Working outside of a traditional office setting where you have colleagues and resources to draw on at all times can be difficult. If you work from a home office or space away from what your company considers 'home base' you know the added challenges. My name is Keith Burtis. This is my first addition to the workshifting blog but I have been a professional workshifter for three and a half years now and I'd like to share with you one of my weekly To Do's.

Break the Routine

So we have all heard of the importance of a routine right? Major league baseball players have a pre-swing routine, and workshifters tend to live and die by their routine and calendar. This may sound contrarian to all you have heard and learned about being an efficient worker but I'm going to tell you to Break the Routine! Do I mean that you should throw your life into a tizzy, start missing meetings and falling behind on your deliverables? No. However, what I am saying is, at least once a week you should step out of your pre-fabricated robot like routine and shock your system with something new!

Your asking me why? The routine works for you right? In fact maybe you have been following this exact routine for years and it's like the comfort blanket Linus from the Charlie Brown cartoon walks around with all day. The fact is this:

Change forces adaptation and adaptation increases strength.

Lets compare our work lives to physical fitness for a moment here.  Maybe even some of you have going to the gym a few times a week as a line item in your calendar. Why do you go? Many of you will say, To stay healthy, lose a few pounds or heck maybe to help break the monotony of your day. I'll tell you the real reason:

Change forces adaptation and adaptation increases strength.

By going to the gym and stressing your system on the treadmill or breaking down muscles by lifting weights you are forcing your body to adapt. Essentially, by adding a few clicks on the treadmill and a couple reps to your curls your body responds by getting stronger and healthier. This is why it is important to frequently change the routine of your workout to maximize results.

Can you see where I'm headed here? I don't want this to start sounding like a workout guide but rather a guide for life and work. Do you find yourself doing the same things every day? Expecting the same paycheck? Jut sort of....dare I say, Coasting? It's easy to fall into this trap, in fact it's human nature. However, for those of you that want to stay on top of your game, creative and fresh it's important to challenge yourself and step away from the routine every so often. please share your experiences here with us! If you think I'm off my rocker please share your thoughts

Photo Credit: Inoneear

Today's guest post is by Phil Montero the founder of YouCanWorkFromAnywhere.com and an evangelist for distributed work. For more than a decade he's been teaching how to work effectively from a home office, the road, or practically anywhere. On his blog, TheAnywhereOffice.com, he shares tips and articles about living a digital lifestyle and navigating the changing world of work.


As a reader of this blog, you know that business as usual no longer involves working in a traditional workplace at set hours. Today's professionals are working from virtual offices, client sites, home offices, coffee shops, airports, hotels, and any number of remote workplaces.

International Data Corporation (IDC), in a forecast released in February 2010, Worldwide Mobile Worker Population 2009-2013 Forecast, projects that the world's mobile worker population will pass the one billion mark this year and grow to nearly 1.2 billion people - more than a third of the world's workforce - by 2013. The global economy and increasing speed with which we conduct business makes the rise of distributed work and virtual teamwork inevitable. What is more, the benefits of workshifting are real.

The biggest problem is that most organizations take an ad-hoc approach to workshifing, which has been thrust upon them. The business landscape began to change; they increasingly found themselves working across time and distance with team mates, remote offices, clients, vendors, and other outsourced professionals. And they mostly left individual employees, project teams, and offices to decide for themselves how best to conduct business. Virtual teamwork was not deliberate, and not undertaken with any real strategy.

The key to success with distributed work is getting a handle on how you interact. In order to help with this process I have developed what I call the Information, Communication, Collaboration (ICC) Workflow Audit™. It's a way to wrap your mind around the methods of your distributed teamwork and determine how to best use your technology, regardless of specific field or industry. Choosing the right tools and thoughtfully applying them to your business processes can turn your office into The Anywhere Office®: allowing you to work with people around the world as if they were across the hall.

Regardless of what stage of workshifting you're in, or which flavor your individual remote work comes in, you can benefit from this simple exercise to organize your thinking. Look at your workflow and workstyle, and separate all of your tasks and responsibilities - the day-to-day functions of your job - into 3 categories: information, communication, and collaboration.

Then, with those lists in front of you, consider what tools and technology you are using and how; think about what types of strategies and guidelines you have in place or need to institute; and think about how to better manage your process and solicit feedback from your team members and distributed employees.

I will briefly outline below the thought process and the key questions and consideration involved in performing your own ICC Workflow Audit™. It is intended to allow you to take a step back and get a perspective on your workflow process and the mobility of your work.

INFORMATION
When it comes to your information needs, your primary concern is access to files, data, and research. How it will be synchronized, updated, and exchanged. If you are someone who works from the road or remote locations often, the challenge is how to access your files or take your data with you when you are away from the office.

QUESTIONS

• What does your team need?
• Documents
• Contact management
• Shared calendars
• Research
• Reports
• Are special programs or data needed?
• Should data be centrally located?

Your primary goal is to determine if the data that your group needs is as current and easy to find as possible.

COMMUNICATION
Choosing the right tools is only part of communicating well. It's also important to discuss certain communication guidelines within your organization or team.

Setting up these simple guidelines will make sure there is no miscommunication and that everyone has a clear understanding of expectations.

QUESTIONS

• Methods/Tools
• Phone
• Instant Message
• Text Message
• Email
• Discussion Board
• Online Meetings
• Timeliness
• Presence
• Clarity
• Synchronous vs. asynchronous

I often say it's important to "communicate about how you are going to communicate." This will help you develop clear guidelines and create an environment that supports an open and free exchange of ideas.


COLLABORATION
Look at synchronous vs. asynchronous methods of collaboration and try to incorporate both. It is also important to determine if decisions are often made as a group during meetings. If so, you'll want to consider tools that support live polling or other features that support rapid decision-making.

QUESTIONS

• Asynchronous or synchronous?
• Are decisions made as a group during meetings?
• With what style or tool does your team seem to be most comfortable?
• Do project teams work as unified groups? Or do teams tend to get broken down into smaller groups that work in tandem?

For many teams, collaboration is enhanced by developing more structured policies. Look for things the group is doing successfully and use these as models and ideas for future development and best practices.

You can conduct the ICC Workflow Audit™ for yourself, but if you're managing a team you will want to get your people involved in answering these questions. This will ensure that you have an accurate picture of how work gets done and what tools can best help improve productivity and communication flow.

Once you've chosen the best tools for your workstyle, learn to really use and manage them: Get some training or coaching to help you master the features and maximize your efficiency.
Also, remember that technology changes daily and new tools are cropping up all the time, so it is important to make this assessment part of your ongoing process.

For more information on how to implement the ICC Workflow Audit™, read my white paper or attend this recent Webinar.


If you have any ideas on how you can use this workflow to better your organization, please share!


Photo Credit: the_tartanpodcast

It may be a guy thing, but I love spy thrillers. Who hasn't dreamt of being James Bond, Jack Bauer, Mitch Rapp, or Austin Powers?  Today I wanted to share with you The Jason Bourne Guide to Workshifting.  Sure, his methods are sometimes a little difficult to duplicate and he does work alone most of the time, but I think the results speak for themselves.  Here are three universal keys to successful web commuting that we can learn from Jason Bourne a.k.a David Webb.

Have A Go Bag
Never leave home without your gear.  Bourne always has the right tools to complete his mission. Guns? Check. Passports? Check. Currency? Check? Sat Phone? Check.  I like to call them go bags.  Go bags carry the essential equipment we need to get things done while workshifting.  Simplicity is the goal here. Most of the time we don't need as much as we think we do. For a few tips on what to pack, check out what's inside Chris Brogan's work bag and AJ Leon's gear bag. Most software tools we use can be found in the cloud, but having the right hardware will make all the difference.

Blend Into Your Environment
We have all seen him.  You know, the guy who sets up central command in Barnes & Noble. When working from a remote location, fly under the radar.  Bourne blends into his surroundings by adapting his environment. We can do this by mirroring our surroundings.  Leslie Poston does a great job discussing how to do this in her "Don't be that guy" post.

Keep Moving
One thing about Jason is he stays on the move.  Working in multiple locations helps us stay fresh.  Working in the same spot can make us less focused.  Try changing locals from time to time, it will help you be more creative. I have a friend that changes his spot at least twice a day to help him shift mental gears. We all have our favorite spots to set up camp but a change of scenery helps us stay out of ruts and prevents burnout.  

We may never be international men and women of mystery or secret operatives but we can learn to work with the agility and efficiency of a Jason Bourne. What do you do to stay efficient and mobile when working?


Photo Credit: Perry_Marco

Workshifting is about more than just working from anywhere.  It's about a certain way to work.  Seasoned workshifters work differently than most other knowledge workers.  Many of the behaviours of workshifters are learned by necessity, but once learned, are found to be more effective than traditional methods.  Workshifting is not only positive for the freedom it gives to the worker, but the skills and lessons learned while workshifting can benefit almost all businesses and workers.  As such, the corporate world should take a good look at successful workshifters and see what it can learn from them. Here are just a few lessons that the corporate world can learn.


1) Not every e-mail is life and death

As a workshifter, you often have to contend with intermittent internet access. People who fly often know this feeling well. WiFi is not yet ubiquitous in the air, and as such, a long flight can often leave a road warrior without access to the internet or his emails for hours at a time. Strangely, this doesn't actually cause the world to end.

Office workers are all too aware of the familiar MS Outlook notification, or the buzz of the Blackberry.  The pressure to respond immediately means a break in the flow of whatever else you were doing, so that you can answer that e-mail instantly.

The workshifter, instead, will download his e-mails, and then while disconnected, take the opportunity to respond to all of them, and queue them into his outbox. Upon connectivity, the e-mail responses go out.  

A mandatory disconnection from the e-mail server would do office workers a world of good in both productivity and stress reduction.  The majority of us don't have jobs where an e-mail going without answer for 3 hours will make a difference.  If the subject of an e-mail were that important, then the sender would pick up the phone.  Also, by self-imposing e-mail blackouts, a worker trains his co-workers as to which medium to use for contacting him.  E-mail for regular communication, but a phone call for something that is urgent.

2) Employees do well with flexibility

Workshifting employees are generally more productive than their office-bound counterparts because they can do things according to their own rhythms.  Every individual has his own peaks and valleys of productivity throughout a day, and so, imposing the same schedule on everyone doesn't make sense. People perform better when they're given the opportunity to operate in an environment that best suits them.

In the coporate world, this manifests itself in a few ways.  Giving employees flex hours means that they can work when they're most efficient, instead of forcing both Tina, the mom with two kids who's up at 6 am, and Jim, the 20-something night owl to both come in to work at 9 am.

Opening up network firewalls also gives employees the flexibility to do what needs to get done.  If employees are getting the work done, recharging their creative batteries by checking Facebook for ten minutes will not harm the company.

Likewise, computer admin access for those who request it, can go a long way in an employee's productivity.  More and more people are becoming computer savvy, and those people develop their own preferences for the tools that they are most productive with.  Forcing them to use the tools that the company imposes upon them is handicapping them for no reason.

3) Focus on results

The workshifter doesn't count hours.  He can't because, oftentimes, he's working in between other commitments, at strange times, or in odd places.  Despite this, the workshifter still gets his work done.  This is because he focuses on results and not on how many hours were put in.  Workshifters work with tasks and projects, not with punch cards, and for that reason, they're more likely to get the job done, because instead of saying, "I'll work from X to Y," they say, "This needs to get done."

Similarly, the corporate world that is often predicated on a work schedule, and has the backwards habit of rewarding those who put in extra hours, could stand to learn a thing or two from the workshifter.  

By focusing on results, companies may see work get done quicker because employees don't have to fill up their days.  Instead, they get their work done, and that's all.  Just because one employee leaves at 4 pm, and the other leaves at 7 pm, it doesn't necessarily mean the one staying later is working harder.  More likely, the employee leaving earlier is working smarter.  However, there is no incentive for an employee to work smart if the company doesn't focus on results.

4) Work in any environment

Workshifters are used to working in any environment.  They work from offices, home, cafes, co-working spaces, trains, planes, hotels, and anywhere that they can set up.  Location independence is what makes them workshifters after all.  However, this kind of flexibility to work anywhere can benefit the corporate world as well.

By empowering employees to work from places other than their desks, productivity is maintained when they simply can't be there.  One example is employees who have to attend training seminars or conferences.  By allowing them the flexibility and tools to work from anywhere, they will still be able to be productive in between sessions.  Employees will not feel like they're falling behind, and employers get additional productivity.

In addition, giving the employee location flexibility can help to drastically reduce the loss of productivity from sick days.  When someone is feeling under the weather, they can choose to work from home.  That same person would either have not worked at all that day, or would have come in to work, and possibly gotten other people in the office sick, contributing to future productivity losses.

5) Push decision-making power down the chain of command

Another great trait of workshifters is their ability to get tough problems solved quickly and efficiently.  Because of their remoteness, they don't have the luxury of seeking advice, or waiting for someone else to make the call for them, and so they are forced to make quick decisions.

While this may be scary for some managers, at the end of the day, allowing employees to take more responsibility is more efficient and leads to more confident employees and a quicker more agile team.  When all decisions need to be approved by a manager, things bottleneck, and response time slows.  Employees often know exactly what the course of action to take is, but are afraid to do so, because they have never been empowered to do so.  Therefore, giving the employees the responsibility doesn't materially change the decision that's made, it just allows it to be reached faster.

The corporate world is constantly fighting against the ankle biters.  Those small firms that seem to steal away business simply because they're quicker and more agile.  By empowering employees, large firms can emulate the ankle biters and preserve their domain, while at the same time providing employees valuable leadership and decision-making experience which will allow them to grow within the company.

Conclusion

Workshifters, whether by necessity or ingenuity, have created a new way to work.  That way of working is faster and more efficient than many traditional ways of doing the same work.  There is no reason why traditional companies shouldn't learn from this new wave, and embrace some of the lessons that have come from it.


Photo Credit: mccun934

Today's post is from Matt Hunckler, the Co-Founder and Chief Evangelist for Repurify.com, a unique online boutique that offers only the safest, most effective non-toxic personal care products and cosmetics. Matt is also a maven of new technologies and works for an innovative cloud computing company to help businesses realize greater efficiency and scale.


Have you ever been in the zone? You know what I'm talking about - those magical times when things just seem to click and you find that perfect, productive flow. These moments may seem fleeting, especially with all of the projects that we as Workshifters often have to juggle. Yet, there are things that I've found can help you get "in the zone" more consistently to increase productivity and give you a more inspired work experience.

You've probably already heard all the "peak-performance" health tips: eat only healthy foods, drink lots of water, exercise every day, and get plenty of sleep. But let's face it, if you're a high-performing individual, you can't always get a full eight hours of sleep and it's not always that easy to prepare yourself that veggie wrap instead of hitting the corner deli at lunch.

In this article, I take a look at some of the techniques that can quickly get you going in the right direction to tackle your daily to-dos more quickly while producing A+ results. Finding your optimal frame of mind isn't easy, but if you break down a few of the fundamentals of personal performance, you can actually triangulate your mental, physical, and emotional states through a process I like to call "frame shifting." 

Step 1: Make meaningful movement.
So when I say "meaningful movement," what am I talking about?

Think purpose. If you move with purpose, you can trigger all kinds of healthy productive thought processes and emotions. Think of it as knocking over the first domino in the domino line.

Breath and posture are the foundation of many well-known physical and mental disciplines like Tai Chi and yoga. While I don't have any yoga mats or Zen gardens, I've found that I can greatly increase my energy level by managing my physiology. By taking deep breaths and maintaining a healthy posture, I'm better prepared to tackle my toughest tasks and handle the inevitable stresses of the day.

Sitting up straight will keep you more alert and energized than slumping our slouching at your desk, coffee table, or wherever else you place your laptop. It will also help improve your breathing, which should be deep, consistent breaths from the diaphragm - not the stomach. I like to take 3-minute breaks at least twice a day to focus on my breathing. This helps me gain perspective on whatever mission-critical work I'm tackling that day.

If you can consistently move your body in a specific way as you get into your flow, you can create what's called a physical anchor. This means that your deliberate movement acts as a stimulus and your desired state change is the reflex, or response. Anchoring can be extremely powerful, as it can accelerate the entire process of getting in the zone.

Step 2: Optimize your mentality.
While your physical activity may eventually become an automatic trigger or anchor for your productive state, it's important when you're just starting out to be very deliberate about your thought processes. What kinds of thoughts and feelings do you have when you're in the zone?

Create mental barriers between companies or major projects. I like to create separate to-do lists and keep a separate notebook for each of the organizations to which I contribute. Not only will this practice of compartmentalizing your life make it easier for you to focus, but it also makes it simpler for you to find that recent ingenious idea you want to revisit.

You can further compartmentalize your work by moving to a new location where you can associate yourself with specific types of work. For example, I work on my non-profit work on my couch at home, my personal project work at coffee shops and bars, and my cloud computing work at the corporate offices. The more consistent you can be with all of your environmental factors, the quicker you'll be able to get in the right frame of mind to be productive and creative.

Step 3: Master your emotions.
Now that you're moving and thinking like a pro, it's time to take it to the next level by tapping into an emotional attitude that supports your forward progress.

Find your "why" - the people, causes, and things that give meaning to your life. Remind yourself of your short-term and long-term goals with visual and verbal cues. These could include pictures, charts, slogans, or whatever serves to help focus your energy.

It's also a good idea to take a look at how far you've come. Remember the days before you had your first client, project, or published work? You're constantly evolving and progressing, and that's something to be excited about and encouraged by. Don't sweat it that you're not perfect yet. Pay attention to and applaud your progress.

Music is an amazing tool when it comes to mastering your emotions. We've all had the experience of hearing a familiar tune and instantly being transported back to a very specific time or place. This is a form of emotional anchoring. Use it to your advantage.
Music and visuals not only help you get to your state of flow, but they also help block out productivity-sapping distractions. I steer clear of music with lots of lyrics, but you may be able to mesh this with your work style. Try using set-it-and-forget-it music tools like Pandora to help you stay focused on your work, rather than puttering around until you find your "perfect playlist."

Bring it all together.
Now that you have some tools, it's time to bring it all together into a deliberate, well-practiced pattern to get you in the zone and working through your to-do lists.

The important thing is to track what works. When you get in that rhythm - that magical state of flow - pause a minute and notice what you're doing. What's different? What did you do immediately prior to getting in this productive/creative/inspired state?

Once you find what works, use it consistently to get yourself going. With practice, you'll be able to triangulate your body, mind, and emotions to frame-shift into that perfect, productive state- the zone - where you can more easily do the things you need to do to reach your goals. 

What are your thoughts? What do you do?


Photo Credit: SpaceAmoeba

"If only I had that netbook/iPhone/Blackberry/miFi/VoIP/Macbook/digicam/other-cool-gadget, then I would be able to work from anywhere."

I used to believe that I was comfortable working from anywhere, because I grew up in an era where the tools to do so were readily available to me. But then, I started noticing that there were people around me, who had access to the same tools, but that were not using them to achieve location independence.  This led me to a realization. Tools don't make a workshifter.  Giving a man a hammer and a saw does not make him a carpenter. Similarly, giving him a smartphone and a laptop does not make him a workshifter.

Workshifters are a special breed.  While many romanticize the idea of telecommuting and location independence, a small minority actually take advantage of the opportunity.  Perhaps this is because not everyone has that luxury.  Maybe some people would like to workshift, but don't have the tools.

I don't buy it.  Look back through history and you will find workshifters in every era.  Do you think Plato wrote the Republic from the office?  Da Vinci may have painted the Mona Lisa in a studio, but his sketchbook was filled with sights from all over.  Workshifting.com's own AJ Leon talked about how Winston Churchill was the greatest workshifter of all time.

None of these men had access to the internet, Blackberries or Basecamp.  The workshifter's greatest tools are his own personal traits.  Here are just a few of the traits that a workshifter needs to be successful:

1) Flexible
Workshifting means being able to work anywhere under any circumstances.  If you need rigid routines and structure to accomplish work, then you need to work on your flexibility before you can consider the workshifting lifestyle.

2) Ability to deal with uncertainty
The challenges of working from outside an office usually aren't obvious until they arise.  Dead batteries, spotty internet connections, sudden mobs of teenagers invading the Starbucks you're working from, bumping into old or new friends.  Any of these can happen at a moment's notice while workshifting, so workshifters need to be able to deal.

3) Being on the cutting edge
Plato may not have been a big technologist, but I bet he knew exactly which inks and papers travelled best.  A minimum amount of tech savvy is required for being a workshifter, because you need to be able to solve tech problems when they arise, and also because being at the cutting edge gives you an advantage, and lets you stay competitive.

4) Being comfortable with solitude
The typical workshifter doesn't enjoy the camaraderie of a packed office. Instead, he works alone. Even when he is surrounded by others in a cafe, or other public place, the people around him are usually strangers, and while being surrounded by them might be comforting to some, the work of a workshifter is generally solitary. This means fewer people to bounce things off of. Less moral support on a particularly difficult day. A true workshifter needs to be comfortable in his solitude

5) Self-motivated
Workshifters are self-starters by nature, or they learn to become self-starters.  If you depend on the 9-5 clock to get work done, you'll be in for a nasty drop in productivity once the clock no longer holds any real power.

6) Creative
Workshifters are generally creative people, because they often work in creative industries, but the creativity goes beyond the subject of their work.  They also need to be creative in problem-solving, find creative ways to motivate themselves, and generally just need constant creative stimulation to keep them fueled.

Anyone who has worked in an office has seen the legions of workers with their laptops and Blackberries, all of whom come in at 8, and leave at 6, and who essentially use these devices as ways to not pay attention during meetings.  Give someone who's not a workshifter by nature the tools to workshift, and s/he will use them from the office.

There's nothing wrong with this, in and of itself. But it's important to realize that those tools, while they may help in the workshifting process are not essential to it. Having the tools, does not a workshifter make!

What are your thoughts?


Photo Credit: Orionlee

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
 

Ah the holidays. Time for family, for food and giving and a few days off to relax, unwind and send people to your out-of-office auto replies. It's also a time when many people travel and have to adjust to a changing schedule for workshifting, fitness and eating.

My Christmas weekend was no different. Over in Daytona with my wife's family we enjoyed an amazing Florida holiday weekend filled with fun, family and food. Over the last two months I have been working hard to work out, fighting to get back into shape (that seems to have escaped me after those high school baseball days) so that I can stay healthy working long days on a laptop. With a new sleep pattern, a full house and some rain, it made working out a little more difficult. Luckily I had a built in personal trainer on site.

My brother in law, Barry Heyden, is the former strength coach for the NY Mets and came well prepared to keep me on my holiday schedule. During the 4 days I had the opportunity to learn to use things that are available and also time allotments to get the most of my workouts. No one wants to spend 45 minutes to an hour on vacation getting sweaty by themselves and no one wants to carry a portable gym on an airplane (plus I'm sure TSA wouldn't be too happy about that!). Barry had the solution that I am going to share with you today that really any traveler can use to get the most of their traveling adventures and still feel like they are in the hometown gym or running a few miles around the neighborhood.

It's All About The Core

The core as in the midsection where all the turkey, pasta and sweets have taken over (though it was so tasty to eat).

When putting together a quick holiday exercise plan the focus was on working the core and building heart rate quickly. We performed a slew of exercises from push-ups with some bicycle kicks in between each rep to leg lifts with the bike kicks. All with a high intensity and short rest time. This got the blood pressure to rise and the lungs to begin to strengthen.

Multitask

The next best suggestion from Barry was to work as many muscles with each exercise as possible. Remember that we are working in a short window of time. Maybe 20 minutes before breakfast, or a quick break in the action in the afternoon. The more you can accomplish with one group of exercises the better.

We started with a squat to shoulder press. No lie, but this was tough. We started with arms in the air with a broom stick. Then we went down to squat, bringing the bar down. Before we attempted to stand up, we raised the bar and then came back into the start position. Doing a set of 15 really whipped us into a quick sweat, working the legs, core and shoulders with one quick minute long exercise.

When you are creating your hotel workout, look for similar activities to work many areas of the body. There are plenty of add-on exercises and motions that can turn single muscle exercises into multiple with a little creativity and thought.

Hydrate With Water

Whether on the road workshifting or having fun on the holidays it is very easy to pick up a cola, beer or loaded fruit juice. Barry said this was a huge mistake that many of the Mets players also had. Keep replenishing yourself with water and your body will cool down and recover faster. Adding sugars will only slow the growth process. Also look for a quick healthy snack after going through a quick training. Carrot sticks or apple slices are easy ones and they can even be picked up at the hotel convenience store or local grocery store.

Above All Else, Shoot For High Intensity

I know as good as anyone how easy it is to relax, throw the feet up and say I'll get back to it when I get home.

Going hard for 20 minutes can be the best thing you do all day as it gets not only your body but your mind stimulated and ready for a rocking day. Whether that be meetings, presenting or giving superior attention to the family. The key here is to have a quick plan of action to keep yourself in a high intensity physical mind frame for 15-20 minutes. The number of reps or sets is irrelevant. Going quickly and with full focus from pushups to lunges to laptop curls will ensure that you keep yourself in a ready and mobile state. Above all else it will allow you to survive the equivalent of the freshman 15.

What are your holiday and hotel workshifting fitness tips? I'd love to hear what gets you going on the road (even if it's just to get away from the crazy in-laws for a few minutes!).

Photos by: ex.libris & Playtime Fitness

There is no one I know that exhorts the concept of working independently more than I do.  If you've ever read any of my posts, I probably seem like a creepy Workshifting Evangelist, preaching down the archaic, dehumanizing cubicle farms that rich executives use to subjugate their employees because it feels better than empowering them...okay, there I go again.

However, if there is one thread of verity that we should embrace from the tyrannical enclaves of the traditional corporate world it is this.  Routine is indeed important.  In fact, I would actually posit that maintaining some construct of routine is far more important for a workshifter than for a traditional employee.  Now let's back up for second, by routine of course I don't mean "9 to 5" routine as I feel that as workshifters we inherently (and intentionally) smudge the lines between work time and play time.  What I do mean is a daily schedule, some regiment or form to your day that makes it both productive and effective no matter where you find yourself.

But developing some sort of daily architecture or schedule is of incredible importance and here's why.  As independent workers, workshifters, digital nomads, whatever you want to call us, we are agile. We are flexible. We are mobile. We use technology to allow us to make a living while working from coffee shops and airports!  It's nuts!  I literally feel like I am living in Back to the Future II sometimes, minus the hoverboards (much to the chagrin of all children of the '80's).  

However, as with most freedoms, the converse serves up an equally potent dystopia.  Mobility is freeing for sure, but if we don't watch it, we can very easily become unproductive and inefficient, and being that we report to...ourselves, this can obviously become a dangerous cycle for our careers and livelihood.  Embracing mobility without some form of daily structure can lend itself to anarchy.  Outside of a formal schedule, it's just far more natural for us to devolve into disorganization and scattered efficacy.  In other words, we can find ourselves either "putting out fires" or finding new stuff to worry about 90% of the time, while actually accomplishing "real" stuff 10% of the time.

Most people don't realize this, but workshifting isn't new, it's just much more easy than it used to be.  Winston Churchill is the greatest workshifter of all time.  Apart from being arguably the most influential statesman in the 20th Century, the guy is like the Godfather of all workshifting.  During the period of the Second World War, Churchill traveled well over 100,000 miles to meet with national leaders and visit Allied Troops!  But let's remember that Churchill wasn't a General, he was the Prime Minister of the British Empire.  He was the first one to call Hitler out, was instrumental in crafting most of Britain's war time strategy, personally recruited most Allied nations (oh by the way, including the US), signed dozens of treaties, gave literally hundreds of public addresses, weathered two heart attacks, almost fatal pneumonia, and ran the most expansive empire in modern history AND he managed to do all of this while working in underground bunkers while in London as it was being decimated by Nazi V1's and while traveling 4x the circumference of the earth!

What is even more remarkable is the stark contrast between Churchill, FDR, and Stalin.  FDR worked from the White House, leaving only a handful of times during the War and Stalin literally got on one plane during the same period!

Churchill was said to have accomplished all this and work until the age of 90 by maintaining a rigorous routine.  Recently, I visited the the Churchill Centre and Cabinet War Rooms in London. I was trying to figure out how in the hell he was able to accomplish everything he did while traveling so damn much.  And there it was. In the "Grey Section" of the museum, there was actually a little case devoted to his legendary schedule, which he maintained irrespective of what was happening around him or where he was in the world.

It made me realize how much work I have to do in this arena, and since I've returned to NYC, I have started taking my Google Calendar much more seriously :)

Have you developed a routine that helps you maintain productivity?

What are some tips or tricks you can share with us?

Super Secret Workshifting Tip:

Later in his life, when Churchill was asked by Walter Graebner from Time-Life how he was able to work so many hours and maintain such a rigorous schedule, he was quoted as saying:

"You must sleep some time between lunch and dinner, and no half-way measures. Take off your clothes and get into bed. That's what I always do. Don't think you will be doing less work because you sleep during the day. That's a foolish notion held by people who have no imagination. You will be able to accomplish more. You get two days in one-well, at least one and a half, I'm sure. When the war started, I had to sleep during the day because that was the only way I could cope with my responsibilities. Later, when I became Prime Minister my burdens were, of course, even greater. Often I was obliged to work far into the night I had to see reports, take decisions and issue instructions that could not wait until the next day. And at night I'd also dictate minutes requesting information which my staff could assemble for me in the morning--and place before me when I woke up."

Churchill continued: "But a man should sleep during the day for another reason. Sleep enables you to be at your best in the evening when you join your wife, family and friends for dinner. That is the time to be at your best--a good dinner, with good wines...champagne is very good...then some brandy--that is the great moment of the day. Man is ruler then--perhaps only for fifteen minutes, but for that time at least he is master--and the ladies must not leave the table too soon."

Photo by: melissaleon