Get More Done: 18 Tips for Telecommuters
远程办公提速增效的十八条秘诀
Remote workers weigh in on what helps them amp productivity and stay in touch with the office.
远程上班族们在掂量：怎样增强生产力，并与办公室保持联系呢？
By Christina DesMarais
文/克里斯蒂娜·戴马雷
Working from home is great on so many levels. Not having to commute saves money and time and can actually make you happier. A plethora[1] of free tools make it dead simple to check in with office teammates. And if you want to work in sweats or pajamas, you can.
从许多层面来讲，居家工作棒极了。无须通勤，既可以节省时间、金钱，并且可以提高幸福度。多如牛毛的免费工具，使得和办公室同事联络无比简单。假如你想穿着运动装或者睡衣工作，也无不可。
[1] plethora过多，过量。
But there are challenges, as well. How do you keep from getting distracted with domestic duties? How do you handle a friend who stops by unannounced in the middle of the day? How do you get anything done if you have kids around?
但这也存在挑战。怎么避免被家务分心呢？白天有朋友突然到访怎么办？你在一群小孩子中间能做事吗？
A slew of people who work from home chimed in on the subject. Here’s their advice.
关于这个问题，一大波居家工作族有话要说。以下是他们的建议。
1. Identify what needs to get done every day and make sure to do it.
1. 确定每天需要做什么，保证完成。
“As long as I have a plan on how to complete the list of daily tasks on my personal to-do list, it doesn’t matter if or how I may be interrupted, as long as I get things done by the end of the day,” says Michael Pesochinsky, VP, GC and CTO of Great Neck, New York-based GovernmentBargains.
“只要我对如何完成待办事项清单上的每日任务有清晰的计划，即使有干扰也没关系，我在当天把事做完就行。”迈克尔·佩索琴斯基说。他是纽约州大内克GovernmentBargains的副总裁、总承包人兼首席技术官。
2. Use the cloud.
2. 使用云端。
Klaus Sonnenleiter, president and CEO of Franklin Lakes, New Jersey-based PrintedArt, insists that important documents need to be uploaded to a cloud storage service such as Dropbox or Google Drive. “This way you can log in from anywhere and never need to worry about having your files with you,” he says.
PrintedArt位于新泽西州富兰克林湖，该公司董事长兼首席执行官克劳斯·索伦雷特坚信，重要文件有必要上传到诸如Dropbox或Google Drive之类的云端存储服务器。他说：“这样你可以在任何地方登录，永远不必操心随身携带文件。”
3. Get dressed.
3. 穿衣打扮。
“I find that the most important thing for me is to keep a regular routine and to shower and dress every day as if I were going to an actual office,” says Jenifer Kramer, Principal of West Hollywood, California-based Jenerosity Marketing.
“我发现，对我而言最重要的事情是作息规律，天天洗澡，梳妆打扮，好像我要去一间真正的办公室。”加利福尼亚州西好莱坞的杰罗瑞斯汀营销学校校长珍妮弗·克雷默说。
Catherine Waldron, education specialist, with Enfield, Connecticut-based language curriculum company QTalk Publishing, agrees, and says she showers and dresses for work every day. “Getting dressed makes the home office more like a real office, and tells and reminds everyone, especially you, that even though you may be sitting on the sofa reading, browsing the Web, or talking on the phone, that you are actually working,” she says.
凯瑟琳·沃尔德伦，是康涅狄格州恩菲尔德的语言教学公司“QTalk出版”的一位教育专家，她赞同这个观点，说自己每天洗得干干净净、穿得整整齐齐再工作。她说：“穿衣打扮使得在家更像在真正的办公室，能告诉和提醒大家，特别是提醒自己，就算你坐在沙发里看书、上网或打电话，你都在工作。”
4. Don’t let friends stop by.
4. 拒绝朋友随意上门。
Dana Marlowe, principal partner of the Silver Spring, Maryland-based IT accessibility consulting firm Accessibility Partners, uses lunch as a time to meet with friends and if they show up at her house she politely tells them she’s working. “Boundaries are only as effective as they are enforced,” she says.
信息技术咨询公司Accessibility Partners位于马里兰州银泉，该公司的第一合伙人达纳·马洛，利用午餐时间会见朋友，如果朋友们直接出现在家门口，她礼貌地说她正在工作。她说：“规矩只有执行了才是规矩。”
Catherine Simms, co-founder of Stamford, Connecticut-based pet accessories company Whiner & Diner, also avoids drop-in visitors. “I just tell them that it is not a good time [and] over the weekend would be better,” she says. She also instructs them to call first to see if she’s home. Then when they do she doesn’t pick up, at least during work hours.
凯瑟琳·西姆斯是康涅狄格州斯坦福的宠物配饰公司Whiner&Diner的联合创始人，她也拒绝不速之客。她说：“我只告诉他们，时间不合适，（以及）周末会更好。”她还要求朋友先打电话确认她是否在家。如果电话打过来，她至少在工作期间不会接听。
5. Get out of the house.
5. 走到户外。
Meagan French, marketing consultant with San Francisco-based Meagan French Marketing, likes to work out of coffee shops. “Leaving my house to work helps separate my work time and personal time,” she says.
米根·弗伦奇是旧金山“米根·弗伦奇营销公司”的市场顾问，她喜欢去咖啡店工作。她说：“离开家工作，有助于区分我的工作时间和私人时间。”
6. Make a stoplight for family members.
6. 给家人设立免打扰标识。
Here’s an idea from John Meyer, CEO of Miramar, Florida-based work-at-home call center company Arise Virtual Solutions. Hang or tape colored construction paper on your office door. “Tape the red light up when you cannot be disturbed and the green light when it’s OK to come in. Yellow light means to check first,” he says. “Kids, no matter what age, understand the message and enjoy playing along.”
佛罗里达州米拉玛城一个居家办公的呼叫中心Arise Virtual Solutions首席执行官约翰·迈耶有一个创意。他在工作室门上悬挂或者粘贴彩色的图画纸。他说：“粘上红灯信号——不得打扰；绿灯——允许进入；黄灯——先问一声。不管什么年纪的孩子，都理解这个信息，都乐意配合。”
7. Invest in creating a comfortable office.
7. 投资打造舒适的工作室。
Deb McAlister-Holland, a freelance marketing professional in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, says the $5,000 she spent remodeling her home office was the best thing she ever did to increase her productivity. “I love my home office. It has a big leather sofa, three walls covered with built-in bookshelves and storage cabinets, dedicated circuits for my computers, special lighting, and a soft hand-woven rug on the floor that’s the perfect spot for my dog to nap while I work,” she says.
达拉斯福特沃斯地区的营销专业自由作家德布·麦卡利斯特-霍兰说，她花费5000美元重塑家庭办公室，那是她为了提升工作效率而做过最正确的事情。她说：“我爱我的家庭办公室。它有大大的真皮沙发，三面墙壁内嵌着书架和储物柜，有电脑专用线路，有特殊照明。地板上一块柔软的手织地毯，工作时我的狗狗最爱在上面打盹儿。”
Frank Niles, co-founder and partner of Fayetteville, Arkansas-based Scholar Executive Group, a boutique executive coaching and executive counseling firm, sings a similar tune. “It may sound trivial but it’s not – also buy yourself a comfortable business chair,” he says. “You’ll be more inclined to stay working... As a result, you’ll be more productive.”
弗兰克·奈尔斯是阿肯色州费耶特维尔城“学者执行官集团”联合创始人与合伙人。这家公司提供执行官培训和咨询的高端服务。弗兰克深有共鸣地说：“听起来可能是鸡毛蒜皮的事，其实非常重要。给自己也买一把舒适的商务椅吧。你会更愿意工作……从而更有成效。”
8. Be clear about your working hours.
8. 清楚你的工作时间。
“Post your hours of operation on your door, as with any office and stick to them. Indicate on your voicemail your hours of operation and refer the caller to your residence phone if it is personal,” says Denise Beeson, small business loan officer and business instructor at Santa Rosa Jr. College, in Santa Rosa, California.
“和任何办公室一样，在门上张贴工作时间并且贯彻执行。在语音信箱里明示你的工作时间，如果有私事请打你的住宅电话。”加利福尼亚州圣罗莎初级学院的小额商业贷款职员和商业讲师丹尼丝·比森说。
9. Pretend you’re not home.
9. 假装不在家。
Don’t answer your home phone or door during business hours, advises Ron Sellers, president of Phoenix-based Grey Matter Research & Consulting. “That way, I’m never tempted to chat or take time off or slack off in any way, and I remain focused on business,” he says.
工作期间不应门、不接家庭电话。位于凤凰城的“克雷·马特研究咨询所”的总裁罗恩·塞勒斯如此建议。“那样我就不会被吸引去聊天或者以任何方式休息偷懒，我能保持专心做业务。”
10. Don’t go to non-work appointments in the middle of the day.
10. 白天不进行跟工作无关的约会。
“I try to make doctor and dentist appointments just as I would in a company office, first thing in the morning, last thing in the day to minimize disruptions of my work,” says Linda Stokes, managing partner of the Academy Physicians, a physician recruiting company in the Albuquerque, New Mexico, area.
“我试着像在公司办公一样预约大夫及牙医，把它排成早上第一件事，或者排到一天的末尾。最大限度减少我的工作中断。”琳达·斯托克斯说。她是新墨西哥地区阿尔伯克基的医师招募公司“学院医师”的任事股东。
11. Get in-person time with co-workers.
11. 设定同事见面时间。
Once a month the four-person virtual team at Moreno Valley, California-based commercial telecom company TelecomQuotes meets in person. “I’m a big believer in kinesthetic learning or learning by doing and that’s a bit of a lost art with our virtual world,” says CEO Michael Bremmer. “There is something about white boarding an idea, while talking through the story and everyone is leaning in, engaged, thinking about a common goal, drawing on the deep water thoughts, that you just don’t seem to get on a conference call or video call.”
加州莫雷诺谷的商业电信公司TelecomQuotes四人虚拟团队每个月见面一次。首席执行官迈克尔·伯瑞姆说：“我信奉运动知觉学习，或称为实践中学习。在我们虚拟业界，这是一门近乎失传的艺术。我们在白板上写一个点子，通过故事讨论，每个人都在投入、参与、思考共同目标、吸纳深层想法，在电话会议或视频电话中可能体验不到这些。”
12. Use Google+ Hangouts.
12. 使用Google+环聊。
While it’s ideal if you can occasionally meet in-person with coworkers, sometimes it’s not possible because teams are separated by geography. In that case, video chatting is the next best thing, with Google+ Hangouts being an excellent medium for doing it. You can meet with up to 10 people for free, unlike Skype in which at least one person in the group has to have a paid subscription for meetings between more than two people. It also lets you do things like share your screen with others or pull in apps such SlideShare or Cacoo to draw or give presentations, respectively. Check out Google+ a Ghost Town? Hardly, which discusses why Hangouts are good for business.
能和同事经常碰头是理想状态，然而有时候办不到，因为团队受地域限制。这种情形下，视频聊天是退而求其次的选择。Google+环聊是一种绝佳媒介，你可以免费与多达十人会面；它不像Skype群组，多于两个人参会，就需要其中至少一人付费订购。Google+环聊还能让你做许多事，比如共享屏幕，或者嵌入SlideShare、Cacoo等应用程序，用来绘图表或播放演示文稿。要退出被称为“鬼城”的Google+服务吗？不太可能。这也说明了环聊对商业有利。
13. Enjoy your flexibility.
13. 享受你的工作弹性。
Find your focus wavering? Take a break with a bike ride, swim, or even by quitting work for the entire day. That’s according to Patti Hill, founder and managing director of Austin, Texas-based Penman PR. “Because my work schedule can be as flexible as I need it to be, sometimes it’s important to walk away,” she says. “It’s amazing what a cool dip on a hot day can do for helping boost creative juices.”
发觉你的注意力焦点摇摆不定？休息一下，骑车，游泳，或者干脆停工一天。这是帕蒂·希尔的建议。她是得克萨斯州奥斯汀的“彭曼公关”创始人兼常务董事。她说：“我的工作日程可以根据我的需要灵活调整。有时候，转身走开很重要。在炎热的一天泡个凉爽的澡，爽极了，有助于激发创意。”
14. Enjoy disruptions.
14. 享受干扰。
While some remote workers eschew personal visits during the work day, others take the opposite tack. Denny Daniel, curator of New York City-based The Museum of Interesting Things, says he started his own thing to reap the benefits of being his own boss. “So when people drop by I try to live life and see them unless I am with a client or not here, of course. If it is busy then at least I see them for a moment and enjoy life a bit too. It makes me work better in the end,” he says.
虽然有的远程工作者在工作日回避私人拜访，另一些人却走了相反路径。纽约市“有趣事物博物馆”馆长丹尼·丹尼尔说，他创业是为了能自己当家作主。他说：“所以，人们不告而来的时候，我就尝试享受当下，和他们见面，除非我在接待客户或者外出。日子再忙，至少我能见一会儿朋友，享受一点儿生活，那样才能更好地工作。”
15. Stay out of the kitchen.
15. 远离厨房。
“This is sort of the dirty little secret of telecommuters, but it’s like the freshman 15 all over again. I shudder at the thought of how many times I opened the fridge that first year. It was just constant snacking,” says Joy Martini, president of the New York City-based marketing and communications firm Martini Consulting. “So you need a kind of discipline and that’s really the clincher[2] for the whole thing: having the discipline to get done what you need to get done; the discipline to avoid the kitchen; the discipline to kick your drop-in friends out.”
“这是远程上班族不为人知的小秘密，像回到了普遍吃胖15磅的大一新生时代。想想我工作的第一年打开多少次冰箱门，我就不寒而栗。吃零食根本停不下来。”乔伊·马蒂尼说。她是纽约市场营销和通信公司“马蒂尼咨询”的总裁。“所以你需要纪律，那是制约全局的关键：完成必要工作的纪律;不进厨房的纪律;把不速之客踢出去的纪律。”
[2] clincher起决定作用的事实（或话语）。
16. Buy a noise-cancelling headset with a mute button.
16. 购买带有静音按钮的降噪耳机。
The last thing you want is to be in an online meeting and have the doorbell ring or police sirens blaring the background. “Perception is reality,” says New York City-based Jonathan Vlock, co-Founder of the meal-planning app Cooking Planit. “You want people to think you run a tight ship, and have all of the necessary resources at your fingertips. This is especially critical when you are an entrepreneur talking to someone at a larger organization. People can’t visualize your home but they can certainly visualize an office, and that is exactly what you want them to [see and hear].”
你一定不想在开网络会议时，突然出现门铃或警笛声大作的情况。“知觉是最现实的。”纽约一款膳食计划应用软件Cooking Planit的联合创始人乔纳森·弗洛克说，“你想要人们认为你管理有方、所有资源唾手可得。当你作为企业家与一个更大机构的人谈话时，这种印象尤其重要。人们想象不出你家的样子，但他们肯定能想到一个办公室的样子，那正是你要传达给他们看到和听到的。”
17. Check in with co-workers and the boss several times a day.
17. 每天勤快与同事和老板沟通。
Several years ago I worked for a large company that let me telecommute several times a week. Because I wanted everyone in the office to know I was really working and not watching TV or out shopping, I made a point of emailing and calling co-workers and especially my boss a few times a day.
几年前，我为一家大公司工作，公司让我一周几天远程办公。我希望办公室每个人都知道我确实在工作，而不是在看电视或逛街购物，所以我很重视每天多次写邮件和打电话给同事，特别是给老板。
18. Make use of free or inexpensive communications technology.
18. 利用免费或廉价的通信技术。
Today there are countless tools available for keeping in close communication with office mates. A few totryinclude Hipchat forgroupchatting, Trello or Asana forprojectmanagement, Expensify for tracking expenses and submitting expense reports and Sqwiggle, which keeps your webcam turned on so your co-workers can see you at your desk all day long.
如今，无数的工具能用来和办公室小伙伴保持密切联系。有人试用Hipchat做团队群聊，用Trello或Asana做项目管理，用Expensify跟踪支出和提交支出报告，用Sqwiggle保持网络摄像头处于开启状态，同事可以看见你在办公桌前坐了一整天。