I’m not the world’s greatest networker. I love hearing people’s stories and asking about their work, but I habitually forget to carry business cards and I’m not very good at explaining what I do. I do, however, accept business cards when they’re given to me. In the past, I’ve wondered if that was a futile activity, but I’ve discovered an app that promises to make collecting cards more useful.
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The blogs are buzzing with news about an internal memo announcing changes to the work-from-home policies at Yahoo!, a tech company that has seen more ink dedicated to its CEO than its products in the last year. The gist of the memo is this: all telecommuters must report to Yahoo! offices by June, or quit. The gist of the response in my news and social media feeds: CEO Marissa Mayer is setting back women. Personally, I have more problems with the criticism of the policy than I do with the mandate itself.
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I love Penelope Trunk. I don’t always agree with her, but I’m hopelessly addicted to her blog. Ms. Trunk is hopelessly addicted to the science of personality types. Every post she writes is riddled with Myers-Briggs acronyms, which she seems to see as infallible keys for predicting one’s life. I’m not sure anyone’s personality or future can be quite so easily decoded, but I did finally decide to decipher my own type - and the answer has helped me quickly become more productive.
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I have written a lot about my favorite organization tools . I have also vowed to give up on getting organized all together. Anyone who has seen the home screen on my smart phone could have guessed that last one wasn’t going to stick.

I love tools almost as much as I love lists, so it is with much excitement that I introduce to you yet another tool for making lists. (I know!! It’s almost too much awesomeness to handle!!)

My fellow working mamas, I present to you: Workflowy .
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Here in the United States, today is Independence Day. In my family, it is also my husband’s birthday. To celebrate, we packed up the kids last weekend and drove three hours to my dad’s house. (Because doesn’t everyone want to celebrate their birthday with their inlaws?) We’ve been fishing, swimming and gorging on grilled meats - and that’s before the holiday officially arrives! We’ve also been working.

As usual, I’ve taken my job on the road with us. Jared has recently started working from the comfort of his laptop, joining me in my “full time, all the time” lifestyle for the moment. That means we’ve had to make two mobile offices in my dad’s home this week.

What does that look like?
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Last month, author Neil Gaiman spoke at the graduation ceremony for the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. As you might expect, his advice was geared towards people pursuing a career in the arts; a refrain of “make good art” was repeatedly met with applause. But the successful writer also offered a simple recipe for success that can be applied to any work life.
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I’ve been writing online since 2005. I started with an alias and did many of the reckless things that one does when they are anonymous - like talk smack about their mother. When my mother found my thinly veiled musings, I realized there was no such thing as being truly anonymous online. I decided to embrace that and threw myself out into the world with my words - warts and all.

Well, I don’t have warts, but I do suffer from depression. I’ve also been to marriage counseling, have a brother who has been arrested, and have had more than my fair share of struggles with self doubt. It’s easy to say that now, because I’ve already said it numerous times in black and white on my blog or one of the numerous other websites I write for.

Yeah, I’m authentic, baby. I’m real and raw, and I have fan letters that say that is fantastic.

I wonder, however, if it was also very stupid, at least professionally speaking.
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It’s tax time.

Or rather, it’s tax time for people who put off doing their taxes until the last minute. People like me.

While I was gathering all of my paperwork this morning in preparation, I lamented my lack of 1) an accountant, 2) a consistent filing system, and 3) ability to be a real grown up. I do this every year.
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As I type this, I’m sitting in the middle of my bed in our RV. I’m wearing the black leggings and tank top I put on underneath a black wrap dress when I got dressed in at The Ritz-Carlton, San Francisco two days ago. That outfit was cute, but two days of working from my bed later and, well, the smell is more of a concern than the appearance.
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We pulled into the Grand Canyon Thursday night. We were going to be camping for three nights, giving us two days to take our time exploring one of Earth’s most famous wonders. I’d worked extra hours earlier in the week so that I could unplug and enjoy four total days of driving and playing tourist.

About five minutes after checking into our campground, I got an email on my iPhone announcing a bit of a work emergency, something that demanded my attention within the next 12 hours.

My cell phone service promptly vanished as soon as I finished reading the email.

We unhooked the travel trailer from the back of our SUV, made sure no dishes had been broken in the transfer, and put the TV back in its place. Then I went hunting for wifi.
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