Author Description

Having Trouble Finding the Off Switch on Your Laptop? E-mail, cell phones, laptops, personal digital assistants... they were supposed to liberate us from the workplace, but instead mobile office technology has taken us hostage. For millions of "wired workers," the good news is the bad news: thanks to all this gear, we are now able to conduct business anytime and anywhere, but we can no longer shut the office door. We check e-mail on the weekend or late at night, answer pages at all hours, send faxes from home, work while we're on vacation-all because we can. It's out of control. How can we reclaim the boundaries between work life and personal life and still excel at our jobs and maintain our professional livelihoods? Packed with practical advice, Turn It Off will show you how to regain control and obtain a sense of balance between the very real demands of today's business world and your personal need to get-and really live-a life. Mobile office technology expert Gil Gordon shares: * Self-tests for evaluating how much your work and personal time overlap * Methods for managing e-mail and voice mail so they don't control you * Advice on getting your clients and your boss to respect your boundaries * Suggestions for what to do if you're the boss-and why "unplugging" is good for business At the heart of it all is the "100/60/0" model for balancing time and work-a method to help you figure out when you'll be "on" and available to the office 100 percent of the time, part of the time, or not at all. If you're ready to make a change, if you're ready to turn it off, if you're ready to take back your personal time, here are innumerable solutions for letting go without losing credibility, or your job. Ultimately, setting limits on the virtual office benefits everyone-employees, customers, and colleagues.