workshifting

The Downside to Workshifting

2012-05-14T20:48:05Z

The woman standing next to me on the platform finished checking her email, and I smiled knowingly. It was my afternoon off, all my clients knew it, but I still felt compelled to acknowledge a couple of messages myself.

She was headed to the dentist, running late because she had tried to get that "one more thing" done before she took off. And she was still trying.

Does workshifting tether us to the job more?

Don't get me wrong - I love the freedom that technology brings. And Wi-Fi is awesomeness. But it used to be that when you left the office, you were gone. People didn't expect to hear from you until the next day. Now people are taking calls and emailing documents from the beach (which is fine when you're working at the beach). But the downside of this results-only workplace stuff is that we're swapping our downtime for "work where you want, when you want, but be reachable."

Maybe it's not workshifting, but perhaps we ought to be a little bit more careful about what we wish for. Or maybe it's just about reestablishing boundaries for ourselves.

What say you?

Photo credit: Pulpolux !!!

Home-Working Essentials

2012-05-10T14:26:06Z

About a year ago, I ran a series on my website where readers sent in photos and descriptions of their favorite bits from their workshifting kits. I find it's one of those topics that most often crop up when I talk with home workers face to face or online. They mention the items that they couldn't work without or that brighten their home-working day, and I began to notice that these items always fit into the same groups:

Technology

Hardly surprising, computers, routers and phones are at the top of many lists, since these are the key pieces of equipment that allow us to work from home or on the move. Also worth mentioning, Apple aficionados tend talk about their kit with an affection and enthusiasm not often encountered among PC users!

Food and drink

Workshifting is often synonymous with working from coffee shops these days, as coffee appears to be the fuel that keeps most of us running, even here in the UK, traditionally a nation of tea drinkers.

When talking about their kits, very few people just generically list "coffee." Far from it - some people mention favorite coffee shops while others detail their methods of brewing it at home. And we are particular about not only the coffee maker but also what to drink the coffee out of, with favorite mugs getting frequent mentions.

And when you make a hot drink, what better to go with it than a snack to munch on? At the top of the list on my highly unscientific sampling are toast and what the supermarkets call "bakery goods" - muffins, bagels, tea cakes, etc. Caffeine and carbs provide just the shot we need to keep going, although many people also noted that too much bread made them sleepy.

Personal favorites

Most often mentioned here are children (not everyone wants them well out of sight and hearing when there's work to be done) and animals - both domestic pets and wildlife. I can vouch for the soothing effect and sheer humor of watching the antics of new-born lambs in a neighboring field. And when we're not looking out of the window, we gain great enjoyment from home-office accessories, whether they are purely decorative or highly functional.

Is there anything that you can't do without during your workshifting day or that simply gives you pleasure? Is there another category that I'm missing?

Photo credit: San Sharma, Worksnug.com

Defeating Distractions: How to Workshift Away from Home

2012-05-07T16:43:49Z

We're easily distracted.

The phone rings. A co-worker drops by. The neighbors chat loudly. Unfortunately, with so many attention-grabbing interruptions, staying focused at work can become its own job.

Many workshifters stand by the virtues of the home workspace, which can help alleviate many of these concerns (while admittedly adding others). But what if you're stuck on a train or plane? Or changing things up with a café visit?

These settings can't be controlled nearly as well. Many offices are designed to minimize noise, but public transit and your local eatery surely are not. So how do you cope?

The next time you're working away from both the office and home, don't worry about relocating to avoid distractions. Here's what you can do instead.

Interrupt your interruptions.

With so many diversions readily available for your attention-stealing pleasure, you shouldn't be adding more to the mix.

Although I'd love to press mute on the overly chatty preteen in the corner, I make do with silencing what I've brought with me. A recent study found that out of the top 5 daily interruptions, 4 were technology based.

This makes the solution simple: shut the phone off or leave it on silent and inconveniently far away. Turn off those email alerts that peek in every time you're just getting into your groove. (You can designate specific times to check email instead.) Download software that prevents you from falling into a Twitter or Facebook binge by blocking the sites entirely.

Please don't stop the music!

Pick a favorite Pandora station, throw on some headphones and let the music drown out the distractions.

But Nik, you might say, isn't the music itself distracting? Not if you've got the right genre playing, my dear reader. As much as you might be into Scandinavian death metal (warning: turn down your speakers), the more subdued, atmospheric and instrumental the song is, the more it can help you tune in and then tune out.

The research proves it, too. Productivity-hindering background chatter can be successfully brushed off with background music.

Reel your mind back in.

Good concentration is hard to hold. Looking out the window or eavesdropping on a stranger's conversation is just so easy in comparison. But if you want to be able to work anywhere, you need to train your focus just like any other skill.

You may have heard of the Pomodoro Technique and time-boxing before, which work by compromising with your diversions. But if you still can't concentrate, studies have shown that practicing simple meditation-based breathing can help you build focus and ignore distractions.

To do this, breathe deep belly breaths with your eyes closed. As you go, pay attention to your breathing and whenever you catch your thought train leaving the station, pull the emergency cord and hop off. Refocus on your breathing.

Practice this whenever you get the time. Eventually, you'll start noticing your mind wandering in other situations like conversation or work, and you will be able to just reel yourself back in.

Next time you have trouble concentrating at the café, give these tips a try. You may find that you can work just as well as you do in your normal office.

Photo credit: nicholasjon

Workshifting - The Introvert's Best Friend or Worst Enemy?

2012-04-30T17:24:25Z

I've been dipping my toes into the workshifting pool since 2009. It's been an ideal set of circumstances for an introvert like me, as I work in a quiet space where I can control my daily dosage of interruption and interaction. Ideal, that is, until too much of a good thing becomes a bad thing.

Introverts need interaction, too. That is just human nature 101. We're neither anti-social nor hermits, despite the stereotypes, and although we can work well within self-imposed solitary confinement, it's not always what we should do.

Introverts who work in a standard office setting get their daily dosage of interaction by default. Introverts who workshift have it harder - it's too easy to focus on a project or assignment and forget that there is an external world that we need to be part of, too!

So, after basking in every introvert's dream for the past 3 years, I realized that I needed some balance. Sometimes, my workdays are intense, and I really can only focus on work. I don't fight my introverted habits on those days as that would adversely affect my productivity. Other days, when my schedule is lighter, I remind myself to explore new spaces to workshift from, make time to see friends or volunteer. Herein lies the beauty of workshifting!

However, I still have not perfected this delicate work-life balance of being an introvert in an extrovert's world. Some weeks I overcommit to work and social activities, to the point of mental and physical collapse! So, what do I do?

I nurture my introverted ways, spend time in my quiet office and appreciate the luxury of choice. Soon, I am refreshed and ready to dip my other toes back into the world where extroverts abound, learn as much from them as I can and take that newfound knowledge back to a quiet space to process in my head.

Photo credit: Dirk Dallas

Zoners

2012-04-25T18:30:26Z

Today we have a guest post from Erran Carmel. Erran is a management professor at the American University Kogod School of Business in Washington, D.C. His new coauthored book is titled I'm Working While They're Sleeping: Time Zone Separation Challenges and Solutions.

Timeshifting while workshifting is a key challenge for the global professional.Timeshifting means adjusting your schedule to accommodate someone else's work hours in order to synchronize and "converge" in your thinking from many time zones away.

Timeshifters stay up till 10:00 PM to meet with a colleague in Beijing. Timeshifters decree that every Wednesday is Tel Aviv Day, and the U.S.-based worker starts at 5:00 AM to overlap schedules with the distant tech team.

In fact, timeshifting is so critical that we devoted an entire chapter to this subject in our new book about coordination across time zones. (This post is abridged from chapter 1.) We also coined a term for the hero of our book: the zoner. Zoners are the globalized workers who are comfortable timeshifting and traveling across time zones.

Zoners have a deeply ingrained sense of temporal distance. We think that this temporal awareness is analogous to spatial ability: there are those who can read maps and take directions well and those who cannot (who are frequently lost). We think zoners are born with some of their abilities, but these, of course, are refined with experience.

Zoners are less likely to be confused by time zone computations, while others never seem to remember how many time zones away California happens to be, habitually missing meetings because of the misunderstanding. Zoners are able to keep in mind the perennial problem of time-zone differences.

The tools and tricks zoners use

Zoners use timeanddate.com, everytimezone.com and worldtimebuddy.com when adjusting the time zone on their Outlook calendars and smartphones. They pack their bags with melatonin, and when they wake up in a strange place, they always know what time it is. Zoners are also good sleepers, since their life involves a lot of timeshifting.

They also know the special tricks of multi-time-zone work. For example, one important trick is to tackle time-zone-induced delays by breaking the email chain. The email chain begins when, in asynchronous communication, the sender initiates a message, and the receiver on the other side of the globe asks for clarification. The original sender attempts to explain, but the receiver, still confused, sends another request for clarification. Meanwhile, an entire week has passed. Zoners stop this chain early by picking up the phone to clarify the message and move the task along.

Are you a zoner? Share your stories and strategies below.

Photo credit: Thomas Hawk

How Workshifting Can Save a Relationship and Benefit a Career

2012-04-23T13:00:00Z

Today's post is from Seamus King, Country Leader for Australia, Citrix Online Services Division.

I'm delighted to see that Australian organizations are ahead of the game when it comes to offering mobile work styles. Recent research from the Citrix Global Workshifting Index shows that locally, around 40 percent of companies currently offer workshifting to employees and by 2013 that figure is set to rise to 95 percent, which is slightly above the global average. It is great to see Australia leading the pack.

Workshifting is highly valuable to individuals but also to companies - offering a unique win-win situation.

I recently heard of a really great example of how workshifting actually enabled a company to retain the best talent for the job while the individual was able to maintain a happy relationship with his family.

About a year ago, a possible dilemma was presented to a professional couple. The wife had asked the husband to move to Indonesia because she was getting a job transfer. At first, he had all sorts of doom visions - giving up his career, moving to a country where he didn't speak the language and needing to find a new job. Although his wife was transferring with her company, the single pay check would probably not be enough to support them both in the lifestyle they were accustomed to. Plus, he enjoyed his job and wanted to work and feel that he was contributing and adding value.

The choice was this - either he stay behind, turning his marriage into a long-distance relationship for the sake of his job, or else he try to find a new job in Indonesia, which would probably mean having to take a step down in his career as well as maybe even a pay cut.

For his company the problem would be that they were about to lose a great employee and would have to find and train a replacement. Rather than losing a valued member of their team, the gentleman's company decided they would trial letting him work remotely from Indonesia. Thanks to the company's desktop virtualization solution, and collaboration tools such as Citrix GoToMeeting, he was able to easily work not just away from the office, but on another continent.

A daunting move turned into a brilliant opportunity; he was able to experience the excitement of a new country and keep his current job and income. Six months later, the trial turned out to be quite successful and a win-win situation for the company and the couple.

Organizations are recognizing that giving people the ability to work from anywhere can benefit both parties. The business reaps the rewards of a highly mobile and agile business with increased productivity and lower costs, while people have the flexibility to choose the ideal time, place and device for their work.

Workshifting really makes a difference - not just to employees, but to companies as well. It offers a unique ability to improve work-life balance and to provide a level of flexibility that may not have been attainable with the more traditional work style of the past. I am really pleased to see more businesses globally are embracing mobile work styles, as it will change the way we work and the way we live.

Photo credit: WTL Photos

5 Tips to Finding Productive Work Space

2012-04-17T22:06:13Z

Today we have a guest post from Liz Presson. Liz's mission is to encourage those sentenced to life in a cubicle farm to think outside the traditional office. Through her version of "Yelp for co-working spaces", WorkingRemote.ly, she's spreading her belief that choice of environment means more productivity and happiness. Liz was a founding employee at 2 influential social media start-ups, and she's worked with many other start-ups to watch including Skillshare, Family Records, Zaarly and The Daily Muse. When Liz isn't engaging communities of innovators and leaders, you can find her enjoying life as a New Yorker.

Choosing new and spontaneous environments while workshifting is part of the fun. Whether near or far, together or alone, at the cafe or the hotel, millions of options exist - but that's the reason you chose to workshift: you get to make that decision for yourself.

However, there is one workshifting decision that's crucial: choosing a spot that meets all of your needs. Working at a place that doesn't fit? Talk about a stressful day at the "office."

So, to help you find an environment that's just your style, consider these 5 key points while scoping out your next work environment.

Library or office?

Having a peaceful and quiet setting can be crucial during crunch time but inconvenient at other times. When you visit a space, consider the aural environment. Can you make calls, hold Skype chats or host Google Hangouts? For the times you need to collaborate, finding a spot where you'll avoid nasty looks from your hushed cohabitants is key.

On the other hand, if noise level will impact your focus, be sure to swing by your spot during your typical working hours to see if it's sufficiently silent.

When you're looking for your next workspace, be sure to consider the aural environment that's best for you and the type of work you'll be doing. There's nothing worse than jumping on a Skype call and realizing that you're interrupting others. So, consider this: do you need to be in a library-like environment where it's inconsiderate to take calls, or can you survive in a more social setting?

Critical connectivity

Wi-Fi is something that you probably already consider a must for workshifting. But do you consider bandwidth? I can think of few tortures worse than finally setting up only to realize the Internet connection is reminiscent of a dial-up modem circa 1990.

While you can't always control your connection, you can check out speeds before you go all in and commit to a workspace. If your work is dependent on lightning-fast downloads, check with the staff at the location to see if you can test the rate. Again, visit when you're likely to be working - stopping by on a weekend may yield an impressive connection; however, when you show up on Tuesday at 11:00 AM, you just might find a room full of other "co-workers" eating up all that bandwidth.

Brain boost or brain drain?

There's collaborative water-cooler talk and then there's wasting time. Communities can be one of the best aspects of workshifting, as meeting new people can inspire amazing ideas.

However, if you have something extremely important that needs 100 percent of your focus, friendly faces and chitchat might not be ideal.

This one can go either way. Think about what you're working on and decide: are you in the mood to feed off the energy of others, or will the free-flowing chatter be a distraction?

You want to plug that in where?

We've all been there - crawling under a table or desk in search of a nonexistent plug. Don't be that person. Before you start working in public, remember that even your sweet new MacBook has to be charged eventually (cat videos suck up a lot of juice!). Also, if you're considering going into the wild at a park, remember this: while public spaces may have free Wi-Fi and seem like totally chic places to work, there's no place to plug in out in nature.

The 2-hour workday

You've committed to working somewhere for the day, but just when you have the laptop fired up, a latte in hand and a friendly face sitting to the side, you hear an announcement that the space will be closing early.

It's imperative to check the hours of operation before falling head over heels in love with a space. It might not seem like a huge deal, but if you're in the flow, the closing-early sign can really throw off your whole day.

Overall, the most important thing is to know yourself and your productivity and work habits. Test out different spaces on low-key days and find which environments work best for you. Eventually, you'll be able to look up spots online and know immediately if it's meant to be.

Good luck out there, workshifters.

Photo credit: James Cox

How Do We Design Software that Supports the Future of Work?

2012-04-11T05:32:52Z

Today we have a post from Jon Froda. Jon is co-founder of Podio, which was recently acquired by Citrix. For several years Froda researched the field of social software, specializing in strategies and products that help organizations develop knowledge and stay ahead of the market.

The old adage "you are what you eat" is not probably something most software developers, IT managers and business executives think about when choosing work tools for employees, but there's a lot we can learn if we truly consider the impact of software and technology on how people get everyday work done.

Just like eating nothing but pizza, soda and donuts might eventually (and deliciously) weigh you down, working with outdated, rigid and anti-social work tools can have a the same effect on a team of workers.

A long held misconception across industry is that work tools are value neutral or that software in particular is value neutral; that no matter what kinds of tools people are armed with, productivity, efficiency and more importantly, employee morale, should remain constant. As work evolves and new, more progressive technologies emerge, this belief is ripe for disruption.

The question is, how do we design tools for the future of work? We know that teams today are global, dispersed, social and mobile and that work happens successfully within distributed groups made up of employees as well as contractors and partners outside a formal organization. We all know social media and consumer devices are giving birth to new ways connecting workers, such as Bring Your Own (Device, App and/or Service) options and deployments of so-called "enterprise social networks." We know that businesses are rethinking the way work is carried out. But what elements of technology really support this evolution?

I've thought long and hard about these questions, even touring the world to meet with global leaders, researchers, academics and technologists, who care about the future of work, tools and work practices. I believe there are 5 core design principles to consider when designing a system, product or platform to support the evolution of modern work and the new modern worker:

Empowerment of people
Motivation through peer recognition
Mobility and flexibility
Connectivity
Transparency

To capture the philosophy behind these design principles, I helped produced a short video offering additional context and some real-world examples of how to use get these powerful ideas into development and give everyday workers some guidance on what to look for in "future of work" tools.

I'd love to hear how you're moving towards technologies that reflect these principles of design.

Citrix Triathlete Workshifts to Train - in Hawaii!

2012-04-06T14:31:50Z

On Wednesday, we showed you how to add movement into your workshifting routine. Read below for a more extreme version from Citrix's own Chris Latham.

Santa Barbara local Chris Latham, a manager on the Citrix Customer Insights team, has been competing in triathlons for 15 years. Currently she's training for the 2012 Ironman Hawaii 70.3 race located on the Kohala Coast of the Big Island. While Santa Barbara is a great place to train for these kinds of events, there's no substitute for training on location, which allows athletes to become better acclimated and more familiar with the route.

So what's a motivated Citrix triathlete to do? Workshift from Hawaii, of course!

Chris has made a detailed plan on how to realize her dream of training on location while keeping up with her job from March 28 to July 2. From getting manager approval, to gathering the work gear she needs, to finding housing, Chris has got it all figured out.

Get Manager Approval

Before she did anything else, Chris made sure to discuss her workshifting plan with her manager. Together they made sure that Chris would be able to meet all the requirements of her position and made plans for how Chris would communicate with her team while she is in Hawaii.

Get The Gear

After talking with the IT department, Chris discovered that the only things she needed in addition to her usual "occasional workshifting" setup were a wireless data modem (so she can literally work at the beach!) and a VPN connection to provide instant access to the network without having to provide a different connection.

Hardware

Laptop with power cord
VoIP headset
Wireless data modem (Verizon or AT&T)
Mobile phone
Pad of paper
Mechanical pencil

Software

VPN
GoToMeeting
GoToMyPC

Kona Coffee (optional)

Get a Place to Stay

To save on housing costs, Chris used Airbnb.com, an online service that connects people who want to host guests with people who need a place to stay. Then she found someone to sublet her apartment just by spreading the word through her friends on Facebook.

Turns out, getting ready to workshift was surprisingly easy. All that remains for Chris to do is to work, train and race.

Get Going!

The Hawaii 70.3 (or Honu) on June 2 is a 70-mile triathlon, consisting of a 1.2-mile swim, a 56-mile bike ride and a 13.1-mile run. Chris will be competing with over 1,600 other athletes, including 7-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong. (No pressure, Chris!)

As part of her preparation for the big Honu race, Chris will also be doing the running leg of the Lavaman triathlon on April 1 and competing in various 6-man canoe races at the Kai Opua canoe club from May through June (just for fun).

Chris has a lot of hard training ahead, but she couldn't ask for a better place to do it - or a better workshifting arrangement.

4 Ways to Add Movement into Your Workshifting Routine

2012-04-04T12:27:43Z

I thought the great thing about workshifting is that you don't have to sit in an office all day. You can grab your computer-tablet-Smartphone and get to work at your favorite coffee shop, or in the park, on an airplane, or even in a tree house (well, if you have a tree house).

Turns out workshifting might not be so awesome after all.

Have you seen the Work is Murder infographic? Mashable compiled a whole bunch of nasty statistics that show that sitting around all day is bad for your health. Wherever it is you happen to be sitting around. As in 14.6 pounds worth of calories we're no longer burning each year in our jobs compared to our parents and grandparents.

So what's a workshifter to do?

I've taken up workstepping part time, and here's what I've found out: it's easier than you might think to add a little movement into your day.

Here are some tips to get started:

Put on your walking shoes.

As in, wear them so you have no excuses.

Schedule breaks.

Think of it as a Pomodoro break for your body. When I'm sitting around most of the day, I try to take a walk break every hour or two. In my case, I walk a half mile on the treadmill--part of my quest to add 3+ miles of walking daily on top of my workout routine. But you can walk the halls if you live in a big high-rise building, go up and down the stairs in your house, or get outside and walk around the block for 5-15 minutes. The key: movement.

Walk while you talk.

Maybe it's because I've gotten used to moving more at work, but I've started pacing while I'm on the phone. Not every phone call, of course. But if you're on a conference call on mute and find yourself surfing the Web, can you stand up and stretch (or walk around) instead?

Dive into your RSS feed, check your e-mail, watch a video--and walk.

We're all taking in a lot of information every day. And we're mostly sitting down while we do it. TED talks, a friend pointed out, are great for walk breaks.

Bonus Tip:
Edit while you walk (and I don't mean a manuscript). This one is, admittedly, rather tricky as I've found that it's not so easy to walk and write at the same time. But it can be a good way to add a little exercise when you're editing through a white paper, back blog posts, or a client report.

Have you tried workstepping? What tips would you add?

Photo credit: misterbisson

If Don Draper Worked Today [Infographic]

2012-04-02T17:56:56Z

The recent season premiere of Mad Men has us thinking about how much workstyles have changed over the past 50 years. From the days of Don Draper and the Mad Men to current times with telecommuting, workshifting and all of the technology that has made work a thing you do - not a place you go. Here's a visual representation of work in 1962 vs. 2012.

Full size infographic on the Citrix Flickr account.

No bandwidth? No worries! Challenges of Workshifting Abroad

2012-03-29T11:44:16Z

Today, we have a guest post from Baxter Denney, Manager, Database Marketing at Citrix Online. Baxter recently returned from a month-long trip to New Zealand that was half vacation, half workshifting. Below are some tips on how Baxter stayed connected with limited bandwidth.

Simply stated, Americans are connected. We are information obese - with broadband and unlimited data plans feeding phones "more computer power than all of NASA [had] when it sent two astronauts to the moon."

You would think this constant stream of information would breed expert sifters able to navigate the deluge of data efficiently, but the truth is the human brain cannot handle so much information so quickly.

Josh Foer, author and memory champ, sums up the current information wave pretty well in Moonwalking with Einstein: "Much as our taste for sugar and fat may have served us well in a world of scarce nutrition but is now maladaptive in a world of ubiquitous fast-food joints, our memories aren't perfectly adapted for our contemporary information age."

The hyper-connected among us argue that the fire hose of information is a competitive advantage when it comes to business: more information allows things to move more quickly. But with all due respect to the late Senator Ted Stevens, are we just clogging up our own series of tubes?

I have been conducting my own personal experiment in connectivity during a month-long stint in New Zealand. While the main goal of the trip is to vacation, I am workshifting half the time. Knowing I would need Internet, I booked hotels with wireless access.

What I did not realize is that bandwidth in New Zealand is scarce - in my first hotel, the daily limit was 50 MB (about 10 songs, a few minutes of video or 10-15 medium-sized slideshow or spreadsheet files). Just downloading my work inbox after a few days away took at least half my daily amount. I could try and adapt, or I could break out the credit card time and time again as I hit my daily limit repeatedly. Since I neither trade stocks nor put lives at risk if I reply slowly, I had some flexibility in addressing the low-bandwidth challenge.

Here is how I have adjusted:

Download judiciously.

Office workers are used to instantaneous email messages, with giant attachments just begging to be opened and viewed. In Outlook, you can set the server to only download "headers" - the subject and sender information, the first few lines of plain text, no graphics or attachments.

You can then make the download call on an email-by-email basis. I found that about 80 percent of the emails I ended up filing for later action or deletion did not need a full read.

Meet sparingly.

Before agreeing to meet online, make sure the cause is worthy. If the meeting invitation doesn't have a clear goal, or your input really isn't going to add value, decline it. It may seem like heresy to refuse to meet with someone, but you can often ask the organizer for the meeting objective and then achieve the goals without having to actually meet.

If you do need to meet, keep a laser focus on the meeting goal. (David Allen suggests picturing the ideal meeting conclusion and then working backward to figure out how to achieve it.)

In order to save bandwidth, I often find myself having "IM meetings" as a nice complement to GoToMeeting. You get the spontaneity and real-time response of a meeting without the usage concerns. In GoToMeeting sessions, disable webcams (both showing and viewing) and limit the time you share your own screen.

Unplug and execute.

At my organization, very few job descriptions have "read and respond to email" as a primary requirement. Yet it's not difficult to get buried in your inbox all day only to find you haven't accomplished much at all.

Much of the urgency we feel in email communications is an effect of recency. Whatever is happening RIGHT NOW is most important, right? Maybe, but probably not.

While correspondence with colleagues is a critical component of my job, I also need to spend time thinking, planning, reviewing and creating - most of which can be done offline. After handling the truly urgent requests (and, of course, noting meeting times and such), I will close Outlook and work through my offline tasks. I have been able to make significant progress on project planning, reviewing thought-leadership pieces I had set aside, responding to older, lower priority messages and completing many administrative tasks I was continuously putting off.

With no threat of interruption, I was able to get these things done much quicker than usual. On a typical day, I might be able to do 3-4 significant tasks, but when disconnected, I am doubling that.

Forget your status.

Image-heavy sites like Facebook, Pinterest and ESPN are bandwidth killers. They are also ways we distract ourselves from our job. When the natural wonders of New Zealand are outside my hotel room, the last place I want to spend time is online reading about my friends' lunch check-ins or checking NBA scores. I limited myself to 2 sessions each day of 5 minutes or fewer for social networking sites and have not missed it since.

The bottom line is that most job challenges are ones we create ourselves and not a function of how connected we are or how quickly we respond. While it would be a lie to say I am as good at my job in New Zealand as I am in the U.S., I have tried to turn my connection challenges into advantages. (I am writing this on a coach bus from Picton to Nelson, for instance).

Hopefully, I can apply these lessons to my job when I am stateside. I would love to hear how others have adjusted to similar challenges while workshifting in foreign lands, so please share them with me via the comments or @tbdenney.

How to Overcome the Anxiety of an Upcoming Deadline

2012-03-27T15:14:00Z

Today we have a guest post from Ryan Rivera. Ryan is an expert at anxiety. He has worked in a variety of fields that have him out of the office but still in front of fast-approaching deadlines. You can find out more about anxiety and potential anxiety treatments at www.calmclinic.com.

When you work in a traditional office, your entire company shares in the stress of an upcoming deadline. In some ways, this makes it worse - shared stress can exacerbate the anxiety you already feel. But in other ways, it makes it better, because your coworkers who share your experience act as a circle of support.

Working remotely is different. Without the traditional office, the anxiety you experience isn't shared with those around you. It's simply you, alone, figuring out how to handle the stress of the deadline and looking for ways to overcome your anxiety.

While you can always expect a little bit of stress near any deadline, even if you are way ahead of schedule, too much anxiety can be harmful to your happiness and to your focus. So here are some ideas for reducing that anxiety so that your deadline comes and goes smoothly.

Keep a S.M.A.R.T. goals list

Much of the anxiety comes from not being sure that every piece of the project is finished. Even if you are only supposed to handle one task, there is always the chance that some aspect of the project was missed, and this creates the anxiety.

Instead, create goals at the beginning that are S.M.A.R.T. - specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely. Additionally, if you maintain a complete list of your specific goals and when they should be completed, you'll be able to mark off each and every part of the project as you progress, knowing with certainty that you are going to finish on time.

Communicate throughout the day

People with deadline anxiety often fuel it by delaying the inevitable work, especially when they're behind on a project or concerned about when it will be completed. That delay leads to more stress as you worry about what you're going to say and what your boss or client will respond with. Get it over with early by communicating all throughout the day via email or Skype (or whatever you use for correspondence), so that there are no surprises when the deadline gets closer.

Create a positivity journal

Deadlines often cause you to focus on what hasn't yet been done, and that only serves to fuel your anxiety. Consider starting a positivity journal, a place for you to share positive affirmations and thoughts, telling yourself that you're going to be okay and that you'll be able to focus and complete your project to the best of your ability. These journals help train your mind to stop centering on the negative, making them a worthwhile tool for people that need this type of mindset change.

Sleep

Many people work too hard as a deadline draws near, often neglecting sleep in order to complete the project. Unfortunately, avoiding sleep tends to have the opposite effect. Sleep deprivation makes it very hard to focus on your tasks, and it exacerbates stress considerably - especially when deadlines are close. You want to be at the top of your game, so even if you have to put off a little bit of work, get that good night's sleep. You'll find it valuable for your productivity and your anxiety levels.

Deadline stress is natural, and only a few people can successfully avoid it as they get closer to a deadline. Unless your project is already complete, you should expect deadlines to cause anxiety. But with the right tips and planning, you can reduce the severity of the symptoms, keep yourself focused on your project and have an easier time finishing the tasks you need to.

Photo credit: thornypup

Work from Home Fridays [Infographic]

2012-03-23T20:25:36Z

Here at Workshifting, we've talked many times about the benefits of telework and shared numerous reports about its value to your company. Today, we're offering a visual approach because sometimes pictures and images are just quicker than words alone are.

Compliments of Splashtop and Column Five, this infographic tells us all about the new push to work from home on Fridays.

Has your company joined the movement? Leave us a comment!

10 Top Sales Trends: Staying Humble and Hungry in 2012

2012-03-22T17:17:00Z

Today we have a guest post from Josiane Feigon. Josiane is the founder and CEO of TeleSmart Communications. A twenty-year veteran 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. Her book Smart Selling on the Phone and Online has created a buzz in the global inside sales industry and quickly becoming the sourcebook for inside sales. Her Cubicle Chronicles blog is voted among the top 25 sales. As a thought leader, she is recognized among the top 25 Most Influential Inside Sales Professionals in the world.

Welcome survivors!

Workshifters have made it through two years of the Great Recession, and another two years of one of the weakest "recoveries" in US economic history. In 2012, you will find that companies continue to sit on their cash reserves, and stressed-out consumers continue to postpone purchases -- just because they can.

These Customer 2.0 folks are more educated than ever before too. They want us to meet them on their terms. And 70% of them engage much later in the sales cycle than they used to.

But don't take your toys and go home -- stay humble and hungry and ready to roll. They are just about ready to open the floodgates of pent-up demand, and you want to be there when they do.

Keep repeating your "humble and hungry" mantra in 2012, and prepare for these top trends:

1. Inside Sales Changes the Game

Be proud! This fast-growing group will continue to force every sales organization to reshape their field versus inside ratio.

2. Millennials Avoid Phones

Do not be one of these! Many lead development new hires are Millennials whohide behind their power dialers and avoid or waste live conversations.

3. Prospect with LinkedIn

Use it or lose it. With 135 million users and two more added every second -- most in the 25-54 demographic -- LinkedIn is the single largest social corporate tool for prospecting.

4. Don't Be Afraid to Change Your Game Plan

Customer 3.0 can quickly throw your careful plan off-track because they call their own shots. They are engaging later and later in the sales cycle, and coming in much more informed than ever before. Stay alert!

5. Cell-it! Mobile-ize it!

Forrester projects that by 2015, smartphone adoption will grow 150% and 82 million consumers will own a tablet. Mobile will become a primary way to speak to customers and prospects. Expect to have at least 50% or more of all opportunity and lead management conducted from a smart phone or tablet.

6. DIY

Stop waiting on marketing and build your own content tool-kit. And make sure that it includes diverse and disruptive forms of content -- today's customers prefer an infographic to a white paper.

7. Use Five Ingredients

The phone and email can no longer do it alone--they need their peeps! Or maybe we should we say tweets. Use these five ingredients every time: phone + texting + video + emails + social.

8. It's Video, Baby

Video is quickly becoming the new high-impact sales medium. By 2020, 85% of buyer-seller interactions will happen online, through social media and video. Nielsen reports that over 60 hours of video per minute is downloaded and watched on YouTube every day (every minute of every day). And 40% of people watch video via their MOBILE device.

9. Let's Get Virtual

Geo regions are so yesterday. Salespeople work virtually now -- from home or from satellite offices. Social proximinty beats geographic proximity, hands down.

10. Build a Sustainable Sales Training Infrastructure

According to ES Research, companies are using more sales training in three modes: live classroom, on-demand, and live virtual training.Onboarding will become a critical success factor as companies put primary importance on training. Don't forget to build in training reinforcers on the back-end.

Listen to the recorded archive webinar on the Top 12 Transforming Sales Trends in 2012.

Photo Credit: lastquest