have made similar projections.

Well, call me a skeptic, but while I'd love nothing better than to see an end to traffic jams, I just don't see it happening any time soon.

For those of us who are lucky enough to work where and when we want, it's easy to forget that the majority of the workforce doesn't. They're bound to the cubicle farm with tethers that date back to the days of sweatshops and typing pools. Those tethers, a.k.a. managers, simply can't imagine not being able to see the backs of their employee's heads from 9 to 5 each day.

My organization, the Telework Research Network, just completed a study that looked at telework trends over the past five years. Sponsored by Citrix Online, our summary report, The State of Telework in the U.S., reveals who's really teleworking, what they're doing, and where they're doing it. We even dared to make a prediction of our own--but it's one that's sure to disappoint the true believers, advocates, and companies hoping to cash in on the trend.

First for the good news. Telework is growing. In fact, based on U.S. Census data 61% more employees considered home their primary place of work in 2009 than in 2005, despite the recession. While the full story on the impact of the recession won't be known until 2010 Census data is available, private sector survey data just released by WorldatWork, suggests that while the overall number of teleworkers declined between 2008 and 2010, the frequency of telework increased.

Now the bad news. Census data shows that only 2.9 million employees work from home more than half the time (not including the self-employed). That's only 2.3% of the workforce. So while 61% growth sounds impressive, it has more to do with how low the number was five years ago than any kind of a wholesale change in the way we work.

How can it be that while 80% of Fortune Magazine's "100 Best Companies To Work For" already offer telecommuting, so few people are doing it on a regular basis? Again, I say, if you're lucky enough to workshift regularly, count your blessings. While a majority of large companies say they offer telework, it's largely granted as an occasional accommodation for only a handful of employees. Our study in fact showed that over 75% of employees who work from home earn over $65,000 per year, putting them in the upper 80 percentile of the workforce.

Employees want to telework-- according to WorldatWork, almost 80% of would do so at least part of the time if allowed. The tools and technologies to support it are widely available, inexpensive, and easy to use. But most companies simply don't have the culture of trust that comes from measuring performance by what people do rather than when, where, or how they do it.

In his bestselling book, Drive, Dan Pink observes "...despite four decades of scientific research on human motivation, there's an immense mismatch between what science knows and what management does."

He goes on to say, "...while the carrots and sticks worked successfully in the 20th century, it's precisely the wrong way to motivate people today."

It's time for managers to wake up from their "management by walking around" stupor. Fact is, their employees have already left the building. According to a recent DEGW survey of 60,000 worldwide employees, knowledge workers are not at their desk 65% of the time. So how's that whole management by walking around thing working? Not so good, I'd guess. If fact, as Pink and the majority of management gurus have been telling us for years, it really never did.

What employees of all age groups want is the flexibility to determine for themselves where, when, and how they work.

They want to be trusted.

They want to do their best and feel that they're a part of greater whole.

They want to be treated like adults.

And if they can't get what they want, they'll go somewhere else or venture out on their own.

This is not your grandfather's workforce.

You can download a copy of The State of Telework in the U.S. report here.

Photo Credit: TylerIngram

I attend online meetings a lot. And it's not just because my company makes GoToMeeting. Rather, it's because we've adopted a workshifting culture where colleagues are often working at disparate locations, either at home, at a different company office or on the road (for conferences, vacations, etc.).

We've also adopted the Agile project management methodology, which calls for frequent planning and status meetings.

Add to that the fact that my job is often collaborative, as I work with marketing managers, designers, web developers and other editors, and I end up with a truckload of online meetings in my calendar. I have so many that I'd call myself an online meeting power user.

Are you a power user as well? Take a look at the checklist below to see how you compare.

You might be an online meeting power user if:

• You host or attend 10 or more online meetings per week.
  
  
• You can start a meeting and eat a sandwich at the same time.
  
  
• You're super fast with the mute button - either to mute yourself while you finish your sandwich or to silence the guy typing on a snare drum.
  
  
• You meet with people in so many time zones that you open each meeting with "Good morning, good afternoon and good evening!"
  
  
• You keep your headset on all day, just in case you need to join a meeting and use VoIP.
  
  
• You host your meetings online even when attendees are in the same room with you.

If you're an online meeting power user like me, I salute you.

I think it's not only neat you use the latest workshifting technology and have a collaborative job like I do but also progressive because I believe we power users are doing good in the world. We're getting the job done; we're balancing work with sandwiches life; AND we're helping to protect the environment by meeting online instead of burning fossil fuels to travel.

Consider yourself invited to the online meeting power user club. Feel free to share your online meeting power tips and tricks with the rest of us in the comments below.

Photo Credit: adedip

In a perfect world, we would pull together a team of people, schedule a meeting, and brainstorm solutions to problems. But when you work "on your own" or "on the go," being able to problem solve by yourself is critical. Workshifting means being able to figure out challenges without conference rooms and lots of people.

In the first part of this post series on problem solving, we talked about - analyzing the situation and identifying a goal for fixing the problem. Now that we've got that high level overview of looking at problems, let's dig into the details.

Identify the causes of the problem

On the surface, it seems very obvious that we need to identify the causes of the problem before we can actually move toward fixing it. But my guess is you've also seen people jump to a solution (i.e. "Here's what we need to do.") without taking the time to analyze why the situation exists in the first place.

If you're trying to identify the causes of the problem, one way is to think of other similar situations and use that as a frame of reference. There are four different types of situations you can use for comparison:

1. A situation that's exactly the same as the one you're facing. Maybe a recurring problem with the same person.
   
   
2. A situation that's the same, but without the problem part. An example would be an identical project where the problem you're facing didn't occur.
   
   
3. A situation with the same problem, but(maybe not as severe. For instance, a similar project with the same challenge on a different scale/magnitude.
   
   
4. A situation that's exactly like the outcome you're trying to achieve. You've been able to achieve the result before under different circumstances.

Once you've identified a similar circumstance, compare the who, what, where, when, and patterns of the two situations to determine the differences and similarities. It will help you realize where the causes lie.

Generate proposals for solving the problem

The key to finding good solutions is to understand all the options available. I know sometimes we like to think there's only one solution when in reality there could be more. We have to open our minds to all of the possibilities and generate as many ideas as possible. During this step, it could be valuable to brainstorm ideas with others or find a colleague that will challenge your thought processes. If that's not possible, stepping away from the problem for a few hours (or days) can offer some fresh perspective.

When I'm trying to work through a problem, I will have identified my goal and then made up my mind there's only one way to achieve it. When truth be told, there are probably a dozen ways to get the same outcome.

Or there are times I'm convinced someone will react a certain way. Have you ever heard, "Oh, I know they won't do it. No sense in asking." In the end, the person gets the answer they wanted and says, "I was convinced they would say no." We have to remove those mental blocks that keep us from generating ideas.

Select one or more ideas for implementation

After generating a list of proposed solutions, now's the time to pick one. You may also want to select a backup plan. When considering which option might be best, there are a few things to think about:

• Appropriateness - Does the solution fix the problem? Sometimes our solutions, as good as we think they may be, really don't fix the issue. Or they create new problems.
  
  
• Attainability - Are you able to implement the solution? We might not have the resources (time, money, etc.) for some solutions.
  
  
• Attractiveness - Will people do it? If the people who need to be part of the solution won't embrace it, then you're doomed before you start.

• Adaptability - Can the solution be altered if conditions change? Even the best solutions get impacted by external factors. Consider how much flexibility the solution has if conditions change.

Plan and implement the selected proposal

Once the solution is determined, you can use the who, what, where, when, and how often questions to develop a implementation strategy. For example:

• Who needs to be involved?
• What steps need to be taken?
• Where will the action steps take place?
• When is each step scheduled to happen?
• How often should progress be monitored?

This model for problem solving works for both process challenges as well as people ones. Thinking through each step will give you the perspective to develop a solid solution. . . usually all by yourself.

Photo Credit: Tomasz Stasiuk

Making the proverbial shift into workshifting is tough - for employers and workshifters, alike. Though gaining greater credibility, the workshifting lifestyle is still nebulous at best and completely scary at worst to most organizations considering permitting an employee to workshift or hiring a workshifter outright.

This perceived dilemma can make some workshifters second guess their daily decisions, promises and commitments in order to say what we believe the hiring parties want to hear.

So, I have come up with the 5 things most workshifters won't say, but should:

1. "My greatest quality work is produced when I have the most flexibility in time, location and method."
   
   
2. "I would love to help you/your organization with this project/issue, but it's not within my core competency and it would be better for you to ask someone else with that strength."
   
   
3. "I would need to assess the current status of your organization and measure the gap between where it is currently at versus what you want this project/assignment to achieve, before I commit or spec out my statement of work."
   
   
4. "As a rule, I need a full 24 (48) hours' notice in order to attend a meeting on-site, except in the case of an emergency or project showstopper."
   
   
5. "I lobbied for a workshifting lifestyle so I could perform at my best and serve you at the highest level of my capability; therefore, being asked to commit to more than my realistic capacity or having to forego my flexibility defeats both of our ultimate and intended goals for success."

Some of these statements may appear harsh or "un-A-player-like" at first, but rest assured - they are often the mantras which need to be heard first and most. Your opportunity to workshift has been hard won and much deserved; so wouldn't you prefer to set yourself up for success with expectations based on realistic and supportive parameters or speak only empty promises and have your work and workshifting lifestyle suffer?

Photo Credit: HowardLake

Whether you're a new visitor or an old friend of workshifting.com, have you ever wanted something tangible about the concept of "workshifting" that you could provide to your manager or a colleague interested in workshifting? Sure, you could point people to our About page or one of the many resources that we provide on the site such as "Workshifting - The Bottom Line." But, we wanted to go one step further for you and so we created a short, downloadable Workshifting Fact Sheet.

This fact sheet will help explain what "workshifting" is and the savings that workshifting can provide to employees, employers and the environment while increasing business performance and employee satisfaction. We've provided a handful of stats along with real workshifting stories and quotes.

You can download your copy of the Workshifting Fact Sheet here.

We hope that this Workshifting Fact SheetWorkshifting Fact Sheet will help you in learning more about workshifting and will help you in building your business case for workshifting at your company!

I've always been an animal lover. Growing up, I had a family life full of pets; at one point when I was a kid, our house had a cat, a dog, a gerbil, a guinea pig and 6 aquariums full of fish. Old habits die hard, because today my husband and I have a dog and 3 cats.

I do much of my work from home, so having these furry creatures around me while I'm working is a natural occurrence. There have been studies done about pets in the workplace, which show that having an animal around, such as a dog, a cat or fish, can have a calming effect on the work environment. At the same time, having pets around all day long can sometimes present challenges, too. Over time, I've learned some ways to cope with having my furry friends around while I work in my home office. Here's what I've found.

Keyboard Cats

It never fails that the minute I sit down to get something done at the computer, one or more of my cats will decide that's the time when they need attention. They will attempt to hop on the desk, lay on my keyboard, toss papers out of baskets and generally do what they can to distract me from what I'm trying to get done. As if it's not bad enough that we already have so many distractions from our work, some days I really don't want a persistent kitty vying for my attention either.

Sometimes, shutting the door to the office or putting them in a separate closed-off room will solve the problem, but many cats don't care for being locked out or locked up. Closing the door will only make them howl and scratch, which is often worse than having them in the room! I've found the best trick is to have plenty of catnip-infused toys handy. Then, when kitty gets to be too much, divert her attention with a bit of playtime. The catnip is very important here - no kitty on Earth can resist a long nap immediately after a good catnip high.

Dog Days

Dogs are a great addition to the home office environment, too. But inevitably, the minute I hop onto a conference call or start recording a podcast or lecture, my energetic pup will decide it's playtime. He finds the squeakiest toy he has and proceeds to growl and snort and have a grand old time, leaving me apologizing to my clients or re-recording my show. Oh, and of course at the same time, the dog down the street will cross before the front window, and my dog will proceed to bark his head off for a while as well.

Again, putting puppy in his kennel or in a separate room while I'm on my call is one way to deal with this, but not all dogs are willing to go quietly. The best solution I've found is to make sure you get your dog out for some good, solid exercise every day for at least 45 minutes, preferably in the morning. This could be a run at the park or a good brisk walk around the neighborhood, but the goal here is to tire your pup out to the point where he spends most of the day sleeping instead of wanting to play with you. A tired dog is a happy dog, and a happy dog makes a happy owner (and happy clients and podcasting co-hosts, too!).

Something Fishy

The good thing about fish is they don't make noise. 'Nuff said.

I find that my life and my work are enriched greatly by having pets around. As much as I like to avoid having cats snoozing on my keyboard, I do like having them curled up in my lap while I work. And I love having my dog sleeping peacefully at my feet. Animals create a positive energy and a peaceful environment in which to work. But if you're going to have pets around, make sure that they have everything they need to be calm and happy - and ultimately you'll be calm and happy, too.

Photo Credit: Citrix Online

If you've ever wondered how many people are really doing some form of virtual and/or online employment, well wonder no more. oDesk, a global employment platform, is sharing the data. You can check out the May 2011 report here.

The report offers a tremendous amount of data, including month-over-month and year-over-year reporting. It also provides insight into the kinds of jobs that are being used in a telework capacity. In May, over 90,000 jobs were created and $16M spent in online work.

The report goes on to share the top locations for online workers both in the U.S. as well as globally.

The mere fact that online employment is being tracked is significant. It ought to be an indicator that telework is gaining a hold in the modern workplace. Otherwise, there would be no need to spend time and resources reporting the results.

It also opens the door to a new dynamic. In the past, we've spent our time convincing employers to create flexible work policies in order to retain talent. And this is still important. Now that data is being reported on where to find online talent and their skill sets, employers can start actively searching for online talent to fill their next opening.

Individuals looking to brand themselves as online talent will want to dedicate some time to thinking about their personal brand. The employment market just became incredibly large and very competitive.

What do you think? Are companies paying more attention to flexible work and hiring online talent? Leave us your thoughts in the comments.

Laptop? Check. Cell phone and charger? Check. Mindset to work productively from the road during the family's extended summer road trip? Uhhh...

Preparing to take a "workation" from the road is not as simple as it may sound. Think of it as "mind over motel" - you have to find that place where your creative spark feels comfortable igniting, even if it's a place you've never seen or been before.

As our family heads out on a three-week road trip from South Florida to Northern California, I've promised myself not to work too much. But, in addition to the "slob gene" I wrote about previously, I also bear my father's habitual early rising. So while they slumber, I'll surf or work.

I've read with interest Rhonda Hughes' dispatches as she's driven some 4,000 miles from California to Massachusetts. As a four-year teleworker, she's accustomed to working outside the traditional office. But working from the road? "My experience will no doubt teach me new skills," she wrote.

Indeed. I've workationed before in an adventure we call Home Office Highway. Each year, we take an extended road trip, usually in an RV - to the Carolinas, the Jersey Shore, Henry David Thoreau's Walden in Massachusetts, even Toronto and northern Ontario.

Before each journey, parallel preparation is launched. My wife packs the food and family supplies. She shops for road gorp like we're heading on a three-week walkabout in Utah. My kids (hopefully) will pack all their clothes and belongings. What they'll definitely bring along are their laptops and smart phones. Chargers? One can only hope.

I focus on the tech. Packing for a road trip isn't just about having the stuff you need to work. It's about having the right stuff, where it belongs, so you're mentally prepared to work from the road. Think of it as Jack Bauer (24) meets George Clooney (Up in the Air). Whether they carried a messenger bag or a TravelPro suitcase, both were packed before each adventure.

My trusty Oakley knapsack is my TravelPro. It's been my pop-up office-on-the-road for the better part of a decade now. Even when we take a weekend away, I just grab it and go. It's like an expecting couple's hospital bag; pre-packed with clothes and toiletries, it's good to go when baby says, "It's time."

This time, it'll carry:

• My Verizon 4G Mifi broadband wireless mobile hotspot. Mobile Internet has proven very handy indeed when on the road previously. Unlike the USB mobile Internet I once used, with the Mifi, five devices can log on at once (i.e., five people, five users). For a dad who wants to work, or a mom looking for a hotel, restaurant or tickets for a whitewater outing, mobile Internet is golden. Even if you get a short-term agreement, if you plan to work from the road, this is the way.
  
  
• A power transformer. We'll have to charge the laptops, tablets, iPods, phones and Kindles along the way (alas, one at a time, folks). The Town & Country we rented actually sports a 115v outlet. So I'll pull out and plug my Belkin mini, four outlet surge-protector / power strip in and we'll have all the power we need.
  
  
• USB headset for Skype calls home. The kids' Macbooks have iChat. But this'll allow dad to chat with family or clients from the road.
  
  
• Flash drive and card reader. I'll use these to transfer pictures to my laptop, then upload them to Picasa in the cloud. Data portability is important. More important, I'm not keen to wade through and download 1,000 pictures when I get home. I'll clear the camera's card (and delete bum shots) along the way - ensuring they're protected, should something happen to the camera. The camera's replaceable. The pictures are (hopefully) priceless.
  
  
• Carbonite account updated and all my stuff backed up. In journalism parlance, they call this "burying the lead" (putting the most important detail toward the end of the story). People who use online back-up generally enthuse about its effectiveness. Sure, I'll upload key files to Google Docs. But if I want to reference or work on something on my hard drive back in the home office, backup-to-the-cloud is invaluable. Just renewed this month. It's easily the smartest $54 I'll spend over the next 12 months.
  
  
• Laptop cable locks. Another permanent item in my Oakley. Think of it as insurance. You can never be too safe. Alas, people will be people.

Some added possible accessories: Motorola walkie talkies, if we split up somewhere in the Utah countryside; an LED flashlight, strong and powerful, it cuts through the blackest night; a GPS locator (part compass, part GPS, you mark a spot and it'll guide you back to that spot - not matter how far off the path you venture); my laptop transformer and camera and BlackBerry chargers (of course); a bottle of Excedrin and a toothbrush.

And I always stash a couple of pens and a notepad. Hey, typing is productive. Journaling is cathartic. Just ask Mr. Thoreau.

What will you take on your summer vacation?

Photo Credit: dbaron

In my experience, unless children are asleep, it's pretty hard to get work done around them, especially if the work requires mental concentration. That's why when I work from home my husband is still the primary caregiver - I'm mostly just there so I can see the kids on breaks and be aware of what's going on with my household.

Once in awhile, though, I have to pull double duty. When my husband has an appointment and we can't find a babysitter, I sometimes have to figure out ways to keep two kids occupied for a half hour or so while I attend to business.

So I give them work to do.

Not my work, of course, but work of their own. While I finish a task, they can draw and color, make a card for Grandma, work on their reading or math workbooks, build a new Lego masterpiece or even pick up toys.

I like working side by side with my children. I feel as though I'm setting an example for them, and they're getting an idea of how the grown-up world works. They're learning there's a time for work and a time for play, and that both can be satisfying and fun.

Who knows - maybe someday we'll workshift together for real?

Not that I don't hope they'll move out on their own eventually, but I'd be proud to have them workshift with me during extended vacations - ideally at their houses, where I'll be the cool workshifting grandma who's still cranking out copy at a ripe old age. And then I'll give the grandkids work to do, too.

Photo Credit: plums_deify

I recently reminisced about some of my commuting experiences. This exercise got me thinking about what I would have only dreamed about in those days: workshifting.

Back then, my aspirations for the daily grind had more to do with whether or not I could have an office at HQ. If I could, what was the view like? Could I paint the walls? Could I control the music and other aesthetics?

In those days, I may have daydreamed about working from wherever I wanted to - a café, a library, a studio, an office at home, my backyard with dogs snoozing in the shade - but I wouldn't have thought it was possible. Employers would never have gone for that. Or would they?

Times have changed dramatically. It's no longer unusual to hear workshifting scenarios swapped at social gatherings, church potlucks or over a pyramid of apples at the market. Everyone knows someone who workshifts, and I happen to know many who do so - every day, one day a week or as needed when a family member is sick. Some work in groups; others work solo. Workshifting has become common.

I write this as I gaze over at a bouquet of bright yellow forsythia from my garden (gathered earlier today during a break) and while my husband - who is done workshifting for the day - is downstairs in the kitchen preparing a black lentil, sweet potato and corn shepherd's pie within view of two sleeping greyhounds, tired from their earlier romping in the yard (also during a break).

I savor the moment, fully appreciating my good fortune in being able to transition from reporting for work at an on-site workplace to my current any-site working life. I've never felt more engaged in the work that I do. I have levels of productivity and control over my own workflow that I don't recall having in the traditional workplace.

On this particular Friday night, I wrap up a project as the savory odors of dinner waft up the stairs to mingle with the perfume of the fresh-cut forsythia. Before today, I had no idea that forsythia had a fragrance so strong. Workshifting has taught me to grab hold of the moment, to slow things down a bit, to linger over details I never even noticed passing me by.

A little more than a decade ago, I was just entering the workforce post-graduate school. During a job interview in the suburbs, the potential for a reverse commute (a subtle, yet highly regarded workplace perk) was enthusiastically highlighted by my interviewer as a strong incentive for taking the position. She knew that my apartment was nestled in the heart of a busy Chicago neighborhood just north of downtown. When many miles separate home and workplace, the popularity of the direction you are traveling matters a great deal.

Fast-forward a decade and some change, and here I am pondering a very different kind of working life. Instead of gazing at the backs of cars, I gaze at forsythia (or hydrangea or whatever else happens to be in bloom in the garden). Rather than smelling the fumes of a belching bus or the stale air inside a train car, I smell the aroma of dinner being prepared downstairs. A reverse commute as an incentive simply pales in comparison to opting out of traffic altogether.

Photo Credit: iamdez

Jelly, the casual, free event where home workers, freelancers, small business owners and workshifters of all kinds meet up to work together, has taken off in the UK over the last 18 months. More than 60 groups are meeting regularly across the country.

Jan Minihane, the founder of Jelly in Shropshire (where it has been particularly popular) witnessed the unique help and support that Jelly provides to small businesses and came up with the idea of a national event. She wanted both to encourage more Jelly groups to start, and to give existing Jelly organisers and attendees, who have developed a lively Twitter community, to meet up face to face.

She invited me and Fay Easton, who operates Enterprise HQ, the Ironbridge workhub that hosts some of the Shropshire Jelly events, to co-organise The BIG Jelly, as we named it. Obviously nobody would bother to travel miles to a Jelly event if they could attend one locally, so this had to be a very special day, offering Jelly certainly, but also a lot more.

With no track record for the event, large amounts of sponsorship were hard to find in the current economic climate, but we were amazed and delighted by the generosity of our speakers and all our suppliers and helpers who contributed their expertise to our not-for-profit event. The whole day and subsequent Twitter activity has proved how effective it is when home workers and freelancers help each other out.

We packed the day with three speakers, known for their small business expertise, plus a choice of breakout events run by small business experts - topics included marketing, websites and SEO, working from home, finance, social media and running Jelly events. After lunch there was a small business Q&A, and plenty of space available all day to meet people and start building relationships.

Was it a success? It was a triumph beyond our wildest dreams! The whole day buzzed with excitement, with delegates delighted to be there, meeting new people and taking on board new ideas. They continue to tell us how they are being inspired with new plans for their businesses. We have received many requests to make The BIG Jelly an annual event.

I'd love to hear your own experiences and ideas for the development of Jelly events, both locally and on a national scale. If you haven't attended a Jelly event yet, you should consider attending one!

I just rearranged my home office again.

It's something I tend to do every few months or so, probably a carry-over from my days growing up as a military brat...living a transient lifestyle growing up has meant that, as an adult, I crave a change of scenery more often than most.

But there's another side to the regular rearrangement of my working space, and I think it is directly linked to my productivity. You see, I think that one of the main reasons people claim a lack of inspiration and productivity is because their working environment is not comfortable for them. I mean, who wants to spend 6 or 8 or 12 hours a day in a space that makes them uncomfortable? It harkens back to an era when workshifters like you and I were stuck in stale offices, with boring beige walls, recycled air and the wafting odor of your neighbour's strange lunch.

So, how can you take your working environment to the next level? What are some things you can do to make your space a place you WANT to be in, instead of somewhere you HAVE to be?

Positioning is Everything

Sometimes, you don't have control over which room in the house becomes the office. But one thing you do have control over, is how things are positioned in your space. Peoples' natural tendency when positioning office furniture is to want to push everything against the walls. Desks face the wall. Bookshelves are jammed in corners. It's probably entirely psychological, but I've found I have a much harder time creating when I'm facing a wall. It's like I need to project outwards to get the best results.

So, try putting your desk in the middle of the room instead of up against a wall (unless you are facing a window with a great view, in which case, go nuts!) Face outwards into the room rather than inwards. You'll find that, not only does it make the room look bigger, but you'll probably experience that same sense of flow that I do when I'm facing into the room.

Surround Yourself with Stimulating Things

If your office is boring, work will be boring, it's that simple. As I look around my desk, I see several things. There's a photo of me and my husband that I really like. There's the Evil Eye Pendant my parents brought back from Greece. There's a lava lamp. Colourful photos and prints on the wall. And my computer desktop is a series of ever-changing images that I like. There are candles. And relaxing music in the background.

These are the things that personally stimulate my creativity and productivity. The goal here is to find that balance between inspiration and distraction. Your combination of things will be different than mine. But spice up your work space with things you like, and you'll be more relaxed. And a relaxed workshifter is a productive workshifter!

The Clothes Make the Workshifter

One of the absolute best things about working from home is that I can wear whatever I want. And most days, that's yoga pants, a t-shirt and a hoodie. Warm socks (my office is in the basement so my toes get cold). In the winter, on particularly chilly days, it's flannel pajamas. The most important thing is to wear clothing that is comfortable for you. If you're on a lot of video calls, you may have to consider a bit more what you're wearing from the waist up, but of course you can always go back to the t-shirt and hoodie after the call is done!

If you are comfortable in your surroundings, as well as in your physical self, then you will undoubtedly be able to work more productively, be more inspired, and accomplish more!

How do you make your work environment more comfortable and productive?

Photo Credit: Citrix Online

A lot has happened in the past couple weeks since my initial post: Happy Trails. We've driven through 15 states and traveled almost 3,700 miles, from Santa Rosa, CA, to Atlanta, GA, and we are now heading north to Boston, MA.

It's been an amazing adventure so far. Some of the highlights include the snowcapped mountains of Utah, off-roading in Wyoming to see wild horses and staying in a historic mansion in Charlotte, NC.

The sights have been incredible but working while on the road hasn't been as easy as I'd hoped. Check out this short video to hear more about my experience so far.

Today, I hazarded (pun intended) a quick survey of the deskscape that is my home office workspace:

An empty plastic cup. A dinner plate with the greasy smear of today's lunch of leftover pizza. A strand of dental floss. An unopened router I'm supposed to review for one of my tech pubs. A tax return ready to be mailed. Today's mail. Yesterday's mail. Yester-week's mail.

Don't even ask about my floor.

Clutter is apparently hard-coded into my DNA. I recall the sign that used to hang in my father's office (where stacks of files were on every surface, even as file cabinets sat empty): "Please don't straighten out the mess in my office. You'll confuse me and screw up my whole world."

Guess this organizationally challenged heathen didn't fall too far from that tree.

That said, I'm efficient and successful. I wish I had a buck for every time some home office guru advised, "A tidy home office is a productive place. Cleanliness is next to godliness." Last I checked, Google is much closer--and its apps have done much more for my productivity than cleanliness has. Given the confusion in my workspace, I'd be better off taking advice from Waste Management.

Let this home office contrarian share two cents of advice found beneath the sofa cushions and the terrier that rests atop them:

• My home office is just that--my home office. So is your home office yours. Find your own rhythm clutter-wise. Sweat is better expended on billable stuff.
  
  
• My space, my rules. I've been working from a successive line of cluttered home offices since 1989, and I don't recall getting pink-slipped because my space would fail an OSHA inspection. There've been baby toys and play pens in the mix, too, at times. (That's another taboo, having kids in the home office, sages say. Well, one's now in college and two are in grade school, and they seem pretty well adjusted, thank you very much).
  
  
• Personal hygiene is no barometer. I was Facebooking with a fellow home officer who said he knew business development was slow when his scruff had grown thick. Frankly, I'm just the opposite--my beard grows thick when I'm busy.
  
  
• Watch out for the video conference requests. Recently, another friend (not a workshifter) scheduled a Skype video call with me. Unshaven, hair disheveled, and wearing a tank top, I was in no mood for such nonsense, but I threw on a hat and obliged him anyway (with the camera conveniently tilted to avoid the sight of my home office floor).
  
  
• Forget the pretense. I work from home, and all my friends and clients know this. Back 10 years ago or so, I would never leave the home in anything less than nice shorts and t-shirts. Now, I leave with no care at all about my attire. Those who know me don't care. For those who don't know me, I don't care.
  
  
• Friday will come. That's the day I generally clean the home office: transfer dishes to the kitchen, ditch detritus, file or shred papers, empty the garbage can. Which Friday this happens, I'm not sure. But one always comes along just as I'm feeling sufficiently motivated to clean.

Truth be told, professional organizers have a point in their calls for cleaner workspaces. For most, cleanliness is probably a good thing, if you want focus and productivity and all that. There's a lot to be said for the sanitary and even hypo-allergenic benefits of a space kept clean.

But I realized long ago that work is an intensely personal thing.

So, until the webcam becomes standard issue, clutter is OK--just make sure the cam's tilted up a few degrees and your secret will remain safe.

Photo Credit: Jeffrey Beall

You know those days when you're hopelessly unproductive?

How do you respond? Come on. Tell the truth. Do you agonize over the research project all day hoping a "eureka" moment will break through? Do you sit there shuffling papers, reading, tweeting, or (worse) recycling lame jokes via email?

Or do you just stop?

I had one of those days recently. My to-do list was really long, but there was nothing that had to be done right away. My brain tried to focus on first one task and then another. Then I tried to tackle some low-hanging fruit. Nothing. Neurons definitely were not firing.

So I walked away.

I ran errands. Went for a walk. Took a nap.

I took the day off.

Workshifting takes discipline, but success is based on results and not time chained to a desk. Whether you work for yourself or are part of a bigger team, there's no one tracking your comings and goings. You either get stuff done or you don't. So why do we so often feel compelled to be "at work" on some variation or other of 9-to-5, Monday through Friday?

Sometimes you have to give yourself permission to take a day off.

Photo Credit: pmin00