People who are new to web working often have certain expectations on how working from home can improve the way they work. While these expectations can be met, it’s usually not as easy as it looks on reports and surveys.
Better work/life balance. The promised healthier work/life balance for web workers attracts many people, especially those who want to spend more time with their family. They feel that if they work from home, they can take care of the kids, do household errands, and have time for leisure.
In reality, it takes some time, as well as trial and error to achieve good work/life balance in web work - especially if there are children involved.
Higher Productivity. After an initial break-in period, teleworkers experience higher amounts of productivity, roughly 15% to 25% more, compared to when they were working in a traditional office setting. Note that I said “break-in period” - it takes a while before you get efficient systems in place.
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Are you one of those people who, despite the best intentions, just can’t seem to make a to-do list work? Don’t despair: you’re not alone. Fortunately, there are alternatives. Laura Fitton, of Pistachio Consulting, has been experimenting with a different way to keep herself on track. Rather than concentrate on the myriad little tasks of the week, she’s started envisioning the results. I caught up with her recently for a chat about this technique.
WWD: What’s wrong with traditional to-do lists?
LF: My compliance with traditional to-do lists is patchy. Sometimes great, sometimes awful. It’s at its worst when the to-do list is too tactical, largely because projects and environments shift, and you can’t always predict in advance what the right mix of actions, efforts, conversations and relationships is. Breaking tasks down into manageable pieces is important too, but there’s a balance because the piece that seems important Monday might be irrelevant by Wednesday.
I’ve also noticed that deferring tasks to a to-do list can be its own form of procrastination.
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I’ve been using Google’s GrandCentral since well, before it was Google’s GrandCentral. My day job is based in Virginia and with GrandCentral, I could have a 703 area code phone number that didn’t tie me to my home office all day. However, over the last few months I’ve been frustrated by the service’s limitations and glacial progress.
While there are many virtual PBX options for SMBs and Enterprise, most are priced way out of an individual’s reach. They also tend to include features like toll-free numbers, multiple extensions and incoming/outgoing calls charged by the minute. I’m not looking for an answering system for my business…I’m a web worker looking for a better way to manage my personal and professional communications.
Where can you go when you’ve outgrown GrandCentral (or never got a chance to try it in the first place) but you’re not ready to spend a lot on features you don’t need? PhoneFusion One. I’ve been using the $9.95/month service for the last few weeks in a free trial account, and I’m quite impressed with it. Enough to give up GrandCentral completely? Yes, I think so.
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One of the perennial questions for the independent web worker is “how do I find customers?” This question has been on my mind again lately, because I’ve had a few extra hours to sell. As a longstanding freelancer, I’ve faced this issue more than once over the years; thankfully those times have been balanced out by the times when I’m overwhelmed with inquiries. While I can’t tell you exactly where your next client is going to come from, I can tell you the steps I follow when I’m hunting.
1. Make progress every day. There are two parts to this: first, resolve to make some progress towards landing your next client, and second, follow through on that. Paradoxically enough, the times when you’re not working are the worst times to relax; unless your bank account is overly healthy, you really need to focus on getting back to whatever your definition of full employment is. I make it a practice of never going to bed until I can explain what I did that day to become more employed. If you’re having trouble figuring out how to make progress, take a look at our recent piece on using your down time effectively.
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Charlie Chaplin is one of the most iconic performers of our time. He is known across generations and cultures, and his films are still enjoyed today. Is it possible for a web worker to be that memorable?
Possibly. But internet technology and culture is still too young for us to say for sure. Still, there are some things that the average web worker can do to be almost as memorable as Chaplin.
The first impression counts. The first time people saw Charlie Chaplin’s Tramp character, they immediately responded to him. He was charismatic, and presented himself as a gentleman despite his low social status. Also, audiences were drawn to his resourcefulness in times of crisis.
As web workers, where do people get their first impressions of us? The results that show up when people Google our names, our social networking profiles, our websites, our blog posts - why, that’s almost everything! Since the web is a non-linear medium, you can’t exactly pinpoint the exact time and way that people hear about your work for the first time. In fact, with digital communication, it’s pretty easy to slip and give others a negative impression.
Because of this, web workers need to put their best foot forward - always. It’s a seemingly impossible task, but as long as you keep only your best work in the foreground, people will get the best possible impression of your work.
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Back in April, Mike talked about the “feast or famine” cycle of the typical independent web worker and gave us some great tips on how to Build a Career on Bursty Work. It can be a struggle to juggle the ups and downs of this process so these suggestions are always timely and useful. What particularly resonated with me though was his advice to use your down time productively.
We’ve all likely been in that situation where we have spare time on our hands, and how we use that time can make the difference between success and failure when we are faced with the problem of having too much work. So here are some tips on what you can do in your down time to prepare for the up-time that is sure to come.
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Over at Lifehacker, Gina Trapani has posted an excellent opinion piece taking a second look at the deluge of studies that tell us how much information overload is keeping us from getting work done. Like Lifehacker, we’ve certainly been a cog in the machine that keeps up this drumbeat of studies and solutions, all designed to protect us from the deluge.
But we’re also in agreement that the message of overload gets used to promote products more than it does to really get to the heart of what’s important about work and productivity. Indeed, we’ve looked at other work suggesting more information might be good for us, and former WWD editor Anne Zelenka has argued persuasively that discontinuous productivity (aka “burstiness“) is a key part of the new way of working we embrace. The bottom line? Take a skeptical look at the next overload story you read, and make sure any solutions you choose are right for your own situation.
We’ve all had them: days when, no matter how hard you try, nothing seems to get done. Fortunately, independent web workers tend to have more flexibility than some other job holders. When you pounding your head against the productivity wall doesn’t work, try one of these ways to get the juices flowing again.
1. Cherry-pick some success. Sometimes the issue is just that you have too many big projects competing for your attention, with goals that are unattainable in a single day. While it’s great to be fully-employed, this situation can deprive you of the feeling of forward progress. Take a look over your task list and pick out something that you can accomplish in 15-30 minutes, then do it. The resulting high of being able to cross something off may propel you back into working mode. Check out some of our advice on organizing your task list, too.
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