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 don't think there's likely to be much argument if I aver that email is the number one method of communication between remote workers, at least in a business context. And for most people, email is synonymous with Microsoft's Outlook software. So I'd like to use this post to make a few points on the subject, and being me, I'm going to try to be a tad contentious.

OK, so I'll give email one concession: it can be really useful because the world and his dog have it. If you have to communicate with people in other organisations, an email address is all you need, and the software does the rest. Its coverage is thus unrivalled, and it's well used, partly because of its ubiquity, partly because it's so easy to use, and partly because alternatives are a bit thin on the ground.

That's all well and good as far as it goes. But there are many insidious problems with email which can inhibit rather than promote collaboration. Here's my shortlist:

1. Many people may not realise that there are alternatives to Outlook. In fact, there are any number of email readers available, many of them free. They don't all have integrated calendars, but some offer facilities which Outlook doesn't. If you find Outlook frustrating to use, or lacking in some way, take a look at what's on offer outside the Microsoft world, and you may find something that suits you better.
2. Discussions start small, but grow in length. Who hasn't received email with the last few dozen comments trailing off the page, each neatly indented one chevron more than the last? And most of the time, the comments are in reverse order, making it harder than it should be to follow the whole conversation from end to end.
3. Discussions also broaden in context as they age, spawning sub-discussions and often splitting off at a tangent into new subject areas entirely. Outlook cannot cope with this unless the subject line is rigorously changed to match the content (and this is frequently forgotten about). Much better for this kind of thing are discussion boards which offer a multi-threading capability - you get to see who has changed the subject, and which messages are sent in response to which other messages.
4. Careful use of the "to", "cc" and especially "bcc" email fields allow political control over who sees what. It's easy to exclude people - for whatever reason - and you never know who has been copied in on the quiet. As a consequence, you can find yourself in trouble you hadn't bargained for if some lurker decides you've spoken out of turn. Some people also have the irritating habit of starting to copy in their boss when they realise they are losing the argument.
5. Many companies have email retention policies for legal reasons (which are actually email non-retention policies), so you can find that the email discussion of three months' vintage that you wanted to reference has evaporated without so much as a by-your-leave.

This is not to say that we shouldn't use emails; there are plenty of cases in which email works well, for example 1:1 conversations and the broadcasting of a message to a large group. But if you are expecting the next email you send to burgeon into a wide-ranging multi-person conversation - then maybe you should be thinking about an alternative rather than hitting the "send" button.

So, have any of you tackled this problem? And what happened when you did?



Photo Credit: Somewhat Frank

The motivation for this topic comes from a recent post over at Inc.com about Perfecting Email Etiquette.  It got me thinking about how email is used by workshifters.

Other than emails obvious attributes, it's also a very effective hand raising tool.  However, we have a litany of electronic hand raising tools at our disposal.  So when we can't reach across the aisle and tap someone on the shoulder, how do we get their attention?  If I'm workshifting and I need to reach a co-worker, here are the tools at my disposal:



The first thing I do, in most cases, is check to see if they are "online" using Meebo, or if they have updated their status on Facebook, Twitter, or Foursquare.  If I get a sense that they are online I'll send an Instant Message (IM), or Direct Message (DM) via Twitter.  In my experience, Facebook is least likely to result in a response because most people are not checking their Facebook in-box very frequently.  Foursquare will be able to tell me if they have checked-in, but it's not a good tool for actually locating someone.

The next steps I take depend on how badly I need to reach them.  Since it's a coworker I can check their Outlook calendar or shared Google Calendar and see if they have a meeting.  If their time is blocked I can wait until their meeting is over or I can send a Text Message.  Knowing me, i'll send a text and then wait for a reply.  I've found that calling someone typically does not result in a response if they have not responded to the other methods.  

If electronic hand-raising is the embodiment of a real person, it would be the obnoxious guy in the back of the room raising his hand, jumping up and down, and screaming "pay attention to me!"  This is where the etiquette lesson comes in.

Since these are coworkers that I know personally, I know how to push all the electronic buttons in a way that is least offensive, and culturally appropriate.  If I were reaching out the CEO or a Customer, my tactics would be adjusted accordingly.  With that said, my coworkers don't want me carpet bombing them with "pay attention to me" messages.  All they have to do to avoid the annoyance is go offline, or appear to go offline.

Depending on how urgent the matter is, I think that an IM or Text is the best form of electronic hand-raising.  Remember, I'm just trying to get their attention and for whatever reason I need to reach them quickly.  In my organization most people have IM and they Text.  So if I need to reach them fast, that's the path to getting noticed.  The reason texting is effective is because most people don't move five feet from their cell phone.  The odds are good that I can get them.  Further, it's not good to assume that they are at their office computer.  They may be workshifting, in a meeting, traveling, etc.  In those cases, texting is the universal shoulder tap.

The key is to not get a reputation as a bell ringer.  If you're constantly operating in a state of chaos, you can't expect others to be doing the same.  Manage your expectations and set reasonable expectations with your team members.

There are different, unspoken rules about electronic hand raising.  What are yours?

For workshifters, email is, without a doubt, the most dominant form of communication with our colleagues, clients, and associates. In some cases you may have only communicated with some people via email or phone, never having met them in person.