Yesterday was a scorcher with temperatures reaching 25 degrees in Stirling and hardly a cloud in the sky at times. Not a day to be stuck in the office then (or a non air conditioned server room as happened the previous day).
I am never in the office at the best of times and there was no way I was getting stuck indoors yesterday so off I went to Kings Park with my MacBook and trusty wireless broadband to get some work done. It is wonderful that in this day and age we don’t have to sit behind a desk to actually get work done. The rise of cloud based solutions means you can now access your data from anywhere. For example all my files are on Dropbox (and so are many of my clients) which means I can access them from anywhere and on any device which is very handy when I am out and about.
If you so choose you can now work from a tablet, a smartphone or even your trusty laptop underneath a blue sky and in the fresh air. With apps like HP ePrint you can now print to virtually anywhere too – this is very handy!!
Two things to keep in mind though when you work like this. First is the internet. If you have no mobile signal you have no internet (unless you go satellite based). I moved 5 metres yesterday to get some shelter underneath a tree and my signal died!! I tend to use either my EE mobile broadband or my HTC Desire 500 which is on O2 but sometimes I get no signal from either which means a) no mobile working or b) find a coffee shop with wireless.
The second is the form factor you work on. In the office you might have two monitors and a PC which gives you loads of space to organise your open applications. If you decide to work off a tablet (or smartphone) bear in mind you will have a smaller screen and only one app open at a time. This is usually not an issue with things like email and web browsing but when you start getting truely productive (spreadsheets , word processing etc) this may or may not become an issue. Try in the office before you head out into the “wilds” to see how it works for you.
Now while the sun is still out I am off to get some work done and maybe even get myself an icecream!!
About the Author
Hi I’m Chris Wakefield the owner of ComTech IT Support. I provide Windows, Mac and Linux based IT Support to small businesses in Stirling, Alloa and Falkirk.
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