How to meet a work deadline and not kill yourself in the process

Your boss has handed you an outrageous deadline for a piece of work – barring a miracle there’s no way on earth it is going to get done in that time. Yet there’s no way the deadline can move – someone higher up is expecting your boss to deliver and the pressure is now on you to make it so. What do you do?

Don’t panic

Stay calm, flapping around and getting stressed is not going to get anything done any quicker. If anything, it’ll cloud your thought process and slow progress.

Give progress reports

From the time you were hit with the tight-deadline bombshell right up to delivery day, give regular email reports to your boss and any other stakeholders about your progress. Tell them what is going well and where the problems are. Make sure your boss knows about any hindrances you have – for example, if you are waiting for other people – so they can do something about it.

Have a plan

If you can split your work up then decide which parts you can do first and which you can leave to last. If there’s stuff you can’t do right now then leave it and get on with something else. Try to get the harder or trickier stuff out of the way first, it’ll make the last days before the deadline less stressful if the work is easier.

Don’t overdo it

Don’t start busting 23 hours days to try and get it done. Tired people aren’t productive people. Try to stick to your work plan and get it done in a sensible working day.

Ignore everything else

Even though you’ve got this high-priority work to do with a tight deadline it’s likely other people will still be trying to give you other work to do. Tell them your priority and refer them to your boss – you ain’t got time for other bits of work here and there – let your boss deal with it.

Work from home

I think working from home is more productive than the office – try to get a peaceful and productive day’s work done away from the office.

Be honest

Don’t pretend it’s all going rosy if it’s not – don’t sit on the fact that part of the work is not going to be done and then spring it on your boss on deadline day. Be honest in your progress reports – it’ll give everyone more time to prepare for non or partial delivery on deadline day.

Good luck! Everyone gets an unrealistic work deadline now and again. Don’t stress it. Stay calm, plan it and focus on it. Work smart but don’t work long. Get it done, bask in the glory of a completed project delivered on time and pray you don’t get another one any time soon.

6 reasons why working from home makes you more productive

More and more people are working from home these days. With the proliferation of always-on broadband it’s easy to be away from the office and still do your job as if you were on site.

I believe that many people can be far more productive from home than they can be in the office, because:

• It’s quieter – Offices are noisy places. The computer fans, the banging doors, the mobile phone ring tones, air conditioning and all the other background noises add up. It’s much easier to find a quiet spot at home – particularly if everyone else is out – to focus without the din.
• Less distractions – People are sociable animals and if your office is anything like mine then there’s usually what seems like a constant stream of people looking for a chinwag. As well as the social pull there’s always someone wanting to talk about a different task or project other than the one you are trying to work on.
• Flexible day – When I work from home I tend to do some work the evening before and then do a bit less on the actual day I’m at home. Means I can spend more time with my daughter whilst just keeping the occasional eye out for important emails. Not having to be in the office from 9-5 lets you strike a better work/life balance and a happy worker is a more productive one.
• More time – The daily commute is for most people – drivers especially – time wasted. It can also be very stressful if you are stuck in busy traffic, your train is late or you missed the bus. Avoid the wasted commute time, stay at home and start work early. People are always more productive before lunchtime.
• Single tasking – It’s easier to focus on a single task at home. You don’t get pestered by workmates about other projects and problems. You can focus laser-like on the task in hand and have it completed in next to no time.
• No meetings – There’s lots of ways to kill someone’s productivity but if I had to choose the worst offender it would be meetings. Many of them have no agenda and no purpose – they just fill a gap in the day for people who have nothing better to do and kill productivity for those that do. When you are at home you can’t be grabbed for a quick meeting and it’s easier to avoid requests.

So, get onto your boss and get a work from home agreement. Ditch the smart work clothes and spend the day working on the laptop in your garden wearing only your boxers and a dirty t-shirt. Bliss!

Shoemoney knows why I’m still working 9 to 5

From the man himself:

Starting your own business can yield amazing rewards but at the same time its a pretty big risk. I was recently asked in the Q&A why people fail at starting their own businesses. I came up with several reasons and wanted to expand more on this.

Fear – Its balls out to quit your day job and start your own company. There are no guarantees. It took me 4 years to take the plunge and a huge push from my wife to do it and I never quit my day jobs… I got canned.

Excuses – This is the #1 reason people do not ever get started. People will always think of reasons not to be successful.

Stress – Owning your own business is stressful. Especially when you grow and have employees. I am very hands on and always want to do all the work myself… but its just not possible. Plus I have employees that are just better at many things then I am and I need to let them do the job. Then you have the financials which add a shit ton of stress.

Comfort – Lets be honest. Most 9-5 jobs are pretty comfy. You get up at 8am grab your coffee in to work by 8:30 to gossip for a bit. Grab your TPS reports and highlighter and start to go through them. You finish the first batch about 11:30 time to goto lunch with the gang. After a good social lunch you head back to the office to grab the rest of your TPS reports until 4:45 when you start to shut it down and head out. Home by 5:30. Pretty nice. When you own your own company your on 24/7 or atleast thats how it is with me. Server issues at 3am.. Im up and working on it or calling dillsmack if I cant figure it out quick. I miss the comfort of just having a easy 9-5 gig. But not that much =P

The Dip – Everyone loves the initial dreams of owning your own business but soon after the fun thoughts leave the real work begins. Powering through that dip is a mother. We go through it every time we start a new website. Being able to power through the dip until you reach a tipping point is probably the biggest reasons companies fail.

Motivation – Some people are just motivated more then others. When I first started my own company my main motivation for kicking ass was that I was terrified to go back to a corporate 9-5 job. That was 5 years ago. Now my motivation is more to keep kicking ass so my employees/partners never have to work for a corporate 9-5 job ever again.

There are others like … lazy and not working hard but I think they are more of a effect from the above.

I know a lot of you are close to starting your own business. I hear from you every day. What is holding you back?

Docstoc – Stock documents

Docstoc is “a user generated community where you can find and share professional documents. Find free legal documents and free business documents. Upload your documents for all the world to share.”. It’s kinda an istockphoto or morguefile for documents.

Which means that it has a large collection of documents that could prove really useful to website owners and entrepreneurs, such as: NDA agreement, Business plans for small business, outsource development contracts,  employee contracts, and so on.

Docstoc