Deadlines. Can’t live without them.

UGH, deadlines! They are SO easy to revile.

Work deadlines keep me chained to the computer when I’d rather be off on a bike ride, or reading a favorite novel, playing Pickle-ball with friends, heck, even cleaning the bathrooms. (Deadlines can make any activity inviting.)

But I’ll be the first to admit it. Without deadlines I’d be lost, poorer than poor, forced to clean houses or resume employment at Burger King. (Long time ago; don’t ask.)

Now I’m learning that clients need deadlines too. Otherwise, they become slacker clients, just like me. (Read my slacker client confession in this week’s Cape Cod Times.)

Dina Lyons, a print and web graphic designer in Centerville, Mass., recommends deadlines to keep clients on-time and on-task. “Deadlines serve the purpose of organizing everyone’s schedules,” she says. And when clients have specific deadlines, their projects are far more successful.

Having learned the pitfalls of “deadline-less” projects, Lyons now communicates more clearly with clients about her deadline limitations and how it could affect their project.

For instance: “‘Dear client, here is your latest round of proofs. Would it be possible for you to give me feedback within the week, as I am facing a busy schedule in 2-3 weeks?’”

This has worked wonders, Lyons says.

In the future, rather than take on a deadline-less project, Lyons may build in a schedule upfront, then use pricing to enforce it, charging extra when a client fails to meet the schedule.

“How am I supposed to organize my workweek if the clients don’t cooperate?” she asks, adding: “That is the crux of the issue, isn’t it?”

Like I said: Deadlines – you gotta love ’em.

Living online, looking for that next buzz

Check out the New York Times for an eye-opening discussion about the impact of our love affair with electronic devices and the online world on how we think and live – First Steps to Digital Detox.

I was struck by this comment from Gary Small, professor of psychology and behavioral sciences at UCLA:

[W]e’re constantly scanning the environment for the next exciting bit of information — the next text message, IM, email, or even land-line phone call. That next ping or buzz or ring interrupts our focus and charges up the dopamine reward system as we anticipate something new and more exciting than the task at hand.

This results in our paying “partial continuous attention,” Small writes, and this tends to put our brains in a heightened state of stress and constant tension. “Once people get used to it, they tend to thrive on the perpetual connectivity. It becomes irresistible.”

One frightening result: We lose our ability to focus and to think deeply.

Small recommends 2 simple tactics:

1. Practice focusing on one task at a time.
2. Take regular  breaks from the online world and tech gadgets.

Among others who weigh in on the topic are Nicholas Carr, author of the new book The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to My Brain, and William Powers, author of Hamlet’s BlackBerry: A Practical Philosophy for Building a Good Life in the Digital Age, due out this month.

Time-challenged? Try this cool tool!

My partner thinks I have no sense of time. She says that I am always late, that I let time slip by, am easily distracted.

Bah. What does she know?

OK. She knows a lot. I do lose track of time. I do over-schedule. I’m often racing the clock. Because of my screwy inner clock, I typically get a lot less done in a day than I could – or should. Factor in my distractibility, and you’ve got a problem. Er, I’ve got a problem.

But I’ve got good news! I’m actually getting better at a few things, including:

• Staying on task
• Sticking to a daily work plan
• Ignoring distractions
• Keeping accurate time logs.

I’m also wasting less time on email, online research and social media. In short, I am using my time more effectively.

My secret? I’ve begun time chunking. This is a classic productivity technique where you work full-out for short blocks of time interspersed with short breaks. I’ve tried time chunking before, with minimal success. But this time I’m using a cool little computer application called FocusBooster.

FocusBooster is a simple downloadable digital timer that you install on your desktop. It counts down the minutes of each work session, then rings an alarm at session’s end to signal your break. Although it’s pre-set for 25-minute work periods and 5-minute breaks, you can adjust it.

This works for me. When I see the seconds pass by, my experience of time is more immediate, more realistic. It also lights a fire under me. For instance, when I see that the 30-minute block I’ve allotted to finishing this blogpost is nearing its end, I’ll pick up the pace to get it done.

Cool Bonus. I’ve been using break times for mini “workout” sessions with those nifty little weights that for years have collected dust on my office floor. I expect to be pumping some serious iron any day now!

How about you? Are you delusional about time? Have you found a cool tool that keeps you on-track?

What you do matters

If, like me, you tend to downplay your own influence, consider these words from Kip Tindell, Chairman and CEO of the Container Store:

“We all can’t imagine that we have as much impact on the people and the world around us as we really do. . . . [E]verything you do, and everything you don’t do, impacts your business, the people around you, and the world around you, far, far, far more than you can imagine.”

Answering an interview question about the core principles he shares with his employees, Tindell said: “We talk a lot about a person’s wake, like a boat’s wake. Most people’s wake is much, much, much larger than they can ever imagine.”

– From the New York Times, March 14, 2010

5 Steps to a Better Vacation

I’m back! Mayrene and I are home from five weeks together in Florida where, despite what I consider our relative youth, we joined the many gray-haired snowbirds who spend part of the winter there. Our time in the Sunshine State counted as this year’s vacation for us.

Wait. Make that this year’s, ugh, working vacation.

Now I consider working vacations to be perfectly oxymoronic. It’s not just that they are a contradiction in terms. Working when you’re supposed to be getting away from work is just plain moronic (to use a dated term). When we try to do both, everything suffers – the quality of one’s work and of the vacation. And that’s a shame.

Alas, working vacations have long been the bane of the self-employed; today they are the norm for many other working Americans as well.  So maybe we can’t escape the working vacation. But there is plenty we can do to make vacations less about work and more about vacation. We owe that much to ourselves, our families, and even our work.

Here are a few tips.

1. Guard your time. Tell clients you’ll be unavailable. (Most will understand.) Set up your voicemail, e-mail and other communication media to let others know you’re away and when you’ll be back. If necessary, include a way to reach you if a message is urgent.
2. Do a reality check. Does your work really require constant contact? What would happen if you let things go for a few days, or more? Would business really be lost?
3. Set limits. If you must work or stay connected to work during vacation, commit to checking messages (including texts) just once a day or, better yet, just twice a week. Confine work to certain hours of the day. Whatever you do, be sure to give yourself at least several consecutive days that are entirely work-free.
4. Be disciplined. Even if you’ve resolved to stay disconnected, today’s ease of access, along with our addictive natures, make quick check-ins tempting. Don’t go there.
5. Be honest with yourself. Are you using work to avoid time with family, or with yourself? Does it make you uncomfortable to relax completely, with no goals or to-do list? How would you spend your time if you valued relaxation, rejuvenation, and time with family or friends as much as you value work or money?

Finally, if it really is not feasible to take a one- or two-week vacation, tailor vacations to fit your reality by taking more frequent two-, three- or four-day getaways. Then, declare them work-free zones and stay true to your word.

It’s Valentine’s Day! Give yourself a little love.

Did you know that giving yourself love is a critical business tool?  OK, it’s not a skill that’s taught in business schools, but maybe it should be. If you tend to be hard on yourself, you know what I’m talking about. And if you work alone out of a home office, you also know that this solo work arrangement leaves far too much room for negative thoughts to clog your brain. Personally, I find this habit of mind really hard to shake. What to do?

1. Pay attention to your thoughts so you begin to notice when you’re getting down on yourself. You can’t interrupt the pattern if you don’t see it.
2. Cut yourself some slack. I find it helps to remind myself that I am doing the best I can – and the best I can is pretty dern good.
3. Stop measuring your performance against your idea of what other people do. I like the old saw that says: Never compare your insides to someone else’s outsides.
4. When you do catch yourself  dumping on yourself, counter the tendency by being kind – to yourself.
5. Give yourself a mini-retreat. Let yourself indulge in a few workday luxuries. My favorites include:

• a short afternoon nap (another critical business skill, by the way)
• a midday walk in the sunshine
• an afternoon on the couch with a novel.

My all-time favorite? Chocolate. Of course. What’s yours?

5 Ground Rules for Success

Recently I came across notes for a talk on home-based business that I once gave to a local Chamber group.  In it I confessed my shortcomings in critical areas such as work habits, organization, goal-setting and marketing. Then I shared advice that I rarely followed, freely admitting as much.  Some of these shortcomings were fairly serious.  (Some still are.) Yet somehow I had sustained a long-term career as a freelance writer. Clearly I was doing something right. What was it?

Nothing fancy, just 5 simple practices. I called them business fundamentals. If I were to give that talk today, I would point to those same  fundamentals. They are fundamentals that endure.

Here’s my promise: Adopt these 5 practices – toss in a healthy measure of persistence – and you’ll have a solid foundation for success.  Yes, even in this economy.

5 Practices You Can Count On

1. Exceed expectations. Deliver a quality product or service. Then deliver more than was asked for. Want to make a lasting impression? Deliver early.
2. Maintain positive client relations. This means acting with honesty and integrity – and kindness. Help clients out when they’re in a bind. This is easy if you work with clients whom you respect and enjoy. (Clients who make me miserable are rarely worth the grief.)
3. Be reliable. Return phone calls. Do what you said you’d do. Deliver on time. And when it happens, as it inevitably will, that you simply cannot meet a deadline or fulfill an obligation, be forthright. Let the client know ASAP, so they can make alternate arrangements.
4. Focus on the client. Listen closely and respond to client needs and concerns. In conversations and emails, reflect back what the client said, so she or he will feel certain that they’ve been understood.
5. Refresh and recharge. Take time for yourself. This means time away from work and, yes, time away from work-related electronics.  Human beings need time to regenerate. Be generous with yourself. Feed your soul, whatever that means for you.  You really really really do not have to be on-duty 24/7.