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

Workshifters are an independent lot. We have to be, since we're writing the rules for the way we work--and likely the way more and more people will work in the future. Yet lots of people don't get it, don't get us, and don't believe that you can actually get stuff done when your office is alternately a home room, a park bench, a coffeehouse, and Seat 22B on a plane.

Today's post comes via a comment from Jon Humberstone, who posed the following question:

"I have worked solo for many years, and it is still a challenge to stay focused, disciplined and productive. However, I chose to work for myself specifically so that I wouldn't have to work 9 - 5. I resist the idea that I have to work a specific set of hours in order to be productive. I'm still searching for a more personalized way of creating patterns, routines, and strategies that help me stay productive without having to adopt the very work schedule I wanted to avoid. Thoughts?"

My reply: Being solo and working from home (or anywhere else you choose) isn't about avoiding routine--it's about being able to set your own routine.

I've found that, without some structure, it's hard to stay focused. So maybe you optimize around your biorhythms (I'm way more productive in the a.m.), or prioritize around key tasks or gym time. When I'm training for a race, for example, I look at the calendar and try to figure out the best day to run weather-wise. Then I try to block out that time on my calendar each week. And I often work on Sunday mornings, because it's quiet time when my mind is clear to write.

That's my two cents. What advice would you give Jon?

Photo Credit: khalid almasoud

How do you start your workshifting day?

I've been asked a lot of questions over the years about working from home, being my own boss, finding the time or the discipline to do everything, and so forth. But it took 18 miles one summer morning before someone in my old run group asked me what I do first.

People seem to envy workshifters because we get to set our hours and select our work settings. But what often gets lost is that we, too, have to have a routine. Otherwise, how would we ever get anything done?

Here are four tips to jumpstart your workshifting day:

1. Get Distractions Out of the Way. Just as you need to warm up before a workout, you need to warm your brain before diving into the substantive stuff. While office denizens typically start off with coffee and collegial conversation, you should do much the same. If you're a café dweller, for example, you probably chat with other regulars. If you're a Facebook fanatic, spend a few minutes catching up with friends. I start my day with the online crossword and a little Twitter conversation.
   
   
2. Clear Your Inbox. Unless you are superhuman, chances are you have to peek at what's piled into your inbox while you were slumbering. That's okay. Go ahead. I skim my subscriptions folder just to make sure there isn't a header that looks too sexy to ignore. But mostly I look through my inbox to triage what's top priority (must act), routine (can be answered later), just for reference (move to another folder right away), or delete-able (done).
   
   
3. Tackle the toughest task first. It is tempting to put off the hard work, but that's a slippery slope to spending your day surfing the Web, rearranging files, reading blog posts, or whatever else it is you'd rather be doing. The key to a solid routine is to discipline yourself to get done what has to be done. When I don't have an early meeting, client work and business development get prioritized.
   
   
4. Eat Breakfast. I've had to learn this the hard way. Breakfast matters, and not just because I'm eventually going to bonk and get cranky otherwise. Putting off meals has the unintended consequence of disrupting your work flow because you suddenly have to eat something mid-morning when you should be chugging away on those tough tasks. Ideally, eat breakfast while you're warming up or clearing out your inbox.

What would you add? How do you jumpstart your work day?

Photo Credit: madmolecule

2011 is in full swing. How are your new year's resolutions going? My guess is you are kicking butt and taking names. The key is for this to be the same answer after a week, a month, and six months from now.

Many of the workshifters I interact with regularly all made resolutions this year. The top three were to be more productive, get in better shape (hey, round is a shape), or become better organized. There are many more worthy and valiant choices.

This post isn't about how to do any of those things. It is about how to follow through and stay faithful to your resolutions. Here are three simple and practical steps.

One: Don't make resolutions. They are like rules that are meant to be broken and they usually are. Shift your mind. Start calling them goals or objectives. Doing this will make them more tangible and actionable. We are all accustomed to reaching goals whereas resolutions seem idealistic and ethereal.

Two: Stay in the Present. Nothing challenges the development of new habits like thinking about the long road ahead or worse, past failures. When you stay focused daily, moving towards your goals, you have greater success. It is what you do daily that ultimately decides your success or failure.

Three: Be Accountable. There is strength in numbers. It is lonely flying solo. Find at least one other person and form an accountability team. It doesn't have to be formal, complete with meetings and funny hats. It can just be a few other folks traveling a similar journey who you can lean on during the tough times and celebrate with during the successes.

If you follow these steps I believe you will find success in making your new year's resolutions goals stick. The final thread you need to weave through all of the steps is grace. Give yourself a break if you slip up or fail a time or two. You are changing habits that you have been ingrained and practiced for years. Enjoy the journey and this will be your year.

Photo Credit: Jeff Golden

Recently I read an interview with someone from an internet marketing firm. One of the questions asked of this person was about how she managed to accomplish all she did each day. It seems she is a prodigious writer, is active in social media, and services clients without missing a beat. Plus she maintains a personal life, something I only have a distant relationship with. Her explanation involved Parkinsons' law, and how she incorporates it into a mindset which leads her to ruthlessly schedule work time and organize her day.

Time Management Superstardom

An organization nut myself, I naturally did a quick search to find out more about this Parkinson fellow. If he had good tips I hadn't yet tried, I wanted to know about them. I already color-code my To Do lists and place reminders in Outlook to trigger certain tasks and appointments, but hey, I figured there had to be someone more put together than me. Maybe Parkinson was that guy. I wanted his secret powers.

It turns out Parkinson didn't offer special tips so much as he had a theory. Originally prefaced on bureaucratic waste and bloat, his idea centers on how ineffective most of us are at using our resources. The most precious resource work shifters and the self-employed have is time, and this guy basically said we don't manage it well.

The Letter of the Law

The gist of the theory is "Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion." It was true in 1955 when Cyril Parkinson wrote a semi-scientific paper about his observations; is it still true today, with all of the gadgets and apps we have? Aren't we consummate multi-taskers?

Think about it. Let's assume you have one active To Do list, the one with things that have to get taken care of imminently. It's neatly written on lined paper in a bound notebook or in Tom's Planner (not on a Post-it note) so you mean business, right? The items on your list may range from things you know you have to do today to things due a few days out. They're a mixture of stuff you feel OK about (like creating a project estimate) and stuff you'd rather not (like getting new insurance quotes). You may even have a separate semi-soft To Do list, one listing things you'd like to squeeze in, if ever the stars in the universe align.

Distractions, Distractions

How do you go about tackling your lists? Do you consciously mix in things like status updates and Google Reader between tasks? Is LinkedIn Q&A an actual item on your list under a "Networking" heading? How many times do other things (Twitter time suck) pop up? Creep in? Do you ever look down at your still-long list at the end of the day and wonder where the last hour went?

It's Not Me, It's You

Often times, several (or more) of the less interesting items "roll over" to the next weeks' list. We'll get to them soon, right? This week just got away from us. Uh, no. Parkinson advocates say the problem is you, and your inability to hold yourself accountable with boundaries.

No More Failing Your To-Do List!

I decided to try the theory out myself. Last week, instead of simply surfing my way through my active To Do list, each night I created a mini-list for the next day. I used the mini-list to itemize specific tasks I planned to do along with respective time allotments for each. An hour for this, fifteen minutes for that. I found out a couple of things by mapping the tasks which needed doing to the hours I knew I had available:

1. I still can't mind-meld time to stretch farther than it does. Time is fixed.
   
   
2. I spent more time on certain things than I ever would have guessed. Need to adjust mental note or risk continually shortchanging myself.
   
   
3. Sometimes we just need no choices. When I put "Get new insurance quotes" next to a time slot, I really had no option but to just do it. I had completed the prior task and it wasn't time yet to do what came next. I was out of excuses.
   
   
4. Time is money. By selectively ignoring annoying yet important tasks like getting new insurance, I was not only letting some of my hard-earned cash fly out the window (due to high premiums), I was wasting my own time and mental energy transferring the item to new lists and thinking about it each week. For six whole months.

This approach may sound a little rigid to some of you. I'll agree that unless you build in, say, 15 minutes in the morning and 15 minutes in the afternoon for the unexpected, you just may overschedule yourself. We can't anticipate everything, and some things just have to be taken care of when they come up. Flexibility will be important, so long as it doesn't become a crutch.

Just Do It

Overall, I think the benefits of following Parkinsons Law outweigh any negative factors. I can't say I'm committed to scheduling every minute of my work, Monday through Friday 7am to 5pm from here to eternity. But I really do want to get more control over what gets accomplished. It's not enough to remember or make note of what needs doing. It actually has to get done.

Must run. I'm officially 8 minutes behind schedule.

Photo Credit : Ani-Bee

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