I’m not a huge fan of working in offices anymore. Not only am I rather out of practice (only one year in the past 10 have I gone into an “office” everyday), but I find them one of the biggest anti-workplaces I know. I enjoy writing and working in a coffee shop more than an office. Why?

People.

In an office there are people (well, duh), but because there are people you have to abide by standard social norms. If someone calls your name, not responding is considered rather rude. Never answering your phone or not showing up to meetings is “not being a team player”. Yeah, great, but what about “getting work done”, when do I get to do that?

This video by 37Signals Jason Fried (which I found thanks to WebWorkerDaily—Why Modern Workplaces Don’t Work – WebWorkerDaily) tells it like it is. The “workplace” is the worst place to get work done.

When I need to write something, concentrate on something, think, read, or code (i.e. work) I need get into that mode and zone. I need some focus and some quiet, and not to be asked random questions or asked to look at something. So on go the noise-isolating earbuds— pretty much these ones in fact-Shure Sound Isolating In-Ear Earphones (SE115) – Red – Future Shop—and away goes the world.

Not quite up there on the “workplace etiquette” scale through.

So, what I suggest is something in between, let’s call it hiding in plain sight. Start with:

• Ignore IMs
• Book blocks of time “busy” on your calendar, which is really code for “I”m working don’t bug me.”
• Let your phone go to voicemail.
• Turn off audio notifications for email, etc.

Essentially turn the tables on your co-workers. Instead of attention, demand inattention. I know, this is extremely anti-social. With open-concept offices, someone is going to wander by (or throw something) or call out your name to get your attention. Here’s the thing, maybe have them watch Jason’s video. Ask your manager to consider having “standing meetings” where you don’t sit, you stand (pretty much guaranteed to make the meeting last about 20 mins max). Try to work on building a culture of working at work and giving people the time and space to work, instead of a culture of interruption.

Or, you can just work from home.

Yeah, I’ll admit it. I’m pschyed about the iPad. No, it isn’t perfect. Yep there are some obvious flaws (lack of USB port or SD card reader are big ones for me), but I’m excited about how this will change how we use computers. I remember I wasn’t too keen on the iPhone at first, but I knew from the moment I saw it that it changed how we would use and interact with smart phones from then on. Same with the iPad (I agree, the name is terrible, just awful). Maybe the iPad isn’t what everyone will be carrying, fine, but I think Apple’s endorsement of the form factor and technology will boost all tablet makers. Sony and Amazon, well they have some catching up to do. Nothing that a color screen won’t fix though.

What I’m most interested in seeing with the iPad is how ebooks can combine multimedia within a book. Even live websites. Right now I’m writing Using WordPress, which is a beginner-focused WordPress book. In each chapter there will be screencasts and audio segments. Being able to pull those up in line with the text they refer to? Holy smokes that would be awesome. How about a special “section” at the end with updates and changes pulled live from the Internet?

Think about paying less for academic textbooks. Think about textbooks that can self-update over the Internet.

Sure these aren’t nearly as interesting a a game or drawing program. But I certainly can imagine using an iPad to review changes to chapters, jot notes, read books …

Now I just need to imagine the money I need to buy one.

I don’t buy terribly many books anymore, or magazines, and certainly not newspapers. A bit of an ironic statement from someone who’s first book comes out in January, but I don’t equate publishing with paper. I assume that my books will have more life in digital editions than in paper ones. I’ve been writing in the digital medium far more than I ever have (or will) in works published on paper.

While it isn’t Earth-shattering news that newspapers, at least in print, are dying off. Local newspapers, the hyper local kind that I used to deliver every afternoon as a kid when I was a paperboy (another causality of the Internet age), seem long gone. If the survive at all it’s as a thin weekly paper. In Vancouver The Georgia Straight and Vancouver Observer have thriving Internet-based content. Often some of the best content in both papers are online only. I found this piece in The Economist comparing how the telegraph didn’t kill newspapers, but actually made them what they are today:

The trouble is that nobody knows how to make money in the new environment. That raises questions about how much news will be gathered. But there is no sign of falling demand for news, and technology has cut the cost of collecting and distributing it, so the supply is likely to increase. The internet is shaking up the news business, as the telegraph did; in the same way, mankind will be better informed about his fellow humans than before. If paper editions die, then Bennett’s prediction that communications technology would be the death of newspapers will be belatedly proved right. But that is not the same as the death of news.

[From Newspapers and technology: Network effects | The Economist]

What has caused the biggest problem for newspapers, until now, is that there was no easy business model for continuing print editions. I see eReaders as the solution to the problem. No, I don’t think that many papers can have subscription models like The Wall Street Journal or New York Times have, but if more content can be delivered more easily and more cost effectively online without the noose of a paper edition around their necks, not as much money needs to be raised through advertising.

Classifieds? No, Craig’s List killed those as a revenue stream. And people do appreciate great content, and might be willing to pay for it. But in the end, it will be the ability to pull up the news on our small, slim tablets that will save news, writing, and journalism. We can gather, analyze, connect, and publish information so much more efficiently leveraging technology. The question will be which newspapers will find it more profitable to ditch their print editions entirely first. And what is the magic number of eReaders in consumer hands to make a digital only edition the best solution?

And maybe the biggest irony of all it is RSS will be the technology that will likely be the way we create and manage our newspapers on our digi-slates.

Who said the RSS reader was dead?

Remember those days in high school when you were learning how to write term papers? My very well-meaning teachers tried to get us to use notecards and create outlines, anything to help us write better organized papers with the correct citation in the bibliography.

And I hated and chafed at every, single moment of it. While having notecards is actually a good organizational tool, my nascent writer’s brain couldn’t latch on to them as anything more than a royal pain. Even then, and probably more so than now, my chaotic, in-the-data-cloud brain couldn’t deal with something so–orderly. I know I wasn’t the only one who had the same issues, Will Kelly wrote about this very frustration…

Through high school and college, I used to rail against having to use outlines because I saw them as stifling my creativity. It wasn’t until years later, as more of my own consulting work grew past just straight up technical writing of user documentation, that I rediscovered outlines as a productivity tool, enabling me to quickly make plans, organize ideas and structure information. Now I consider them an important part of my project planning arsenal.

[From Rediscovering Outlines As a Productivity Tool ]

I can’t really blame my teachers though, the technology that let me absorb and grok outlines didn’t exist yet. When I tried to write out an outline on paper, each thing I wrote became fixed and something that was fixed in the infosphere became something to work around. Thankfully I only had to write one term paper using the time-honoured long-hand/typewriter combo. My family’s Apple IIe arrived shortly after my D- on my first high school term paper. In spite of the fact that I turned in “typewritten” first drafts (probably much to my teachers’ pleasure given my infamous handwriting), I still had to contend with the notecard and paper outline strictures, which didn’t help matters.

It wasn’t until many years later that I finally got it. It wasn’t until I was introduced to mind mapping did I learn that writing could be a lot easier, which is how I’ve been able to finish one book, start another, and map out a third. I don’t mind map as many documents now, but I do work off outlines for most things longer than a page or two.

Will uses Omni Outliner while I tend to use the built-in outlining and organizational tools that Scrivener provides, but both have the same end goal: put your thoughts in order.

Yes, this is confusing and seemingly diametrically opposed, but the difference is that when I work with a mind map or within Scrivener I can move the elements around. There is no inertia to moving something (hmm a mental frictionless plane…) around. I’ve moved whole sections to new chapters, changed the order of chapters, split, combined… Fine you get the idea.

This is the key and essential difference between what I learned 25 years ago is the flexibility that electronic tools offer that paper just doesn’t. It makes me wonder if my kids’ teachers are using tools like mind mapping or Scrivener or Omni Outliner to help kids grasp organization. If you are creating an outline on paper there is an inherent assumption that you have everything structured in your head already, or that you can think like that.

I can’t.

I don’t even try anymore. I start working on a document and know that I will go back an move, realign, and adjust the outline before it’s done. Even once its “done” I still can move things around. So what is chapter 5 now was chapter 3 before. My advice to you is that if you struggle with the blank page syndrome, feeling like you don’t know where to begin, look at tools where it doesn’t matter where you start because what you enter first doesn’t have to remain first.

And by the way … I actually use Scrivener’s notecard-corkboard interface a lot.

Things have been pretty active over on my Vancouver Observer column, Techplanations. WIth the holidays coming up I had to cover gift ideas for geeks: Getting Great Gifts for Geeks and since we all need to stop talking on our cellphones while starting in BC starting in January I have a review of some Motorola headsets and a contest to win a headset or hands free car device–Do You Have a Headset for Your Cell Phone?.

Because the column is about helping people use technology better (and fix it when it breaks) I covered the very common–My Computer Won’t Boot! What do I do?!?–which I’m sure many of you have lots to had to that topic in the comments.

Finally I’ve just published part one of a multi–part series on telecommuting during the Olympics–Welcome to the Telelympics! Telecommuting For The 2010 Winter Games. The first installment covers laying the groundwork for working from home. Next week I’m going to dig deeper into setting up your router, getting software you need, and prepping your workspace.

Have more tips for telework? Let me know here or in the comments on the column.

Of course if you have suggestions for future Techplanations columns zap me a line at tris [at] techplanations [dot] com.

With my first book coming out in January, I’ve been watching the eReader space for more than just gadget lust: I want to make sure I can keep writing books. Sure I can just write away and maybe self-publish the work, but you know I’d like to make a living at least in part, through writing. In order to do that publishers have to be able to afford to pay writers enough of an advance so we can write and not starve in the process.

So Simon and Schuster’s plan is to plug ebooks into their own special place in the publishing cycle: Four months after hardcovers. Meaning you’ll have to wait 1/3 of a year after a book’s published to read it on a Kindle or Nook or tablet or whatever. It establishes a value hierarchy, that looks, as the WSJ points out a lot like the theatrical release cycle for movies. It’s true, the movie industry has fared better than the music industry in preserving the perception of value of their content. But if you look, digital movies have slowly crept up to be same-day as DVD. They’re just really damn expensive—15 bucks.

[From Books, and the iTunes Problem - Kindle - Gizmodo]

I’m wondering then if instead of the S&S model of delaying the release of the electronic book, you release them together, but only as a set. Buy the paper, get the e-version of an extra $5. Then after a few months sell them separately. Would you buy a book like that? For a tech reference book I think I would, having a bunch of tech reference books on an ereader would be darn convenient I think. A lot easier than when I lug PHP, MySQL, UNIX, and web design books to and from class.

The whole question of format and which reader is best, man I don’t know. Sheila and I both wanted readers this Christmas, but we’ve both pulled them from our lists for now. I still want one, I just don’t know which of all the competitors are going to be best. I’m not even sure that the much-rumoured Apple-tablet would be a good option for me (heresy I know).

In the meantime I know my publisher (Pearson) is into ebooks, especially textbooks, and falling in with the Sony camp. I might just go that route so I can read my own book electronically! Until then, I’ll let you know when the box of books arrives at my doorstep (I’m thinking after the holidays).

About three years ago I decided to write a book. No, not that book, a book all about telecommunting. I had been working from home for over three years by that point (this February will make 10 years) and I thought I would write a book about it. Well three years on and no telecommuting book. I’m not sad about it. I still have all the chapters I already wrote and I will get back to it.

In the meantime, I’ve pulled all the old content into this blog. I’d love to point them all out to you, but well some stood out, others didn’t. I think about maybe changing all the posts on the old blog to one new category so I could find them. Oh well, the content is there and the old domain workathomebookblog.com is pointing here now. Next set is canceling the old hosting. It was bugging me that I had this old blog hanging out there without much going on. At least now I have a better handle on things.

That and another potential book in the queue.

It’s been a long while since I’ve posted here, I think it’s time to get into the swing of things, eh?

As a recap…nothing really has changed.  Well in terms of how I work.  The who changes, the what is pretty much the same, and the how has been status quo for seven and a half years now.

Web Worker Daily, which should be a must-read for folks like us, had a little article on how to be a better web worker:

Web Worker Daily » Blog Archive How to become a better web worker. «

Many people with regular jobs look at the digital bedouins tapping away at their laptops in the coffee shop at 10:30 in the morning and think to themselves, “Nice work if you can get it, but I need my real job. Alas.” And while full-time, slipper-wearing, video-conferencing-from-your-backyard web work isn’t possible for all employees, you may find that you can edge your regular job toward a more web worker-like structure.

I have to say these tips only skim the surface and misses the biggest factor: you.  Are you ready to be a web worker?  Can you resist the nap and Oprah temptation?  Can you still get it all done?  Can you adapt to the freedom.  Sure you can have the ability to work whenever you want, but …

But remember you still live in the real world and will have to deal with some people during what they consider “normal” work hours (hint: 2 AM isn’t “normal” for most people).

In the year since the book has taken a hiatus, technology hasn’t changed a heck of a lot.  Sure the web-based stuff has gotten cooler looking and easier to use, but the functions are still pretty much the same.

Over the next little while, as I bring this blog and book back from the digital dead, look for some updated tips.

Ciao!

Technorati Tags: work at home, telework, telecommuting

Hey!  Anybody still out there?  Yeah, it’s been a busy summer (and fall) and the book and this blog have been on a bit o’ hiatus.  Fall is in the air, winter is coming, so let’s get revved back up here, eh?

Okay … to kick things back off here, LifeHacker points to John Dvorak PC Mag article about (the lack of) telework adoption in business.  Yep, I totally agree, most businesses aren’t doing enough to embrace telework, but … there are some good reasons for this.  Yeah teleworkers are more efficient, happier folks (by and large), but humans are social creatures.  I think work is just one social aspect that we exist in.  I know that sometimes I really wish I had an office to go hang out in—and I’ve been working from home for 6.5 years!  That and well, I think people want to look you in the eye to get the measure of the man they are talking with.  Even video doesn’t do this.

Wait, am I being a telework heretic?  I don’t think so.  I think the reality of the situation is that few jobs can be totally remote or from home.  I think businesses should be encouraged to let people work from home sometimes but then also be within easy reach of the office.  I think a touch of reality is important in any major change in how people do business, let’s take it slow.  Okay that and maybe doing some guerilla telework .

Tags: telework

When night falls he roams the world looking for free WiFi, EVDO enabled cell zones, helping computer users in need and live blogging.? He is … Super Geek!

Always armed with an assortment of writing implements, a Blackberry, and handy multi-scale ruler.? Weakness: receiving only junk mail in the mail.? Can be distracted by a cool new download or putting an RSS Reader in front of him with unread feeds.

Enemies might be fooled by the casual attire and recent removal of facial hair, but beware he is out there and ready to right wrongs.

Lorraine has another take on Super Geek… well at least I'm still super to her … and I can laugh at myself.

Tags: Super Geek, Tris Hussey, humour

Via DownloadSquad (a great place to find cool new software and commentary, btw):

A new research study from IDC indicates that home offices of both types previously cited will sign up for VoIP service in the next year up to two or three times more than the average household. Of course, the primary reason for this is that those who do work from home are seeking cost savings on all levels, and if they can cut their regular phone bills in half, then VoIP has already developed a growing niche market.

This shouldn’t really come as a surprise.  The total cost of adding a VoIP line into your house is much, much less than getting another traditional landline.  In fact if you wanted to switch over the whole house to VoIP I know Vonage offers the ability to add an additional line and you don’t even need more hardware (the standard unit has ports for two lines).

Now, all VoIP providers have to keep working on is call quality and reliability.

Tags: voip, telework, soho, vonage

I just finished this section.  It’s part of the Technologies section and gets into the whole, “what should I buy a Mac or PC?”.  As you will read I am suggesting a PC.  Yes, I know the Intel-based Macs can run Windows and most major applications have Mac versions.  So I’d like some feedback on this section.  What do you think?  Am I on the mark?  Don’t be shy.  Leave a comment, or three.

My first computer was an Apple IIe. My parents bought it my freshman year in high school.  Right after, by the way, I typed my first and last term paper on a typewriter (I got a D because I misspelled “society” wrong every time, see Mrs. Miles I got a lot better).  Since then I’ve had mostly Macs.  I had a Mac all through college, grad school, and my first jobs.  Yes, I knew about PCs and started to work with them in grad school, but I still loved my Mac.  When I got into pharma I was a hard-core Mac person.  I even had a desktop background that read “You can take my Mac when you pry my cold dead hands from my mouse.”.  I started to discover then, though, that going against the flow was not a good thing.  I had to have two computers in my office because Macs were only begrudgingly allowed on the network and the corporate e-mail was MS Exchange.  Sure I did my best to show how much better and cooler I was, but I should have seen it was a losing battle.  I lost the battle when I moved to Canada.  That branch of the company was very anti-Mac.  I still had a Mac and a PC, but I used the Mac less and less.  When I started out on my own, I had to choose, like you, which to buy.  I chose PC.  It was cheaper and I had learned that it was a lot easier to go with the flow.  Work with what everyone else had than try to fight it.

My advice then, PC.  Yikes, I know.  This is assuming you have a choice, most big companies aren’t going to give you one.  You use what they use.  Period.  End of discussion.  However, things have gotten a little more complicated here in the Summer of 2006.  Apple is now using the same kind of chips that PCs use and people are starting (and Apple is encouraging this) to load Windows on their Mac with the Mac operating system.  Hmm, so I can have a Mac and a PC in one computer.  Why not that?  Well right now it’s only been a few months since this sea-change has occurred and the jury is still out on how well this is going to work for people beyond advanced users.

In the end, it is going to come down to what you like to work on and what you do.  If you just e-mail documents to people, use blogs and RSS for information, and your collaboration systems are web-based, this might just be a non-issue.  I do love the way the Mac laptops look (MacBooks).  The features are cool and Mac OS X is stable and powerful.  Macs have a lot going for them, except that most business people don’t use them.  So think about what you do, how you do it, and who you have to work with, then decide.  Don’t be afraid to buy your friendly neighborhood geek a beer (maybe a burger too, because we don’t get out much) and ask what they think.  Remember this is going to be the primary tool in your workday besides the phone, so don’t rush the decision.

Tags: Daddy Wears Slippers to Work, telework, telecommute, work at home, work from home

Today eMarketer covers the report I covered earlier this week on how many people could work at home versus how many do.  There is some interesting comparative data that suggests more people are working at home, but also that remote workers aren’t expected to grow for the next couple years.  I beg to differ because we still don’t know what will happen if gas prices soar or there is a major terrorist attack.  Anything that might make people shift to want to avoid driving or the city itself.

Beyond that though there is a cool table that gives the pros and cons of remote work.  Yep, those are all on the money.

Tags: remote work, telework, telecommuting

Well this is surprising (to me at least), according to a study via Reuters—Few US workers who could telecommute do so: study | Reuters.com—(hat tip to Laura) about 25% of U.S. workers could telecommute, but only about 11% of workers do.  Now the question is why.

Technology?  Partially.  Getting access to office systems can be a hassle.

Culture? Probably.  This is the big one.  People are so, so used to being in an office, doing a lot of face to face meetings, all the stuff we’re used to.

I talk about culture and technology in my book (yes, I’m still working on it).  Of the two, culture is the hardest to fix.  VPNs aren’t nearly as hard as they used to be (this is the hardware/software that lets you access the office from home), but workplace culture is still based on butts in chairs.

Well when it costs a small fortune to get the butt from home to chair … well things are going to have to change.

tags: telework telecommuting “work at home”

Okay, you’ve started working from home.  Cool.  So … what number are people going to call?  Most people start out with using their regular home phone line.  Works.  Simple.  It’s there.  But then the question is whenever the phone rings, who is on the other end?  Client?  Friend down the street?  Mom? Kid’s friends?

Yeah.  What about when your kids or partner want to make a call and you’re expecting a call?  Or the teenager who won’t get off the phone (oh, that wouldn’t last).  Now, what about a second phone line?  Until recently that was the only option.  Could be expensive.  Sometimes even impractical.  When I needed a second line in my house that was fine, but when I needed another (pre-DSL days I needed a voice line and a data line), they had to run a whole new wire from the street.

Now, there are VoIP (voice over IP) options.  Vonage is probably the most famous at the moment to most folks.  Between all the commercials, banner ads, and some little IPO thing recently.  Basically VoIP works by using your highspeed internet connection to make a connection to the telephone network (PSTN aka POTS).  Vonage, and similar services offered by cable companies, etc, works with an adapter that connects to your DSL/cable modem or to your router.  You then plug a phone into the adapter and viola! Dial tone.

VoIP gives you the option of having a "work line" without having to do much.  Before you think it might cost too much, ask yourself … what if you answer the phone late one night and it’s a client (yeah they do that)?  Or if your toddler grabs the phone before you do … babbles and hangs up?

Yeah, thought so.

Me?  I use Skype (software-based VoIP) and when I move this month … it’ll be Vonage.

Tags: VoIP, Vonage, Skype, telework, telecommuting, work at home, work from home