AnywhereMan

Since I’ve been working from CommonSpace for the past few months I’ve realized something that sounds a bit backwards:

I’m more productive when there are more people here.

If it’s just me here for an afternoon (which is the case once in a while), I find that I don’t get as much done. If there are four or five of us here, I get a lot more done.

Maybe it’s because there is activity happening around me. Maybe it’s because I am forced to use more energy to focus. I have no idea. But I find that if others are around me getting things done, I am usually able to put on the earbuds, tune out conversations, and get more done than usual.

I watched three episodes of Whale Wars last night. I’ve already seen season one and am almost through season two (Netflix rocks, BTW).

Whale Wars is a show that follows around the adventures of the Sea Shepherds, a team of folks dedicated to ending whaling near Antartica. They essentially drive around, find Japanese whaling ships, and throw stink bombs at them. Their leader was kicked out of Greenpeace for being too extreme. And I think he was one of the founders! It’s highly entertaining.

But here’s the thing: One of the reasons I find the show entertaining is that the Sea Shepherds absolutely suck at execution. Every time they find a Japanese ship to harass, something goes wrong.

Oops…one guy just threw a grappling hook and chipped the tail of the helicopter.

Oops…the team in one of the small boats doesn’t have their radio on and the main ship has no idea where they are. And their satellite phone battery is dead. And the GPS isn’t working.

Oops…they’re about to engage and launch some stink bombs…and have to turn around because they’re running low on gas.

Oops…they’re launching one of the small boats and it flips over…four people stranded in freezing cold water.

You get the idea.

It seems like there is a general “plan of attack” when they encounter a whaling ship, but it always seems like important pieces of that plan are missing. I’ve never seen a single episode where they initiate a practice “attack.”

My point is this: plan ahead. Plan for business and “busyness.” Have systems in place to keep things running smooth when things start to get intense. Having a general, scattered plan for dealing with new clients, new projects, etc is bound to have some holes. Pinpoint those holes and patch them up.

My wife told me she read that the actual number of whales killed is way down thanks to efforts by groups like the Sea Shepherds. That’s great, but imagine how low they could be if things actually went according to plan.

I used yesterday, July 5th, as a chance to make some serious progress on the new version of my Lift Development website. I built the original about 3 years ago and my business has evolved quite a bit since then. I’m also moving forward with some new branding so everything (business cards, apps, website) needs to be updated to reflect this change.

Using everyone else’s day off gave me an excuse to devote the day to my own project. Whether it’s a holiday or a weekend, sometimes that’s the only way my in-house projects make any progress. However, if I would simply commit an hour here and there to my stuff…as in actually make time on my schedule…I wouldn’t need to cut into time that might otherwise be used for relaxation and recreation.

My point is this: Treat yourself like a client as much as you can.

Set deadlines and goals for your own stuff. It’s important! In the case of my website, it’s one of the first points of contact I have with a potential client. Therefore, it’s as essential as anything else that I do. I need to treat it as a high-priority task.

What are you working on in-house that may need to get bumped up the priority list a bit? Can you devote a few hours a week to it? Make an effort to schedule it: write it down and add it to your calendar.

As a freelancer, you are the boss, laborer, marketing department, bill collector, bill payer, and more. When things are slow, you go into marketing mode. When things are busy, you’re often dealing with double the prospects while juggling double the workload. It can be tricky to get things into that perfect “pocket” of a balanced workload.

For me, the more leads I get on new business, the more time I’m spending on estimates and business requirements. As a result of that, the less time I have available for the projects in-process. Is it smarter to keep the prospects waiting, the existing clients waiting, or the wife and kids waiting?

I want to know what you do to balance your time between new projects and projects in the queue when things are insanely busy, and I want to know how you spend your time when things are slow.

I picked up The Power of Less by Leo Babauta at the library a few weeks ago and I think I read it faster than any book I’ve read in recent memory. I completely devoured everything that Leo (author of one of my favorite blogs, ZenHabits) had to share.

The book focuses on simplifying your life, both through cutting out the unnecessary things and focusing on tasks related to your goals. Here are a few of the highlights.

Creating Habits

Babauta explains that we often try to do a major overhaul of our habits in bulk. Instead, he says that you should focus on creating new habits, one at a time. Don’t try to improve everything at once. Focus on one habit that you want to create and stay focused on it until it is, in fact, a habit. Then, move on to the next one.

Some of the habits he suggests working on include creating a daily routine, exercise 5-10 minutes daily, keeping your desk de-cluttered, eating more fruits and vegetables, etc.

Getting Things Done

I’ve tried the actual GTD system in the past and I failed miserably as it fell into the realm of a major overhaul. I remember wondering when I was ever going to have time to devote an entire day to starting it and organizing my life. Babauta’s approach (“Zen to Done“) goes right along with creating habits: focus on one task at a time.

He suggests setting your three most important tasks that you want to accomplish each day and only work on one task at a time until completed. I’ve been doing this and it’s been a great system. At the end of the day, as long as those three tasks are complete, you feel like you’ve accomplished what needed to be done.

Cutting Out The Noise

We live busy, fast, noisy lives. I’ve talked in the past about some of the distractions of technology and other factors. Leo gives some great tips for lessening the interruptions due to things like the internet, email, commitments, etc. For example, he says it’s a good practice to check email only twice a day. In general, a person should be setting limits.

I’ve been trying to get into this habit a bit more, but at his suggestion, this month I’ve been working on my “One Goal,” which as I mentioned is setting the three most important tasks each morning until that’s a habit.

Slow Down and Focus On The Present

This is a big one for me. I spend too much time thinking about what needs to be done. Babauta explains that if we put into practice his other suggestions for simplifying, we’ll be able to live at a slower pace, get more done, and focus on the present, thus giving us more satisfaction in what we are actually doing.

What’s Missing?

While I thoroughly enjoyed The Power of Less and will easily give it five out of five stars on Goodreads, the one topic I wish Babauta would have covered in-depth is the idea of simplifying your stuff. We as consumers are simply way too “stuff”-driven, myself included. I’ve really been realizing how much consumerism contributes to stress, lack of balance, and lack of perspective on what matters in life. Again, I’m as guilty as anyone on this one and I would have loved some tips from Leo on this topic.

Read It!

This book has given me a great roadmap for simplifying both my life and career, and I highly recommend reading it. I may even try to get Leo for an AnywhereMan interview at some point since he officially lives the Anywhere Lifestyle, so if anybody knows him personally, drop me an email.

Take a walk with me through the woods while I debate whether having a smartphone and data plan are worth it for me. While trying to simplify, cut down distractions, and lessen the noise in my daily life, I am unsure if having a web-enabled device in my pocket at all times is necessarily a good thing.

For some, it’s a requirement. But I work from home or wifi-enabled public locations. If I’m neither of those places, I don’t want to be working or tempted to work. I want to be catching fish, focusing on my family, or just enjoying whatever moment is presented to me.

There are three main areas where I question whether having the web available at all times is good for me:

1. I want to spend less time on the internet, not more. By subscribing to a monthly data plan, I’d feel like I was wasting my money if I wasn’t using it.
2. I’m trying to reduce the number of “in-boxes” in my life and the number of times I check my email daily. Mobile web/email would add at least one more.
3. When I’m not working, I want to focus on not working. If I’m in my canoe, going for a hike, or out on a date with my wife, I want to enjoy those things for what they are at that moment, not how they’ll sound in a Twitter update.

What do you think? If you use a web-enabled smartphone, does it simplify your life?

We’re all different and what works for one person might not work for another. I’m just debating what makes sense for my lifestyle today. Smartphones are everywhere and I even had one for a short while a few years ago. I realized it didn’t make sense for me then and I’m still not sure if I really need one. I’m the AnywhereMan, not the EverywhereMan.

And yes, I will probably change my mind on all of this next week.

You hear me talk about tools, apps, practices, etc that are helpful to working from anywhere, but today I share a piece of equipment that is absolutely essential to my life as the AnywhereMan.

What are the essentials for you to be able to work from wherever you want?

What are you going to do today?

This is the question you should be answering each and every morning whether it’s a work day or a personal day. In the last post I challenged to you to list something you wanted to get better at in 2010. Well how do you do that? It needs to be part of your daily routine if it’s going to be an area of improvement. Today I talk about that concept.

Apologies for the bit of out-of-focus look to this video. I didn’t have my camera on the close-up setting…great feature to have unless you forget to use it!

Be safe tonight, everyone, and tomorrow start your day by completing the sentence, “Today I’m going to _______.”

If you are operating a one-person business like I do, who keeps you motivated? Who makes sure you are completing things on time and not slacking off?

It’s all you.

Sometimes I feel like the absolute King of Slacking Off but I’ve come to the realization that if I keep enough “fun” things spread out through my projects (especially big projects), the excitement will linger throughout the parts of the project that I might not normally enjoy that much. This helps me stay motivated, focused, and on-task.

What keeps you fresh and excited during various phases of a big project or the day-to-day routine?