I believe one of the most important character traits of a successful workshifter is self-discipline. While working remotely obviously gives us all a great deal of freedom and flexibility, it's up to us to put ourselves on a leash - figuratively, of course - in order to actually get things done and succeed.

Without adequate levels of self-discipline, it's likely your work and business will suffer. Here are some of the standards that I've set to condition myself and maintain the discipline that's needed on a daily basis when you're working outside of an office.

• Set working hours and stick to them. Whether it's 7 a.m., 8 a.m. or 9 a.m., make a commitment to start working at the same time every day and do not budge from this under any circumstances. This will help your colleagues and clients know when to contact you.
  
  
• Make yourself available to your colleagues and clients using chat and instant messenger tools, like Skype, Google Talk or MSN Messenger. By signing in you are signaling that you are "in the office," thereby holding yourself accountable. This tactic will also help prevent you from falling into the habit of hitting snooze and sleeping those extra 30 minutes.
  
  
• Set aside blocks of time every day to perform tasks that may not be related to specific work projects - for example, spend 15 minutes in the morning and late afternoon updating your Twitter account or surfing Facebook . Or, dedicate the last 30 minutes before you shut down your computer to checking the mail or paying bills.  Setting aside these blocks of time to allow yourself to perform these tasks will help you condition your brain to stay focused throughout the rest of the day.
  
  
• Spend some time at the end of your workday to prioritize the activities that need to be addressed the following day.  This will help you mentally prepare for what's ahead and give you an immediate starting point on the next day.
  
  
• Record your time to determine what you've accomplished throughout the day. I do this anyway, since I have to complete a timesheet, and I've found that this gives me a sense of achievement, or, a kick in the rear if I haven't been as productive as I should have been. If you don't work in an environment where you record your time, I highly recommend doing this on your own.
  
  
• Finally, don't get discouraged when you're having one of those days where you feel like you have the attention span of a lightning bolt. It happens to everyone - whether you work in an office or not.
  

What about you? Do you struggle with self-discipline from time to time? If so, what do you do to overcome it?

Photo Credit: suttonhoo

I heard a great quote while on a webinar with Author and Wired Editor, Jonah Lehrer.  He was discussing the Paradox of Choice and Decision Theory, he said to think about the "why," and "what" decision we are trying to make.  Doing so can help us "...avoid, avoidable mistakes."  The essence of this boils down to the conscious choices we make and how the brain processes rewards and expectations.  It's a really meaty topic that I'm interested in learning more about.  For now, I decided to jump in and start applying what I heard.

His quote has been stuck in my head for weeks now.  Lately, I've been really thinking about the "why" and "what" of the choices I make every day. What I'm discovering is that these questions act like a firewall for the mind.  Keeping out the most harmful stuff and allowing in most of what will benefit me.

For example, I recently purchased a truck.  Originally I had it loaded with tons of additional options.  When I sat down and ran my decision through this filter, I ended not taking any of the options.  My new mental firewall saved me roughly ten grand.

As I'm writing this post I'm on a much needed vacation.  I even ran my vacation through the "why and what" machine, and I ended up staying local instead of traversing globe.  The vacation decision was both professional and personal.  I needed a break from what has been a particularly busy schedule.  But, after much thought, I didn't need to break from my home life.  In fact, I really felt the need to stay mostly local.  Not only did this decision keep my bank account topped off, it turns out I really needed to spend time with my family in their normal routine.  Going to the store, piano practice, playing catch in the backyard and all the things I take for granted.  It has only been a few days but its been wonderful.

I'm starting to run my professional goals through this as well.  If you do any mind mapping, this thought process may materially alter your goal setting, decision tree, etc.  A good starting point is workshifting goals.  When asking people why they workshift, the standard answers tend to be around freedom, family time, independence, etc.  Now take those answers and ask yourself "why," and "what" decision am I really making?  The answer could lead you in a surprising direction.
 
Ok, I'm starting to sound like a fortune cookie.  See what it's all about, and I think you'll find it as fascinating as I do.

Thoughts?

Photo Credit: Air Force One

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

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

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


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

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


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

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


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

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

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

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


Photo Credit: Bright Star

I've always related to those who dare to dream big. They come in many shapes and sizes, whether they are inventors, entrepreneurs, researchers, or other professionals. Dreamers change the game and are the ones behind the curtain of all of today's biggest innovative movements - think mobile technology, alternative energy, and the internet (thanks Al Gore).

These daring individuals thrive in today's information age. Ground breaking technologies have equipped armies of collaborative communities with the tools they need to pump out valuable products, tools, services, and content. 

That's not to say that all dreamers create value. It's one thing to dream. To deliver on that dream is a whole different ball game.

It's the disciplined dreamers that deliver.

Disciplined dreamers don't make excuses. They don't care about the crappy economy or that they don't have any money. They don't care they're a small fish in a big ocean and that they don't have a wealth of experience. They just execute.

Commandments like "ship early and ship often" are the mantras of the disciplined dreamers. The people who wake up each day and do what's difficult are the ones who are the pioneers of progress. They're the ones who consistently work hard to create something out of nothing, and they're often the ones who get tagged as the "overnight success."

The sky's the limit.

I'm inspired by the innovators and influencers who are disciplined enough to follow their dreams. Innovation and ideation only spurs further growth and awakens more of the dormant dreamers. With this growing ecosystem of execution, the sky is the limit.

How about you? What's your dream?

Photo Credit: KayVee.INC

(from the girl who kissed a frog)

As a professional coach, if I was to write a job description for myself, one of the "essential" parts of the job that I would include would be this:  "Assist clients in making their dreams come true"

Recently, I took my sons to see Disney's new animated film, "The Princess and The Frog".  This was a film about making your dream come true, and it espoused some of the lessons that I teach my clients when helping them to define and achieve their own lifestyle dreams or goals.  The difference between a goal and a dream? Try this: A goal is a dream with a date on it.                 

I was enchanted by "The Princess and the Frog",  a modern day take on an old classic with the star an African American girl called Tiana from the poor end of town in New Orleans.  The messages within the movie were so delightfully presented and even better, they serve to illustrate my own three step process to achieving your lifestyle dreams.

Step one: "You gotta HAVE a dream!"
Tiana's dream is to own a restaurant.  She's had the vision since she was a little girl, helping her daddy to cook at home.  Tiana's father had a picture of a beautiful restaurant, full of smiling people and delicious looking food.  The restaurant is opulent, decorated with chandeliers, sweeping staircases and populated with smart besuited waiters.  He wrote on this picture "Tiana's Place".

Fast forward though the years and we see Tiana as a young woman.  She's still looking at that (now rather tattered) piece of paper with "Tiana's Place" written on it.  Every day when she comes home from work, she takes it out and looks at it and imagines how her restaurant will look.  With the help of Disney animation, we go off into Tiana's multi sensory experience of her dream - sights, sounds, smells.. We see what Tiana will be wearing, the food she'll be serving, the fame of the restaurant, the buzz of the place... it's VIVID.

I teach my clients to define their vision  i.e. their dream. You can do this in several ways.  Write "A day in the life of", collect pictures, write a vision statement out each morning and read it out.  The important thing is, like Tiana, to make your dream, your vision, as vivid as possible and to keep it in the forefront of your mind.  

You have to hold onto that vision, even when you don't believe you can achieve it.   On the hard days, you just have to keep putting one foot in front of the other. On the hard days, it's even more important that you read it/look at it/write it/imagine it, even if you're doing it "by rote"

Step two:  Do something
Nothing in life happens without you taking action. A dream without action will remain a dream.  I'm not from the school of thought that says that things just come along in life without putting some effort in.  I'm one of those old git types who bemoan the fact that so many youngsters these days believe that a life of fame and fortune awaits them if they just queue up for an audition on X Factor.  Don't get me started on that...

Anyway, back to hard work!  We all know deep down that those "overnight successes" we hear about aren't actually overnight successes.  The successful person will invariably have worked for many years and tried many different things in order to achieve that success.

In The Princess and the Frog, we follow Tiana over the years working day shifts and night shifts in different restaurants as waitress and cook. She saves all her tips for the down payment on the derelict building that features as the setting for her restaurant dream. We see her collapsing on her bed each night after looking at her precious picture of "Tiana's Place".  Whilst all of her friends are out having a good time, Tiana never stops working towards her dream, knowing that every shift at the diner, every cent in tips, is moving her closer towards that down payment.

Step three:  Let go
I preach balance in all things.  As Oscar Wilde said:"Everything in moderation, including moderation!" (Actually, that probably doesn't illustrate balance, but I love that quote and I've always wanted to use it!)

Tiana, as our heroine, has a fatal flaw (as all heroines must at some point in the story).  Her fatal flaw is that she doesn't work in moderation, she works to excess.  Tiana never lets her hair down, goes out with her friends or lets up from working towards her dream.

Then she meets her antithesis in Prince Naseem, who represents everything she's not: loucheness, extravagance, fun and drifting through life without any direction at all.  Naseem asks her to dance and she tells him that she can't dance; she's been too busy working hard to achieve her dream to learn to dance.

Naturally, as the movie nears its dénouement (I don't think I'll spoil the ending  here -it's Disney, so it's obviously not going to be a sad ending), Tiana has to give up on her dream and it looks as if it's all going to hell in a handcart.  As soon as she lets go of that neediness and that single minded drive towards her dream and accepts life as it is, that's when the Disney magic happens!  Tiana achieves her dream, of course.  To find out how and what happens to her along the way, you'll have to go and see the film yourself!

John Lennon said: "Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans."  Too right John!  We have to live each moment of our lives now, and the more we can find happiness and joy in the life we are living today, the more space we create for the magic to happen to us.  


So, in summary, your three steps to achieving your dream, from the girl who kissed a frog, are:

1. Define your lifestyle dream in vivid Disney Technicolor and burn that image into your brain, your heart and your soul.
2. Make a plan to achieve your dream, no matter how far away or how impossible it may seem now.  Keep taking baby steps forward, just as Tiana saved her tips for many years.
3. In the meantime, live the life you have now, rejoice in it, enjoy each moment, kick off your shoes and dance with life.  Then, when you're least expecting it, the magic will happen!

What do you think?



Photo Credit: Krystn Palmer Photography

There are thousands of books to choose from about what makes a successful entrepreneur; how to become a master at time management and so on.  Each of these books come with many nuggets of wisdom to be gleaned from them.  But as a workshifter, you probably just don't have the time to read all of these books, let alone put into place what you learn from them.

The fact is, solopreneurs are supreme jugglers, but even the most accomplished jugglers drop a ball at some point!
 
Over almost seven years of coaching people to run profitable businesses without running themselves ragged, the top five complaints I hear most often are:
 

1. "I feel overwhelmed and exhausted with too much to do and too little time."
2. "I know that I need to work ON the business, but I'm so busy working IN the business."
3. "I know what I need to do to grow this business, but there is never enough time to do it all."
4. "The business is doing ok, but it feels as if I can't quite make that leap to the next level."
5. "I feel like I'm just not planning my time effectively as I could.  I'm constantly fighting fires."
   

It's not hard to spot the pattern here - lack of time!  Solopreneurs tend to berate themselves for not having completed all of their gargantuan "to do" list at the end of each day.  But most of the time they have simply set themselves 12 hours of tasks to complete within a 6 hour day!  I know this because, while I'm superb at getting my clients focused and helping them to set up project plans to make their own businesses more efficient, I often forget to "take my own medicine"!
 
Solopreneurs are notoriously bad at setting themselves impossible targets and beating themselves up for not having achieved "the impossible".  The following tips are nothing new and you won't be bowled over with a magic formula for getting it all done.  There is no clever solution here, just time-tested stuff that you have no doubt heard before.  But whether they are old news or cutting edge to you, those who cultivate the following seven habits will find that they are more in control of their time, have less episodes of overwhelm and build sustainable businesses.

Seven Habits for Time Pressed Solopreneurs





Habit No. 1 - Learn to Prioritize


It is a truism that time is our most precious commodity and we just don't have enough of it. It's ironic that when you're doing something that you don't enjoy, the minutes seem to drag relentlessly.  On the other hand, when we are busy, time appears to fly and unless we grasp that time management is fundamentally about managing priorities rather than time, we are likely to feel overwhelmed.  

Professional coaching experts will tell you that time management is rule number one, but as we all know, time cannot be managed:  We each have 24 hours in the day, seven days in the week and no amount of wishing will give us that extra two hours a day!
 
Try this exercise for a week:  Evaluate all that you have to do for the week and take time to jot it all down in a list. You will need to allocate a priority to each activity and collate them into a realistic timetable. When you embark on this exercise,  it can seem daunting!  However, if you persevere, this can really pay dividends as you will start to grasp how you under-estimate and the importance of prioritization.   

Habit No. 2 - Don't Forget About You!



Remember to think about yourself.  Without rewarding yourself and enjoying valuable "me" time you will quickly burn yourself out and be far less productive.  The buck really does stop with you when you are self-employed.  Most solopreneurs are running micro-businesses where they are the chief bottle washer and cook!

So make personal time a priority and understand that this is not about being selfish, but is in fact a vital investment in your business and your life.

Habit No. 3 - Make Friends with a Little Routine in Your Life


Setting up a routine is one of the best habits you can practice. They say that it takes a minimum of 14 attempts at something before a habit becomes ingrained, and we all seem to work better if we adopt a routine.

While you might not like to be too structured, I would be surprised if you do not benefit from incorporating some routine into part of your daily business management.
 

Habit No. 4 - Block Out Time without Distractions


Don't let the myriad of communication methods become the enemy of efficiency.  You have to block out time when you can turn off not only your phone, but perhaps all those time-depleting social networking sites.  Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, IM... the list goes on and on.  All of these new social media tools can be great networking and business generation tools, but more often than not, they can be great excuses for not doing the stuff that brings in the business.
 
So make use of time blocking or "do not disturb" time to focus on larger projects.  You can then allocate time to return calls once you've completed the tasks and projects that are essential to grow your business.

Habit No. 5  - Create Sacred Space to Work


Habit number five is about creating your own special and protected area. Many solopreneurs  run a business from their home. If you are a work at home entrepreneur, don't try balancing a laptop on the kitchen table and putting your file cabinet in your bedroom!
 
Wherever it is in your home, make your workspace sacred and ideally place it in its own room, off-limits to the kids when you are working. Design this room with efficiency and ergonomics in mind and don't use it for leisure purposes. If possible, have another computer set up elsewhere for personal use.

Habit No. 6 - Healthy Body, Healthy Business


If you don't look after your health, all the other habits will be difficult to maintain. Exercise and fitness must become a habit and you should plan on getting at least three exercise sessions in per week.
 
Do whatever is easiest for you to take on as a new exercise habit.  So if you don't live near a gym, it's unrealistic to plan to go to a gym three times a week, as you'll find that you don't have the time to travel to and fro.   Keep it simple - walking, running, cycling or dancing in front of an exercise DVD are all examples of keeping your body moving that are easy to adopt into your life as a mum.  And do what you enjoy - if you're not a sporty person, it's unlikely that you'll stick to a new habit of playing tennis each week.  One of my clients who hates the gym and all form of sports exercises keeps trim with her Wii each evening. 

Think laterally and do what works for you!  It doesn't matter what form of exercise you choose, providing you just get your body moving!

Habit No. 7 - Build a Superstar Success Team



You've heard the expression "no man is an island"?  None of us can run a business alone and we all need support in various guises.  Ask yourself what sort of support you need to become a highly successful solopreneurs and start to look for ways of building your "superstar success team".

But however you choose to build your team, don't try to do everything on your own as there is so much to be gained from seeking the wisdom of good friends, confidants, associates and professional experts. They can be superb sounding posts and linchpins to your business success!

Having read these seven habits, it's likely that you will go away and forget most of them!   So,  rather than trying to adopt all seven at once, thus dooming yourself to failure, choose just one habit, focus on it and practice and practice it until it truly does indeed become a habit (i.e something you do without even thinking).  Then, once you have adopted one habit, choose a second and so on.   


Easy does it - and remember to acknowledge each little achievement along the way!

About the author:

Amanda Alexander is a Professional Certified Coach who helps work at home professionals who long for more hours in the day.  Through her coaching programs and online coaching courses, Amanda helps people to create fulfilling and successful businesses.  Learn  more at www.amandaalexander.com

Photo Credit: derekGavey
 

Now that we're just about 5% of the way through 2010, you may be at that point where some of those New Year's resolutions you made just a few weeks ago are already starting to slip.  There is still time to recover and keep to those resolutions.  But, make sure we don't make the following mistakes or else you'll certainly derail yourself:

Ten surefire ways to fail your New Year's Resolutions!

1. Make huge, unrealistic and unsustainable resolutions like "Lose 6KGs in the next 4 weeks", "join gym and go every day" or "Go to bed at 9.30pm every night without fail"
   
   
2. Make sure you set the sort of resolutions that you think you should achieve, not those that really "pull" you towards them.  New Year's Resolutions have nothing to do with who you are and who you want to become.
   
   
3. Ensure that you make at least 5 New Year's Resolutions, preferably addressing every area of your life. That'll keep you busy for this first week of January!
   
   
4. Make New Year's resolutions into your one and only chance to change your life this year.   Keep telling yourself that if you fail now, you may as well give up and accept that you'll never make those positive changes.
   
   
5. Test your resolution at every opportunity. So for example, if you've resolved to give up smoking, hang around all your nicotine pals at every opportunity.  If you've resolved to be a calm parent when your children test you, make sure you are exhausted most of the time and that you haven't met your own needs first.
   
   
6. Remember that you must do it alone.  It's not up to any of your friends or family to support you in achieving your New Year's Resolutions.
   
   
7. If you've managed to keep your New Year's Resolution through to the end of January, don't give yourself a pat on the back. You have to keep on your toes, dammit!  Just because you've managed a month that doesn't mean you should reward yourself or acknowledge your so-called achievement in any way.
    
8. Ensure that  your New Year's Resolutions fill you with horror/dread/a sinking feeling every time you think about them (all ten of them). Nothing worth achieving was ever easy, was it? No pain no gain!
   
   
9. Compare yourself frequently with other people who appear to have achieved what you are trying to achieve with your resolutions.  Remember that whatever you achieve, there will always be someone who has achieved it faster and better than you.
   
   
10. Don't prepare for your resolutions at all.
    

Of course, I don't need to tell you that, in order to achieve your resolutions, the opposite of the above ten points apply!  However, let's get the positivity flowing for 2010, shall we.  Here are the ten tips that will increase your chances of success with your resolutions:

Ten Ways to increase your chances of succeeding in your New Year's Resolutions

1. Make small, achievable resolutions.  Instead of "Never lose my temper with my children again", try a resolution that addresses when and/or why you lose your temper.  It might be because you are tired, you are in a rush, and you've got too much on.  Which resolution might you choose that addresses one of the underlying causes of you losing your temper?  
Or try a more general resolution.  Try on "Be nice to me and my kids by ensuring I get my 8 hours sleep most nights".
   
   
2. Set resolutions that are a reflection of you and your values, not resolutions that reflect someone else's values.
   
   
3. This year, just try one or two resolutions.  Once you've achieved one (maybe you could set a realistic date), then try another.  Think quality resolutions rather than quantity.
   
   
4. You're bound to have days when you do less well in keeping your resolution than you'd hoped.  Don't define such days as failure. Instead use them to reflect and learn in order to do better tomorrow.
   
   
5. Just because you don't achieve 100%, it doesn't mean you've failed the test.  Treat your new year's resolutions in a similar way. Give yourself the best chances of success by keeping temptation out of reach. If this is impossible, then make a choice as to whether a tempting situation is going to mean that your resolution is not going to be kept on that particular occasion.  If you anticipate this and give yourself permission to "slip up", then you're more likely to keep with the resolution afterwards.
    
6. You're more likely to achieve your resolution if you get support from those who want you to succeed.  Note the careful wording there - choose your support team carefully and avoid the naysayers and false friends!
   
   
7. Build in celebratory milestones and acknowledge yourself for what you've achieved at each of those milestones.  I believe that people nowadays are starved of acknowledgement, and it's important that you learn to acknowledge yourself in all areas of your life, not just for your resolutions!
   
   
8. Choose resolutions that fill you with joy, peace or pleasure at the thought of achieving them.  Put each resolution through the joy/pleasure/peace filter. If they don't meet one, bin them!
   
   
9. Remember that comparison is the killer of creativity. This is your resolution - nobody else's!
   
   
10. Prepare!  The following questions WILL of course help you to prepare effectively for keeping your resolutions:
• "How can I give myself best chances of success?"
• "What must I do more of/start doing in order to keep this resolution?"
• "What must I do less of/start doing in order to keep this resolution?"
• "Will this bring me nearer to achieving this resolution or further away?"
  

Happy New Resolutions!

Photo Credit: beX out loud

In a recent cover story in Business Week, Gen-Y was painted as a helpless group. A large population that is settling for underpaying opportunities, moving into fields just to have a cube to call home or staying home with mom and dad while they wait out the Recovery Plan. Only 46% of people aged 16-24 had jobs in September of this year. Where does Gen-Y go?

School

They can head back to school. This certainly seems like a viable option. Learn more stuff and in turn, look more experienced or fit for a job a few years down the road. The options range from Grad School to Tech and Trade Vocations. While this may only dig you deeper into debt, it does prolong the idea of going out into the workforce and not finding something you love to wake up to do everyday.

Start a Business

Gen-Y can opt to start their own business. This is something that Gen-Y is taking to heart and in record numbers. Donna Fenn, author of Upstarts interviewed over 150 Gen-Y entrepreneurs for her book and was amazed at the growth, maturity and leadership qualities found in these young business owners. When we talked a few weeks ago, she mentioned that many of these companies (and not all are Internet companies) had better visions, customer service and creativity than most big businesses.

The Freelancing, Blogging, Career Hopper

A close friend of mine has had an awesome time in her 20's. Heading up organizations in college, landing internships with mega media companies and graduating at the top of her class was just the beginning. When she left UCF doors seemed to open for her. She started at a magazine as an assistant and left as an assistant publisher. Next was freelance writing, a little time off and some brand building. Next was an opportunity at a large production company running their marketing department part-time. With Fridays off, she was free to frequent the coffee shops, browse through Guru.com or eLance and pick the jobs for her price. Her latest opportunity brings her to a Fortune 500 as a contracted writer where she got to name her price and hours. This makes her an asset to the company, builds her portfolio and gives her the freedom to enjoy her 20's while focusing on her future.

Lifting Rocks

The case of my friend is not an uncommon path. Take a look at the bloggers over at Brazen Careerist. I bet over half have links to freelance design, consulting or coaching. Those same people are working full time, looking for new opportunities and building huge personal brands that will enable them to work on their terms with companies they believe in.

The Gen-Y's in the Business Week article are depicted as the victims. The jobless in a nation faced with major unemployment problems. I like to call them the unmotivated. There are jobs. There are opportunities. You just need to lift the rocks before you can look under them.

Gen-Y gets a lot of press for a bevy of reasons. I just wanted to point out that the do'ers, not the say'ers are today's hit makers and there are plenty of do'ers within Gen-Y. I know Donna can introduce you to 150 of them. Brazen another 500 or so. Let's go say hi.

Photo by: billaday

Today we have a guest post from Sean Ryan.  Sean is an research analyst with IDC focused on mobile enterprise software. 

Ok, now that I have pegged myself for a Led Zeppelin fan with the title of this post, I can get to the second reason I had for choosing this particular title. We all experience those days (probably more often than we'd like) where the deluge of new projects and urgent requests come pouring in all at once on top of an already steady stream of deadlines, emails, chat sessions, and the rest.

Being an effective multi-tasker is a skill unto itself - it is an even more refined skill for those of us working remotely and/or traveling for business. In some ways the technology being used by mobile workers today makes it easier than ever to multi-task and deal with urgent tasks. However, the myriad of applications and devices we use can have the effect of overwhelming us and creating a hurricane of activity that can actually make us less productive.

In a recent NY Times article about using smartphones to get work done while driving, a communications professor at Stanford, Clifford Nass, noted that the brain is "fundamentally built to unitask." So, that being the case, mobile workers need to be even more disciplined about prioritizing tasks, setting short-term goals, delegating responsibility, and following through with tasks since the distractions are greater and the layers of abstraction are greater.

Below are some of my recommendations for coping with the rushes when the floodgates do burst open. I'd also be interested to know your strategies for dealing with the deluge.

• Use the tools at your disposal, don't let them use you. I keep my IM open most of the time for quick communication without having to pull away from what I am doing, but when I don't want to be disturbed, I put that in my status and am usually even more specific with something along the lines of "researching and writing" as an added qualifier. This helps filter out some of the not-so-urgent requests, or diverts them to email where I can deal with it later and won't forget the details. I do the same thing if I am at an event with my BlackBerry, noting that I am at an event and using my mobile device only. Again, the channel is open for urgent requests only (at least in theory).
  
  
• Mitigate the inevitable by triage and offload. Emails, from the vaguely important to the totally useless, can seriously clog up your inbox and bury important emails in a sea of  unopened messages. The same is true for minor tasks, from a quick email response to a five-minute phone call to a calendar entry. I will often take a couple minutes in the evening and a couple minutes in the morning to go through emails on my mobile device or my home computer, delete the ones that are just spam, move others to respective folders for later, and be mentally prepared to address more urgent matters when I get into the office or start my workday from home. For quick tasks, I try to address them right away, to avoid the death-by-a-thousand-cuts when I have a larger urgent matter to address and the smaller, but still important, jobs to be done are still there to distract me and stress me out (which makes for poorer quality work all around).
  
  
• Always have a "plan B" for accessing critical files. Having more than one way to get at critical files while away from the office is always a good idea. This could be a combination of higher- and lower-tech means. For instance, you could use a remote access solution and also keep important files on either a laptop, smartphone, or USB device. Additionally, you could keep the files on a shared corporate drive and have a point person who could email them to you in the event of an urgent request. I'd recommend one method that leverages secure access to corporate networks, and one that has files securely stored on a local device.
  
  
• Prioritize and set realistic goals. Invariably you'll be in the middle of a couple of other things when the "drop everything and deal with this now!" phone call comes in. I find it best to work backwards by making an educated guess about how long the new project will take and how I will weave that deadline in with that of the other projects I've begun. In this process, I also ask myself some important questions: Which deadlines can be extended and which cannot? Where can I delegate or ask for help from colleagues?
  
  
• Take a deep breath and assess the situation before diving in. There are few things worse than panicking and over-reacting to a crisis without all the relevant information. Unless you are a first responder, taking five to 10 minutes to assess the situation, gather more information, and set a game plan is a very good idea. This also helps take the emotion out of the response, thus avoiding sending flamograms to our bosses or locking on to the wrong details and running full speed in the wrong direction.
  
  For mobile workers, this dynamic also applies to your environment. Say you're racing down the highway at 80 mph; it's probably a good idea to wait until you can get to a rest stop, assess the situation, and then respond accordingly.
  
  For remote workers, it is also important to know who you need to turn to for the right information and expertise when the problem is bigger than what you can deal with on your own; also, to know the best methods to reach those individuals who themselves may be remote or on the road.
  

As a workshifter, how do you manage crisis situations?

Photo by: jereandreagan

Today Zack Grossbart stops by to take a different take on distractions and focus.  Zack is the author of the upcoming book The One Minute Commute and writes over on his blog.  Zack focuses much of his writing on exploring how to build distributed teams using best practices from the high-tech industry.

Everyone knows that distractions make it more difficult to stay focused, but sometimes they make it easier. Have you ever fallen asleep during a long phone meeting? My father (a practicing psychologist) told me how distractions can make it easier to stay focused on the telephone.

When you talk with someone face-to-face you are getting a huge amount of information. Telephone conversations give your brain the audio information, but not the visual information. When it doesn't get the visual information from the conversation it will look for it somewhere else. Give your brain something more to do. Other people can tell when you lose focus on the phone conversation.

Use small distractions to help you stay focused:

• Visual distractions help you focus. Don't watch a movie (that is too distracting), but some low-key Internet browsing can work well.
• Do something with your hands. Play with a desk toy, pass a ball back and forth, knit, anything that you can do mindlessly.
• Walk around. Exercise is good for your brain and movement helps you focus.

Giving yourself small distractions while you are on conference calls will help you stay focused and be more productive.

Do you have a good idea for staying focused on the phone? Post a comment and let other people know.

Photo by: Robert Banh