If you have yet to set up a Wi-Fi network in your home, and you have multiple computers and printers around the house, there are few tech upgrades you can do that will give you more satisfaction. Putting one in is a good project for this weekend. I often sit and write on my back porch with a ThinkPad X40 notebook that can still stream Web video just fine when I’m 100 feet from the house. The really good news is that the Wi-Fi networking process is now nearly entirely automated by the CDs that come with wireless routers and access points, and, unless you live in a palatial mansion, you can easily put your Wi-Fi network in for under $200.
In this post, I’ll cover some of the primary tips to keep in mind as you go Wi-Fi at home. This post will assume that you do have broadband at home, and you have Wi-Fi-ready technology in the devices you want on the network (Wi-Fi adapters and cards you plug in typically cost $50 to $100). Also, I’m sure some readers already have home Wi-Fi networks, so it would be great to hear their tips in the comments.
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Here at WWD, we’ve published almost innumerable tips on time management. We’re certainly not alone in this; there are many resources to help you make better use of your time, track your tasks more efficiently, clean up your inbox, and work at the peak of your game all the time. But as we enter a three-day weekend (at least here in the States) perhaps it’s an appropriate point to step back and ask a more fundamental question: why?
The simplest starting answer is with the old cliche that “time is money.” As you grow more efficient at managing your time, you can devote more of it to tasks that other people are willing to pay you for. In addition, you can complete those tasks more quickly, and so raise your effective billing rate if you’re performing any sort of fixed-price work, or justify charging premium prices if you’re on hourly rates. But that’s hardly the whole story. Read the rest of this entry »
In a Microsoft productivity survey done in the last couple of years, workers around the world said they only consider about two thirds of their working hours to be productive. If workers could cut those wasted hours, they’d work less and get the same amount done.
Now, I’d argue that you could work even less than that and still get more done, if you focused on the most important tasks only, but let’s take it one step at a time: let’s look at the wasted time.
Let’s see how we can cut the fat to have only lean, productive working hours.
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If you live in Microsoft Word all day, as I do, then time-saving tips and tricks within the application can make a big difference for you. In this post, I’m collecting some Word tips that I think will be especially useful for bloggers, writers, editors and others who work–often in repetitive ways–on documents all day. While I’ve covered Word keyboard shortcuts and the like before, these tips are aimed squarely at getting writerly tasks done more efficiently.
Don’t Just Search and Replace Words. You’re probably already familiar with searching for and replacing words, but did you know that you can search for and replace, say, one font for another, or bold formatting instead of underlining? To do so, choose Replace from the Edit menu, then click More. At the bottom, choose the Format button to replace fonts, character formatting, etc. Or, choose the Special button if you want to replace, say, any recurring digit, how em dashes are treated, and more.
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For me, there’s nothing better for my productivity than working on my own. I like working around people, but I prefer when those people are strangers. As much as I enjoy my bi-monthly trips to my organization’s headquarters 200 miles away, I get the most done when I’m here in my home office. I can ignore an IM that comes when I’m too busy. It’s far more difficult (and rude) to ignore a colleague who’s chattering 3 feet away.
Lifehacker points to a post on LifeClever where 37signals’ founder Jason Fried comes to a similar conclusion:
Interruption destroys your zone. If you’re working on something and someone taps you on the shoulder, you gotta stop working on that thing and answer their question and whatever you need to do. And that just takes you out of your zone. It takes you out of that mind set of getting stuff done. And you don’t fall right back into, it takes awhile to get back it it. So we’ve just found interruption is something that gets in the way most of the time. So that’s why we try to stay from one another. If we need together, we get together. But it should be at the last resort, and the exception, not the rule.
What’s your take? Do you find that you are more productive away from your colleagues?
So, you’re out on your own and you’ve lined up your first couple of web design, programming, or creative jobs. Your home office is all set up, the coffee is brewing in the kitchen, and you’re enjoying your new-found freedom. You’re ready to get to work!
Not so fast. Like it or not, when you hang out a shingle and start taking work from clients, you become a business. And in today’s society, that means paying attention to some basic business realities. While I’m not a lawyer, I’ve been freelancing for more than 15 years now, and I’ve hired a succession of lawyers to keep me out of trouble. So far they’ve been successful, so I feel reasonably confident passing on these seven rules of thumb for new independent web workers: Read the rest of this entry »
Despite a lot of disagreement about the value of moving web applications offline, I’m starting to believe that there will be a big future for offline apps. Web Worker Daily has hosted some interesting discussions on the topic, with very good input from the readers. One of the common positions that naysayers take is that offline applications will present big problems when it comes to synching with their online incarnations. But, after examining my own usage of offline applications, and watching the progress of Google Gears, I’m convinced that we will see a lot of compelling offline applications.
What’s an example of an offline application? One example would be using GMail offline while sitting on an airplane–drafting and reading messages–and then synching back up when you’re online. When synched, you get your messages that you created sent, and other offline tasks automatically done online. Because the IT department where I work requires us to use Microsoft Outlook, and Outlook has very robust features for working offline and then synching back up online, I already make good use of these features. For a coast-to-coast flight where I won’t have online access, the offline features are absolutely a big convenience.
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ABC News writes that the future of the workplace has no office, only a headquarters in cyberspace, and cites IBM, Accenture, and Crayon as examples. If you’re lucky enough to work for one of those firms — and you want to work from home or café instead of cubicle — you’re pretty well set.
But what do you do if your company doesn’t encourage remote work arrangements? If working where you want is important to you, how can you make it happen?
One commenter on the ABC News story asks:
Where do you find these jobs? I’m in marketing/PR and new media (blogging, podcasting) and I’m having a hard time finding jobs that allow me to work from home. I’m tired of the commute and office politics. I like the work I’m doing at home, but it’s certainly not enough to be financially stable. I’ve taken an incredible pay cut just to try to improve my quality of life by working from home. Are there legit Web sites with these jobs? I haven’t found anything legit on the usual Web suspects.
Are you working from home or café instead of cubicle? If so, how did you arrange it? Do you have advice for those looking for remote work arrangements?
