With gas prices rising rapidly, the advantages of working from a home office seem to be increasing. Not only is the act of commuting stressful for many, but now it is costing you a lot more to get to your job.

Unfortunately the telecommuting trend seems to be reversing a bit. Some of the biggest corporate proponents, such as AT & T, Hewlett Packard, Intel (from 4% to 1-2%) and sections of the federal government (7.3% drop), are bringing home-based workers back to the office. The explanation is that it tightens operations and promotes teamwork as people work in direct contact with each other.

There is still an increase over the past years, gaining 30% between 2005 and 2007, but these recent call-backs signal some concern. It can be easier to lay off home workers. If you are one of those working for a large company from a home office for part or all of the week, keep in mind some of these ideas that can increase your value:

• Exceed expectations. Make sure you are focused on work during work hours and complete your parts of projects in a timely fashion. Measurable results do count!
• Maintain contact. Even if you work from home, it is still helpful to be seen periodically by management and to be involved face-to-face with colleagues.
• Use your technology wisely. There are many means for online collaboration with team members. Be sure you are prepared for meetings and doing your part. Also, it is easy to multitask when no one can see you. Do not be caught off guard when someone asks you a question you didn’t focus on and then they have to recap the details.

What if you have a home office as a small business owner? I think the public perception of home businesses has greatly improved. In earlier years, it was something that was occasionally hidden because it lent the perception that you hadn’t made it to the “big time” yet. Now it is more common and widely accepted (even envied). The same ideas apply.

• Exceed expectations. Follow up quickly with customers and prospects. Stay focused on work during business hours.
• Maintain contact. Take time to get to know your customers. Face-to-face consultations can help get you the job and keep clients.
• Use technology wisely. Keep up with new software and tools that will help you become more productive, but do not buy anything that you do not have the time to learn to use effectively.

As we start out in the month of May, it is beneficial to reflect on what May Day means to many countries. On May 1, 1886, hundreds of thousands of workers in the U.S. marched in support of the eight-hour workday. From that date, It actually took 54 years of struggle before we legislated the 40-hour week/8-hour workday.

We often take that 40-hour work week for granted, but it took a lot of sacrifice and determination on the part of our ancestors to bring this about. Yet now many of us seem to have switched back, voluntarily, to 60- or 80-hour weeks.

The question is, “Are you more productive?” When you work longer hours, are you actually getting more done, or do you find yourself bogging down later in the day and taking longer to accomplish things?

I have found that when I have clients specify a certain amount of time to do something, such as process email, and they know they cannot go over those scheduled minutes, they end up more focused and actually get more done because they have to prioritize and react. Without an end point, email can consume hours of your day. To test this process, set a timer for 20 minutes and see how productive you can be when you know that is all the time you will have.

The most common lament I hear is that we no longer have enough time for ourselves. It seems a shame that in our current situation we may be turning back the hands of time, echoing the workers over 120 years ago.

Continuing my response to the reader who requested advice for those who were on the “front lines” and didn’t have a project-driven day (see the original crisis management post), I’m going to address customer-driven jobs.

If you were hired to answer telephones, such as in a call center, then obviously you cannot decide that you get an hour of uninterrupted time each day to focus on other activities, because the telephone is your job. However in many customer-driven situations, there are several people working in the same area, and they usually also have paperwork and other tasks to perform in addition to direct contact with customers.

When I worked with the multiple branches of a credit union, we determined that it would be beneficial for each of the tellers to have a 20-minute session where they moved back from the teller window and dealt with their money drawer and receipts. They took turns stepping back during the day, so that only one teller was away from the window at a time. This was much more efficient and accurate because they could get the work done quickly when they didn’t have to stop and work with another customer. It also precluded the typical, “Now where was I…” scenario and having to start over again.

With a front desk position, the receptionist is often given projects to do during breaks in answering the telephone and greeting visitors. However it can sometimes be difficult to get that done with the start-and-stop situation. In a property management company with which I worked, because there was a part-time person that helped at the front desk, the main person took an hour break to focus on the other work. Again, it gets things done much faster when you can concentrate.

When you are on your own and the only thing you do each day is to deal directly with customers, who may be cranky or demanding, it can be tough to maintain a positive outlook. Yet if you let their attitude affect you, it drags down your day and transfers over to the next customers. Good company training in all areas and your own personality will be the key to handling problems and diverting crises.

In a post that I wrote last week about crisis management, I presented some techniques for limiting the pressure of deadlines. Responding to this, one reader commented that it wasn’t useful advice for those “on the front lines who don’t have jobs that come with laptops, travel, and corporate jargon.”

I recognize that not everyone can use every technique in a given situation. It is an issue I deal with when I present corporate seminars. During these half-day or full-day sessions, the audience often spans the range from upper management to front desk receptionist. The points that I make at the beginning include:

1. Not everyone can use every technique.
2. Even if you could, you need to select two or three on which to get started. I have audience members who have attended my seminars several times because they stated that they honed in on something different every time.
3. Although you may not personally use a specific system due to your job duties, it is good to be familiar with what others in your company are using. You never know when you may be called to fill in or assist someone.
4. All of the key points, including organizing, prioritizing, procrastinating, dealing with interruptions, paper management, email management, project management, clutter control, multitasking, and stress reduction, also have applications for home use. They may be modified or tweaked but there is a place for all of these in our personal lives. As I present seminars, I always address how to adapt the concepts to outside situations.

I think this last point is an important issue for everyone because if you are disorganized in either home or office, it affects you. Disorganization wastes time and creates stress. In classes for the general public, not only do people attend more than once, but I remember an attendee who returned within six months to the same class because she had applied the systems to her office and now wanted a refresher so that she could tackle her home.

In my next post, I will specifically address customer-driven jobs and how to use some of these tools and techniques in those situations.

“Where did this week go?”

That common phrase can be interpreted in two different ways:

• It was a great week. I had so much fun/got so much done that it flew by.
• I don’t feel that I accomplished anything I had planned, and it is already the end of the week.

It is not hard to figure out which one creates stress. If we buy into the concept that “time is money,” and our week has not produced what we expected of ourselves, then there can be disappointment, frustration, or guilt feelings at lack of progress. Yet in actuality, the person in the second bullet may have been busy nonstop, pulled in all directions, and performed many activities. The basic difference in end-of-week scenarios often relates to questions of prioritizing and procrastinating.

Scenario One:

• You know where you are headed each morning
• You focus on one type of work at a time. This actually helps you get the task done more quickly.
• You find ways to limit interruptions when you need to concentrate.
• Even if the task is difficult, you tackle it instead of putting it off.

Scenario Two:

• You spend the first part of the morning figuring out what is due now and cannot be avoided any longer.
• You allow multiple interruptions throughout the day to distract you.
• You try to tackle the difficult stuff later in the day when it is harder to concentrate and can take much longer to produce good work.

When we constantly equate time and money, we may not allow ourselves the luxury of focusing on one thing at a time. We feel we need to be multitasking to cram in as much as possible when the opposite is true. People who try to do two or more things at once are slower than those who concentrate on one type of activity and then move on to another. They are also less stressed.

At the end of this week, ask yourself, “Where did this week go?” See if you have a positive feeling about what you have accomplished after all of your hard work. If it is not providing that result, try some changes in your daily routine–changes that may produce more work in less time, with less stress. That is where time equals money. It has to be the effective and efficient use of time, not just the look and feel of being “busy.”

Do you know any time-challenged parents who want to help their children use time productively? There is no question that kids can spend multiple hours per day on the internet, often to the detriment of homework. YouTube is one of the favorite spots.

Now there is another site growing, called TeacherTube, based on the YouTube concept, that is available to help children with homework and for exploring topics of interest. They get involved in the same video process while parents can be more comfortable with what their kids are seeing and learning. Topics cover curriculum from elementary school to high school. Many school districts and teachers are using this as part of their educational delivery, for daily lessons and for homework assignments.

It is one more avenue for busy parents, who often stuggle to fit in time for homework help, to explore. Children can be more productive and still spend time online. As with any internet site, the caveat remains that videos can vary in quality and educational value.

“Your lack of planning should not be my emergency.”

• Have you ever wanted to say that to someone?
• Could you be guilty of frequently interrupting others with a “Now!” issue?

There is no question that crises do arise from time to time, issues that require everyone to change focus. However they tend to occur much more frequently then needed. In so many situations, prior planning would obviate the need for last-minute rush efforts.

How can you start to make changes within your organization to limit the fire-fighting?

1. Do not wait until a project is almost due. As soon as you receive the project, list all the required small steps that will lead to the completed work. By breaking the task into manageable pieces, you are more likely to tackle it than if you wait to do it all at once.
2. Using your list of steps, work backwards from the due date. Mark the dates you need to have each of the steps completed, with a bit of wiggle room in case some emergency does come up. If you do this, you will have a clear picture of when to begin and what needs to happen each day or week.
3. Prioritize your next day’s work the evening before. Do not wait until the morning to start thinking about where your day is headed. If you have all of your tasks in one place (one system), it is easy to determine your daily priorities. On the other hand, if you have ToDo lists scattered around, you do not have one system. You end up with another list as you try to create the day’s schedule.
4. Avoid procrastination. When you keep stalling on a project, you end up with the last-minute pressure. If you predetermined what your biggest chore for the day was, stick to that instead of diverting your attention to small tasks that are easier to check off. See our previous post on the benefits of accomplishing your biggest task first thing in the morning.

With your own work prioritized, it is easier to determine the correct response to someone else’s emergency. Evaluate what you are currently trying to accomplish versus what they want to interrupt you for as you decide whether to switch activities.

In a recent post I mentioned that the Arawak Beach Inn confiscates your electronic devices upon checking in. It’s their way of helping to ensure that you have a peaceful, stress-free vacation.

However, not everyone is willing to go to this extreme. For those, myself included, who like a bit of outside communication at least once a day, bringing along a laptop to use on a limited basis is more feasible.

If you do travel frequently and need to keep multiple computers in more than one location updated with the latest files, a new service called SugarSync can help. SugarSync places the latest version of each file you choose to sync on each of your chosen computers. It also creates a password-protected web page that allows you access even when you are on a borrowed computer. Every time you make changes to any designated file, that change is reflected on each synced computer and on the website within seconds when you are connected to the Internet.

When bringing along the laptop on a trip, there are some precautions you can take:

• Have a secure password. Number and letter combinations are best. Do not choose anything obvious to someone who knows a bit about you.
• For confidential files, you can add an additional password to block access.
• Be careful what you transmit through unfamiliar networks. Reservations and online purchases can require more personal information, so try to cut down on the need to use these while you are out of town.
• Bring an ethernet cord with you. Wireless access may not be available in all locations, and this gives you another option.
• Never check your laptop in luggage, and do not let it out of your sight. Sometimes it means squeezing the case into a small restroom stall, but you want to keep it with you at all times.
• If you leave the laptop in your car, secure it in the trunk to avoid overt temptation for theft. Extreme temperatures can be harmful, so limit the length of time you pack it away.

Disorganization is a major cause of job dissatisfaction.

If the disorganization is your own, then you can choose to make changes. However, whether you are the disorganized one or the organized one working with a disorganized colleague, that lack of organization has an impact on you.

• Who does the disorganized person interrupt when they need something? Who do they count on to have a copy of the contract or to know what time the meeting begins? For every interruption that the more organized person has to field, it can take 20 minutes or more to get back into the flow of the work again.
• Who gets more stressed during the work day? What are the typical characteristics of the stressed person–irritability, anger, negativity? Have you ever had to “tiptoe” around someone, wondering what mood they are in today? It does not lead to a comfortable working environment.
• Who would your customers prefer to deal with? Negativity and irritability do not usually equate with great customer service. It either affects the bottom line or piles more work on the organized individual whose help is preferred.
• Who misses more days of work? Stress leads to absenteeism and illness. Who gets to cover for the stressed, disorganized person when they do not show up for work? And of course it is also harder to cover for the individual whose work is scattered everywhere and who has not set priorities before leaving the previous night.

When you are organized and in control, your attitude is more likely to be positive. 9 out of 10 people say they are more productive when they are around positive people (Gallup, 2004). Wouldn’t it be a great day if you only had to deal with positive people?

As soon as I finish typing this post, I am heading out to vote in Houston’s run-off primary for District Attorney of Harris County. Our recently resigned D.A., Chuck Rosenthal, was ousted, or outed, when his past years of emails were subpoenaed by defense attorneys in preparation for a trial.

Somehow the judge who granted the subpoena allowed press access to not just the messages relating to that case, but to all of the messages. Included were little “love notes” to his administrative assistant from the married D.A., along with humor forwarded to him that was racially focused.

When the situation first began unraveling, my only thought was, “What was he thinking?” Whether looking at it from the high ground or low, there were so many other avenues open to him.

High ground: You are charged with protecting our county’s citizens and enforcing the legal system. How could you let your friends and staff send this type of mail through the government systems?

Low ground: How hard is it to hit Delete and clean up your Sent and Received messages once in awhile?

Just contemplating the hubris of someone who has attained this position of authority and then somehow must think himself unassailable still boggles my mind after all these past months of turmoil. What toppled him did not relate to the initial case in question but to the indiscriminate little notes that are so quickly sent and then forgotten.

Is there anything in your email that you would not want exposed?