Most people telecommute over high-speed internet access. But what about those who don’t have it? Can you telecommute effectively over low-speed access?

If you have DSL or Cable internet access, you’re getting a high-speed connection to the internet. You’re connection is fast enough for you to view web pages quickly and easily, send and receive emails without waiting forever,  etc. But if you are using dial-up (using your phone line to ‘dial’ into the internet) you’ll know it. Navigating the web will be painful, as you wait for each page to slowly load onto your screen. Reading emails will be slow and downloading large files will take so long you can go squeeze in that shower and finally get out of your pajamas before the file download is even finished!

If you want to work from home effectively and efficiently, you cannot get away with dial-up internet access. It will slow your productivity down to a grinding halt. Sure there may be some days where you really want to focus on a project or document and don’t want to be checking email much or surfing the web. But even on those days you never know when something urgent is going to crop up (the boss’s boss just handed down a spreadsheet that he needs everyone to fill in asap) and you need to download files or work in a collaborative manner, exchanging emails, etc with your co-workers.

So don’t take the risk. Get yourself high speed internet access. Even if your company won’t reimburse you and you have to pay out of pocket. It’s still probably cheaper than paying the high price of gas these days for driving into the office. And it will make reading your personal email and doing your personal web surfing that much faster too!

Technorati Tags: telecommuting, telecommute, internet access, work from home, work at home

Imagine this… You’re telecommuting. One of your teammates puts together a last-minute face-to-face meeting for an important project that your involved in. You can’t get into the office that day, so you miss the meeting. And important decisions are made without your involvement!

Don’t let this happen to you. There is no reason you can’t attend a meeting virtually even if everyone else is there in person.

Make sure your teammates know how important it is to always send you meeting invitations, even though you are not physically around. Tell them not to worry about whether they think you can or can’t make it - that this is your problem to deal with and not theirs.

When you receive a meeting invitation, contact the meeting coordinator and ask if everyone is meeting face-to-face in a conference room. Then find out if there’s a speaker-phone in that room and ask the meeting coordinator to either call you at your home work line from the conference room or get you the number for that room so you can call in (or perhaps you can look this up yourself or check with an admin rather than slowing down your teammate to look for it).

Being the only person attending a meeting by phone when everyone else is there in a room together face-to-face can have its challenges. I write a lot about how to overcome these challenges (and I will, of course, blog on this topic too) in my book which I will be publishing soon (you can go to http://avoidgoingtowork.com to get on my mailing list for a special introductory price when the book is ready). But attending by phone is certainly better than missing out all together!

Never miss a meeting or discussion because you aren’t physically present. This means helping your teammates get used to the idea of not leaving you out either. You can’t attend a meeting if you don’t know it’s happening!

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When you telecommute, especially if it’s full-time, you can end up feeling rather isolated and miss that good old human contact you get from being around your coworkers, or just from being in a crowded office building.

Fortunately, there are many things you can do to help alleviate this sense of loneliness.

Since my daughter is no longer at home with a nanny and is now off at daycare, I’m feeling that lack of human contact more than I used to. So I’ve decided to start implementing some of the ideas in the book I’m writing (coming soon - go to http://avoidgoingtowork.com to get on my mailing list and get a great introductory price offer when the book is ready).

I have a neighborhood friend who also works from home doing various types of freelancing type work. We decided to take a walk together once/week. This gives us a chance to get some exercise and get some company at the same time.

Although it’s taken some effort to get our schedules synchronized, today I took my first walk with her. It was great. I had a really nice time taking a break from work and getting a little company. We were only out for 1/2 hour so I was able to fit it into my schedule even though I’m crazy busy at work right now. And of course, I finally managed to get a little exercise in - something I’m really struggling with between work and 2 small children.

I think this is going to be a great solution in many ways. I’m excited to do this on a regular basis. Of course the challenge will be keeping it up between both our crazy schedules, but where’s the fun without a challenge?!

Technorati Tags: telecommuting, work from home, isolation, exercise

When you telecommute, your phone conversations are probably the closest direct communications you’ll have with your boss, co-workers, etc. You’ll not only have direct phone conversations, but all your meetings will be by phone too.

So it’s important these phone calls stay completely professional.

Now imagine how it looks if you’re in the middle of talking through your latest presentation to a large group by phone and suddenly your wife/husband/room-mate/teenage-daughter picks up the home phone and starts dialing. Then, still not realizing you are on the phone and hearing voices they start saying “Hello? Hello? Is someone there?”

The only plus side about being on the phone at this point is no-one in the meeting can see how red your face has just turned!

If you share a house with anyone, a separate phone line for frequent telecommuting is an absolute must! And even if you live alone, remember you will be forwarding your work phone in one way or another to your home work line (see my previous blog on this subject). So unless you’re willing to change your answering machine message to something sounding very business-like, you still should consider other options.

But this does not mean you need to spend a lot of money. There are options out there to keep the costs down. Often your phone company will offer a package deal for getting a second line. Or you can get a second number attached to you cellphone plan which is quite inexpensive.

Or you can look into VOIP (Voice Over IP) options which basically gives you a phone line over your internet. Skype is the most well-known of these. Skype allows you to make free calls to other people’s computers who have Skype. You can also use it to make and receive calls to/from phones, for a fee, but depending on how many calls you make, it may be a cost-effectives solution for you. 

If you’re looking for ‘free’, here’s another idea. You can use your cell phone as your home work line as long as you are willing to answer it all the time in a business-like manner (which may take a few of your friends by surprise at first, but they’ll adjust).

Surf around on the internet and find an option that works best for you!

Technorati Tags: telecommuting,  home office, communications, phone

If you’re telecommuting, having a private, quiet place to get your work done is absolutely critical. You cannot take phone calls with your boss or attend phone-based meetings with kids yelling in the background. And you do need a space that stays consistent so you have room to store your papers, can keep an adjustable height-chair set to the right settings, etc.

But please note, I said a private, quiet place to work is critical. I did not say having a home office is critical.

If you’re lucky, you live in a part of the country (or world) where house prices are low and you can afford something big enough to have your own office, with a door that you can close and block out the rest of the household. If that’s you, you can ignore the rest of this post.

I however live in Silicon Valley, where the downpayment on an average house is the same as the entire price of a house twice the size in many other parts of the country! As such, having enough rooms in your house to have your own office is quite a luxury. That said, there are other ways to find the space you need.

If you have other people at home during the daytime (especially kids) you really need your desk in a room where you can close the door. But if you don’t have an office, you could put the desk in your bedroom, for instance. And if you don’t have kids or other family at home, you can put your desk in a corner of the living room. Or perhaps you can work at one end of the kitchen table - just make sure you can keep your ‘office’ chair in the kitchen, and have a place nearby to store your papers (otherwise you’ll end up with spaghetti sauce stains on them).

 Think creatively. I’ve even known someone who put her desk in a closet that had a window in it. Is there anywhere in your house where you can squeeze out a little extra room?   

Technorati Tags: telecommuting, home office, work from home