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System Reset: An Experiment in Life-Shifting

Amber Singleton Riviere — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 15:00:16 +0000

Working for oneself has its advantages, but sometimes it’s a double-edged sword. While there are definitely benefits to having the freedom to do what you want when you want, one downside for me has been the development of several bad habits, like:

Email. I have a bad tendency of going straight to the computer as soon as I get up in the morning and then easily losing one or two hours to email and news feeds, which causes me to work in reactive mode and end the day feeling like I’m behind and that I didn’t do what I needed to do to move my business forward.
Long days. I’m not against working long days now and then, but I am against working for work’s sake, and on many days, I have a bad habit of not staying aware of the hours I’m putting in or paying attention to whether or not I’m even getting anything worthwhile done.
Ignoring natural rhythms. For a long time, I’ve considered myself an insomniac and have experimented with tons of ways for getting to sleep and staying asleep, all to no avail. In truth, I might just be a night owl trying to be an early bird or only need six hours of sleep instead of eight. By ignoring my natural sleep-wake rhythms, I’ve set things up to be a constant struggle, and it’s established a routine that doesn’t seem to work with how I’m hard-wired.

Breaking bad habits and routines is a real challenge, which in my case I knew would require a complete system reset. That’s a lot easier to do when you’re on vacation or when you make a major change in your life, like moving or starting a new job, but how do you hit the reset button when everything is the same in your environment?

A Complete Break in Routine

My system reset started accidentally. After several late nights before and during the holidays, I found myself staying up even later than usual, often until 4 or 6 AM. For the first few nights, I was frustrated by it, but after I couldn’t get back on schedule, I decided to take advantage of the time and get a little bit of work done. After a couple of days working that way, I started to see that I was actually getting more done, and I wasn’t falling into my old and established habits.

My new (and experimental) schedule looks something like this:

Somewhere between 10 PM and 12 AM, I start working, and I work until 4 or 6 AM.
I sleep from 6 AM until noon and then get up, eat a light breakfast/lunch, and get ready.
I spend the entire afternoon and evening however I want, catching a 30-minute nap some time between 6 and 8 PM, and then I’m free again until it’s time to start work.

Here are a few of the positive changes I’ve noticed so far:

I go to sleep as soon as my head hits the pillow (a nice change of pace from my regular two to four hours’ of tossing and turning).
I eat when I’m hungry (since I have no idea when I should be eating!), which has proven to be a good way to lose weight and eat healthier.
I’m working six to eight hours a day instead of ten or twelve, a major improvement that keeps me focused on the most important tasks that need to get done.
I have a lot more free time to spend with family and friends or even by myself, and as an added bonus, shopping and running errands is a lot easier because of the hours I’m free.
I’m breaking old habits. When I start my “work day,” I’m not falling into my old routine. When I say that it’s time to start working, I actually start working right then and there on the most important things, since I know that I’ll actually be tired at 6 AM and ready for some sleep!

In the end, it’s probably just tricking myself into a new routine. I don’t know that I’ll stick with this schedule in the long term, but I can say that this is the one thing I’ve tried that’s actually fixing many of the ongoing problems I’ve had until now, including insomnia and bad work habits. The real test will be seeing if this hard reset has a lasting impact on my bad habits, even when back on my old schedule.

I know major life-shifting like this isn’t possible in all cases, but if you’re having trouble breaking bad habits you’ve established for yourself, it might be time to try finding ways to disrupt your routine and give yourself a system reset.

Has there ever been a time where you’ve had a major life shift that impacted your work schedule in a positive way?

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Should Web Workers Prefer Books to E-Books?

Georgina Laidlaw — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 17:00:00 +0000

Most web workers I know are always reading — to research client needs, to update their own skills, and for pleasure. A recent study indicates printed books are still preferred over electronic educational materials in learning environments.

The study by the Book Industry Study Group (BISG), a trade group representing both print and digital publishers, found that 75 percent of college students prefer print textbooks over electronic versions. Reasons for preferring print included “fondness for print’s look and feel, as well as its permanence and ability to be resold.”

This suggests that the preference for printed books will decrease once e-books become comparatively cheaper than paper books, and when they become as easy (or easier) to resell. But for researchers and web workers alike, printed books provide significant advantages that go far beyond “new book smell” or intelligent margin notes made by a previous owner.

Sensory Advantages

Readers can have multiple hard-copy texts open simultaneously for at-a-glance cross-referencing: something that’s far more difficult when you have just one screen on which to view e-books. This, together with the larger page size of many printed books, means they can be shared among groups of researchers more easily.

More information is often available in a single view in print books than in an e-book, even if you’re using an iPad or large-format Kindle DX. Also, researchers can take in the key features of an adjoining print page.

I tend to remember where to find particular pieces of information, based on my memory of looking at the content on the page: was it on the left-hand side of the spread, or the right? My books also tend to have saw-tooth rows of color-coded sticky notes down their page edges. Electronic bookmarks and apps like iAnnotate can’t replace the ability to augment existing pages to more easily tell where a needed piece of information lies; e.g., it’s at the second pink sticky note, or half-way down the page that has the fifth yellow sticky note. I can see this information from across the room, and without opening the book.

Of course, there are other sensory considerations that help me remember where to find information in printed books, such as:

How much of the book was I holding in each hand (that is, how far through the book did the content appear)?
Was it before or after that wrinkled page that got wet in the rain that day I was reading at the park?

This plethora of “extraneous” sensory information makes it easier to recall not just where pieces of information can be found, but, often, the information itself.

Learning Advantages

Printed books don’t have a handy search function, it’s true, though many have indexes. But as I’ve suggested, search is among the least of the tools that we need in order to absorb new knowledge. Taking in new concepts, language, and philosophies often requires us to construct entirely new mental schematics. In our minds, we may relate the physical layouts of printed books to our new mental maps, and to the information contained in these maps.

Printed books currently make for a richer, more memorable, and more easily understood learning experience than today’s electronic offerings can provide. The real questions are: How long will these advantages last? And how will developer of e-readers and e-books make their products more useful for the sorts of research that web workers do?

Do you prefer print or e-books for learning?

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It’s Okay to Work at the Kitchen Table

Amber Singleton Riviere — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 17:00:49 +0000

In a recent post by Chris Brogan about family balance, he says he might be perceived as someone who lacks balance between work and home. But he says, “I’m more home, more connected, and more a part of my family’s life than…ever before” thanks to what he calls “kitchen table companies.” Such companies “can operate from a kitchen table, get talked about around the kitchen table, and get [workers] home in time for dinner.”

This got me thinking about how much my beliefs about business have changed in the ten years since I started my own company. I used to agree with the common recommendation that lines should be clearly drawn between one’s business and personal space. The advice was that you shouldn’t work from your kitchen table, and that you should have a separate space for your business.

From a balance perspective, it seemed only natural to compartmentalize, and to have clearly-defined boundaries between work and home. After all, wasn’t that how it worked with “regular jobs”? So when I created a business, I attempted to maintain clear boundaries between it and my home life.

But I began to see that my life as an entrepreneur was very different from those with “regular jobs.” For me, it was a struggle to determine where my work life stopped and my home life began. I thought that something was wrong with me for a while, but then I realized that I actually liked the blurred lines. I liked ‘living’ as much within my business as outside. Since that was true, why was it so necessary to separate the different parts of my life?

I’ve come to accept that I like having a “kitchen table business.” Like Chris Brogan, I have way more time with family and friends now than I ever did before starting a business. I have flexibility to work when I’m able: around sickness, around unpredictable bouts of insomnia, and around the even more unpredictable ebbs and flows of life. So while I used to believe that having a “kitchen table business” would set me up to become a workaholic, I now see it as a way to live my life exactly as I want.

Does my business have boundaries? Yes, but they’re more like gray areas. I’m a web worker, but I also have Internet-free days. There are days when I work eighteen hours, and other days when I work three. Sometimes I work in my pajamas from the sofa, but I can crave the structure of my office. In the end, it all evens out, and for the most part, I feel I’m able to maintain a semblance of balance.

How do you balance your life and business? Do you set clearly defined boundaries, or are you able to work successfully at the kitchen table?

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Drowning in Goal Setting? Go Simple

Meryl K Evans — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 22:00:42 +0000

When I entered the gym on the early Sunday afternoon of Jan. 2, it didn’t surprise me to see a mob at a time when the gym is usually empty. You know what will happen, don’t you?

January 1: Resolutions begin.
February 1: Resolutions waver.
March 1: What resolutions?
December 1: Time to make the same resolutions, starting January 1 instead of today.

The same things happen with work goals, whether it’s keeping your inbox empty or getting five new clients. The experts’ suggestions for goal setting and planning overwhelm and paralyze many folks, including me. Rather than commit myself to particular goals at the beginning of the year, I watch my business and professional lives, do a little temperature-taking throughout the year, then make decisions based on what’s actually happening.

Here are my three simple steps:

Figure out your passion.
Create rules to support these passions.
Make decisions based on the first two steps.

I love that the flexibility of working from home lets me be there when the kids need me. I also love having diverse clients and projects, sharing what I know, solving problems, and doing work that my clients appreciate.

My three rules (not goals) to support those things are:

Keep current clients happy.
Continue marketing, even in busy times.
Take care of my body, mind and spirit.

That’s it. Yes, I want to add more clients, but that’s the strength of this approach. All three of my rules support that.

When I consider taking on something new, I compare it against my three rules. For example, I’ve thought about going to grad school, but if I do that, I’ll have less time to devote to my current clients, less time for marketing, and less family time. I won’t make as much money, accomplish as much, or have a degree on my resume anytime soon. I’m willing to give that up because it means that I’m supporting the life I truly want.

The key is that you need a snapshot of today to decide what to do tomorrow, then you can adapt and change as needed. The minute a crack appears in this goal-setting process, then hit the brakes hard and figure out what to do.

How do you set goals and stay on target to reach them?

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3 Goal-setting Tips That Don’t Work (And 3 That Do)

Celine Roque — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 17:00:53 +0000

“What are your New Year’s resolutions?” As 2011 approached, I heard this question frequently. I usually responded with a cryptic answer about how I always have a list of goals, but don’t necessarily call them resolutions. The word itself usually makes people either hopeful or cynical. I tend to belong to the latter group. With the low success rates of New Year’s resolutions, who can blame us?

Last year, the New York Times published an article (login required) citing research finding that about 80 percent of people who make New Year’s resolutions break them by Valentine’s Day. A study from 2007 supports this, saying only twelve percent of people achieve their New Year’s goals.

Perhaps this means that before we list our goals for 2011, we should take a closer look at our own attitudes towards goal-setting. What misconceptions do we have, and what can we do to remedy them?

Myth #1: Tell everyone your goals so that you’re publicly accountable.

In theory, publicizing your goals with friends, or on your blog or Facebook profile, might force you to achieve them, so as not to be seen as someone who’s all talk and no action. But according to a 2009 study by goal-setting researcher Peter Gollwitzer (PDF), this isn’t always true. Most people state their behavioral goals in very general terms (“My goal is to eat healthier”) that gives the premature impression we’ve already done them.

Here’s what works instead: implementation intentions. Gollwitzer defines them (PDF) as a plan spelling out when, where, and how you intend to accomplish a goal. In fact, another study (PDF) shows that implementation intentions work so well that they can help you accomplish your goals despite the presence of distracting thoughts and emotions.

This doesn’t mean it’s easy after you establish a plan. You’ll need to check and update your plan often. It’s also important to start working on your goal as soon as possible. The more time your goal remains inactive after you’ve stated your intentions, the less likely you are to accomplish it.

Myth #2: Reward yourself for your progress.

Some people suggest that to keep yourself focused and motivated in your pursuit of a goal, you need to have rewards for accomplishments. For example, if you successfully stick to your schedule for a week, you’ll give yourself the license to go out with friends during the weekend. While there’s nothing wrong with rewards per se, you need to be careful about how you think of them.

Research shows that for large goals (e.g.. becoming healthier) that have many supporting subgoals (e.g.. sticking to a diet, exercising regularly), whenever you successfully achieve a subgoal, you should reward your personal commitment to the larger goal rather than to your progress. Rewarding yourself for achieving one subgoal may lead you to ignore the other subgoals, because you’ll view them as substitutes. If you reward your commitment to the larger goal, the subgoals will seem interrelated, and you’ll be more driven to pursue each of them.

Myth #3: Focus on yearly goals.

By definition, New Year’s resolutions are goals that must be achieved within a year. While this tradition can work for some goals, it may not be effective to use such a long time-frame. First, even if we think we know ourselves well, we tend to be poor predictors of what we’ll need or feel in the future. Our perspectives, situations, and desires may differ greatly within a year. Second, most research (PDF) backs up the idea that setting short-term goals is more effective than looking at the big picture. This means that even if you have a list of yearly goals, it’s better to break them down into smaller monthly or weekly subgoals.

Given these goal-setting myths, we should be more attentive to how we set our goals, what works in practice, and what only seems effective in theory. By looking at our goal-setting behavior together with the goals themselves, we’ll be more likely to accomplish more this year.

Do you set goals during the New Year? Which tactics improve your success rate?

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What Are Your New Year’s Resolutions?

Charles Hamilton — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 20:00:11 +0000

A recent survey of New Year’s resolutions found that workers want to get organized, stay connected, and respond more quickly to business communications. Thirty-seven percent of those surveyed say that they will resolve to be more prompt when responding to business emails and calls.

The survey was conducted online in December 2010 by Harris Interactive on behalf of Intermedia. Respondents were employed U.S. adults who have a New Year’s business communications resolution.

We’ve written extensively on how to get more organized, how to tame your inbox, and how to improve collaboration, but we’d like to hear your ideas in the comments.

What are your New Year’s resolutions? How do you plan to manage your work life in 2011?

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Study of New Year’s Resolutions: Get Organized in 2011

Charles Hamilton — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 20:00:05 +0000

A recent survey of New Year’s resolutions we talked about yesterday found that the number-one resolution is to get organized. Sixty-one percent of those polled pledged to keep their business emails and documents more organized in the new year.

This survey was conducted online in December 2010 by Harris Interactive on behalf of Intermedia. Respondents were employed U.S. adults who have a New Year’s business communications resolution.

We’ve written extensively on how to get more organized, how to tame your inbox, and how to improve collaboration, but the folks at Intermedia add these suggestions:

Work off your business priorities, not your email inbox. Highly productive workers use email as a communication tool for business results, rather than responding to emails as they come in. Focus on what needs to get done for your job and prioritize email review and response with that in mind.
Collaborate online rather than simply sending messages back and forth. Email is great for communication, but not always the best tool for collaboration. Tools for document management solve this problem and are available online.
Unify communications to get back one hour of your life per day. Rather than use separate tools and devices to check email, make phone calls, and instant message colleagues, businesses increasingly use “unified communications” to combine them in one tool. Sage Research estimates this system can increase productivity by over 12.5 percent, or one hour per day for each worker.

The survey also found that workers resolve to respond more quickly to business communications. We’ll talk about that tomorrow.

How do you plan to get more organized in 2011?

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Managing a Multi-Generational Virtual Team

Thursday Bram — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 22:15:54 +0000

When your team starts working virtually, some people are going to adjust to the situation better, and perhaps faster, than others. You may find that you get very different responses to the very concept of working virtually from team members of varying ages.

Here are some technology and management considerations to take into account when managing a multi-generational virtual team.

Technology

If some team members are young enough to have been around computers most of their lives, it’s reasonable to expect they will be comfortable with the idea of virtual working.

Younger employees are more likely to be comfortable with the technologies that go along with working online, but that may not always hold true. For instance, while a younger team member may be very comfortable with social collaboration tools, she will likely need training when it comes to industry-specific applications.

Management Styles

Younger members of the workforce, especially those in Generation Y, may need more management feedback, and may expect a more collaborative work environment, than their predecessors. While Generation X-ers may have a preference for handling projects on their own, Generation Y members may struggle in a virtual work environment because of the reduced feedback that often happens in such situations.

While the situation is not simply a matter of age — Generation Y-ers are showing similarities to previous generations as they age — you do need to take the age of your team members into account when managing a virtual workforce. You need to make sure that you’re providing a work environment that supports them, whether they need an in-depth support network, as a Millennial might, or whether they want you to cut the interference and get out of their way, as a member of Generation X might.

Beyond Age Differences

The names of different generations, from Millennials to Baby Boomers, are simply shorthand for general trends. Employees of the same generation will never be identical. While you can certainly expect management techniques to change, the most important thing is to keep an eye on individual team members. The best way to minimize the issues that go along with online team collaboration is to pay attention to what’s really going on. You can prepare for certain eventualities by looking at generational trends, but you can’t implement every management technique your team needs until you see the team in action.

That said, it is certainly worth your while to read up on proven techniques for managing the age groups you’re working with. Having specialized tools will let you find the best answers. After all, by working with a virtual team, you have less face-to-face interaction on which to judge situations. Having a few extra techniques is the least you can do to make up for that lack.

How do you bridge the “generation gap” among team members?

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Study of New Year’s Resolutions: Workers Won’t Unplug in 2011

Charles Hamilton — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 20:00:23 +0000

Georgina recently disconnected for a day, but a recent survey of New Year’s resolutions found that workers are not interested in being out of touch in 2011. Less than one in five workers (19 percent) resolves to unplug from email or voicemail in their time off from work.

The findings lead to the notion that American workers are focused on getting more done in 2011. With an estimated 247 billion emails sent daily (according to Pingdom), Americans are focused on how to become more productive in our post-recession economy and how to get more out of their business communications.

This survey was conducted online in December, 2010 by Harris Interactive on behalf of Intermedia. Respondents were employed US adults who have a New Year’s business communications resolution.

The survey also found that workers resolve to get organized, and respond more quickly to business communications. We’ll talk about these tomorrow and Thursday.

What are your New Year’s resolutions? How connected do you want to be while away from work in 2011?

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Use Downtime Projects to Recharge, Try New Work Habits

Georgina Laidlaw — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 17:00:30 +0000

What are you doing this holiday week? Many of us are sitting back, playing with new gadgets and eating things we shouldn’t. But quite a few web workers take advantage of the break to focus on new or ongoing personal projects that spark their passions.

It’s no wonder. When else do we get a good ten days (or more!) off work, and can actually spend that time at home? For me, this is a good chance to make serious progress on projects, try ideas I’ve been toying with but have had no time to work on, and fuel the inspiration that will kick-start the new working year.

If you’re working on a personal project, or you’re considering resurrecting one over the break, here are a few ideas to help you stay focused and motivated, while enjoying the holidays at the same time.

Make Sure Your Break Is a Break

First and foremost, you’ll probably appreciate the break more if you accept that this is holiday time. For me, recharging the batteries is imperative — that’s what holidays are for. So if you can afford to, don’t force yourself to work if there’s something else you’d rather do. The idea of the passionate personal project is that it fills you with a sense of adventure, fun, and excitement — not that it feels like work. If the thought of working on your project seems blissful, do it. If it doesn’t, do something else.

The fact that you’ve decided to work on a personal project doesn’t mean you need to dedicate the entirety of your break to it. The thing I love about this time is that I can work when and as I feel like it. If I wake up and the sun’s out, I might spend the day outside instead of at my desk. On the other hand, if I get right into my personal project and want to pull an all-nighter, I can. Don’t force yourself into a timetable.

Experiment as Broadly as Possible

It can be good to use this time to experiment with the peripheral aspects of a project, as well as with its focus. I’ve found that this approach can help me understand what motivates and supports my work, and can make my money-earning tasks more enjoyable.

So don’t just experiment with your discipline, experiment with everything. As a remote worker, I like to change my work location while I’m focused on personal projects. Instead of sitting at the desk I use for the other fifty weeks of the year, I move around, and the simple change in location somehow alters my perspective.

I also rely entirely on my level of interest (rather than any of the usual motivations) for getting work done. I’m trying a different approach to milestone setting, as well as testing various discipline-specific techniques I’ve never used before. Doing things differently gives me more interest in continuing my personal project, because I’m not just creating something, I’m learning all the time. What I learn can be applied to my day job after the break.

Find a Balance

Working as you feel like it is great, unless you get to the start of the new year and feel like you need a holiday to get over your holidays! Giving yourself over to your passion for a personal project can be extremely fulfilling, but it can also burn you out. Balance is important.

Don’t forget to take time off, see friends or family, and have fun doing other things. By mixing things up and pacing yourself, you can maintain the impetus for your project without running yourself down or squandering valuable opportunities to be with the people you love. Balancing your desires can help you get more out of your project than a rigorous work schedule might.

Share Your Passion

When I’m working during a break, I tend to hole up, shut down my email and phone, and immerse myself in my project. That’s great, but occasionally it’s good to come up for air. One beneficial way to do this is to get in touch with someone else who’s also working on a personal project.

This gives me a sense of support and solidarity. Although I might be tucked away in my own world, I feel connected to others who share the same sense of passion (even if their areas of focus are completely different from my own). But finding out what others are doing can give me ideas for experimenting with my own approach, style, or project — all of which may improve the outcomes of my efforts.

What’s helping you stay inspired while enjoying the benefits of time off during the holidays?

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