If you think distractions and procrastination are problems when you are working alone from home, see how you go getting any work done if you have a young family sharing the home workspace with you. The most common complaints about working from home are family-created distractions and self distractions. The distractions I experience now, though, are so different from the "cube" distractions I dealt with in my corporate jobs, ... Read full entry

Getting Things Started, or GTS, is Raj Dash's alternative to David Allen's GTD (Getting Things Done) time management system. The principle is that if you don't know where you’re going, you're not going to get there. GTS is a relatively easy way to kickstart a project. That is, by realizing the source of your procrastination and doing something about it. Some days I can easily ... Read full entry

Miles Burke writes a handy guide to getting the best out of working away from your home or office base, especially at places like cafes. Choose a coffee establishment which isn't too busy at the time of day you are heading in, and not somewhere all your friends frequent, unless you feel that you need the social interaction. Somewhere with free parking and a view is good too. ... Read full entry

I often find myself lapsing into the form of multitasking that Toby Somerville describes. And true, it's not much use. Multitasking is great if you want to fill your time doing a lots of things not very well, over a long period of time. Sure you can: flicking between checking your email, Twittering, writing a report, trying a new web app and chatting on Facebook. Are you busy? Probably. ... Read full entry

It is often said that staying in the same job, with the same company, for more than two to three years becomes detrimental to your long term career prospects. However those who do stay put, often assume the top job in a company far sooner than those who chop and change employers. Ms Hamori's research (with Peter Cappelli of the Wharton School in Philadelphia) looked at companies in the S&P ... Read full entry

Loneliness 2.0 Loneliness, despair, depression... these are some of the less pleasant accompaniments to working alone from home. While many find it satisfying, many miss the working company of other people. There are alternatives for those working alone though, and options worth exploring before throwing in the towel and taking an office job. Telecommuters can tell you that no matter how much you love yourself, like your freedom, or enjoy the ... Read full entry

Overworked at Jugglezine. The Center for Work-Life study is a 2006 project of a private-sector initiative called the Hidden Brain Drain Task Force. The survey, which included responses from 1,564 full-time employees, indicated that 62 per cent of all respondents work more than 50 hours a week, 35 per cent work more than 60 hours a week, and 10 per cent work more than 80 hours a week. Overworked ... Read full entry

You Weren't Meant to Have a Boss If a workplace cubicle is a cage, then working for a large company must be like being an animal in a zoo... What's so unnatural about working for a big company? The root of the problem is that humans weren't meant to work in such large groups. Another thing you notice when you see animals in the wild is that each species thrives in ... Read full entry

Wave goodbye to the nine to five, and say hello to virtual enterprise A recent study predicts more people will be working from home in ten years time, but not quite for the "life balance" reasons many workers presently envisage. A report on the nature of employment in 2018 predicts an exodus from the traditional workplace caused partly by environmental pressure to reduce the carbon footprint of commuting and partly by ... Read full entry

Generation Y are unmotivated slackers Apparently this is the case in Britain, or so we are told. A survey last October by the recruitment website CareerBuilder.com found employers complaining they often did not take orders well, expected to be paid more, demanded to be promoted within a year of joining and on top of all this expected to be allowed to work flexibly. Is this really so though? The part of Sydney ... Read full entry