Thursday, January 22, 2009

Working Smarter from Home: Review

If you telecommute, work from home or are considering doing either, Working Smarter from Home: Your Day -- Your Way by Nancy Struck is worth a look.

There isn't a great deal to read, but there are plenty of thought starters throughout the book. Struck guides the reader through a series of questionnaires and tables designed to turn the vague into the concrete. For example, instead of whining about wasted time, write down your own specific obstacles in a list.

This book gives you the opportunity to identify your strengths and weaknesses, your goals and your obstacles, as they relate to working from home. It also gives you the opportunity to say that perhaps, for you, working from home isn't all it's cracked up to be. And that that is OK.

Working Smarter from Home does not offer step by step solutions. That part is left in the reader's hands. That seemed a lack at first, but on further reflection, made perfect sense. If you are going to be successful working from home, you must be able to come up with workable solutions to your problems and challenges. What Struck's book does is help you identify those problems and challenges, and help you see how your style, peak work times -- and your limitations -- can be used to find effective solutions.

Bookshelf Worthiness: I'd keep it on the shelf for the project evaluation questionnaire alone.

Want it? Check it out at Amazon.