When you first started your business, you were likely overcome by the vast pool of opportunity that lay in front of you.

Set my own hours! Wear suggestive or polarizing t-shirts to work! Refuse stupid projects! Name my own salary! Stink up the place with microwave popcorn!

And probably a few more serious benefits as well.

Opportunity does exist in the world of small business, often in the way of small wins and new introductions that might lead to something, someday. But rarely does opportunity just present itself in full fashion. "Here I am," Opportunity said sweetly, "Yours for the picking." That rarely happens. So you have to learn to see all your individual efforts and attempts as building blocks that lead to something incrementally more substantial. Your time is money, so spend it well. Make sure it takes you somewhere you want to go.

From the realm of Viability to the land of Won

Owning a small business, especially in the beginning, is about toiling. It's about digging through the crusty mantle layer in search of the promise that lay underneath: a sustainable client base. To achieve this you likely network and blog, attend Twitter chats and scour connections on LinkedIn for prospecting. You may submit RFPs until you're seeing XYZ's and tire of the "Everything is great" smile frozen on your face at industry functions (where you network some more). You'll do anything to wrench a lead from the realm of Viability and lob it into the land of Won.

That feeling when you win? Yeah, it's awesome. Break out the champagne! Boy, those are smart folks over there at Acme Company. Good people, they are.

But here's the thing, they say. Your work samples are good. We want stuff like that, but on more generic topics. With fewer words. We'll need a draft and links to support material a week before your publication date, just to make sure we like the direction. We'll need editorial control of the final product, so expect rewrites. Sorry, no byline. We'll pay our standard rate. Submit an invoice at the end of the month you produce the work, and we'll pay net 30 days. This is gonna be great!

Pffffzzzt. That's the sound of your balloon popping. Not feeling so hunky-dory with this win right now.

This is one of those times an opportunity may not be an opportunity after all. As a small business owner, you have tough choices to make when deciding what type of business best fits your business.

Here are a few questions to ask yourself:

• What were your expectations for the project? How could you have communicated them more clearly, before things got this far? Were there questions you didn't think to ask?
  
  
• Strip away your immediate reaction. Re-think how the parameters really affect your work schedule and budget. Beyond those logistic pieces, does producing Acme's kind of work fit with your vision or values?
  
  
• What will you net if you accept? Literally speaking, after taxes and factoring in a conservative estimate of your time and resources, will you net a figure that's worth your effort? In the figurative sense, will the project provide you with anything of value like a reference, a referral (of the caliber you desire)? What about a good portfolio sample or access to a swanky parent brand?
  
  
• What do you stand to lose? Chalk up some (clearly not a lot) unrealized revenue potential. But what would have been the cost of that opportunity? Time missed with your family during a crazy season of youth sports? Personal dissatisfaction or resentment because you feel trapped? Time better invested in perfecting your craft or prospecting elsewhere? More projects down the road?

The decision to say "No, thank you." or "Those aren't my usual terms, but I accept them." is yours. There's no guidebook, and the resident mentor is out on vacation.

What will you do when you uncover opportunity?

Photo Credit: Guerrilla Futures | Jason Tester

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

Sometimes we don't have a choice. Like not being able to leave the house because snow is packed against the storm door. Or not being able to get the car out of the garage because a five-foot snowdrift is jammed against the garage door. Or not being able to drive to work because a two-day blizzard has ushered in dangerously cold winds and more snow than can be cleared easily even with my city's fleet of 150 snowplows.

Mother Nature gave folks in the Twin Cities a heartless punch a couple of weeks ago that still smarts. Days after the snow has stopped swirling, muscles ache from moving mountains of snow from where it landed to where I'd prefer it to be. I'm no stranger to snow; I was born in the Midwest, and though I've had a taste of the good life in California (e.g., the beach at Christmas and flip-flops in January), my family opted to return to the Midwest for reasons that included "seasons" and "weather," and even "snow."

But this storm was a different animal--more ferocious and wild than regular winter. It brought the heartiest among us to knees in bitter agony as snow fell an inch per hour. For two excruciatingly long days, snow pelted frosted windows, accumulated in masses that hid my greyhounds from view, and slapped against exposed faces. Tragically, about a dozen people died during this storm from heart attacks while shoveling, traffic accidents, and house fires that emergency vehicles simply couldn't reach.

Despite the very real dangers of a storm of this magnitude, people put down shovels and silenced snow blowers once Monday rolled around. It was time to commute to workplaces across the city and suburbs. Never mind that the streets weren't entirely cleared of snow. Or that school was canceled because the temperature was considered too dangerous for kids waiting for buses.

Of course, I appreciate that some work must be done at a specific location. One of our neighbors is a resident at a hospital and was scheduled for an ER shift smack-dab in the middle of the storm. He knew he would never make it to work by car, so he donned winter boots and walked the three miles instead. I should mention that he's of Icelandic origin.

For those of us who aren't Icelandic or doctors and who simply need secure access to project files, corporate apps, and email, taking a day or two to work remotely should not even be up for debate--particularly when roads are impassable and weather is dangerous. One more vehicle stuck in a snowdrift does nothing for a worker's productivity and actually presents another delay in getting roads cleared for everyone else (particularly emergency vehicles).

The world is unpredictable. But we can be certain that snow, earthquakes, floods, fires, and tornadoes will interrupt our working lives from time to time. These inevitable natural events will sometimes make travel dangerous or impossible. And they will hopefully make us think differently about how we can effectively be both productive and safe.

As for the Metrodome's roof collapse, all I can offer is this: Even the Vikings aren't immune from a weather-related workplace disruption.

Photo Credit: Jason Wermager

"Hi. My name is Heather. I'm a marketing consultant, and I'm self-employed."

You're familiar with the scene, the one with anxious-looking people sitting in chairs cast in a circle. They each take turns introducing themselves, then follow with the statement that balances any socio-economic inequity and forces attention on the common thread tying them all together. Each person's individual story will vary - how they came to be in the room - but the fact remains, they all need support and an outlet in order to be successful.

I have the support of a great tribe of people, and my work is both my creative outlet and my means of earning a living.

But I'm new to self-employment. As in, still-rubbing-grit-out-of-my-eyes type new. I may be a veteran in my field - 18 years now - but am a rookie at running the entire show myself. All the talent and skills in the world won't help me if I can't establish an operational foundation and a recursive loop of lead development.

So what does one do when they need to hit the ground running? When they have the skills but are lost in a new environment? They call on their network, of course.

Everyone has a network of friends and acquaintances, previous co-workers and friends-of-a-friend and even family. When you're shingle is so new it shines, it's crucial to tap into the tribe of who you know to find out what you need to learn. And there's sure to be a lot to learn.

The Trailblazer

One of the first things I did was have lunch with someone who's "been there, done that." This good friend leads an agency of 10 since striking out on her own 5 years ago, shirking the protective cloak provided by a larger, well-steeped institution. She passed along valuable nuggets of advice about finding the right sized CPA firm and how to handle the client who haggles. Her experiences will be invaluable, saving me both time and potential missteps.

The Inside Man

I spent an hour with a well-connected friend, one who recruits talent and advises businesses on training issues. She helped me learn a bit about the mindset of businesses today to help formulate my approach to fresh prospects. She also passed along the contact info for a great resource at the local small business development center. It seems the center has the means to support entrepreneurs like me get set up with an attorney at little to no cost.

The Coach

For a few years, I've had the privilege of meeting with a fantastic professional coach in an on-again, off-again fashion. She's counseled me through some challenging interpersonal issues and helped me learn more about myself through some strengths testing. It can be difficult to explain the benefits a coach can offer because in many ways they're intangible until the individual begins to apply the lessons and practice them each day. Trust me when I say that an objective, professional opinion and advice will be the best money you ever spend provided you're committed to learning how to be the best you can be.

The Posse

Ahhh, the people who love you. Like a cup of hot chocolate, there's comfort in reconnecting with those who want to see you succeed. In my group, there's a designer and photographer, some web developers, copywriters, and an SEO or two. I've found that they're each happy to pitch in their talents to see that I have nicely designed collateral, a few custom hacks to my web site, and more. I'm conscientious of the time they spend and try to give very clear requests at the start to minimize any revisions. Also, I'm trying to feed paying freelance work their way to help offset the time they spend on my own stuff.

These and many more generous, talented people are helping me navigate the early stages of entrepreneurship, for which I'm very thankful. What types would you add to the list? The Voice Of Reason, The Cheerleader, The Little Engine? Let us know who you'd add and why.

Photo Credit: jimmediaart

This coming weekend, I'm taking some time off, to go on a mini-vacation with my husband. I'm both excited and nervous about it at the same time. Part of me is thrilled to be "shutting down" from my business for a few days. The other part of me is wondering if I can really do it.

I became a full-time workshifter 2 years ago, and I've never looked back. I adore the lifestyle - making my own hours and setting my own priorities is definitely the way I like to do things. I was never big on the workaday world. But there is a downside to my nomadic work life, and it's one that I have to work hard to control. You see, because our office is where WE are, instead of the other way around, we workshifters often tend to forget how many hours we work. We work until the coffee shop closes, or our flight arrives, or our spouse tells us it's time to go to bed. Our tendency is to work until the work gets done, and it's all too easy to lose track of time until we sit, brain-dead and bleary eyed, wondering where the week went. The risk then could get more serious - if we keep going and going without enough down time, we could burn out. And trust me, burn out is not pretty.

So what's a workshifter to do?

Great expectations.

We've all heard the saying "The best laid plans of mice and men.". Well, as workshifters, often our best laid plans, (you know, the ones where we'll take weekends off, finish work by 6pm, and travel less), wind up going out the window because we blindly check our email or voicemail at 8pm, and realize that we'll never sleep that night if we don't respond to that "urgent" client request right away.

One of the biggest traps we fall into as digital nomads is we forget to shut off our work at a certain time each day. We don't set boundaries for ourselves, and before we know it, we've been pulling 16 hour days 6 times a week. The only way to get out of the "always-on" trap is to start to manage expectations - not only those of your clients and colleagues, but your expectations of yourself, as well.

For me, setting a time limit on the day simply doesn't work. Sometimes, I have to be up and at it at 7am, and then on the same day, I'll have no choice but to be at a video shoot at 8pm. What does work for me is letting a limitation on my actual tasks for the day. When I'm planning my week, I make my To-Do lists based on what I know I can reasonably accomplish in any given day, and then I stick to it. I always leave a bit of space for the unexpected (and sometimes that means postponing certain things), but by not taking on more than I can chew at once, I'm ultimately more successful. Not only that, but if I've set my own expectations first, it's much easier to manage the expectations of my clients. If I've planned to have something done for Wednesday morning, I am able to clearly communicate this, and as a result, I'm a lot calmer and so is my client.

Manage your time, yes. But manage your expectations of yourself too. Set your schedule in manageable chunks. I guarantee you'll look back on your week having accomplished a lot more.

Photo Credit: cathyse97

Today's post is from Maren Kate, an entrepreneur who blogs about starting a small business, living extraordinarily and escaping the 9 to 5.

I always hear the stand by "You shouldn't live to work, instead work to live". It's true, I guess, but it always confused me because I truly love what I do, so I have no interest in just working to live, instead I love to work. Now to some this is a sign of workaholicism - but I disagree. I feel like calling productivity a disease is kind of silly in the first place - I mean if you love what you do, are happy and not only aren't hurting anyone but you're adding to the world - how can that be wrong? It's like saying that Mother Teresa was a compassionaholic or that someone who loves to write day in and day out is a proseaholic. So loving-work-aholics, unite, it's our time to shine and to show the world that work doesn't always have to be tedious and with a little creativity & persistence it can actually be one of the best parts of your life.

How to Love What You Do

1. Do you do what you love?

It's a basic concept. If you hate numbers and you work as an accountant you're going to hate your job and most probably your life. If you love writing and you work as a blogger you're going to enjoy life and feel as if you're job adds value to your overall existence. So ask yourself, if I could do anything in the world & get paid a decent wage for it - what would I do? Then figure out a way, come hell or high water, to do just that.

2. Don't get mired in the things you hate within your business.

Too often entrepreneurs start a business based around what they love, but within a few months are hating their lives. The problem is that instead of doing what they love in their business they've tried to become everything to everyone. Thus the artist starts balancing the books, making sales calls and learning HTML when all she wanted to do was paint. Make sure that when you start a business you either A. love the admin side of things or B. find someone who can do that for you while you focus on what you love and are great at.

3. Love where you work.

I had a job as a receptionist over summer break when I was 18. It wasn't a hard job and for the most part I liked the answering phones and filing a bit, but I went home every night crying. Why? Because I hated (with a capital H) where I worked. It was a window-less, cubicle, cell of death, nothing but white walls surrounded me and the horrible lights above me made me literally ill. If I had been doing that same job next to a bright open window, with warm wood walls and a cool summer breeze blowing in - I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have minded it at all. Loving where you work is incredibly important, especially when you are work shifting from a typical 9 to 5 into a career or business where you have freedom of location. Choose wisely, pay attention to your inner aesthetic needs and you'll find yourself 100 times more productive and happy at work.

Making the shift

Shifting from living to work to loving to work isn't an easy one, that's why so few people do it. Most people won't leave their comfort zones or force themselves to truly consider what they would be happy doing. Call it fear, call it negative self image, call it whatever you want - the point is that it's prevalent in our society. So to be different, will be difficult. But the pay off is oh, so worth it. Think of it this way - if you love to work you'll be 5 to 10 times more productive, easily. So you could cut your 8 hour work day into a few hours and still have the same results when you start loving your work vs. when you live to work you'll try to put off your work as long as possible. So you can slave away in a 9 to 5 for the next 30 years, living to work and not be very happy - or you could take a year to figure out what would really make you love to work and do that for a fraction of the time for probably the same, or more financial reward. When you love your work your whole world gets better!

The 'Peter Principle' postulates that in every hierarchy all employees tend to rise to their level of incompetence...seemingly ironic as that sounds, in its essence, the Peter Principle makes perfect sense. It holds that, in a hierarchy, members are promoted as long as they work competently; sooner or later, however, they are promoted to a position at which they are no longer competent!

Consider the model employee who consistently performs, exceeding expectations and pleasing clients and upper level management alike. Soon, our employee finds him/herself in the right place at the right time, and it's called a promotion.  Win-win, right? The employee is rewarded for hard work and feels smug in his/her just reward. Decision makers pat each other on the back and breathe a sigh of relief when the open position is filled by our employee - sitting contentedly on the theory that anything that works can be used in progressively more challenging applications until it fails. 

Although in the above scenario, it appears that hard-working employee (A) + acknowledging superiors (B) = justly deserved and appropriate promotion (C), the whole is not necessarily equal to the sum of its parts in all equations like this one.

It is management's responsibility to balance the roles which need to be filled with those individuals most suitable and most deserving of the opportunity. And that includes workshifters, who despite alternative geographical locations or flexible office hours, earn their keep as legitimately and sometimes more effectively than their 9 to 5 counterparts.

From Upper Management's perspective, when a position becomes open, there is a direct and sometimes desperate urge to fill it at any cost in order to avoid additional work and disruption to float upstream, regardless of if an employee is truly "management material." Dr. Peter put it best when he said, "There is much temptation to use what has worked before, even when it may exceed its effective scope." As the workplace continually re-defines itself in today's ever-changing economy, so, too, must the definition and vision of promotion-worthy individuals.

Many times, an employee's potential in his/her initial position may not translate into efficacy in the next. As any current or previous manager would know, a management job is different from any other job in which one may have previously excelled, and thus requires different skills of both an interpersonal and professional nature. By the same token, just because an individual's work schedule or structure changes, this does not directly translate into the inability to perform in a new or more responsible role.  

Many would-be workshifters would attest to being hesitant, apprehensive and even afraid of risking their position if they considered or requested the ability to workshift. However, many forward-thinking management teams now realize that, because the unique skillset of a good manager/employee is so difficult to manufacture, they are less willing to let that talent resign and more willing to accommodate, using technology and well-defined scope and responsibilities, to retain good managers/employees and eliminate promotion for promotion sake.

Progress takes time and patience and both parties must be willing to contribute 100% Management must be willing to place trust in the employee to whom they have given the ability to workshift. And, for the workshifter: to whom much is given, much is expected...and, from whom much is expected much should be given in return.

Given the advances in technology and the movement toward more flexibility in the workplace, there should be no questions asked when a valuable, driven employee becomes a workshifter. So whether you work 9 to 5 in a traditional office or 5 to 9 on a workshifting schedule, there should be no difference in perception nor output. Hard work, honest efforts and the right schedule and tools are the main ingredients needed to cook up success and ensure an organization succeeds.

What do you think?


Photo Credit: Jeff Hester

Wifi is great. Except when it isn't there. And it's usually when you need wifi the most that it's either not available or goes down.

But if you have a smartphone and a good data plan, you can can get around any wifi problems that you might encounter. How? By tethering your phone to your laptop.

Tethering?
Think of tethering as turning your smartphone into a high-speed modem for your laptop or netbook. It's easy to do, and can not only but a life saver but a sanity saver too. Tethering has enabled me to get information and deliverables to clients when the wireless I've been using has gone down.

Tethering involves connecting your smartphone to your laptop. That can be a physical connection using a cable (I know, how old school!) or making the connection using Bluetooth. Once attached, your phone's data connection acts like wifi.

Your connection speed will, as you've probably guessed, depend on your phone's signal strength. When you're getting four or five bars your Internet connection will be barely distinguishable from a good wifi link. On the other hand, if you're phone is only getting a couple of bars ... like molasses is a good way to describe the experience.

What you'll need
Obviously, you need a smartphone and a laptop. Keep in mind that not all smartphones support tethering. Ones that do include the iPhone, several models of BlackBerry, and most Android-powered phones.

Besides a phone, you'll need a 3G data plan. Anything else and you might not be able to tether. If you can, then you'll get speeds that rival dial up. If you're going to tether, make sure you have a data plan that gives you a lot of bandwidth; at least 5 GB a month.

You'll also need a USB cable to connect your smartphone to your laptop; the phone usually comes with one. This is a moot point if you're tethering over a Bluetooth connection.

You might also need to install drivers -- specialized software that allows your computer to interact with your phone -- on your computer. This isn't always necessary, but whether or not you'll need to install drivers will depend on your phone.

Explaining how to tether specific smartphones is outside the scope of this post. You can find some good tutorials here. And here's an overview to tethering an Android-powered phone running the latest version of the operating system.

Drawbacks
Yes, there are a few. The biggest one is that you can really burn through your data plan's bandwidth by tethering. Getting hit by additional charges, like a colleague of mine recently did, can really hurt your wallet.

While your phone is tethered, you can't make or receive calls. Any calls will be shunted to your voicemail.

Finally, if you use Bluetooth to tether your phone to your laptop that will really speed up the drain on the battery for both your phone and your laptop. Using a USB cable isn't too bad -- taking this route will charge your phone.

Overall, though, the benefits of tethering a smartphone to a laptop outweigh the disadvantages. As long as you do it sparingly, tethering can be a great addition to any workshifter's toolkit.

What are your experiences with tethering?


Photo credit: .shock from Photoxpress

Much like the shirtless dancing guy in the amusing but compelling video above, workshifting is a physical movement--but instead of flailing your arms, you seamlessly move the location of where you do work. One day, you're meeting your manager online from a coffee shop.  And the next, you're prepping a client presentation while sitting at an airport gate.  This is all possible thanks to the World Wide Web and its wondrous ways of allowing us to use remote technologies.

• www.workshifting.com ;)
• "Work Unchained: Workshifting and the Competitive Edge of the Anywhere Office" [podcast, eBook]
• "Leading Virtual Effectiveness: Four Strategies for Effective Communication in a Distributed Workforce" [eBook]
• "The Top Ten Strategies for Managers of Mobile Workers" [white paper]
• "Presenting the Business Case for Web Commuting" [white paper, podcast]

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.

E-mail

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