Running a Mobile Office

by James Durbin / Nov 19

The key is organization.   Power cords for phone and moible.  Planned WiFi access that works.  Picking a spot that has enough traffic to give you the buzz of people without having distractions.  And learning not to move to much.  There are substantial amounts of time taken in packing and moving, not to mention the time it takes to get in a groove to work.

Tips and tricks to the mobile office:

1) Pick small tasks you can easily accomplish.  If the mobility is temporary, stick to small tasks (checking e-mail, doing research, editing, social media) you can accomplish. You will have disruption, so pick tasks that you can easily start and stop.

2) Start working first.  If you’re at a coffee shop or gym, start working immediately.  Wait to get that first cup or snack until you’ve accomplished something.  This minimizes the time up and down.

3) Try to work on off hours.  It’s difficult to get space and a plug at a lot of places, and free wifi etiquette is to not have you there during busy times.  Find someplace you can work that you won’t get dirty looks, as it will affect your quality and focus.

4) Make the best use of the tools you have. I’ve started checking resumes sent by candidates using my iPhone, and using Text and Twitter to stay in touch with them when on the road.  The iPhone is faster than pulling out the laptop, and if I’m just skimming, I can do it in line, on the train, or in time that would normally be lost.  This counts as mobile, and frees me up to do more substantial knowledge worker actions back at the office.

5) Sync all your calendars and accounts.  This is a must.  Nothing is worse than having to drive back out to the office to check an appointment.  Sync contacts, calendars, spreadsheets, and have an extra e-mail where you forward important documents.

Commit to the mobile lifestyle.  Like all endeavors, successful mobility is really a matter of organization and habits.  If you can practice habits that maximize the time on the road, you can make full use of the time “in-between” the office and home.

Working With Mobile Groups:

The key to working with mobile groups is set-up and expectations.

1) Create a new calendar for the project, or if you’re working internally, sync your calendars.  Know when people can meet and when they are working.  Taking the time to set up calendars limits the need to check in with people to see if they are available.  Be diligent in making sure people use their calendars.  google Calendars or iCal on the Mac work great for this.

2) Instead of e-mails, consider using a blog.

Basecamp has some advantages, but it’s actually too complex for mobile projects.  A simple blog, with guest permissions for each person, allows you to send e-mails to everyone, leave comments, keep it simple, and track when and where conversations took place.

Blogs can be made private, and files can be added.  You can access ist from anywhere. Date and time stamps label everything, and you can break the blog into categories that are easily searched.  Speaking of search, blogs are easy to search. This eliminates forwards, cc’s, and long e-mails.  To Do lists can be updated.  At the end, you have a record of the project and who did what.  And everyone can use a blog.  For the record, I recommend Typepad.

Blogs are superior to almost every other kind of platform precisely because they’re simple.  Each category, comment, or the blog itself has an RSS feed which can be uploaded to readers and mobile devices, making the blog a higher priority to read instead of going through 300 emails.

*advanced note – don’t tell the users it’s a blog if there is resistance.  It’s a project management content system.   – A PMCS.  Total Cost:  $135 a year for unlimited blogs.

3) Skype Video.  Skype is free, and if your users are set up for it, can call and video conference each other for free.  I use this with candidates, clients, developers, and even to call my wife at home and look at my child.  iChat has the same functions, and it costs nothing.

4) Sharing Desktops.  GoToMeeting and WebEx, if you have accounts, are fantastic tools for sharing desktops and training.  This is good for meetings and webinars, but it’s also useful if you’re working with a developer and need him to see screen shots, examples, or user flow diagrams.  GotoMeeting is a monthly fee, allowing you to access it as much as you want, and share it with others.  You can show your own desktop, or allow the others to use it.  Great, great tool.  It also eliminates the “Where are you” questions in remote meetings.

5) Meebo:  Meebo chat rooms give you the ability to create quick, private chats.  While you can set people up using the same Yahoo Messenger or AIM accounts, if everyone has a different account, you can use Meebo to speak to everyone.  It works very well when you can’t speak, such as at conferences, or when you need some privacy (say a meeting when one of your people is waiting at the airport).

6) Keeping everyone together.  The challenges have always been setting up a system and agreeing to it.  Every failure we’ve had has been setting up an account on Basecamp, or a blog, or an IM client, and then not getting everyone on the same page from the beginning.  I would suggest finding out what people use, and then picking the one that most people are comfortable with.

7) When using outside consultants, there is the question of billing.  Too many consultants sit on conference calls not doing anything but billing, waiting for their turn to speak. Creating a decentralized system of listing your work is an effective way to limit phone meetings to check status.  That can save you 10-20% on labor costs.

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