Sometimes working both at home and in the office just isnt enough, and you find yourself hunkered over deadlines during the daily commute as well. Consider these tips for working safely and efficiently on the bus, train, plane or in your own car.
Hands-free Calling
Using a cell phone while driving is extremely dangerous. Everyone knows it, but its tempting to make calls anyway when the only free time you may have is spent behind the wheel. Still, keep car calling to emergencies if possible. If you must drive and dial, use a hands-free setup that includes a voice-dialing feature and headset.
Conserve Battery Power
Power trains and planes are great places to catch up on work, but what if your notebook doesnt have the stamina to get you through the trip? Mark Myers, a marketing communications manager for Van Buren, Ark.-based Lois Law, travels frequently. To make my laptop battery last, he says, I use it for a specific purpose. I only open one program, do my work, and shut it down.
Other ways to eke out more battery life include enabling power-management feature and turning off your laptops sound. Also consider investing in a spare battery, and dont forget to recharge it the day before you travel or return.
Secure Your Data
The two hours I spend on the bus daily are completely productive, says Steven Wright-Mark, president of the interactive division of Manhattan-based Schwartz Public Relations. But Wright-Mark is also aware of how fragile computer data is, so he makes periodic saves and frequent backups the norm. He recommends, buying a laptop with a modular expansion by suitable for an Iomega Zip or other removable backup drive, so you can save your work at the end of each and every computing session.
Public transportation is also, well, public, which means you should be aware of who is nearby. Its not like I work at the Pentagon, Wright-Mark says, but I often do work with confidential files. Be wary of prying eyes-you never know who might be sitting behind you.
Serenity Now
Working while you commute can make time pass more quickly, but background noise can be an overpowering distraction. To drown out travel sounds, bring along a pair of headphones and listen to an audio CD in your notebooks CD-ROM drive or play MP3 songs stored on its hard disk. Just remember, though audio eats up battering life.
Work Offline
Just because you dont have an Internet connection doesnt mean you cant get work done on the train or in a plane. Synchronize your e-mail client with your laptop before you head out, and use the computer to answer a full days worth of messages while on the road. When you return, you can upload your mail and send it off in one batch when you reconnect to the office LAN. Wright-Mark brags, Ive even updated our company Web site while traveling, and then FTPd the files to the server when I got back to the office
Excerted from:
Home Office Computing (CurtCo FREEDOM Group)
www.hoc.smalloffice.com from all editions, 1999-2000 |