Where do workshifters come from? Obviously, they're dropped off by a stork. But, are they born workshifters or do they have to become workshifters?Most workshifters were at one time or another sedentary office workers, before they took the leap to working independently. Recently, I was preparing to make the shift from occasional workshifter to permanent workshifter. It occurred to me when making the transition, that despite the fact that I had been working outside the office for several days at a time, the move to permanent workshifting required a lot of preparation.
And so, to help others who are just about to take the plunge, here are some tips for how to effectively prepare yourself.
Tip 1: Start preparing early. If you stop reading here, that's fine, as long as you take this piece of advice. It will shock you just how much prep work you have to do to transition to workshifting, especially if you hadn't been conscious of the fact that you might eventually need to. Because you'll likely be doing this prep work at the same time as your day job, you'll need time to get it done, so start early.
Physical Documents
Tip 2: Develop digital habits. Physical documents are just a given when you work in an office, but as a workshifter, they're a pain in the neck. No one wants to carry around manilla folders, take the risk of spilling coffee over them, having them get crumpled in your bag, or risk bringing the wrong folder to a meeting. Instead, workshifters need to go digital, and so that means that while you're still an office worker, you should start developing digital habits: take notes with software, keep a digital calendar, scan documents, opt for electronic versions whenever possible, etc.
Tip 3: Take stock of all your hard copy files. So, all those manilla folders that you've stowed in your filing cabinets over the years, it's time to go through them and decide why you're really keeping them. Chances are, you will find documents that you recall why you wanted to keep them in the first place. Trash as much as you can at this point. It's about streamlining.
Tip 4: Scan everything you need to keep. Now that you've gotten rid of the excess, get access to a scanner and scan all the documents you've decided are important. Once you've digitized (and backed them up), you will go ahead and shred these paper documents. They will no longer weigh you down.
Tip 5: Store everything else with colleagues. If you're leaving the office worker role, but remaining with the same company, there may be files that you don't quite need, but that you think others might, or that it would be a good idea if someone had them. Lean on your colleagues, or your successor to take this stuff from you. Make sure to explain what it is, and why they might need it, otherwise it will land at the bottom of a filing cabinet, never to be seen again.
Tip 6: Digitize notebooks. As much as I like to think of myself as a digital native, I still take notes in notebooks, on notepads, and on post-its. When I went back through these notes, I found that most of the stuff was no longer useful, but was surprised to see that some notes I had taken over a year ago could still be useful today. So, I went through my notebooks and recycled or shredded that which was unnecessary, but added all my notes that were still relevant to a text file, that I could keep at my disposal.
Tip 7: Keep your notes as simple as possible. In the previous tip, I said put the notes in a text file. Over the years, colleagues have laughed at me for my staunch devotion to Notepad, the hyper-basic pre-installed Windows text editor (actually I've upgraded to Notepad++, but still find myself opening Notepad out of habit). While they laugh, I continue to use text editors for many reasons. They are lightweight, and so I can have a ton of windows open at once and not experience any additional drag on my hardware (and for those who've worked with corporate PC's, you know this can be crucial). They're also universally readable. I don't need to worry about the compatibility of my text file if I move it from my office desktop, to my Macbook or to my Linux laptop. In a pinch, I can even read my text file from a command prompt. This flexibility will come in handy as a workshifter.
Now that you've cleared your physical world of clutter, it's time to do the same for your electronic world, and where better to start than with every knowledge worker's biggest time suck: e-mail. Note that this is really only going to be important if, like me, you're transitioning from a local e-mail client (a la MS Outlook or Lotus Notes) on a company machine to a web-based client, or using an exchange server. If your email has always been cloud-based, then things should be business as usual for you.
Tip 8: Pick a system and stick to it. There are as many e-mail organization systems as there are people. I have a colleague who is the neatest most organized person I have ever met. The consequence of this is that you need a blueprint in order to figure out the folder structure of his Outlook mailbox. Tracking down an archived e-mail is like navigating a labyrinth. I am a Gmail fanboy, and my e-mail classification of using only 3 folders spills over from that experience. This can sometimes be slightly problematic because Outlook's search functionality is not as great as Gmail's, but overall, I still find I have an easier time searching for an e-mail than I do retrieving it from a labyrinth of folders. In the end, though, which system you use, doesn't matter, as long as it's consistent.
Tip 9: E-mails that you think will be important, save on your company Exchange server. Remember that when you archive e-mails, by definition they're coming off your company's server and being saved elsewhere (by default, that's on your PC). If you're leaving behind your old machine when you turn workshifter, saving those important e-mails to its hard drive won't be helpful, so instead, make sure important e-mails stay on the server, so that they can be accessed from webmail, your Blackberry, or other e-mail client.
Tip 10: Locally archive things that you probably won't ever need. Like with physical documents, there are many e-mails you will likely never need. If you are sure you'll never need them, delete them. If you doubt that you'll ever need them, but aren't sure, archive them. After all, most companies give you limited space to save e-mail on the server and require you to archive.
Tip 11: Create a copy of your archive. Now, if you're leaving your old computer behind, archiving files that you think you might possibly need some day isn't going to do you any good, so go ahead and create a copy of your archive. In fact, create multiple copies, because data can easily be lost on something as fragile as a CD/DVD or a web server.
Tip 12: Get used to using webmail services. I actually spent my last month as an office worker accessing e-mail through webmail. Partially by necessity (I'll get to that later), but also because it was a good habit to create for when i would be accessing e-mail this way all the time.
Electronic Files
Tip 13: Organize your files. Are you starting to see a theme here? When making the switch from office worker to workshifter, organizing yourself is a great way to make sure nothing gets missed. In terms of organizing your files, there are actually software programs that will do this for you (Belvedere for PC, Hazel for Mac). Or, you can do what I did and take this opportunity to go through your hard drive and see just what all the files that you've saved since you started working for your current employer are. You can then triage, organize, and delete to your heart's cotent.
Tip 14: Store everything in a specific folder. For ease of back-up, and to make the next step painless, it's a good idea to save all the files that you will want to keep to the same folder. That folder can have as many subfolders as you'd like, but it's important that everything be in one place.
Tip 15: Sync that folder to the cloud using Dropbox. As a workshifter, there are tons of applications out there that will promise to make your life easier. For me, Dropbox wins the crown of favourite workshifting app. Its potential uses are nearly limitless, but in this case, you'll be doing something very simple. You'll install Dropbox (Dropbox referral link) on your machine that you're about to abandon (if you follow the above link, you'll get an additional 250 megs on top of the basic 2 gigs - I will also get an additional 250 megs - win win!). Once that's done, you will take your folder that you've organized all of your files in and move it into your Dropbox folder. Now, you can do two things with this folder. First, you can install Dropbox on the machine you will be using from here on out so that you have access to those files indefinitely. Second, you can share this folder with another user, so that if you want to leave your boss all your old files so he's not lost without you in the office, he'll have access to them too!
Tip 16: Backup to an external hard drive. Honestly, this tip is mainly for those who work with large files that may be too large for Dropbox's free basic 2 gig limit. In my case, the vast majority of my files were excel reports, databases, power point presentations and word documents. Nothing too heavy. But if you do video editing, or heavy design work, you may want to invest in an external hard drive to bring your old files with you.
Software & Hardware
Tip 17: Make a list of what kinds of files you use. As mentioned above, in my case, the majority of my files were spreadsheets, databases, power point presentations, word documents (and of course text files). By doing this exercise, I know exactly what medium I spend my time working in. That's important for the next tip.
Tip 18: Determine what the ideal tools for you would be. Here's where you get to have some fun and create your wishlist of tools you want. Based on the file types you saw that you used, what tools would you ideally like to have? Word? Excel? MS Project? Photoshop? Adobe Premiere? Write this list down.
Tip 19: Determine what on that list will be provided for you. If you're workshifting, but are still an employee of a company, you may still get all the tools and comforts you're used to having at the office on the road, and it's just a matter of asking. So, see what you can get your workshifting laptop set up with from your IT department.
Tip 20: Find open source alternatives. If you're not workshifting on the company dime, or you prefer to use your own tools, shelling out for things like corporate editions of MS Office and Photoshop may be cost prohibitive, so find alternatives. For starters, open source software is awesome. I have been running Open Office on my home PC for years, and NeoOffice on my MacBook Pro with great success. To find other open source alternatives for traditioinal software, check out osalt.com.
Tip 21: Find cloud-based alternatives. Cloud-based software has come a long way in the past year or two, and many cloud-based apps are more than enough for most people. Cloud-based alternatives can even be more convenient than traditional software because for a workshifter, it allows you to work from any machine with internet access. Good starting points for cloud-based software are Google Docs, Zoho Docs, and the 37Signals suite of collaboration applications. There are tons more with price tags varying from free to pricey. Explore them all.
Tip 22: Determine your hardware needs. I firmly believe that it is only once you've decided what software you need that you should decide on what hardware to purchase. If every piece of software you need is Windows-based, buying a Mac is nonsensical, even if you can dual boot Windows on it. (Although, it should be said that since having made the switch to Mac, the only file I have had issues with is MS Visio .vsd files, so perhaps I'm overstating the importance of picking the right hardware.)
Now, install your software, access your dropbox and your webmail, and it's like you never left the office! The transition from office desktop to mobile workstation is complete. If you've gone with cloud-based apps and webmail, your freedom is virtually unlimited.
Habits to Keep
Tip 23: Take digital notes. I'm horrible at following my own advice on taking notes one way. In addition to text files, I use Evernote, moleskines, sticky notes and voice memos on my phone. Don't be me.
Tip 24: Keep all your files in the cloud. Whether you use Dropbox to keep all your files in the cloud, or Google Docs so that they're just cloud-based documents to begin with, keeping this habit means that you could drop your laptop in a river, and never miss a beat.
Tip 25: Save things in standard file formats. This is especially important if you start using some of the open source software I mentioned earlier. Open source software generally allows you to save files in about 1,000 different formats. Always pick the format that most closely resembles the standard file format for industries. So, while I use Open Office and Neo Office, both of which have a .odf standard file extension, I save everything in MS Office XP format. That way, I know just about anyone can open my file.
Bonus
Not so much a tip, but an anecdote that illustrates a bonus that comes with this kind of preparedness. I started preparing to transition to full-time workshifter about one month before my planned transition. About two weeks before the move, my company laptop (an IBM Thinkpad T43 - a tank of a machine) died. Had this happened to me two weeks earlier, I would have lost about two years worth of work that had been saved on my local hard drive, and that I had not been very diligent about backing up to company servers. Because of my preparation to move to full-time workshifter, I lost nothing. All my most important files were already in my Dropbox, and ready and waiting for me when I booted up my MacBook Pro.
Being a workshifter is all about planning for eventualities, so planning to become one, has the fortunate byproduct of just plain making you better prepared.
What do you think?
Photo Credit: Matthileo
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