flexible

“Work-life balance, says Nigel Marsh, is too important to be left in the hands of your employer. At TEDxSydney, Marsh lays out an ideal day balanced between family time, personal time and productivity — and offers some stirring encouragement to make it happen.”

Nigel Marsh is a renowned performance coach who has worked with a great variety of businesses during his career, including some of the world’s top companies. In this TED talk, Nigel speaks from direct personal experience, giving his views on how to get the best out of business, life and those around you.

Enjoy

Dropbox is a Web-based file hosting service operated by Dropbox, Inc. that uses cloud computing to enable users to store and share files and folders online using file synchronization. The tool has great potential: No more fumbling for lost or damaged storage devices and always up to date with the latest file versions. Alternatives: Zumo or SugarSync.

“…your files follow you to whichever device you happen to be working on.”

Maintaining and growing a steady stream of clients and job leads is without a doubt the most important aspect of an online worker’s career. Andrew Neitlich, co-author of Guerrilla Marketing for a Bulletproof Career, shares his tips on growing your stream of clients and jobs.

“One of the most important ways to succeed as a freelancer is to understand and get into the opportunity flow…”

Portfolios trump resumes, more workers telecommute, social media continues its spread, and mobile marches over desktop: Online magazine CIO provides technology and business leaders with insight and analysis on information technology developments and gives an interesting forecast of some of the key trends for the next year.

According to CIO, the workplace has evolved in new and exciting ways and has become even more centered on the Web. In 2010, mobile applications gained on desktop apps as many companies focused on facilitating smartphones and tablet PCs. Traditional marketing techniques were edged out by web-based marketing via search engines and social media. However, one of the most important trends is the continuous growth of online work. According to the CEO of one of the leading marketplaces for online talent: “It’s a digital world, and the smart companies will hire more flexibly and get more work done online in 2011″. Read the full post on CIO.com.

Technology-centered work trends for 2011:

• Digital portfolios replacing resumes
• Mobile is the new desktop
• Online work: Hiring in the could
• The HTML5/Flash War: Programmers needed
• Businesses will get even more social
• The decline of traditional marketing

According to a new survey by projektwerk’s U.S. counterpart Elance, more people are choosing to live the life of a freelancer, as opposed to traditional employment. Elance sampled more than 700 freelancers. The survey revealed that 70% are happier working independently than when they were full-time employees. Also, the report found many more reasons, other than for example economic downturns, driving professionals to start a freelance career. Read the full post on NYTimes.

Do you have specific reasons for freelancing? If so, please share them with us.

not surprisingly, the u.s. is still far ahead of germany and the rest of the world in terms of entrepreneurship. this interesting chart, produced by grasshopper, compares the u.s. portion of gdp (gross domestic product) that comes from entrepreneurship against that of major european countries.

entrepreneural activity in the u.s. (as a percentage of gdp) lies at 11.3%, compared to 6.3% in germany for example. also worth mentioning is how “would-be” entrepreneurs perceive starting a new business in the current economy: according to the data provided, entrepreneurs in the u.s. feel far more optimistic about starting a new business in the near future and foster much less fear of failure.

in addition, the graphic depicts the percentage of enterprises by size, native vs. foreign-born self-employed and the overall difficulty entrepreneurs face when starting a new business.

image by theeducatedentrepreneur.com

check out the full size infographic here.

project-related work requires very different talents and capabilities. the lack of such capacity creates inefficiencies. by utilizing a community of people with similar issues and needs, these inefficiencies can be minimized through collaboration. co-working spaces enable efficient teamwork by bringing people together in a shared working environment. this interesting post on mashable gives a great overview of why co-working makes so much sense for businesses…

image by mashable

why co-working makes sense for small businesses

as the nytimes reports, the workforce is becoming increasingly comfortable with the changing nature of work as it is…”becoming more temporary and project-based, with workers increasingly functioning as free agents and no longer being governed by traditional long-term employer-employee relationships…”. it’s a development that first began in the 90′s but recently gained some momentum.

In December 2009 the Max-Planck-Association and the European Academy for Women in Politics and Economics (Europäische Akademie für Frauen in Politik und Wirtschaft) invited people from politics, commerce and science to a conference on the topic “Between Science and Fiction-Society and Gender 2030”.
The major questions related to the work environment were:
Who will be working in what field in 2030? How will content, requirements and qualifications change? And: Will there be sufficient jobs for everyone or even too many?

In the end the participants agreed on 4 possible scenarios what our working environment will look like.

Work will be more:

- flexible:
Flexible working hours, more people working in freelance positions, switching between full-time and part-time jobs, more business trips, staying mobile regarding times as well as the places you are working at.

- exhausting:
Technological change itself is leading to a fast pace and challenging work environment. Furthermore the need for employers being all time approachable will grow stronger.

- qualified:
Lifelong learning will be a definite requirement. The labour market will further divide in unqualified personnel having few chances and skilled personnel in demand.

- female:
Studies show that women in leading position or management boards can only be helpful for the company’s success. More and more companies as well as governments will follow this example.

What is your opinion on this?
Do you already see those changes happen?

Based on: http://www.sueddeutsche.de/jobkarriere/479/501732/text/

this is another interesting post on timesonline about the benefits of variable work schedules, in contrast to traditional work arrangements requiring employees to work a standard 9am to 5pm day.