By ALICE BREDIN
Whether you’re calling on clients, attending a conference or taking a well-earned vacation, you can take your home office with you. A variety of products let you keep in touch and get work done while on the road. But even with high-tech portable equipment, you still need to do a bit of planning to get maximum productivity when traveling.
Here are some tips from experienced business travelers to make your next business trip as efficient and effortless as possible:
? Gather access numbers before you go. Modems are smaller and faster than ever. Still, they’re worthless if you don’t know how to retrieve your e-mail in another city. Before you go, contact your Internet service provider or online service company to get local access numbers for the cities you’ll be visiting.
If you’re traveling abroad, check to see if your ISP offers international service and what the roaming charges are. You could pay from $1.50 to $10 an hour for access, so limit your on-line sessions.
? Prepare for electrical storms. Take along a surge protector. You can find lightweight portable versions in travel catalogs. Try to find one that contains a phone line protector. Otherwise, if lightning strikes your hotel, it can travel on the phone line through the modem and knock out your notebook computer.
? Carry connectors. Pack a 10- to 25-foot phone extension cord so you can work where you want, regardless of the location of the telephone jack (often behind the bed). Keep a small connector kit with a phone cord splitter to let you plug in a phone, a modem and a female-to-female inline phone connector so you can hook an extension line to your modem.
If you’re traveling abroad, ask your hotel what type of connectors are required to plug in your modem. In many parts of the world, the U.S.-style RJ-11 connector is used, but there are 39 other types of connectors, so be sure you have the one you need. Specialty telephone and travel catalogs carry a complete line of connectors and adapters.
? Learn to cope with digital lines. An invisible threat to your modem lurks in the phone lines of many hotels and office buildings a digital phone line. The higher electrical currents that run on digital lines can short out your modem. To protect your equipment, learn how to recognize and compensate for these lines.
One of my friends carries a line tester wherever she goes. Before she connects her modem, she inserts the tester into the phone jack and waits for lights to flash OK (green) or danger (red). If you encounter digital lines, avoid them or use an adapter that allows you to plug your modem into the handset jack. Some newer modems come with a built-in line tester.
? Practice makes perfect. To ensure your portable office is in working order, test your equipment and connectors before your trip. If you are using new equipment, make sure you understand how to use it and pack the manual, just in case.
School’s out
If you have kids, they probably are done with school for the year. The good news is that for the next few months, you may have more time with your kids. The potential bad news if you work at home is that you have to juggle kids and a home office for the summer.
Chances are you already have some processes in place to manage a family and a home office, but we can all use a refresher when it comes to this challenging task.
Part of managing kids and a home office is having the proper workspace and tools, including a separate phone line for home and office. The other challenge is emotional. While you may be able to make the physical distinction between home-based worker and parent at home through a separate home office, you may find it harder to make the mental and emotional split. If you fail to do this, you run the risk of confusing and alienating your children, which is exactly what you want to avoid.
Here are a few steps you can take to make this transition easier:
? Do not consistently make yourself available to your kids physically without being available emotionally. It won’t enhance your relationship if you are present in the house but always on the phone or at your computer. Be sure there are times when you are completely available to your kids.
? Find the time to get involved in your kids’ activities. One of the joys of home-office living is the flexibility it provides you in terms of scheduling. Maybe you can coach your daughter’s Little League team. Or chaperone your son’s school field trip. Take advantage of this flexibility to give time that you might not be able to do otherwise.
? Give your children your time in other ways. Take them with you when you go out on a quick business errand, like a trip to the bank or the office supply store, so they can participate in things you do for your office.
? Let your children see what you do. Show them a recent proposal. Let them see a finished project. Share your excitement about your work with them, so they can see how much you enjoy what you do. Give them a chance to share in your successes.
? Watch out for guilt. It’s fairly common for work-at-home parents to feel guilty about not being with their kids while they’re in the office, and then feel guilty about not working when they’re with their kids. Know that the money you earn while working at home is important to your child’s welfare. Plus, by working at home you’re giving time and joy to your child that you wouldn’t be able to do if you were in a more traditional setting.
? Keep office tensions in the office. When you work from home, it’s easy to have work issues spill over into home life. Children pick up on tension and stress quickly, but you can’t expect them to understand your adult concerns. Be aware of what you’re feeling. If a client has just angered you or you’re late on a project, be extra careful not to take it out on your children.
Alice Bredin is author of the “Virtual Office Survival Handbook” (John Wiley & Sons) and a nationally syndicated columnist.
