Adventures in home working

Every year or so I hear Microsoft talking about Internet Search and implying that Google Search is nothing compared to what Microsoft has in store for us.  Unfortunately what seems to be delivered is useful, but incremental.

I heard about Wolfram Alpha today, and it the first time for years that I’ve seen a real revolution in Internet Search, the kind of revolution that depends on the search engine really understanding the information it’s searching and the content of the search query.  It’s not the full vision of the semantic web, but it’s the best demonstration I’ve seen that illustrates the promise of it.

It’s developed by Stephen Wolfram and team, a genius, who’s delivered a series of breakthrough products and insights over the years.

This is going to be ace on the Blackberry!  True information at your fingertips   Check out this article

This short video:

This longer video

Excellent!!!

Sam asked me a couple of weeks ago to blog about my new Office. I’ve been resisting because I wanted to spend at least a month working in it before I felt ready to really comment on how it’s changed my life.  Seems a bit of a bold statement “changed my life” but I don’t think I’m overstating it.

I’ve always been very focussed on workspace design, I can remember over 20 years ago convincing my boss to radically change our office around and – inspired by the book peopleware – I’ve been working to improve the working environment of my teams every few years since then.  I’ve previously written about the great opportunity I’ve had in the past to design a couple of offices from a pretty blank sheet of paper and I think we did a pretty good job and I learned a lot. 

Last year though was the first time I’ve ever designed a workspace for myself and it’s been great fun.  I started with these objectives in mind.

1. I wanted a space that I felt was my own, the rest of the family, friends and colleagues would be very welcome to visit but it would be on my terms and I wouldn’t be storing any of their stuff.
2. I wanted a space that allowed me to seamlessly and easily transition from work to play to exercise.  I suffer from a rare form of arthritis and low intensity, varied but long days are a must for me.  The ability to work for an hour, chill for 20 minutes, work for another 30 then exercise for 20 suits me perfectly.
3. I wanted to feel as relaxed as possible throughout the day, so the space had to feel less like and office and more like a holiday home.
4. I suffer a little from Seasonal Affective Disorder, so I wanted as much light as possible
5. I wanted to be able to able to work in a range of different positions, seated, standing, exercise bike, sofa, to keep my joints and muscles working and moving and it’s just more fun
6. Collaboration and team working are important to me so I wanted to be able to have effective virtual and physical meetings

This is how it turned out:

1. I decided to build a conservatory, it was a pretty cheap option, addressed the SAD issues, has been plenty warm enough through a cold January with mostly no heat required during the day and radiators at night.  I’ve invested in window blinds that have been essential and have worked well.  I’m waiting to see how many days this year I’m driven out of the room due to lack of roof blinds in the summer.  Roof blinds are expensive and the top investment priority right now is to turn our old shared office into a great lifestyle space for Debbie, and that’s where I will retreat to on hot summer days as well.
2. I’ve got a huge glass wall (between conservatory and lounge) that has roller blinds behind it to turn it into a massive whiteboard, it also works great for tacking up A3 slides that a group of people can scribble on together.  I have a Bluetooth eBeam (electronic whiteboard) that suckers onto the glass for virtual meetings.
3. I’ve got a 4 seat sofa that I retreat to whenever I’m on the phone, I just love sitting back and looking up at the clouds on those long conference calls, with my Tablet PC on my lap when I need it.  I’ve a wireless DECT headset that lets me move freely around the whole house (thanks to a repeater). 
4. From the sofa I can watch conference DVDs and downloads, PowerPoint presentations etc on my 27” Dell high res display which is attached to a media centre PC so I get to watch TV as well.  I’ve previously struggled to watch more than 20 minutes of video on a computer, but the big screen “TV like” experience from the sofa makes hours at a time practical.  The big screen is great for watching while doing the ironing as well.
5. I’ve got an exercise bike and it’s perfectly positioned for watching the big screen too.
6. I’ve got all my favourite reference books and books i’d like to read – right there in full view to remind me not to buy any more for a while and hopefully to inspire me to chill out and read for at least 30 minutes a day.
7. Previously I’ve been a dedicated user of 3 displays and It’s still a great setup, but this time around I decided to go for 2 screens, one 27” 1900*1200 and the other 1280*1024.  I’ve loved the extra screen real estate from the large screen and as I’ve already mentioned it’s enabled the “work from the sofa” scenario, further helped by a wireless media centre keyboard and remote.
8. I don’t have a desk chair right now, I’m loving using a – cheap – exercise ball.  It’s great fun and I can feel it strengthening my back already.

From a green perspective it’s mixed:

1. It’s turned the lounge from the coldest room in the house into the warmest, and the conservatory keeps warm with a couple of small radiators with the thermostatic valves cranked down
2. All the lights are ultra low power LEDs or fluorescents
3. When I suspend my desktop PC, all the displays and peripherals auto power off
4. The blinds and glass are both coated to keep heat inside in winter and out in summer

The end result:

1. I’m able to work for longer
2. I feel much more relaxed
3. I feel more effective
4. I’m having a lot more meetings at home, and we’ve had a great Carvery restaurant open just on the sea front that’s perfect for business lunches
5. It’s much nicer to be able to work and interact (through the glass) with the kids without being disturbed and for them to be able to see when I’m disturbable and pop in for a chat or a hug
6. Debbie and I are having more lunches together
7. I enjoy doing the ironing
8. I’m watching more TV – perhaps the only negative
9. I’m getting more exercise
10. When I’m not working we have a great family room
11. The Sofa is actually a sofa bed, so we have a guest room and the girls love having sleepovers there and watching the stars
12. It’s definitely been a worthwhile investment

My trustworthy Blackberry 8800 was upgraded to a Bold last week and after much anticipation I can definitely say it’s been a very worthwhile upgrade.  I’ve made these notes which might help anyone considering or receiving a bold in the near future.

Background

I’ve previously been an enthusiastic user of a Palm Treo 650, a not so enthusiastic user of various Windows Mobile Smartphones and a pretty happy user of a Blackberry 8800.  I can safely say that the Bold has the best attributes of all of these devices with few if any of the downsides.  My wife has an iPhone 3G and despite it winning over the bold in terms of sheer style and “conceptual integrity” the bold wins out for me in terms of good old fashioned performance and functionality.

The hardware

Overall the Bold seems slightly larger than the 8800, it fits fine in the 8800’s holster though and it feels great in the hand.  It’s certainly not a small device, but any smaller would be too much of a compromise for me in terms of keyboard or screen.

Screen

The screen is amazing, it’s only when you see a screen of this quality – both resolution and brightness – that you realise what a compromise you’ve been living with.  More importantly I’ve started using the bold for reading, video watching and web browsing much more than on any previous device.  Web browsing in particular is so much better, not all down to the screen of course.  I was initially surprised that RIM didn’t take the approach of cramming more information onto the screen in applications like Email and Calendar, but now I think I see their logic, the larger fonts are wonderfully crisp and I’m pleased to say that I can use the device easily without glasses, which is a luxury I haven’t had for several years.

Keyboard

Wonderful!  I was very happy with the keyboard on the 8800, but I’ve been amazed at how much better the bold is.  I have fairly small hands and this last week I’ve been suffering from Arthritis pain in them, but it’s not mattered – I’ve been tapping away faster than I thought possible.  There’s absolutely no comparison with my iPhone experience, which for me at least requires a lot of focused attention to tap out even the shortest accurate message. 

Convenience keys and trackball

I’ve found these keys to be a big differentiater compared to the iPhone.  On the iPhone I often find myself wondering whether I’ve actually pressed a soft key or whether the iPhone’s just responding slowly, pressing the home key and starting again is often required.  The physical keys on the bold are faster, more reliable and pretty consistent in terms of how applications use them, soft keys seem to give application designers perhaps too much freedom.

The trackball is the biggest area of compromise on the bold, it’s nowhere near as intuitive as the iPhone’s touch screen.  But in practice this affects only a few applications, and whilst pinch zoom demo’s well, I’ve quickly got the hang of the equally convenient shortcut keys on the bold keyboard (not always consistent across apps though).  One thing I like is that the trackball/mouse is a much more accurate way of navigating buttons and links on web pages than the finger on the iPhone.

Camera

Although the camera resolution’s not that great at 2M Pixels, it’s fine for most of my point and shoot opportunistic family snaps and wonderful for day to day photographic recording of labels, book covers, whiteboards, things I want to buy on the web when I get home from the seeing them live in the shops etc.  Although I’m missing the Camera integration with the Evernote client that the iPhone has (I love Evernote on my PCs).

Speaker

I use the speaker for listening to Podcasts and music around the house, and the Bold’s speaker is excellent, much louder and better quality than the 8800 and better than the iPhone.

Stereo A2DP Bluetooth

I have a tiny Jabra BT8040 Bluetooth headset that’s mono aural (ie fit’s in one ear) but it supports A2DP so I get good quality streamed music and more frequently Podcasts to it.  It’s working great so far and it also works with my TomTom GPS. 

Stereo Headset

I’m not a big fan of the supplied headset which seems a little too chunky for my ears, but I’m using my wife’s iPhone headset most of the time and that works fine.  At first I was annoyed that RIM changed from 2.5mm to 3.5mm, given the number of 2.5mm headsets I’d acquired over the years – but now I’m happy having realised that I now only need to carry a single headset for the bold, laptop and my car GPS.

Battery life

Seems less than the 8800 but then that’s no surprise.  I’ve not had an issue with running out of power yet.

Charger/Cradle

Before the Bold even arrived I bought a couple of the cute little charger units, one for my desk and one for my bedside table.  The external charger pickups on the Bold case mean that it’s incredibly easy to drop the bold into it’s cradle, which means I do it more often.  The really big plus though is that when charging the Bold displays a great clock – very useful.  The software also supports the concept of bedside mode, which makes for a great alarm clock, which I have configured to automatically switch off all of the radios as well as wake me up to music.

Micro SD card

I have an 8GB Micro SD card crammed full of music, Podcasts and videos.  Larger cards are supported but 8GB is cost effective.  I found inserting and removing the SD card VERY difficult, eventually resorting to tweezers.

WIFI

WIFI is a nice addition to the 3G radio, with the 3G radio off, most – but not all – applications continue to work over WIFI, and downloading software’s is much faster.

Interface and built in applications

Theme

The new theme is very nice, choosing to take a more stylised approach than the easier to identify iPhone icons, although I’m sure that an iPhone like theme will be available already for download. 

So far I’m happy with the built in Precision Silver theme, although I did quickly copy most of the applications out of folders and into the home folder.  I don’t have enough additional applications to make folders that worthwhile yet, I have kept the folders for downloads and games, although downloads that I find really useful get quickly copied to the home folder.

Applications

In the order that they appear in my home folder

Email

The new screen and the super crisp fonts make emails a joy to read (well some of them anyway) and various other minor tweaks make the whole reading experience simpler.

Calendar

A bit of a disappointment, I was hoping for a better week view that would take advantage of the new screen solution (third party products will fill the gap) but it’s fast and functional and makes good use of keyboard shortcuts for jumping around and switching views.

Browser

The improvement in the browser is great, making it so much more usable than the 8800 was, of course the WIFI/3G helps.  It’s not quite in the same league as the iPhone browser which feels almost desktop like, but for me the Bold’s browser does the job I want it to, its fast, following links and clicking on buttons is very precise with the trackball, it seems pretty compatible with everything I’ve used it for, zooming is fairly quick and easy. 

On my desktop and laptop I rely totally on Roboform for password management, which means the only password I know is my master password.  This is a major issue for password protected web sites and I’m looking forward to a solution for automatically entering passwords into web pages.  Roboform has a Blackberry app available, but it doesn’t support auto password entry yet.

Twitterberry

I’m a massive fan of twitter – my web command line, and main social networking/communications tool.  Twitter was the first application I installed and it really takes advantage of the Bold’s screen.  The latest version of Twitterberry is great as well.

Google search

Being one click away from a Google search is just so convenient, so it’s right up there in terms of my most used applications

Sametime Connect – Instant messaging

CSC (my employer) uses Sametime for instant messaging and presence and it works superbly on the Blackberry, it’s not noticeably better on the bold.  CSC push installs Sametime into the downloads folder, I copied it to my home folder straight away.

Media Player

I reprogrammed the left hand side convenience key to start the media player, which I mainly use for Podcasts, video and music.  The media player is pretty good, massively improved for video and now seems to support the videos targeted at iPods, the video quality is excellent.  Playing Podcasts is reasonable, it doesn’t bookmark, but the media player keeps your place so long as your don’t reboot the device. 

If you browse for Podcasts in the file system you get the option to play a single file, a folder or all the files in a folder and the file browser allows you to delete Podcasts and videos that you have listened to which is very useful.

Audio quality is good, but lots of Podcasts don’t have the gain very high – ie they are quiet even at max volume, removing the safety limit on max volume helps here.

I copy media files straight from the PC to the Bold, no Blackberry Desktop Manager required.

Camera

The Camera is ok, as described above, it’s made a big difference to me and it’s made even more useful with the Flickr uploader application and through the integration with Twitter via Twitpic support in Twitterberry (lets you upload a photo and publish a link via Twitter) which is good fun.

Contacts

No real changes that I noticed, although by installing Taskify, it’s now really easy to turn an email into a task which is very useful as I do a lot of email processing on my Blackberry and also send a lot of tasks to myself as emails.

GPSed

A great application for saving GPS tracks for later sharing or personal use.  They can be uploaded to a website and linked to photo’s taken to illustrate the route.  I used this a lot on the 8800, not yet used it in anger on the Bold, but looking forward to it given the Bold’s Camera.

Google maps

Just keeps getting better and better!  Ultra useful application, I especially love the ability to search for – say – nearby Cafes and then get instructions for how to get to them from my current location, and the awesome satellite view, which has saved me from getting lost many times.

Fastforward

Autoforwards by mobile number to my home office phone whenever I plugin the USB, which I almost always do at home. 

gMail

Access to my personal gMail account

YahooMail

Access to my personal yahoo email account

Flickr uploader

Auto upload photo’s to Flickr, these photo’s can be linked to routes uploaded using GPSed

Profiles

Discovered that “press and hold” Q will switch the phone into Quiet mode, press and hold again switches back to Normal, very handy.  I also like the bedside mode.

Clock/Alarm clock

I know it’s sad but the auto display of a really nice clock, alarm clock or countdown timer when I pop the phone into it charging cradle is a small but very useful feature.

Remember the Milk

Integrates my RTM account with Blackberry Tasks, Twitter integration and Email integration is also good with RTM, so I have lots of ways to get tasks to the Blackberry and then back into Lotus Notes.

Documents to go

A massive improvement over the 8800 and I particularly like the Text only view which is easy to read and fast to navigate.  No support for viewing ink annotations though.

I’ve known for years that I will eventually switch to Firefox, the richness of the extensibility appeals too much to a tinkering power user like myself, but it’s taken me literally years to get comfortable enough with it to drop Maxthon as my day to day browser.

To date Maxthon has been just too slick and efficient, especially when combined with Foxit for PDF files (and I have a lot of those!!)

Anyway – last night by the pool I spent a good couple of hours learning FF3 and Acrobat and tweaking and extending it and I’m reasonably happy.  These are the addons that got me there:

1. http://www.roboform.com/ I have hundreds of passwords and form definitions in RoboForm and it works with IE, maxthon and FF and replicates between my different PCs very easily using SugarSync.  It’s essential!!
2. http://scholten.arno.googlepages.com/ Adds “bookmark this page” to the bookmark menu, this is a standard feature in Maxthon, browse to the folder you want to save the bookmark in and click.
3. http://delicious.com/ I don’t use delicious (too lazy) , but this addin promises to synch up with FF.
4. http://www.downloadhelper.net/ I do a lot of video watching offline, plus I can’t stand the stop start involved in buffering so an easy way to download video is key
5. http://www.evernote.com/ I’m loving evernote, Maxthon had a plugin to allow easy capture of web pages or regions of pages, so does FF
6. http://www.cs.utexas.edu/~jchien/code/ftu.html  In maxthon I could just highlight URL’s in web pages and open then by drag and drop, this is the closest FF3 compatible addon I could find, saves a lot of cut and paste, and allows you to control whether the link opens in new window, new tab or existing tab.
7. http://flashblock.mozdev.org/  When I transferred my reading list of 30 tabs from maxthon to FF3 I found that FF was using 40% cpu, whereas Maxthon was using less than 10%.  Flash was to blame, this addon blocks all Flash from executing until you click on it – wonderful!
8. http://www.foxmarks.com/ – Synchronises bookmarks and tags between multiple machines – I like the idea of tags!!
9. http://foxyproxy.mozdev.org/ – One click proxy control.  I have a local proxy and work proxies and this makes switching trivial
10. http://sessionmanager.mozdev.org/ – Not sold on this one,  Maxthon’s groups were so easy and allowed tabs to be added to existing groups and it was easy to see the content of a group and open just one page.  Session manager seems to do some of this, but so far found no way to appends a set of tabs to an existing session, or to look inside a session to see its contents.  Also I don’t like the way that a session includes all my windows by default.  I tend to have multiple task specific windows open, and I want each to be its own session.
11. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/380 Swifttabs, allows me to define keys to move between tabs, delete them etc.  I have left and right arrows for moving previous and next tabs and Delete for deleting a tab.  Disables the key assignments when you are in a form field.
12. http://tmp.garyr.net/ Tabmixplus, lots of little fixes to makes things more Maxthon like, basically I like things to open in new tabs, in the background most of the time rather than replacing my current tab.  This allows me to set all of these options.
13. http://www.oxymoronical.com/web/firefox/TabSidebar Shows this cute little sidebar (I actually have it at the bottom of the screen) with live images of the all of the tabs.  It only displays 6 tabs at a time, but its still useful for keeping track of several windows that are all updating.
14. http://n31m4d.wordpress.com/2008/08/16/tab-url-copier-for-firefox-3/  Right click on a tab and this useful addon copies a list of all the currently open tabs into the clipboard,  I used it to generate this list
15. http://www.abstractpath.com/powermenu/  The only other thing I needed to get off maxthon was a way to keep FF in the background.  For example when I’m scanning feeds in FeedDemon I click on links that I want to read and in Maxthon they open up while maxthon is minimised,  in FF3 each time I click FF open’s up in front of FeedDemon and I need to Alt Tab FeedDemon back in front.  But by using PowerMenu I’m able to right click on the FeedDemon task bar entry and make it Always On Top,  that does the trick.

Outstanding wish list

1. A way to force certain URL’s to open in IE but within the Firefox chome, just like Maxthon does (Maxthon is essentially a shell around IE)
2. A different session manager, that operates at the window level, allows me to see and manipulate the content of saved sessions, and add tabs to saved sessions.

As a keen user of multiple displays – Excel really frustrates me, with its inability to open multiple windows on different displays. 

I found a hack that involved manually resizing the Excel main/parent window so that it spanned multiple displays and manually dragging Excel child windows onto other displays, which is ok, but not perfect for me.

However I also found that if you have Excel running that you can launch a second copy just fine so long as you launch it from Internet Explorer. 

Since I use Maxthon I then realised there was an even easier way, just define a new external tool as follows:

1. Open the tools menu
2. Open the External utilities sub menu
3. Click +
4. Browse to Excel.exe
5. Save

And that’s all there is to it.  Now you can launch as many copies of Excel as you want and place them wherever you want

Everyone knows I love multiple monitors,  I have 3 * 19″ all the same model and type and all cheap ones that are just fine for my simple needs (ie not Gaming).  Here are a few things I’ve learned in the 3 years I’ve used them:

1. A laptop – single screen – is just fine if all you want to do is read, or process email, or scan your RSS feeds.  I use a laptop for all these tasks and I prefer it to my desktop because I can do these things anywhere, and I like the focus (multiple monitors can distract).
2. Multiple monitors are perfect though for creative work, analysis, collaboration, etc where you need to access more than one application at a time, or multiple copies of the same application.
3. Three monitors is great, but with hindsight I would make my central monitor larger than 19″ and I would consider a small 1024*768 display as well for web conferences.
4. Your second priority investment after buying multiple displays is to get Ultramon, which now works fine on Vista. 
5. You can open multiple Excel windows on different screens by manually resizing Excel (or use Ultramon) to span multiple screens and then opening up additional windows and dragging them between screens.
6. PowerPoint seems to only support a single screen, You can use OpenOffice to open up multiple copies of PowerPoint.  You can use it for Excel too, but I don’t.  I sometimes also use SnagIt (screen capture) to quickly grab a PowerPoint of Excel window that I need to reference while working on another display
7. Use synergy to allow your to use one keyboard and mouse to access your laptop/tablet if you use a desktop PC with multiple monitors like me.  Much better than a hardware KVM.
8. Use some of the screen real-estate to dock a few key applications that you need to reference frequently.  I dock the Vista sidebar on the far left and Pidgin universal IM client docks on the far right.
9. If you use Lotus Notes,  Open up separate windows on different displays.  I have my Email on my centre display, Calendar on the right and highlight report and personal database on the right.  Much easier to work that way
10. Coding horror blog has the best discussion on multiple monitors, eg http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001076.html
11. If you need to convince the boss,  Quote the Wall Street Journal, http://blogs.wsj.com/biztech/2008/03/10/bigger-computer-monitors-more-productivity/
12. In rare cases a very large single display might be better, I personally think a Large centre display and two 19″ displays works best. But if you like the large display idea, you will need some extra utilities, http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000928.html

I’ve been experimenting with desktop video conferencing for years, but my enthusiasm never persists for more than a few days because the experience is just too unpredictable.  Sometimes it’s a image quality issue, sometimes it’s firewalls, right now it’s unstable drivers and poor lip synch.  It’s not far away though, in theory Skype and Logitech already offers HD conferencing (not reliably for me due to driver issues on Vista 64), and there are several high quality – but too expensive – desktop HD solutions (LifeSize for example), but it’s still not quite real for me – what will it take?

1. Good multi-party video support in web conferencing systems
2. Multiple screens and multi-screen support in the software, you need at least 2 screens and maybe three to have a multi-party web conference with video
3. Faster home networking or perhaps just more consistent bandwidth (most people are not going to video conference in an open office)
4. Better camera’s that offer an optical zoom so that it’s possible to really see expressions and lip synch
5. A price point that’s viable for the enterprise, less than £150.

The recent announcement that Microsoft is working with Tandberg to deliver a $300 high-definition video camera by next year is a good early indicator that maybe we are approaching a tipping point.  That said the first step is to win the ongoing battle to convince enterprises to invest in multiple monitors.

As part of HP’s happiness at work initiative they have listed 25 new places to work.  I’ve repeated the list (minus a few of the less relevant ones like the Eiffel Tower!) below with my comments in blue:

1. The garden. There’s nothing like an English summer. And even if the sun shines, you can still get some work done in the garden. With the new Intel® Next-Gen Wireless-N technology in your PCs and a compatible network, you can stay connected at over twice the range and five times as fast as you can with current wireless networks. I often work in the garden, but in the UK its often too cold or too windy even when it’s sunny so a conservatory is essential.  Also good luck with trying to ready your screen unless like me you invested in a outdoor screen.  Also forget the high speed wireless and concentrate on getting high speed ADSL!
2. Shed. Garden sheds have moved upmarket. Companies like Green Retreats and The Garden Escape can turn the humble shed into a smart office with insulation, electricity and double glazing. Best of all, you can take the office with you if you move house. With a second battery charger or notebook docking station, you can plug your Notebook in and start working immediately.  Definitely,  I am just in the process of getting my wife Debbie a garden room which will be used for work and play.  We are moving my lab server and her laptop in there and it will be super insulated so they should be enough to keep it warm, and I get off-site backup as well.
3. Coffee shop. JK Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter book in cafes and coffee shops. Many offer wireless networking so you can get online. I often work in Coffee shops, Cafe Nero is my favourite as I love the chocolate cake.  Find a time when it’s quiet and try forgetting the wifi, its just another distraction.
4. Beach. With HP’s 3G Mobile Broadband you can work on the beach just as easily as in the office and still get online. Just don’t get ice cream on the keyboard (although if you do, the Mylar layer we put underneath it should stop it becoming a disaster).  I live by the beach but I’ve not had much success working on it, but I often snuggle down in the sand dunes for a conference call while I’m out walking.  You need a outdoor screen on your laptop though.  One thing I will be trying is doing some dictation using Dragon Naturally Speaking out of the wind in the Dunes, miles away from anyone.  Normally though for me working on the beach is low tech, a book and a phone.
5. Airport. They make you rush to the airport hours before the plane leaves and then you have to sit around and wait. Why not use that time to get some work done? Most airports now how have wireless networks so you can get online, and companies like Priority Pass will give you access to lounges with business facilities, even if you’re not flying business class.  I don’t fly internationally that much, I fly nationally once a week, but for me short flights and laptops don’t mix but they are a great place for having a chat, reading a book or processing email on my Blackberry.  For long flights I prefer reading and DVD movies.
6. In bed. If you get a broadband connection with wireless networking built-in, you can work anywhere in the house. Including the bedroom. No thanks
7. Library. Public libraries are quiet and full of studious people. Just like an office ought to be (but usually isn’t). The British Library in particular has a very good business section. I love working in libraries, but I prefer to choose a book at random and then just find a comfy chair and read for an hour.  It’s a great escape when the girls are out shopping
8. Home office. See our article: The A-Z of the perfect home office.  I’ve written plenty about this already and I’m redesigning mine now.
9. CEO of the sofa. P.J. O’Rourke’s book of the same name shows how much work you can get done from your own living room (and it’s very funny to boot).  Definitely,  I do all my feed reading in my recliner in the living room during family TV hour in the evening and I’m definitely getting a Sofa or a recliner in my new home office.
10. Park. Personal trainers are turning Britain’s parks into fitness boot camps; why not turn your local park into an office one? You can make phone calls and have inspiring ideas while taking a stroll and then do your email from a park bench, using an HP Voice Messenger Smart Phone.  Starting to repeat myself now, we have a great park 5 minutes walk away, but a parks for fun and for reading, not much  IT here for me.  Although I might admit to doing a bit of email processing and a few voice notes on my Blackberry if I’m waiting for the kids.
11. Hiking. Take along an iPAQ or a Smart Phone and you can stay in touch and get some work done even while you are enjoying the view. Get a padded Notebook carry case to keep your system safe and secure. I do a lot of work while out walking, listening to podcasts, recorded conference calls that I’ve missed, making voice notes, thinking.  I don’t do too many phone calls because of the wind on the coast.
12. 30,000 feet. With an extended life battery, you can use an HP Notebook for nine hours or more without recharging. Plenty of time to get some work done – and watch a DVD – on a long-haul flight.  See above – Airports
13. In the bath. Churchill had a habit of giving dictation from his bath tub. It might be a good place to think and talk, but we recommend against using anything electrical in the bath!  I read for half an hour (at least) in the bath most nights, but normally fiction.
14. Walk and talk. Dictate replies to your emails while you walk using the HP iPAQ 514 Voice Messenger.  Yep,  I do this on my Blackberry a lot and am about to try converting to text with Dragon NS.
15. Restaurants. Eat. Think. Work.   I’m a home worker so often I see little point travelling to the office for a meeting, let’s meet for lunch or breakfast – much more relaxing and fun.

Dave Pollard gives us his idea of how one might aspire to spend the day:

So, for example, a 24-hour day might be allocated to the following important activities:

• 9 hours a day for sleeping and personal hygiene
• 2 hours a day for physical exercise — running, meditation, working out, yoga, hiking etc.
• 3 hours a day for play — learning things you love, having non-competitive fun, just paying attention and being in the moment, and expressing love and joy in different ways
• 3 hours a day for conversation — not small-talk, conversations with intention (this time could include meal-times)
• 2 hours a day for reflection — thinking, reading/watching/listening to actionable information and stimulating entertainment content, and deciding, thinking ahead, considering what it all means and what needs to be done as a result
• 2 hours a day for creation — writing, model-building, sketching, composing
• 3 hours a day for action — first/next steps towards doing important things, productive actions that make the world a better place

It sounds good to me,  as I look down the list I feel my life is pretty out of balance, how come I don’t spend 3 hours a day for play — learning things you love, having non-competitive fun, just paying attention and being in the moment, and expressing love and joy in different ways!  Then I read a bit more of his post where he points out:

This leaves no time at all for urgent, unimportant actions:

• 0 hours a day doing work that isn’t one of the above types of activities
• 0 hours a day for administration, paperwork, ‘non-value-added’ work
• 0 hours a day driving to and from places
• 0 hours a day shopping
• 0 hours a day waiting
• 0 hours a day for chores
• 0 hours a day for small talk
• 0 hours a day for reading/watching/listening to mindless, unactionable stuff

Ok so now I get it!  But the first list is actually really useful.  I’m going to write down – perhaps tomorrow – how I would like to spend my days and track how well I do for a few weeks, actually for me (like Dave) it’s less about work life balance so much,  but more about balancing the Low High urgency and importance matrix. 

I’ve already posted on the topic a little Work less – achieve more, and my productivity category has more posts as well.

I do a lot of work while out walking,  normally this takes the form of phone calls, dictating notes, listening to recorded teleconferences and listening to PODCASTS.  While at home I found that I could scan my RSS feeds with my laptop resting on the handlebars of my exercise bike (which is in the living room).  Finally I often watch VidCasts or TV programmes downloaded using the BBC iPlayer while on the exercise bike.

However I have never managed to do any real computer input while on the go, so I was intrigued by this new workspace design from Steelcase.  I’ve seen custom designs like this before but this is the first productised walk station I’ve seen. 

I’m currently re-designing my office and I don’t think it will include a Walk Station as it would take up too much room, but it’s very likely that it will include an exercise bike.  I’m also seriously considering Dragon Naturally speaking to decouple me from my desk a bit more and reduce the reliance on my hands (shoulders, elbows, wrists).