Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Jared Goralnick (@technotheory), founder and productivity evangelist of AwayFind, a web application that helps people to stop constantly checking their email.

Like many of you, email and social network messages have threatened to overwhelm me in recent years. Over time, I’ve developed a workflow and schedule that helps to keep me a bit saner. This workflow involves a number of tools and methods that allow me to stay in touch without being continually interrupted, and that’s what I’d like to share with you today.

From 9am to 12pm, I get things done outside of email. Every night, I jot down two or three important tasks and take note of any appointments for the next day. When I wake up in the morning, I don’t check email. With Outlook, Postbox and Gmail all closed, and my task list in hand, I start my day around 9.

So how do I stay connected to my inbox without constantly being interrupted by it? Well, I get a little help from some applications:

• I use RescueTime (Solo Pro, $5-8/month) to keep me away from social networks and distractions until noon. When I turn on its nifty “Get Focused…” feature, it actually blocks distracting sites from my web browsers, without needing much customization. (Disclosure: RescueTime is backed by True Ventures, a venture capital firm that is an investor in the parent company of this blog, Giga Omni Media. Om Malik, founder of Giga Omni Media, is also a venture partner at True.)
• I use AwayFind Orchant (currently in private beta) to send me alerts if anything critical comes up over email. So if an important client or the person I have lunch plans with that day emails me, I’ll get an IM, SMS or voice call that tells me their message. (Disclosure: AwayFind is Goralnick’s own product.)

I check my email just before lunch. I have my own approach to batch processing my email that is fairly similar to Inbox Zero. The stuff I want to deal with later gets put in a folder called “@to-do or read.” Since I clear my inbox completely at this time, I actually will go back to this folder several times throughout the day and when I create the next day’s list. The “To-Do” folder approach fails for most people because they usually have a more urgent task list still sitting in their inbox; so they never even end up looking at the “To-Do” folder. Don’t leave anything in your inbox!

There are a few tools and techniques I use to make this batching easier for me:

• I use NutshellMail (free) to keep me out of the narcissist’s rabbit hole that is Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. NutshellMail delivers an email just before lunch that summarizes activity on my social networks that morning (Facebook notifications/messages/birthdays, Twitter searches/@’s/DM’s, LinkedIn requests/messages). I can respond from within NuthsellMail’s summary message without getting sidetracked on those sites.
• I use Outlook flags to create reminders for email items that I need to address at specific times. If you use Outlook 2003/2007 for Windows and haven’t tried flags, it’s as easy as right-clicking the flag at the right edge of a message and choosing “Add Reminder…”
• You might be wondering how I stay responsive on Twitter if I’ve shut down my other applications. I have a virtual assistant who monitors and responds to urgent messages — as well as certain search terms — on a few of my Twitter accounts. I also leave Seesmic Desktop running with one or two particularly urgent alerts that rarely go off.

An important part of my email workflow are the email accounts themselves, as they play a large role in my ability to process messages. I typically spend most of my time in my work account, and less time in the others. My four accounts are:

• “Work” account (in Outlook 2007) — this is the most important inbox to me, and where most of my processing time is spent. It also has a separate inbox within it for customer support inquiries for AwayFind.
• “Personal” account (Google Apps, accessed via Postbox ($30)) — this personal account is where I receive mail from friends. There’s zero junk in this account, and anything work-related gets responded to from my work account.
• “Purchases, Newsletters, and Sign-ups” account (Google Apps, accessed via Postbox) — this account is for sites that need a consistent email address, or for content I may want to read or at least file for reference.
• OtherInbox account (Free or $20/year) — While I don’t use OtherInbox to organize my email, I still love using the entire domain it gives me for bacn email. For instance, when I want to download a “free e-book” that requires an email address, I can use “ebookname@myusername.otherinbox.com.” I rarely log in to my OtherInbox account, since it forwards daily summaries of stuff that’s been delivered there. This is the ultimate bacn-block (and it shields your identity, too).

After lunch, I try to spend most of my time outside of email, but often that’s not possible. Since I had left my morning completely free from emails, calls and meetings, the afternoon is often cluttered and requires some that I spend some time in Outlook. Either way, my morning accomplishments help me to actually get some real work done.

I’ll process email again at around 5pm using the same process as above. In the evenings, I’m hopefully away from my computer. If not, I’m free to slack off however I’d like.

How do you structure your day? Are there other applications that make it easier to spend more time outside of your inbox and to make better use of your time within it?

Photo credit: stock.xchng user GretheB

When did Noah build the ark, Gladys? Before the rain. Before the rain.
- Nathan Muir, Spy Game

In recent months, I’ve become acutely aware of how life and business can easily conflict with each other. It seems that the work involved in creating a successful business is never done, and if there’s an avalanche to come in life, it’s going to happen when there are deadlines looming and there’s a mountain of work to be done.

I’ve had a series of avalanches lately, which reminds me:

• There will never be perfect balance, peace and harmony between work life and personal life. Adjust accordingly.
• It’s important to avoid procrastinating and allowing things to pile up, whether that be work-related to-dos or the laundry and dishes. When avalanches strike, you’ll appreciate not feeling more burdened and overwhelmed by those little reminders of chaos and unrest.
• Try (at least the majority of the time) to honor a daily routine, a daily practice that keeps things humming along slowly but steadily. When things get crazy, the cushion built by that daily practice will allow for greater flexibility.
• Take regular time away from the business. Mental and physical stamina comes in handy during times of stress or when there’s more work than usual to be done.
• Remember that it’s not the big stresses, but the ongoing daily ones that cause more harm over the long term. The work will get done, eventually, so ease up where possible.
• Build (and learn to more steadily depend upon) a team of people to keep the business going, not only during challenging times but every day.
• Time flies whether you’re having fun or not, so why not have more fun?

Entrepreneurs, frelancers and small business owners have a tendency to run at a dangerously fast pace all the time, forgetting how important it is to step back and look at the big picture to make sure it resembles the vision and life they intended to create for themselves.

We can try to run at high speeds all the time, but life will inevitably throw up walls to slow us down. It’s important to intentionally steady the pace to account for those unexpected obstacles and be able to safely navigate around them. For me that means starting with a few simple steps:

• Being more selective with my work and obligations and saying no a lot sooner and a lot more frequently.
• Becoming diligent about honoring a regular stop time for work and learning to shut the office door behind me (and leaving it closed the entire time I’m off).
• Incrementally delegating routine tasks that tend to pile up and leave me strapped for time to focus on the most important things in my life and business.

It’s easy to ignore the rate at which we work and then become overwhelmed when the unexpected inevitably occurs. The easier option is to start making changes now to prepare for those times when you need more flexibility and wiggle room. While it’s impossible to plan for everything, it’s helpful to have a few safety nets in place to support you during challenging times.

How do you accommodate for the avalanches in life while still steadily building a successful business? How have you learned to prepare for rainy days while the sun is shining?

Image from Flickr by Joe Shlabotnik

As we move into another holiday season, I’m already noticing an increase in my stress levels. During the holidays, we all face additional expectations on our time. We still have our regular work to do, but we also have holiday shopping, additional expenses, extra cooking, family gatherings, holiday parties and other activities that seem to take up more time than we have available in a regular 24-hour day.

Most of us also try to take a few days off around the holidays, which can create additional time and budget constraints. For freelancers, no one actually pays you for those days off, and you still need to meet client expectations. Telecommuters and other workers still have about the same amount of work to complete with fewer days to accomplish it. Regardless of your work situation, this still means more stress during the holidays. I have a few suggestions to help you manage your stress and come out of the holidays at least as healthy and happy as you were before the holiday season.

Get Ahead

When I get stressed, my natural instinct is to procrastinate, but that will only make the situation worse. I force myself to do what I can to get ahead on any tasks that can be accomplished early to avoid a mad rush during the holidays.

For one client, I knew that holiday schedules would derail the normal approval process for my weekly writing tasks, so instead of doing a week’s worth of writing, I did a week and a half. This gets me through the first half of the week after the Thanksgiving holiday, and I can pick back up on the writing after everyone gets back from vacation.

I also finished about 90 percent of my Christmas shopping before Thanksgiving. My family lives in Ohio, so I took advantage of online shopping to buy almost everything and have it shipped directly to my Mom’s house. This saves me the hassles of last-minute shopping and store crowds, and it also makes travel less stressful, since it reduces the amount of luggage required for the trip home.

Exercise

When we have the least amount of time available, it is too easy to cut out exercise and use the time to do more work, run errands, or complete other tasks. Do not be tempted to skip your workouts during the holiday season. Exercise naturally reduces stress and will help you avoid the increased stress associated with the weight gain that comes out of eating too many holiday cookies.

If you can’t find the time for your regular workouts, make sure you do something physical every day. Here are a couple of suggestions:

• Knead the bread by hand instead of using the bread maker.
• Dance in the kitchen to your favorite holiday tunes while you cook.
• Park in the last row of the shopping mall and walk, or for urban dwellers like me, do your shopping in a neighborhood where you can walk to every store.
• Take a walk with a family member and use the time to talk (also a good way to relieve stress).

Take Time Off

Take advantage of the times when your clients are on vacation to take a few days off yourself. Seriously. Take some actual time off with no client work. This works best in conjunction with the suggestion about getting ahead. I’ve been working like a mad woman for the past few days, and I plan to take Wednesday through Sunday off. OK, I’m lying a little bit. I plan to take Wednesday, Thursday and Friday completely off, but I’m secretly hoping to have time to work on some neglected non-client personal projects for at least a few hours over the weekend. These are those fun projects that I never quite have time to do, so it won’t feel like work.

Sleep

Make sure that you get plenty of sleep. While sleeping a few less hours every night might seem like a great way to get a few extra hours to finish the activities that are leaving you stressed, it will only make the problem worse. When I’m not getting enough sleep, I’m grouchy and less productive, which only increases my stress levels. Get the sleep that you need to increase the chances that you’ll be productive and accomplish more work in less time.

These are my top four tips for reducing stress during the holidays. How do you reduce holiday stress?

Image by Rick Turoczy used under Creative Commons.

As an amateur photographer, I like to have a nice image as my desktop wallpaper to provide me with some inspiration throughout the day. Thanks to a post on freewaregenius, I just discovered that National Graphic magazine makes a huge selection of inspiring images available for desktop wallpaper use for free.

You can get National Geographic wallpapers from two locations. The first is in the main photography section of the site. Wallpapers here are handily categorized (Adventure & Exploration,  Nature & Weather, Underwater, etc). Unfortunately, the images available in this section are only a maximum of 1280 pixels wide, which isn’t big enough for many of today’s monitors, although they should be fine on most laptops.

Fortunately, you can also use images submitted to National Geographic’s International Photography Competition, and these are available in larger sizes (up to 1600 pixels wide). These photos aren’t categorized — you need to browse by month, but flicking through the range of beautiful images isn’t much of a chore. I currently have this image of melting ice set as my desktop background.

If you’re still looking for more images, another great location to try is Flickr’s Explore page, which always has a huge selection of interesting and inspiring pictures.

Where do you get wallpaper images from?

I’ve been talking with a lot of entrepreneurs lately, and one thing I can say for certain is that, as a group, they’re very eager to help each other. They get just as excited talking about the pursuits of others as they do talking about their own, and they’re more than willing to go the extra mile for those around them.

But how do you tap into this invaluable resource? It can be intimidating to go to others for help and can be perceived as pushy and self-serving if approached the wrong way. Here are a few tips to help others help you.

1. Embrace the idea of “paying it forward.”

People really do want to help you, which usually stems from them wanting to help everyone in their network. They ask what you do and immediately think, “Oh, you should meet [fill in the blank]!” Likewise, when you mention that you have a particular need, they mention several people you might consider and offer to connect you with them.

The most important thing to remember is that networking is all about adding value. The more you find ways to help those around you, the more opportunities will inevitably come your way.

2. Make it easy.

In an article on Techcrunch, Michael Arrington said “Those of us in a position to help entrepreneurs need to do more of it…But this is a two way street. Budding entrepreneurs trying to break down the walls need to grow up. Most of the time people don’t have the time to help you, and you shouldn’t aim hate at them for it. Instead, try a different angle or a different person.” This quote made me think of two things. Firstly, it’s important to remember that people are busy, so you need to make it so easy for them to help you that they can do it quickly and without too many steps.

For example, Betsy Talbot of Married with Luggage emailed people in her network recently asking for promotional help. She made it insanely easy by including links, as well as short and specific instructions for what to do with each of the links. She even included copy so that we didn’t have to come up with it ourselves.

3. Don’t be self-serving.

The second thing about Arrington’s quote that struck me was about trying a different angle. It’s easy to come at things from the wrong angle, and when promoting a business, that’s usually followed by rejection. If you always think of it as, “How can I get people talking about me or my business?,” then that means (a) you have to introduce yourself to someone without sounding like you’re selling something and (b) you have to somehow get them to feel compelled to mention you to others. If you think of it this way, it can seem purely self-serving.

Instead, find a way to help them, and of course, you have to always be sincere with your help. Maybe ask to interview the person for your blog or podcast, or if the person has written a book recently, offer to review it. By reaching out in this way, the person will actually look forward to learning more about you and your business, and if they enjoy talking with you, they may take the time to mention you to people in their own network.

The main thing to remember is that people are more than willing to help you. Most entrepreneurs are acutely aware of the value of networking, and successful ones understand that networking is all about helping others. Just remember, as Arrington said, it’s a two-way street.

What have been your biggest lessons in networking and helping others help you with your business? How do you make sure that you’re not perceived as self-serving?

Image from Flickr by crschmidt

Last year, I attended a professional workshop where the instructor asked us to write out our worst habit. Unfortunately, more than one answer flooded my brain, and I had to seriously consider which to choose. In the end, I decided that my most unabashed, shameless and ubiquitous bad habit is impatience.

My impatience invades every aspect of my personal and professional life. For instance, I constantly find myself wondering, “Why do these people take so long in line at the grocery store?” Counting out each precious penny, then pulling out a coupon, then deciding they don’t really want the milk after all. Instead of an express line for 12 items or less, I think grocery store lines should be divided up into only two lanes — a line for those of us who move fast, have somewhere important to go and something worthwhile to do and a line for those who don’t. See, I told you I was impatient.

In terms of how it’s affected my productivity at work, I’m embarrassed to say that my impatience has led to countless instances of emails sent in a hurry, which only needed to be retracted or clarified latter; decisions made on quick assumptions  — that turned out to be wrong — and occasional crankiness with those around me who are not moving fast enough.

Having pulled back the curtain on my own worst habit in the workshop, I decided to do something about it. I’ve spent a good deal of time over the last year working on my bad habit of impatience. And while I’ll never be “the soul of patience,” I have made progress. I’ve learned to quell my initial reaction to respond immediately, and, instead, take a deep breath and wait things out a bit. It’s helped my productivity by saving me time, money and stress.

“We all walk around on a daily basis with habits that are detrimental to our productivity,” says Larry Tobin, co-creator of Habitchanger.com.

Tobin, whose 42-day online habit-changing program deals with everything from quitting smoking to reducing stress, says that science has shown us that we can teach an old dog new tricks.

“A habit is an involuntary, unconscious action,” says Tobin. “Habits are learned, not instinctual. They are something we have taught ourselves to do, so it is possible to unlearn them,” he says.

In fact, a whole slew of recent scientific research in the field of neuroplasticity has proven that the brain has the ability to adapt to new information, if it’s consistently presented over a period of time. “It takes between 30 and 60 days of doing the same thing over and over again on a daily basis to create a new habit or break an old one,” says Tobin.

According to MedicineNet.com, Neuroplasticity is the brain’s ability to reorganize itself by forming new neural connections throughout life. Neuroplasticity allows the neurons (nerve cells) in the brain to adjust their activities in response to new situations or to changes in their environment.

Why not put the power of your flexible brain to work? Here’s a simple, two-step process I teach my consulting clients to help them break down their bad habits and build up their productivity.

Step 1: Call out the bad habit and identify its negative consequences.

“To break a habit, the first thing you need to do is step aside and become aware of what you are doing,” says Tobin. In my 25-plus years as a consultant, I’ve noticed a consistent group of productivity-killing habits including procrastination, disorganization, being ill-prepared and operating in crisis management. What are your bad business habits and what negative impact has the bad habit had in your business (and perhaps personal) life? Here are a few examples:

• You work full-time for a company and often find that you arrive at meetings unprepared. The negative impact might include: Feeling unable to make a decision in the meeting, or the progress of the group being hindered by your lack of preparation.
• You’re a freelancer and procrastinate to the point of lost productivity. The negative impact might include: Missing a deadline for submitting a proposal for a new piece of work or delivering late on a project to an important client — hurting your credibility and chances for future work.
• You telecommute and have a disorganized home office. The negative impact might include: Being late to meetings at the office due to looking for needed documents at home or becoming distracted by to-dos around the house, rather than confronting cleaning up a messy home office.

Step 2: Create alternative actions.

One way to change an old, bad habit is to replace it with a new, better one. By practicing the new action, a pathway is created in your brain that, over time, can become as strong as (if not stronger than) the previous behavior. The key is to start small, with little actions you can implement easily. So get creative and think of some alternate actions you could take to counter the bad habit you identified. For example:

• I will schedule my computer alarm to notify me 30 minutes before the start of the meeting so that I have time to look over the meeting agenda and my notes before I arrive.
• The next time I have a proposal to write for a potential client, I will set aside a specific block of time in my calendar, on a specific date, to get it written.
• The first thing I will do every morning when I go into my home office is spend 15 minutes clearing off my desk or cleaning out a file.

Just remember, good habits don’t suddenly appear overnight; instead, they develop slowly over time, as certain behaviors — repeated over and over — begin to overlay the way you work. The good news is that, given a mind as malleable as yours, breaking bad habits is just a few new neural pathways away.

What’s your worst bad habit?

As I sit down each day to do my work, the vast majority of which involves writing (articles, web site content, tweets and blog posts), I can’t help but think about the writing rules drilled into me by past English teachers. In most cases, their advice is still very pertinent, and I write better by adhering to it. But there are a few rules that would prove detrimental to my online work if I continued to follow them.

I was taught how to write in a world in which print media still dominated the written word. Much has changed since those pre-Internet days, the practice of writing not least of all. As a result, some things that were once considered big no-nos are now standard practice. Here’s a few old chestnuts you should think about tossing out as you transition to online writing. You may even take joy in doing so, if you’re the rebellious sort.

1. Write What You Know

Even when I was a much younger writer, and a big fan of science fiction writing, I found this rule to be rather limiting. The fact is, now that I’m doing various kinds of online writing that differ greatly depending on the contract, it’s become downright anti-productive.

A much better and more applicable rule for today’s provider of online content is know what you write, as quickly and efficiently as you can. That means doing research to gain a sense of familiarity with your topic, and to quickly find out what kind of tone and tenor is acceptable for the genre. Honestly, your goal as a writer is to be able to fool an expert into thinking the content was created by someone with at least a comfortable grasp and lengthy history with the subject at hand.

2. Don’t Use Contractions

Contractions like “I’ll” and “They’re” may have been completely against all good sense back when you were writing essays for school, but they’re completely acceptable in almost all online writing (see what I just did there?). In fact, when I work as an editor for blog content, I often insert contractions where they belong.

What many people don’t realize when they make the jump from print to online writing is that web content has as much do with spoken English as it does written English, in terms of what’s considered acceptable (see, I did it again!). Contractions more accurately emulate a conversational tone, which is something many blogs, marketing departments and community builders are aiming for with their online publications. If you do not use contractions in your writing, it is liable to sound awkward and stilted to a seasoned Internet media consumer.

3. Revise, Revise, Revise

Revision is terrific, don’t get me wrong (I can see editors all over the world glaring at me menacingly). It’s terrific and necessary, when you have the luxury of time. The fact is, with a lot of Internet writing, you just don’t have that luxury. Taking time to meticulously revise a piece could result in something that was current becoming old news, especially now that Twitter delivers news in real time.

Read over what you’ve written, always, but try to practice producing publication-quality prose on a first draft basis. Part of that means editing as you go, but part of it is just writing with a high degree of frequency. It helps if you can identify your common errors in advance, because that way you’ll be attuned to those areas as you write them, which should make you more likely to catch a mistake as it happens.

Those are the three big rules I break every day. And every time I do, I can still hear my tenth grade English teacher uncapping his red Sharpie. Do what you will, Mr. Marchand, but the Internet demands an entirely new set of rules, and she’s the only English teacher I have to please now.

What writing “rules” do you break regularly?

The second wave of H1N1 swine flu is here. Vaccine’s in short supply, so we need alternate strategies for coping with the pandemic, the consequences of which could include a lack of Internet bandwidth capacity if large numbers of workers opt for staying home and telecommuting via the web, according to a new report prepared by the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

Many of us work from home already, which does afford distinct advantages for infection avoidance during rampant epidemics. However, many web workers operate at least part of the time out of offices, call centers, and institutional settings where some colleagues will imagine they not only have a “right,” but even an obligation, to show up at work with the flu so long as they’re able to stagger in — a problem known as presenteeism, which Karen has written about previously.

So what can you do if you can’t operate entirely from home?

The usual advice to wash hands frequently and thoroughly, to wear gloves as much as is practical when touching common access surfaces and protective masks when within six feet of infected people is sound. Avoid touching your mouth, nose or eyes with hands unless they’ve just been washed and not re-contaminated by contact with taps, door handles or other surfaces that may have been touched by infected individuals. Influenza A and B viruses can survive 24-48 hours on hard, nonporous surfaces such as metals and plastic, and 8-12 hours on cloth, paper and tissues. Frequently disinfect shared-access surfaces that may have been touched or sneezed/coughed on by victims of the virus.

Computer input devices and especially cellphones used by more than one person can be efficient disease vectors. An Apple Knowledge Base article on the topic advises:

“In addition to regular cleaning of your computer and input devices (keyboards, trackpads, and mice), you may find it necessary to disinfect them.

“Multiple people using the same computer, people using the computer when they were ill, and the particular environment where the computer is used, are a few reasons you may wish to disinfect areas of the computer that people come into contact with the most.”

The article goes on to suggest: “In order to properly disinfect these areas, you should use Lysol Wipes, Clorox Disinfecting wipes, or Clorox Kitchen Disinfecting Wipes…”

Another strategy of prevention in the office is use of keyboards, mice, mouse pads, wrist rests and even cellphones that have been coated with antimicrobial agents, either organic (this means antibiotics, which are possibly not so good for you) or (preferably) silver-based.

If enough of us employ these precautionary and preventative strategies, we can hopefully get through this flu season with a minimum of disruption.

What flu prevention strategies are you using?

Image credit: stock.xchng user mzacha.

Because of its recent return to my working methodology, I want to take a moment to single out a very low-tech web working tool for praise. I’m talking about the sketchbook, that handy little tome in which we can capture and generate some of our best ideas. Not to be confused with the writer’s notebook, mind you, which is a great tool, too, but a different kind of beast.

The sketchbook is a free space for your ideas to play, unbound by lines and ruled margins. It’s a laboratory, a playground, a testing facility and a sounding board. And perhaps best of all, it requires no batteries and can go pretty much anywhere you do. Here’s why I love mine so much, and why any web worker would do well to have their own on hand.

Idea Log

You know the feeling of getting hit with innovation lightning? The one you get when you come up with something great, something you’re terrified will fly out of your head before you get to a computer. That kind of idea, to my mind, is best captured by the sketchbook, in as close an approximation to the unprocessed original as absolutely possible.

The nature of our brains is such that as we think about an idea, we tend to process and refine it while we keep it in our heads. I much prefer to capture the really good ideas raw, before I’ve had a chance to rationalize and massage them into something more manageable, but possibly much less potent, too.

With a sketchbook, I find that I can capture the idea in its essence, unhindered by editing and page constraints. I’m a very visual person, so it helps that I can use words and images easily thanks to the clean, blank unlined pages. It also makes it easier to add to or scan later on. Plus, even ideas that turn out to be not-so-great could transform into something really useful just through the absent-minded doodling I do on a regular basis on top of existing sketches and concepts.

Collaborative Tool

Describing what you want to do or want to have done can be very hard. Project disappointments, in fact, are often due to confusion regarding expectations, rather than any real failure on the part of anyone involved in the process.

Having a sketchbook on-hand, depending on your comfort level and relationship with the individual you’re working with, can be a great way to spitball ideas using non-traditional means. Even if design has nothing to do with your project, you can use the space to rough out workflows and processes, draw mind maps and illuminate key project concepts in a way that verbal communication simply doesn’t allow for.

Passing a sketchbook back and forth, and taking turns writing, sketching and thinking out loud has produced some of the best collaborative work I’ve ever produced.

Stress Relief

Doodling has always been one of my favorite pastimes. Ever since my early school days, when I used to idly doodle in the margins of my primary workbooks, I’ve enjoyed sketching and drawing as a means to relax. With all that practice, you’d think I’d be better sketcher than I am.

Skill aside, a sketchbook to which I can turn at any moment to work off a little stress through therapeutic doodling is a must-have for my professional health. It’s always close to hand, it doesn’t cost anything, and it isn’t bad for my health. There are few other stress relievers for which all of the above is also true. Best of all, it’s a leisure activity that I can actually do while I’m working, which is invaluable.

Even if you’ve never tried sketching or doodling before, give it a shot and see how it makes you feel. The key is to master being able to draw with a complete absence of self-conscious thought, so that you truly get lost in the activity.

So do yourself a favor and get a sketchbook. It will become a constant companion, and possibly one of your most trusted advisors.

Do you tote a sketchbook?

This week has been a bit of a challenge. I’ve been haggling with car dealerships over purchasing a new car. I’m sure I don’t need to explain how frustrating that process has been, but I will say that I’m surprised at the customer service lessons I’m getting out of the experience.

1. Don’t rush your customers. Pouncing on them as soon as they arrive is not enticing to customers and can come across as a bit desperate. Give them space to consider their purchase. Stay accessible, but don’t smother them.
2. Don’t hound your customers. Give them room after they leave to evaluate their options. A phone call or email a day is fine, but don’t go overboard (calling an hour after they leave the showroom is a bit excessive).
3. Don’t argue with your customers. You obviously have strong opinions for and against certain features relating to your product, but if your customers have opposing opinions, it’s best to disagree respectfully — and gently.
4. Don’t downgrade the competition. Berating your competitors won’t win you any points. By showing respect for the competition, you demonstrate a quiet confidence in your own product.
5. Listen to your customers. Are you paying attention to what your customers are saying? Are you listening to what’s important to them? Be fully present and listen to the needs, desires and frustrations that your customers are sharing. This is invaluable when it comes to fitting the right product with each person, and the ability to recall minor preferences is even more impressive.
6. Focus on your customer’s needs, not yours. This may be surprising, but the customer doesn’t care about your bottom line. They’re not worried about making this work so that you benefit. They don’t care about your timetable either. Instead of worrying about your needs, focus all your effort and attention on doing an exceptional job.
7. Don’t be condescending. Don’t patronize your customers. Consider the possibility that they may have actually done their homework and know what they’re talking about. Your customers understand that you have “inside” knowledge, but don’t talk down to them or be dismissive. It’s insulting, and that alone could cost you the sale.
8. Know what you’re talking about (and find the correct answers when you don’t). Here’s an example. I went into one dealership this week and had settled on colors for the interior and exterior. When I went to another dealership, they said that color combination wasn’t available. (Yes, it was. I had seen the car myself.) It turns out that the combo was available, but the person relaying the incorrect information knew that they’d have to get it from the company’s other dealership, which was an hour away. That’s three strikes. One of salesmen didn’t know the facts about his own vehicles and suggested that I didn’t know what I was talking about, and the other lied for the company’s benefit.
9. Don’t just say what you think customers want to hear. “What? You need a certain price? No problem. We can do that.” Yet when the customer shows up with checkbook in hand, that price no longer exists. Puffing and bluffing isn’t going to impress your customers, and if you’re only trying to appease them, eventually that will surface, leaving customers feeling very frustrated with you.
10. Shoot straight. If you can’t do something, you can’t do it. Period. Say so. Say what you mean. Mean what you say. Be direct and upfront and never skirt the truth.
11. Communicate clearly. Go over things slowly and carefully (and then go over them again). Be thorough and detailed with your responses to avoid misunderstandings.
12. Stay cool under pressure. When you’re dealing with other people’s money, there will inevitably be tension. Proceed with caution. Take breaks. Take a few breaths. Keep things in perspective and consider the other side. Do not, under any circumstance, lose your composure. Talking too quickly or loudly and seeming frustrated or agitated will only risk evoking the same response from customers.
13. Keep your promises. Call when you say you’re going to call. Have what you say you have. Do what you say you’re going to do.
14. Know what’s really going to impress customers. Take cars, for instance. Customers want the best in safety, and a good-looking car with low gas mileage is important, but what about reliability and how about some proof? Rather than going on and on about how super awesome your brand new cars are (they better be), show me one with 500k miles on it that’s still rolling. Paying $30k seems much more appealing when I can think about driving that car for twenty years.
15. Make things easy on your customers. In general, making a big purchase (buying a car, hiring a VA, etc.) can be a stressful experience, so find ways to make things as easy and painless as possible for customers.

I have not been impressed with three-fourths (or more) of the salespeople I’ve come across this week, and if things don’t get better quickly, I might be the customer who simply drives her car to 500k miles — that’s the final lesson. I actually had a salesman tell me that their goal is to wear customers down, until we eventually give up and give in. I will, but it won’t be the way they expect. I’ll go home and keep rolling in my faithful car, because they forget (or weren’t listening when I told them) that I work from home.

So, Lesson #16, don’t treat your customers as opponents to be beat. If you do, they’ll eventually think of you that way, too, and eventually move on to someone who’ll work with them instead of against them.

I’m amazed at the treatment I’ve received this week from car dealers, but it’s made me appreciate exceptional customer service even more. How do you ensure that your customers are impressed rather than appalled?

Image from Flickr by thebig429

“If I’m going to feel lousy, I may as well go into the office and get some work done.”

“I’ve got so much to do; I can’t afford not to go in.”

“It’s just a little cough.”

At one time or another, probably all of us have uttered these sentences in defense of dragging our sneezing, wheezing, coughing, flu- and cold-ridden selves out of our sickbeds and into the office.

Equally true, we’ve all heard the phrase, “I’m not that sick,” uttered from a co-worker or client’s lips — only to find ourselves down and out for a week with their illness a few days later. Going to work when sick has become such a growing trend that it’s earned its own moniker — presenteeism.

Wikipedia defines presenteeism as “the opposite of absenteeism. In contrast to absenteeism, when employees are absent from work, presenteeism discusses the problems faced when employees come to work in spite of illness, which can have similar negative repercussions on business performance.”

Of course, many web workers don’t actually head into an office, so don’t need to worry about infecting co-workers. But working while ill can have other repercussions, too. An October 2004 Harvard Business Review article titled “Presenteeism: At Work — But Out of It”, highlighted a study commissioned by Lockheed Martin to assess the impact of 28 medical conditions (including migraines, asthma and the flu) on workers’ productivity.

Researchers from Tufts-New England Medical Center in Boston found that even employees with less severe conditions had impaired on-the-job performance and that, in total, employees who came to work with these 28 conditions cost the company approximately $34 million a year.

So if coming to work when sick is bad for the patient’s health, and equally as detrimental to the business’s bottom line, why do we continue to do it?

According to the findings of the Unscheduled Absence Survey by CCH, a part of Wolters Kluwer Law & Business, 66 percent of those surveyed said that having too much work and fear of missing deadlines were the most common reasons they came to work when sick. Another 56 percent cited lack of anyone to cover their workload as the reason, and 36 percent are showing up out of company loyalty.

And while a strong work ethic and company loyalty are to be admired, they may not be reason enough to leave the house when you’re sick. This flu season has not only begun with a wallop, but on June 11, 2009, the World Health Organization declared that a global pandemic of H1N1 flu is underway. With all these nasty beasties floating about, but a pressure to be productive lurking, it’s hard to know what to do, when to stay home and when you’re clear to go out.

Of course, good old-fashioned common sense (and mom’s advice) dictates for most of us how to handle the situation: Wash our hands, cover our mouths, don’t go to work with a fever etc. But hey, why take my, or mom’s, word for it? According to the CDC web site flu.gov, here’re their recommendations for keeping the cruddy stuff from spreading.

• Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze. Throw the tissue in the trash after you use it.
• Wash your hands often with soap and water, especially after you cough or sneeze. Alcohol-based hand cleaners are also effective.
• Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth. Germs spread this way.
• Follow public health advice regarding school closures, avoiding crowds and other social distancing measures.
• If you must have close contact with a sick person (for example, hold a sick infant), try to wear a facemask or N95 disposable respirator.

As for the time required to be away from your fellow citizens, flu.gov says stay home if you are sick until at least 24 hours after you no longer have a fever (100°F or 37.8°C) or signs of a fever, without the use of a fever-reducing medicine. For more details, check out http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/guidance/exclusion.htm.

Oh, and just in case you’re wondering, I’m writing this column on my laptop from the comfort of my bed, which I have been confined to for the past four days since coming down with a whopper of a cold I picked up at a play. I guess all the hand washing in the world couldn’t make up for the guy in the row behind me hacking away at the back of my head all night.

Do you suffer from presenteesim,  and struggle to work even when you’re ill?

As Google is issuing Wave invites in a steady trickle, those fortunate enough to have an account are trying to figure out how this new tool might fit into their workflow and help them better communicate and collaborate with their teams and clients.

While the small number of people who actually have an account right now is probably going to be the first hurdle for many teams who would like to try it out on a live project, I count myself among the lucky ones who got a Google Wave invite early and spread my nominations amongst some colleagues and clients.

One of my clients to whom I sent a nomination wanted to try it out on our current project, so I thought I would share some of the early lessons we learned and some tips from my initial dip into using Google Wave for a real client project.

1. Set suitable expectations. Despite the months of buzz, and blogosphere- and Twitterverse-wide clamoring for Google Wave invites, the product is still in preview and has some rough edges. Therefore, it does all parties good to be realistic, even if everybody is psyched to be the first kid on their block to use it on a live project. If your experience is anything like mine, you’ll also encounter bouts of slowness, messages to refresh Google Wave, and perhaps even the random browser crash. Your project team’s level of tolerance for such things might vary.
2. Do a dry run with a Wave. The Wave concept is definitely a new model for many. It took me an impromptu “dry run” with my client for us to truly grasp the Wave concept and see how it could shape our online collaboration. For example, I could see how Wave could be used to keep all project information and communications online and out of our already cluttered inboxes, and it was great to able to see my client paste text as well as type into a Wave in real-time.
3. Take control of your Waves. It’s easy to get a little excited and end up creating Waves for all sorts of things, but you need to take control of the conversation in Google Wave, instead of letting Google Wave take charge of your conversations. For my project, we decided on one Wave per project document, for the sake of organization.
4. Use folders and tags. While the Inbox Zero and GTD crowd have yet to full plant their stakes in Google Wave, I must say that the use of folders and tags is prudent, especially because while the Wave platform breaks so much new ground, but folders and tags are concepts are familiar to many. I ended up creating a project-specific folder for all the Waves associated with the client project. My use of tags also came further into play as a tool to fine-tune my own organization. A simple tip is to remember you can resize the navigation pane to accommodate your folder list as it grows. By default, your folder list may not fully appear in the navigation pane.
5. Consider whether to use live editing or attachments. Google Wave melds email and word processing together. Thus, it is important to decide whether you want to collaborate on documents directly in Google Wave or via file attachments. Unfortunately, at this time Google Wave lacks version control for file attachments (thus putting the feature at the top of my wish list for a Google Wave extension). My client and I decided to work with file attachments for the project documents and write directly in Google Wave for direct communications with each other.
6. Have a Plan B. It’s cool to get jazzed as an early adopter, but if Google Wave isn’t enhancing productivity and communications, be sure that you have a fall back plan in case it end up causing more problems than it is worth.

While my initial entry into Google Wave on a real client project was really just scratching the surface of this new collaboration platform, I do see a lot of potential. However, with its rough edges, it may not be the collaboration platform for everyone just yet. Personally, I am looking towards more Google Wave extensions and gadgets going live, because my initial experience tells me that they are going to be key providers of critical functionality and user experience.

If you’re looking for more info on Wave, check out the report “Google Wave Explained” over on our subscription research service, GigaOM Pro.

Have you tried using Google Wave on any of your current projects? Share your experience below.

This week, my husband was laid off for the second time in five years. This one hurts more than the first. At that time, I held a corporate job, so our health insurance and other benefits remained intact. But I became a full-time freelancer after he found a stable job with benefits. Now that’s all gone or won’t be around for long.

After I stopped reeling, it was time to start dealing. And deal I did — by taking these actions.

Accept the situation. It does no one good to scream and worry about it. Of course, I still worry about the situation, but I don’t let it paralyze me or prevent me from moving forward. It’s OK to scream when you hear the news, just know when to stop and move on.

Stick to the schedule. Despite the bad news, you need to try to stick to the schedule and make your deadlines.

Respond to emails at the right time. Sometimes you may not be in the best frame of mind to reply to a difficult email. Address problems and more challenging emails when you know you can respond logically and not emotionally.

Take care of your physical self. Exercise eases some of the pent up stress and symptoms that come with it. I also make sure I get my seven to eight hours of sleep, drink plenty of water and follow a balanced diet.

Help with the job search. This gives you a feeling of some control. Plus, you might be able to contact some people that your spouse doesn’t know.

Reach out to friends and colleagues. Letting others know about the situation ensures others understand why you may not act like everything is hunky dory. They might also help by contacting their connections who may have jobs or know people who do. If your friend is laid off, wouldn’t you want to know?

Write about the situation and your feelings. For some people, writing down their thoughts and emotions can ease the frustration and anger.

I know we’re no different from the many families with at least one person out of a job. My sister, my friends and others have all had loved ones out of work for months. All we can do is talk and support each other while pushing forward to find the right job where employee and employer can benefit from the partnership.

How do you handle a life-affecting situation like a layoff?

Photo credit: Tree Faerie

As a freelancer, I get the chance to work with startup companies that are still too new or too small to have a lot of in-house staff. Because of this, I’ve become familiar with the common characteristics that many startups share. As I come to expect these characteristics with new clients, I become more efficient at avoiding problems and maximizing opportunities.

But first, a definition: What exactly is a startup? Although the term “startup” is usually associated with tech companies, it’s not necessarily that specific. As long as the business is young, usually still in development, then it can be considered a startup.

The first common trait that most startups have is their tight or unpredictable income. Usually they are bootstrapping (working without external funding) which leads them to minimize their expenses. Even if they have the benefit of external funding, startup founders still tend to keep a close eye at their cashflow. Some of them might be looking for low freelancer rates, or perhaps some prep work to justify your cost. You shouldn’t be selling your services as an added expense: talk about your fees as an investment.

To minimize any negative effects a startup client may have on my own finances, I tend to bill early and send reminders before the due date indicated on the invoice. This sometimes isn’t necessary, but it can be useful, especially if the people in charge of paying you are wearing too many hats or paying attention to several other aspects of the business –  a common situation in startups.

Also, if you’re working with a startup, you’ll be dealing with their growing pains firsthand. This means you’ll be part of an exciting and interesting stage in the development of their business. While this stage is typically filled with new ideas and innovation, there will also be a lot of mistakes, which will often affect your work. They might even be a bit disorganized, since they don’t have standard processes in place.

There might even be major changes when the founders get a better (or simply different) idea of what they want to do. One of my earliest freelancing jobs was writing web site copy for a tech startup. When they hired me they were developing a simple chat application. By the time I left them six months later, they had plans to turn their app into a full-featured social networking tool. Because of possible changes like this, it’s important to keep communication lines open so that you’re updated with the latest developments. Startups are flexible organizations, and you should also be equally flexible as you work for them — as long as you are treated and paid fairly.

There may be some exceptions, but I usually find that working with a startup is also like working with a small, close-knit family. They often don’t have a large staff since they’re just starting out. With few, if any, bureaucratic hoops and hierarchies to deal with, getting feedback and disseminating information is usually faster. In fact, you may be working directly with the founders.

Although working closely with the big bosses has its advantages, there are a few challenges you should expect. Sometimes, founders can be micromanagers. They tend to think of their startup as a baby whose every tiny step they should monitor and approve. While I appreciate this devotion to one’s business, too much of it can prevent growth through other people’s ideas, experience and perspective.

Working with a startup certainly has its own opportunities and disadvantages. We need to be expect both these things if we want the working relationship to go as smoothly as possible.

Have you ever worked with startups? What was your experience like?

Image by cobrasoft from sxc.hu

A whole generation of web workers has been raised on the idea that the more activities you can do at one time, the more of a productivity superstar you are. But is the ability to juggle Facebooking a friend; scanning an email; texting on your cell phone and tweeting about your latest technology tip — all at the same time — really such a good idea?

According to a recent study published in the August 24 edition of “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences” by Stanford researchers Clifford Nass, Eyal Ophir and Anthony Wagner, the answer is an unqualified “no.”

Nass said the idea for the study came about because he would see students who seemed to be amazingly skillful at multitasking and wanted to learn what their secret was.

Nass and his colleagues began their research by locating a group of 100 students composed of both “high multitaskers” and “low multitaskers.” The high mutitaskers were those who routinely used four, five or more media at one time (texting, reading email, chatting on the phone etc.). The low multitaskers used, on average, no more than two media at one time. The goal of the study was to see which elements of multitasking the high multitasking group performed better at, when compared with the low multitasking group.

“We were shocked to find out that the high multitaskers did worse than the low multitaskers in all three basic aspects of successful multitasking,” says Nass. The three aspects the study examined were:

• The ability to focus on the relevant and ignore the irrelevant. In order to multitask well, you need to be able to very quickly decide between what’s important and what you are going to pay attention to, and what’s irrelevant. “High multitaskers are suckers for irrelevancy,” says Nass. “Everything distracts them.”
• The ability to keep information well organized in the brain. If you think of the brain as a bunch of filing cabinets, the high multitaskers had messier cabinets than their lower multitasking counterparts, and had a harder time finding what they needed.
• Being able to switch from one task to another. Good multitaskers need to be able to mentally go from one activity to the next, without significant cognitive downtime. The more the high multitaskers were required to do this, the worse they were at it.

The results of the study have lead Nass and his colleagues to conclude that one of two things is true. Either multitasking is harmful to high multitaskers’ brains and is worsening their ability to focus, or people who are high multitaksers are naturally bad at these things. “Either way,” says Nass, “multitasking is a problem, and people should not be deluded into thinking that it works. It hurts productivity, and it may be hurting your thinking process,” he says.

If all of this is not enough to make you stop and do one thing at a time, consider the fact that the Stanford study is not the first of its kind to point out that multitasking makes us stupid. One report from the Institute of Psychiatry at the University of London found that when workers are constantly juggling emails, phone calls and text messages, their IQ falls ten points. Another recent report by Rubinstein, Meyer and Evans found that when people switched back and forth between tasks, there was a substantial loss of efficiency and accuracy — in some cases, up to 50 percent.

Now are you convinced to put down the iPhone while you peruse the Internet? If so, to fight distraction and find your focus, here are a few hints excerpted from “Time Management In An Instant: 60 Ways to Make the Most of Your Day“:

• Create designated task times. By setting aside a selected time period to do all your phone calls, emails or errands at once, you will reduce the amount of time you spend going back and forth between them.
• Put a system in place that lets you capture all incoming to-dos in writing. Instead of feeling pressure to do the item “now” (lest you forget), your brain can relax, secure in the knowledge that you have the item identified and stored.
• Maintain a desktop inbox. Don’t just rely on your electronic mail box or filing system. By putting a physical inbox on your desk, you will be able to temporarily place items that need your attention in a location where you can easily find them.
• Turn off technology. The ding of an email coming in, the buzz of the BlackBerry etc. — all these seemingly harmless inputs can tempt you to stray from the job at hand and multitask.

Are you a high multitasker or a low multitasker? How do you think it affects your productivity?

Over on our sister blog jkOnTheRun, James has published a great list of tips on how to be a productive home worker. They include:

• Set up a comfortable home office
• Make a separate work zone
• Music can play a big role
• Software tools are key
• Keep a real work schedule
• Get out with people
• Dress the part

I agree with all of his tips, but especially “Get out with people” (working in isolation over long periods can get me down and damage my productivity) and “Dress the part” (getting properly dressed every morning sets me up for the day as it means that it’s time to work). For more detail on why each of these points is important, read James’ post.

Share your home working productivity tips below.