My Anywhere Working Tips

This week is "Anywhere Working Week", so I thought I'd have a little think about this - how do I do "anywhere working" and what are my tips to make it work?

In my job, you may think that the opportunities for flexible working patterns would be a bit limited (I'm a Paediatrician, and this can make it hard to work from home - after all, patients tend to be in the hospital!)
Nevertheless, as a lot of my work is based in the community, there are things that I can do to enable at least some flexible working (there are benefits for myself, my patients, and the environment!)

Firstly, some of my work is regional - based over the whole of North Yorkshire, so I could easily travel from Scarborough to Skipton, Northallerton to Selby within the cousre of a day if I didn't think ahead!
So my first tip is: plan your meetings wisely - try to arrange meetings to avoid excessive travel if possible. I try to arrange meetings in Northallerton straight after meetings in Thirsk, for example, as I'm heading north anyway.

Secondly: If your patients (or clients) are all in the same area but a distance from you - travel to meet them, rather than have them all travel independently to meet you - better for them, better for the environment - so for example, I do a clinic in a school where I happen to have lots of patients, rather than make them all come to the hospital to see me.

My third tip: Not all administrative work needs to be done in your work place - working from home can be efficient both from a time point of view (that half an hour spent travelling can be spent working) and an environmental point of view. Obviously for me this is harder than for many people, as clinical notes need to stay within the hospital, but I can do some of my journal reading and training from home.

Fourthly: Flexible working can be good for your work/life balance. I've got two smallish / medium sized children, and the more time I can spend with them, the happier we all are. I'm lucky that I've been able to arrange a flexible working pattern where I can work more hours in term time when they're at school, and less time in the school holidays. I also choose to work until 3pm on two of my working days, rather than one full day and a half day - so I can collect them from school on both of these days.

Fifthly: If feasible, travel by train so you can work whilst travelling - I occasionally have to go to London, and then I'll always take the train - I can get busy with my laptop and instead of 4 hours of missed opportunity, I can do some online training, write up my audits, read up on some literature....
I really need a 3G dongle to make full use of the internet, and this is something I'm planning to get, but I can still use wifi hotspots.

So even if it seems your job isn't suited to "Anywhere working", most people will find that with a little thought and planning, it can be done!