Adventures in home working

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). 

I’m currently brainstorming ideas for my new home office,  I spend about 6 hours a day in it right now, so its the most important (time wise at least) space in my life.  Debbie and I currently share the room and I essentially have one quarter of the wall space, Debbie has two walls and the whole family share a wall of storage. 

Now that I have insulated, lit and boarded out the loft we have a lot more storage space and Debbie will soon be getting her own garden room, which will be part office, part craft space and part chill out space. 

Bottom line is that the room will become a real home office for me with lots of potential to create some more varied working environments, spread out a little, tidy up a lot etc. 

I’m currently looking for inspiration, good sources here:

1. Home office warrior setups
2. Scott Hanselman’s home office

but right now these are a few of the things on my mind:

1. a very comfy chair that I can relax in and read and work with my laptop on my lap
2. a small two seater sofa
3. an exercise bike
4. a coffee table where I can lay out books and magazines I am reading
5. a meditation cushion
6. some plants
7. an ioniser
8. new art
9. a larger central screen - I currently have three 19″ screens - but I work with a lot of large complex spreadsheets, presentation slides and documents and I would definitely benefit from more space probably 1600*1280 would do it
10. a 4th small 1024*768 screen for screen sharing on web conferences, many people still have 1024*768 laptops and this would provide them with the best experience.  My desktop has a spare video connection and I have a spare screen so it just space that stopping me
11. reduce the amount of wireless radiation in the room,  I currently have a wireless access point, 2 wireless laptops, a mobile phone and a DECT phone in the room and that’s a lot of radiation
12. more inspirational visibility of books
13. clearing the scanner and printer out of sight,  I hardly ever use them, but they are important for the rest of the family
14. a Polycom Skype communicator, once Polycom release Vista drivers

Strange though it might seem I think handling of audio is one of the weakest features of every SmartPhone I have ever had.  These are some of the things I want to do:

1. Listen to music or Podcasts, with automatic bookmarking so I don’t loose my place.  While listening I want to be able to interrupt my flow and without touching my phone (but I don’t mind pressing a button on my headset) I want to be able to:
1. Answer calls and pause my music
2. Make calls using voice recognition and pause my music
3. Listen to GPS instructions and pause my music
4. Take a voice note and pause my music
2. While on a call I want to be able to:
1. Be heard on a windy day or when there’s other background noise
2. Mute and un-mute that call without touching the phone, but again I don’t mind pressing a button on my headset
3. Record a segment of the call
4. Conference someone else into the call
3. While writing an email I want to be able to:
1. Record a voice note and email that instead of writing on the tiny keyboard

This article also provides some interesting future scenarios for audio, concentrating on the hardware and sharing of audio.  This article links to it and has a good comment thread.

Dave Pollard has a typically excellent post contrasting Knowledge Management 1.0 (which I remember being pushed at me, but thankfully resisted) and KM 2.0 that’s been inspired by the Internet and web 2.

I have two thoughts worth noting:

1. Things that work at Internet scale don’t always translate to the enterprise
2. Dave’s post doesn’t seem to put much emphasis on the information lifecycle, for example
1. blogs are a great way of narrating your work to improve ad-hoc collaboration between your known and unknown community of interest. 
2. However at some point information needs to be refined by collaborative effort and then maintained by other people (the original creators move on or loose interest) and wiki’s are better for that.

Looks like Microsoft is finally realising that custom workspaces is one of the keys to increasing employee productivity.  Rather than assuming that individual offices is the only - and best - way to work they are now moving to a building design that can evolve with the needs of the team. 

I like this idea, whilst I have never had the luxury of a budget that stretched to a personal office (except at home) I have always tried to:

1. give team members input into their office design
2. created environments that could be easily rearranged to suit the needs of the team at a particular point in time.  We found we rearranged our offices at least every 3 months
3. provided lots of different types of space, from quiet space, to ad-hoc meeting rooms, library areas, collaborative work areas and formal conference rooms

I’ve designed 4 Offices over my 20 years and it’s probably had more impact than anything else I ever did as a manager.

In the Microsoft Office design I particularly like the Atrium and the Coffee bar, but these are expensive and grandiose and you can do a lot even in the most basic of office buildings.