Friday, 2 March 2012
My Anywhere Working Tips
Over the years I've had the 'pleasure' of working in some weird and wonderful mobile places.
I've hosted conference calls in noisy lay-bys on the A14 on my way home from Ipswich, dialled into netmeetings with Indian colleagues from a service station on the M6, continually redialled into calls while travelling up the west coast mainline on a Virgin Pendolino and raced around Berlin a few days before Christmas trying to find somewhere offering free wi-fi so that I could organise a Christmas rota back in the UK.
So I feel relatively well qualified to suggest some 'Anywhere Working Tips' for a competition being hosted by Anywhere working via this link: http://www.anywhereworking.org/2012/win-the-ultimate-anywhere-working-kit/
One of my best tips is to try to 'network' wherever you go, whether this is to other offices within your own organisation or whether you are visiting other companies. I found that by cultivating friendships with colleagues around the UK I always managed to find a spare desk whenever I descended on their office.
I remember one time when the great and the good (i.e. my manager, his manager and 2 more levels of senior managers) all arrived in an office in Gatwick early in the working day. They immediately began looking for flexi desk space and kept being moved on by the office occupants who insisted 'that desk is already taken'.
I strolled in at around 10am having travelled down from Coventry (my own home office) and I immediately made myself at home at one of the desks that had been saved from the senior bods invasion.
When asked how I managed to nab a desk when everyone else had been moved on I simply smiled and shook the cake box I'd brought from home with home made cakes. I'd called the team that occupied the nearby desks the day before and told them that if they saved me a seat I'd bring cakes and pies. :-)
It seems that senior management just can't compete in the bribery stakes!
So...tip 1 - network effectively and don't be afraid to ring ahead, make mobile working arrangements and bring baked goods!
My next tip is for those whose mobile just never stops - and boy did I know how that feels. There have been huge improvements recently in the software that converts voicemails to texts & email and this is invaluable for anyone who has to sit in meetings with their phone on silent. It makes life much easier if you can glance at your texts or e-mail and get the gist of any messages rather than using a whole lunchbreak listening to messages that are usually out of date by the time you get to them.
My first experience of this software wasn't quite so successful though. I remember getting a message about problems with a system called EMP and the caller wanted me to know that the notes about this had been left on my desk in an office in London.
My text conversion told me there was a problem with the MP's debts in London.....I've often wondered if this was the rumour that started the MP expenses scandals!
So tip 2 - make use of voice to text technology....but don't assume the conversion is 100% accurate!
My final tip is to think light. I remember many days when I've trekked through the Tube network in London with a backpack weighed down with a heavyweight laptop plus all the leads needed to connect this to the power supply, LAN connection, etc. In a separate bag I'd be carrying a projector and my pockets would be full of mobile phones, USB dongles and USB memory sticks.
So tip 3 - save weight whenever possible. Use a lightweight pad instead of a laptop and a handheld projector rather than a hefty desktop model. The only extra pounds to carry are those in the bakery box being offered as bribes :-)
I lied about that being my final tip, I do have one more. Wherever I went would find myself in offices with dozens of men who all carried exactly the same laptop bag, a boring black rucksack issued by the company.
I made it my mission to cheer up the pile of boring bags and I always used to ask family and friends to buy me new laptops bags for my birthday. I loved having a bag that stood out from the rest by being bright pink, or yellow, or floral. My laptop bags were always a talking point (and usually the butt of many jokes) but at the end of the meetings when everyone else was scrabbling around sorting their bag out from the rest of the bags lined up against the wall, I'd grab my dayglo pink bag and be out of there!
So final tip - stand out from the crowd in whatever way you can!
I've hosted conference calls in noisy lay-bys on the A14 on my way home from Ipswich, dialled into netmeetings with Indian colleagues from a service station on the M6, continually redialled into calls while travelling up the west coast mainline on a Virgin Pendolino and raced around Berlin a few days before Christmas trying to find somewhere offering free wi-fi so that I could organise a Christmas rota back in the UK.
So I feel relatively well qualified to suggest some 'Anywhere Working Tips' for a competition being hosted by Anywhere working via this link: http://www.anywhereworking.org/2012/win-the-ultimate-anywhere-working-kit/
One of my best tips is to try to 'network' wherever you go, whether this is to other offices within your own organisation or whether you are visiting other companies. I found that by cultivating friendships with colleagues around the UK I always managed to find a spare desk whenever I descended on their office.
I remember one time when the great and the good (i.e. my manager, his manager and 2 more levels of senior managers) all arrived in an office in Gatwick early in the working day. They immediately began looking for flexi desk space and kept being moved on by the office occupants who insisted 'that desk is already taken'.
I strolled in at around 10am having travelled down from Coventry (my own home office) and I immediately made myself at home at one of the desks that had been saved from the senior bods invasion.
When asked how I managed to nab a desk when everyone else had been moved on I simply smiled and shook the cake box I'd brought from home with home made cakes. I'd called the team that occupied the nearby desks the day before and told them that if they saved me a seat I'd bring cakes and pies. :-)
It seems that senior management just can't compete in the bribery stakes!
So...tip 1 - network effectively and don't be afraid to ring ahead, make mobile working arrangements and bring baked goods!
My next tip is for those whose mobile just never stops - and boy did I know how that feels. There have been huge improvements recently in the software that converts voicemails to texts & email and this is invaluable for anyone who has to sit in meetings with their phone on silent. It makes life much easier if you can glance at your texts or e-mail and get the gist of any messages rather than using a whole lunchbreak listening to messages that are usually out of date by the time you get to them.
My first experience of this software wasn't quite so successful though. I remember getting a message about problems with a system called EMP and the caller wanted me to know that the notes about this had been left on my desk in an office in London.
My text conversion told me there was a problem with the MP's debts in London.....I've often wondered if this was the rumour that started the MP expenses scandals!
So tip 2 - make use of voice to text technology....but don't assume the conversion is 100% accurate!
My final tip is to think light. I remember many days when I've trekked through the Tube network in London with a backpack weighed down with a heavyweight laptop plus all the leads needed to connect this to the power supply, LAN connection, etc. In a separate bag I'd be carrying a projector and my pockets would be full of mobile phones, USB dongles and USB memory sticks.
So tip 3 - save weight whenever possible. Use a lightweight pad instead of a laptop and a handheld projector rather than a hefty desktop model. The only extra pounds to carry are those in the bakery box being offered as bribes :-)
I lied about that being my final tip, I do have one more. Wherever I went would find myself in offices with dozens of men who all carried exactly the same laptop bag, a boring black rucksack issued by the company.
So final tip - stand out from the crowd in whatever way you can!
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