Many of us know that telecommuters can get more done working from home, both on work activities and personal activities, due to time savings and increased focus. But I recently discovered a specific situation in which I, as a telecommuter, found myself getting less done.

In a typical work-day I get started working early, in my pajamas. I work hard for stretches of time, but like all people, I need the occasional mental break. During the times I need to step away from my work I might read and respond to personal emails, throw a load of laundry into the washing machine, pay a few bills, etc. Because I save at least an hour each day I telecommute from avoiding the drive to the office and because I avoid the gossip and non-work-related chit-chat of my co-workers I have more free time during the day to go the extra mile on a work project or get some personal tasks checked off my list.

So I’ve always felt there are really only up-sides when it comes to personal productivity and telecommuting.

However, I recently spent nearly 2 weeks at home with my husband and children during the Christmas holidays. During quiet moments (such as when the youngest was napping and the older child was watching a movie) my husband would happily disappear into the office for an hour or two to work on personal tasks on his computer. However, I found myself avoiding this as much as possible. Sure, I’d spend 5 or 10 minutes a day glancing through personal emails or handling some paperwork on my desk. But I kept it to a real minimum. I found other ways to avoid going into my home office – any little excuse I could. The dishes needed washing, I needed to work on a grocery list, anything.

At the beginning of the holiday I had grand plans on working on more articles such as this one and all kinds of other tasks. But I managed to avoid almost all of them.

This morning as I laid in bed resentfully staring at the alarm clock that had just gone off for the first time in 2 weeks, I thought about this odd avoidance. I realized that it’s because I associate sitting at my desk in my home office, in front of my computer, with work. I mean my day-job work. I knew I was on a nice long vacation and therefore resisted anything that felt like that kind of “work”.  My husband, who drives into the office most days and only telecommutes once or twice per week, didn’t have such a strong mental association and so he didn’t have that difficulty.

It was an interesting revelation. Definitely something for telecommuters to be aware of, especially if you have some important activities you want to get accomplished during a holiday. I think next time I have a vacation at home I’ll try moving my laptop into my bedroom or the dining room – and see if it makes any difference. Think about it for your next vacation!

Technorati Tags: telecommuting advice, telecommute, work from home, remote worker, work at home moms

You may have noticed I haven’t posted in a while. Where has Nicole been?

Well the answer is I’ve been commuting! Work has gotten really hectic lately and on top of that, I’ve had more meetings lately where I had to attend in person. So I’ve been driving in more than usual.

This morning I was crawling along on the freeway in heavy traffic and heavy rain. I looked at the clock and it occurred to me if I were working at home I’d have already been working for nearly half an hour - and I wasn’t even at work yet.

It just drove home (no pun intended) how much time is wasted commuting. And when work is busy, the reality is we telecommuters don’t take the time saved avoiding the drive for our own personal use. Rather, we use that time to get our overloaded plates a bit more under control.

So, employers, pay attention. Telecommuting really helps you in tough times get more out of your employees!

Technorati Tags: telecommuting advice, telecommute, work from home, work at home moms, remote worker

The ever-increasing wonders of technology allow us to do some amazing stuff today that no-one would have guessed 10, or even 5, years ago. Technology now helps us in ways that allow us to blur the lines even more between our personal and professional lives. While some people cringe at the idea that work intrudes even further into our personal lives, the same technology also allows for some movement in the opposite direction too – in small ways that can improve our lives significantly!

Yesterday I had to take my minivan in for a minor service. My husband and I both worked from home that day. We scheduled the service for around lunch time.

When it was time to go we both packed up our laptops, hopped in our cars, and met at the service station. We left the minivan, got in our other car, and drove to the nearby downtown area. My husband then pulled out his iPhone and did a search on locations nearby that had free wireless access. After a few moments of tapping on his handheld screen, he found a café/deli and off we went.

We found it quite easily. It was a nice little restaurant, offering sandwiches, salads, coffees, etc. And, of course, the ever-important free wireless access. Since the weather was pleasant we ordered lunch and then grabbed a table outside. Out came our laptops, we got our wireless access working without any effort and then both of us accessed our VPNs to get onto the internal networks of our respective companies. I had all the same access as if I were at home or, for that matter, in the office. We were well into our work when our sandwiches arrived.

We were able to work while we ate, occasionally stopping to exchange a friendly comment with each other (or rather, commiserate over some frustrating corporate politics we were facing). The hour and a half passed by in a productive, yet very pleasant manner.

Before we knew it my husband’s phone was ringing – the minivan was ready. I was almost disappointed to leave the sunny, outdoor seating we had. We packed up, picked up the minivan, and headed home.

Although we’d been gone from the house for over 2 hours, we’d managed to get quite a bit of work done during that time. We’d been online to respond to coworkers’ emails and IMs. We’d completed an important errand so that the following weekend could be spent in quality time with our kids instead of having to schlep them to the service station. Oh, and don’t forget the ever-important fact that we’d both done far less driving that day than if we’d gone into the office – saving gas and helping the environment.

Wow – that’s a win-win-win-win-…uh…-win (did I get the number right?) situation! Now I bet you can’t do THAT without leaving the office!

Think about what kinds of things you could get done while still working productively, if you had more flexibility over where you work. Telecommuting even once or twice per week can make a huge difference in today’s hectic lifestyles.

Technorati Tags: telecommuting advice, telecommute, remote worker, work from home, work at home moms

Wahoo! If you were hesitant before about approaching your boss for permission to telecommute, or afraid he might say no, there’s a new survey out that you need to look at now!

The Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) recently conducted a survey to look at telecommuting and the benefits to the organization/company. So many surveys in the past have focused on benefits to the telecommuter -it’s nice to have some focus for a change on the company.

The survey found that the top benefits of telecommuting to the company were improved productivity (67%) and cost savings (59%). Since time is money, both of these add up to help the bottom line. With improved productivity, less employees can do the work, and cost savings from real estate and infrastructure can really add up fast.

There were also benefits to the employee resource pool. Telecommuting policies allow companies to choose from many more candidates in disperse locations to hire qualified staff (a benefit listed by 39% of the respondents) and allow for better employee retention as telecommuting can be seen as a major perk - for some people, even a deal-breaker (a benefit listed by 37% of the respondents). Finally, the benefit of improved employee health (25%) due, in no small part, to reduction of stress from commuting, is a plus for both employer and employee.

So if you’re having a hard time convincing your boss to let you work from home, arm yourself with the results from this survey and show him how it’s a win-win arangement!

Technorati Tags: telecommuting tips, telecommuter advice, work from home, work at home moms

Trying to convince your company to  let you telecommute, but having a hard time because you work for a small company that hasn’t figured out the technical details yet?

Small businesses don’t have the army of IT folks to figure out how to create a VPN (Virtual Private Network) and support a remote access software solution. These details can be complicated and need to be done right - to protect the company from potential security threats. So it may be easier for your company to just say ‘no’ than to do the extra work. It’s not that they don’t want to support your work/life balance, or the environment, or save their own money by having you work from home. It’s just that it’s too complicated.

But if you read my last blog post, I found an article that describes some alternatives to make the external access a bit easier. So try taking this article to your head of IT and see if he can use the information to come up with a solution. Once you get past that hurdle, perhaps your boss will be more open to the telecommuting conversation.

Technorati Tags: telecommuting advice, telecommute, work from home, work at home moms

Apparently there are many people who want to telecommute but are afraid of losing the opportunity for promotions if they do. But if you know the right methods and techniques to maintain your visibility, you can benefit from all the advantages of telecommuting without worry about any downsides.

An interesting article in US News and World Report comments on a survey by Steelcase that although half of office workers are able to telecommute, less than a third do for fear that their manager wants them in the office and they need to be there to be noticed.

There are many techniques that will help keep you in your boss’s virtual line of sight. Schedule more frequent 1-on-1 meetings with him, by phone. Send him a weekly status update by email. Do the same with your key co-workers too. Simple actions like this can combat the out-of-sight-out-of-mind phenomenon. If you’re really concerned, try telecommuting just 1 day/week first, then increase it as you feel more confident.

Read my other blog posts for many more helpful suggestions!

Technorati Tags: telecommuting advice, telecommute, work from home, work at home moms

As if there aren’t enough challenges to a successful telecommuting experience, here’s another one to worry about!

I just read an article in the New York Times today about how Time Warner Cable is experimenting in some towns with limits on their internet service.

I’d heard buzz about this before but this is the first time I’ve come across it in practice. The idea is that most people only use a limited amount of bandwidth on their internet but there’s a few users who are network hogs and use huge amount of bandwidth for downloading videos, movies, etc. Rather than making everyone pay the same, the idea is if you want to go over the limit your ISP (Internet Service Provider) sets, you pay extra.

In principle, I understand the approach of paying more if you use more. However this may be yet another roadblock for telecommuters. As telecommuters, we are likely to be heavy internet users because we’re very actively working all day, transferring large files, etc. So now we may have increased internet access rates to look forward to in the future.

But hang in there. It’s not over until the fat lady sings. ISPs are just starting to play with this model, so it will probably be some time until they go mainstream with it. And even then, this may hit your employer’s pocket and not yours if you’re lucky enough to work for a company that pays for, or reimburses you for, your ISP charges.

Technorati Tags: telecommuting, telecommute, work from home, work at home moms

When you telecommute, you are very reliant on your technology. Your laptop and phone are your lifeline to getting your job done. So what happens when the lights - and the rest of your power - go out?

When you’re in the office, chances are they have backup generators. But I, for one, don’t have one of these lying around in my house. If I lose power, I can work on my laptop until the battery gives up. But that’s it.

And what about phone meetings? If all you have are electric phones - cordless phones - you’re in trouble. Thanks to an article in Information Week, where the author suggests keeping an old-fashioned corded phone around the house for just such an emergency. Wow - sometimes old-fashioned low-tech beats high-tech!

A few more suggestions are:

• Keep your laptop plugged in when you work at home - so your battery is always fully charged.
• Keep a spare laptop battery that you can swap out if needed - and keep that plugged in and fully charged.
• Keep a written/printed list of your co-workers’ phone #s - so you can reach them by phone even if your laptop battery is dead.

Any other ideas? Please post a comment and add them for other readers!

Technorati Tags: telecommute, telecommuting, work from home, work at home moms

I just read an article in Businessweek about how a lot of British workers want to telecommute but their managers, in general, are reluctant. But one part made me mad. They quoted a survey which seemed to support manager concerns about productivity of telecommuters. They said:

Almost half (46 per cent) of home workers confessed to spending over an hour of every working day on non-work activities—with ‘personal internet use’ and paying bills being the biggest guilty pleasures. One in 10 home workers even confessed to watching TV and taking a nap on work time.

‘Multitasking’ was also popular with WFHers - almost half (42 per cent) of female home workers said they regularly do cleaning or laundry during the workday—and almost a third of men say they use work time to prepare meals or keep fit.

However, there’s two major problems with looking at these results in a vacuum:

1. They fail to mention (if they even surveyed them at all) how many workers who come into the office spend over an hour per day on ‘personal internet use’ or ‘multitasking’.
2. They don’t factor in that most people who work from home end up working more hours, because they’re not wasting time commuting, and they often take shorter lunches since they’re on their own. So telecommuters’ workdays are typically a little longer and taking a break is not unreasonable.

I actually wrote an article in my blog just recently on this exact topic - about how to fairly fit in personal activities during your workday if you telecommute.

Remember, it’s not about how you spend every waking minute. It’s about whether you fairly put in your time and how much (and at what quality) work you get done.

Technorati Tags: telecommute, telecommuting advice, work from home, work at home moms

So you can telecommute, but what you’d really prefer to be doing is not working at all and enjoying the great outdoors in the last of the beautiful summer weather before it’s all gone.  Well maybe you can have your cake, and eat it too (or at least, some of it).

I stumbled across an interesting article in the Montreal Gazette about how to turn your back yard into your office (or how to turn your office into your back yard?). It covers how to easily meet your office needs with solutions that can weather the heat and even the rain. It remcommends what furniture to use, and how to handle sensitive electronic technology.

Take a look and let me know if it gives you any good ideas. Or if you have any new ones to add!

Technorati Tags: telecommute, telecommuting, work outdoors, work from home, work at home moms