I admit it: I'm deadline-driven. Deadlines keep me moving forward and on task. I respond exceedingly well to them. Meeting deadlines brings enormous satisfaction; not meeting them brings stress and self-loathing. Deadlines reign supreme; if something doesn't have a hard deadline attached - even informally - it gets placed at the bottom of the to-do list.

Being responsive to deadlines is obviously important professionally, but when one deadline follows close on the heels of another, there's little time to step back for a big-picture assessment. And despite the fact that I seem to be in a perpetual state of content creation, pointing to a fully booked calendar as evidence of a productive professional life doesn't quite cut it for prospective employers.

This was especially apparent when I was recently asked to forward my résumé to a client for a potential gig. Sure, I thought, no problem. Then I remembered that I switched from PC to Mac a few years ago, and the last time I saw my résumé had been before the change. I assumed, however, that I backed up the file along with the other important stuff, but - you guessed it - I couldn't find it. I was able to look through my email archive and locate a PDF version - from 2008. I literally broke into a sweat. A lot of projects have crossed my path since then.

This mess got me thinking about my post-project habits and how I might improve them. Here are a few ideas I've been kicking around:

• Ask for a quote from a particularly pleased client or colleague. Offer to draft a sample for the client to review and comment on.
  
  
• Participate in post-project discussions. When a client says, "This project generated $375,000 in new business," keep the quote and understand that you contributed to that result.
  
  
• Seek opportunities to branch out in your field so that you can gain more expertise, knowledge or certification.
  
  
• Remember to keep your information updated on your website, LinkedIn, Facebook or other online tool.
  
  
• Update your résumé on a regular basis. If you wait until it's finally asked for, you won't capture the details as well as if you were describing the project or outcome while still fresh.
  
  
• Share with the world your awards or commendations.
  
  
• Maintain a portfolio of your work samples.
  
  
• Write a brief summary after completing a project. Note what went well and what you might improve next time.

When project deadlines are rolling, it's easy to lose sight of the big picture. If you are anything like me, assigning a deadline to this part of the process might not be such a bad idea.

What's on your post-project checklist?

Photo Credit: dmachiavello

Some of the most popular pages on my website are the home office series, created from photos and text sent to me by readers about where they work at home. I'm now onto my third page and only one brave workshifter has sent me a photo of his workspace in all its workaday glory, complete with cluttered desks and piles of paper.

The reply I usually get when I ask for a photo is "Not till I've tidied up!" When once I suggested an 'authentic' picture would be refreshing, the response was "You must be joking, I've got a professional image to maintain!"

Creating the pages has made me realize that not only are workshifters avidly curious about where and how others work, we also tend to be sensitive about portraying our own as anything other than beautifully organized.

Since starting the pages I've also discovered other sites that showcase real home offices as well as some featuring aspirational and impossibly glamorous ones! I suppose these are the equivalent of sitting in your own rather scruffy living room while leafing through glossy magazine pictures of immaculate interiors.

It's good to pick up ideas and see what's possible, but I've stopped posting these pictures quite as frequently on my Facebook page. With their sleek desks, new Macs, minimalist accessories and lack of teetering piles of paper, they may be wonderful viewing, but the last thing I want to do is give the impression that a perfect home office is necessary for successful workshifting. It may not even be desirable.

Fortunately I've been introduced to the wonderful Pinterest, which allows me to indulge my vice by pinning my favorite pictures on to my own board and browsing other people's.

Photo Credit: mbiebusch

I'm no neat freak, but every now and then I am compelled to do something about all the paper in my "paperless" office.

Some stuff is easy to get rid of. During the great office purge of 2009, I threw out dozens of software manuals (just the fact that I had software manuals tells you how old they were), boxes of 3.5 inch diskettes, backup tapes I couldn't read if I wanted to, and reams of obsolete writing samples from clients of long ago.

That freed up closet space, shelf space and filing-cabinet space for a while. But eventually my filing cabinet was crammed again--and something had to give.

The problem: Much of what was left to go was confidential material. Proprietary client documents, bank records, old checks, business invoices and a decade of tax documents. While I have a shredder, I'm not set up to shred in bulk. Plus I'd really prefer a mulch-creating shredder to my inexpensive crosscut one when it comes to my privacy.

Options

The District of Columbia has a shredding program as part of its awesome hazmat disposal service--but they don't appear willing to shred on site.

Office Depot will shred on site, but they're not cheap if you have volume.

Then I learned from my neighbor Steve Stern that one local company will bring a truck to your location and shred 10 boxes for $95. A great deal--but my office isn't that out of control.

The Solution: Community

I might not have 10 boxes, but my "community" does. Stern is a financial advisor, which means just about every piece of paper coming through his office is confidential. He has seven boxes ready to go. I have another two. And a friend of mine is happy to unload another box or two of old documents.

I'm discovering that there's a lot of satisfaction in a good purge. Does your community need a shredding day? Have you purged your papers lately?

Photo Credit: umpqua

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

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

Lots of other respected organizations have made similar projections.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

They want to be trusted.

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

They want to be treated like adults.

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

This is not your grandfather's workforce.

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

Photo Credit: TylerIngram

I just rearranged my home office again.

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

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

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

Positioning is Everything

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

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

Surround Yourself with Stimulating Things

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

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

The Clothes Make the Workshifter

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

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

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

Photo Credit: Citrix Online

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

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

Don't even ask about my floor.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Photo Credit: Jeffrey Beall

When I gave up my bricks and mortar office 5 years ago, I underwent a significant lifestyle change. No longer was I "heading into the office" every day. I was a free bird, able to flit around at my own pace, on my own schedule, where and with whom I wanted. It was blissful for a while, having all that freedom. However, I felt as if I was always ON... always dealing with work on some level or another - whether it was taking a client phone call at 9:30 at night, or replying to emails in bed on a Sunday morning. Everything I did, even when I was supposed to be having fun and relaxing, had a continuous undercurrent of work in the background. The result of this feeling of work pecking at me all the time was STRESS, and lots of it. Before I knew it, the bliss I'd felt at not being chained to an office gave way to the anxiety of not having boundaries between work and play.

I learned the hard way that there's a better way to work when your office is anywhere.

There's something to be said for 9 to 5.

Okay, well maybe not 9 to 5 exactly, because having totally regimented work hours would kind of defeat the purpose of having the freedom that workshifting allows. But, making a distinction between "I'm working now," and "I'm not working now," is definitely beneficial.

Your work schedule doesn't have to be consecutive. Maybe you want to work from 6am to 9am, then take a break till noon, then work again from noon to 2pm, nap till 4, and work again from 5 to 8. See, it's up to you. That's the beauty of this lifestyle. You get to set it up. But it's important that you set it up, every day. The best thing to do is put it in your calendar. Block off the chunks of time when you need to work, and something interesting will happen. In between you'll see gaps on your calendar. I call these gaps "Inches of Time." These inches are your own - time when you don't have work or other commitments. It's time just for you, to focus on a labor of love project, blogging, learning something new, reading, or just... doing nothing.

Make your schedule each day and stick to it (I sometimes use a timer to tell me when it's break time). You'll find that the routine of making a schedule makes you shut off when you need to.

Have a morning routine.

Human beings are creatures of habit, just like the rest of the animal kingdom. So when you don't adopt good habits, you can easily get out of rhythm. If you just jump up every day and dive into whatever gets thrown at you (say, the emails in your inbox or a bad story on the news), it can spin you off in totally the wrong direction. That's why a morning routine is important. Here's the one I've been following with great success.

• 6:00am: Wake up. (I try to wake without an alarm as much as possible, letting my body tell me when it's had enough rest.) Drink coffee in bed and read (not the news, not Twitter, but an actual book).
• 6:30am: Check in on the web (read articles, blogs, Twitter, Facebook, etc. - NOT news or emails).
• 7:00am: Take the dog for a run (and me for a good walk).
• 8:00am: Have breakfast and coffee #2.
• 8:30am: Shower and get dressed.
• 9:00am: Check emails and get to work.

Now, I don't have kids to feed, dress or get to school in the morning, so I have a bit more flexibility in how I do things. You need to come up with what works for you. But some important things in my routine that set me up for the day are:

• I eat breakfast. ALWAYS.
  
  
• I get out with the dog. This is a new thing for me, as our dog was recently introduced to the wonders of off-leash dog parks. But the time I spend in nature every morning now really clears my mind and sets me up for a good day. Not to mention I'm now walking an hour a day. My pants are looser already!
  
  
• I read every morning, even if it's just for 1/2 an hour. This could be any book - business, fiction, non-fiction, self-help - but it's not the Internet, it's an actual book. That is time for me, every day, to enjoy something and get inspired by new ideas.

The point is, having a morning routine is critical to being more effective in all things. Think of your morning routine as the set-up for your day - the one thing in your day that you get to have total control over, because as we know the rest of our days can be anything but controlled sometimes.

Even when you workshift, routine is important. If you're feeling stressed or overwhelmed by all of the flexibility your days now afford, consider how you might start to rein that freedom in by settings some boundaries of time and activities.

Photo Credit: jailman

I've had a funky Target-designed surge protector in my living room for a while. It's cute, it's functional, and it gives me a safe place to plug in a laptop. But, until the other day, it was located in exactly the wrong place.

The power inputs for my computer, my piano keyboard, my Droid, and probably ever other piece of electronic equipment in my house are all on the left side of the devices. But the surge protector was plugged in on the right side of the couch, so I was always running cords across the table--and trying hard not to trip on anything when I stood up.

So I moved the surge protector to the other side of the couch. Problem solved. But it did get me thinking about space--and how we do (and sometimes don't) optimize it for ourselves.

Don't Trip Over the Cords

Are you using your office space wisely? Can you reach the calculator, paper, printer, pens, phone, and everything else you use multiple times a day without tripping over anything?

Here are a few things I've done to optimize my office workspace:

• My rolling desk chair lets me scoot from the printer to the back-up supply of paper.
  
  
• A hanging files holder lets me keep my top files close at hand while leaving my desk free for work. And did I mention it rolls too?
  
  
• I keep a miscellaneous desk papers file in the hanging holder. As the name implies, it holds much of the "stuff" that would otherwise be cluttering my work space.
  
  
• The dry erase board on my file cabinet lets me glance over at blog post ideas, and gives me a place for ideas to percolate.
  
  
• Two wall shelves above my desk give me a place to house a few reference books (including my AP Stylebook) and a few toys.
  
  
• A round table in the corner by the windows gives me space to spread out when I'm collating papers, sorting receipts, or have to organize project docs.

Now it's your turn. What are you doing to make your workspace work for you?

Photo Credit: Groovymarlin

After the holiday celebrations of December most people in January are in the mood for less food and drink, less socialising and less activity. We look ahead over a new, blank year and plan how to cultivate better habits and fulfill our dreams. Why not spend a little time at the start of the year slimming down your home office too? These activities will clear out the rubbish and put you in good shape for the workshifting year ahead:

Slimming Down the Home Office

• Go through your filing cabinet and drawers and clear out files and paperwork. How many years' accounts are you hanging on to? Check with your accountant or the tax authorities how many you are legally obliged to keep and shred the rest. It might sound tedious, but once you've started, you'll find it wonderfully freeing!
  
  
• Check all that potentially useful information you've accumulated - cuttings from newspapers and magazines, scribbled notes, brochures, business cards etc. Do you even remember why you kept it? How much of it is already outdated or will be before you ever need to use it? Most can probably be recycled - just about everything you could ever want to know is available online anyway.
  
  
• Buy a year planner and spend a few happy hours imagining your ideal year. Put in holidays and breaks first, followed by the business activities that bring you the most value. When are the high profile events and conferences in your industry? Put them in so you can attend, or even better, is there a chance you might be invited to speak?
  
  
• Every year I look forward to going through my diary and making a list of all the significant events of last year and the interesting people I've encountered. Try it and I guarantee the list will be longer than you anticipate! On a day-to-day basis it's easy to overlook how much progress you're making and once the year has ended it's a good time to take stock.
  
  
• Decide who you'd like to get to know this year and make a note in your new diary to call them, attend an event they are likely to be at, or ask someone for an introduction.

Flushing out the workshifting toxins you accumulated last year and introducing an intake of new, fresh people and ideas is a great way to start the new year feeling positive and excited about the possibilities ahead.

What would you add? How do you clear out the clutter for a fresh start to the new year?

Photo Credit: kris krug

Ah, the start of a new year. Isn't it true that a fresh outlook, new beginnings, and a happy, lighthearted attitude are driving most of us as we embark on the wonders and promise 2011 brings?

Unfortunately, around this time in January, reality starts to take hold once again. Our email inbox is rapidly filling to the brim, even though we so diligently cleaned and organized it over the holidays. The phone begins to ring, and on the other end are all of those people who said "Let's just wait till after Christmas.". They are through with waiting.

It's also around about this time that we start to forget all those new year's resolutions we made to work smarter. Your beautifully cleaned and sorted desk falls victim to clutter as chaos creeps back in.

For most of us, working from home or working remotely is the only way to work. We are happily independent, flexible, and productive. But even the best workshifters can fall victim to bad habits. So let's explore a few ways you can continue to ride high on the wave of freedom that is workshifting.

You take it out, you put it back.

Remember a few days after Christmas, when your turkey hangover subsided, and you got motivated to clean your office? You organized and filed. You dusted under the printer. You donated old books to the library. You bought new storage containers and promptly filled them. You felt somehow lighter and freer.

Now, the day to day chaos has re-ensued, and you find that your spotless desk is once again filling up with papers, books, coffee rings, and junk. Before you know it, you're drowning in a sea of clutter once again.

There's a really, really simple way to solve this. I use a simple mantra, "Everything in its place." It serves to remind me that when I take something out to use, I put it back when I'm done with it. That goes for everything...staplers, papers, books, you name it. If I take something out, I use it, then I put it back, and do it consistently, then it only stands to reason that my work space will stay clear, right?

Same goes for electronic clutter.

The thing is, by implementing the same mantra: "Everything in its place.", you can get the same results. Look at an email, deal with it, file it. Create filters to filter out all those email newsletters, Twitter follow notifications, and anything else that doesn't deserve to take up space in your main inbox. Suddenly your 500 emails are 300, or even 100. Seriously, it's that simple. Do the same with your note taking app. Build folders. Write your files directly to those folders, and you'll never feel cluttered again and it will be so much easier to find things. Don't just check things off your to-do list, archive them (or delete them).

The new year is all about developing and maintaining good habits. Start the habit today of saying "Everything in its place.". Trust me, it works. It's the only way I stay on top of the organized chaos that is my life. It's a surefire way of reducing stress, increasing productivity and improving our workshifting lifestyle.

Photo Credit: Tomas Carrillo