AnywhereMan

Did you ever see the clip of comedian Louis CK talking to Conan O’Brien about how everything is amazing, yet nobody’s happy? If you haven’t seen it, take a few minutes to watch it before reading the rest of this post. First of all, it’s hilarious, and second, it’s 100% true.

Two nights ago I realized how amazing things are. Specifically, I realized how amazing it is that I can do what I do and interact with the people I do.

I was sitting in our local Caribou Coffee getting some extra work done for the day. Okay, first amazing thing: I was getting work done from the place that serves my favorite coffee. Caribou is awesome, and the only thing more amazing that being able to get work done there would be for them to give me my own dedicated Dave-only table that I could use all-day every day. I think I’m pushing my luck, so I’ll continue…

The second amazing thing was that I was having a few conversations on the side using Twitter. Just think about that: I am able to have casual conversations with folks, most of whom I’ve never met, who are hundreds and thousands of miles away. Twitter is an amazing tool. I’ve met many new friends and clients using the platform, and I’ll say it again: it really is the world’s largest water cooler.

Okay let’s continue down the social media path for a second. Not only is Twitter amazing, but the social media concept in general is amazing. It’s so flippin’ easy to find folks with the same interests, hobbies, career, and concerns as you. It’s so easy to keep in touch with people you haven’t seen in years. Personally, there are a ton of past friends I interact with on Facebook that I might never have talked to again just because of geography and losing touch. It’s amazing!

Lately I’ve been making it a point to use Skype a lot more. It’s been much easier on my MacBook than it ever was on my PC, for some reason. Skype is amazing. I feel like I’m almost in the same room as the person I’m talking to. It blows my mind! Tuesday night I was on Skype with a friend (from Twitter, whom I’ve never met in person) and he was on the road for his job. He jokingly said that if I was the AnywhereMan, he was the EverywhereMan. Having Skype allows him to interact with his wife and son in a way that’s a lot more personal than just an audio-only phone call. It’s not a replacement for actually being there, but it sure helps.

Any plain old chat application is amazing. When I was sitting at Caribou on Wednesday night, a chat message from my wife popped up in Google Talk. “Did you unhook the computer from the TV?” she asked. Being able to ask that question with just a quick little message versus a disruptive phone call is pretty slick. And yes, we’ve got an old Dell PC hooked to our TV and we watch our Hulu shows on it each week. That is also amazing.

Finally, the Work Anywhere concept is blow-my-mind amazing. I sit in the basement office of my small house in Grand Rapids and shape and mold the interwebs for clients who are mostly NOT in Grand Rapids. In fact, the largest concentration of Lift Development clients is actually in California. I’m in my shorts right now prepping to do some work for a bunch of them, my kids are upstairs playing, my wife is making coffee, and that is just plain amazing to me.

While there are always plenty of things to bum us out, focus on the little amazing things you might have never taken notice of in the past.

What’s amazing in your life?

Even if you don’t have a Work Anywhere career, there are still plenty of amazing things if you just look around. If I still had to commute these days, I guarantee being able to automatically download podcasts to my iPod Touch on a daily basis and listen to them during the drive would be among my list of amazing-ness. In fact, I kind of miss that…just a little bit.

There is a lot of talk today about all the snow out east. I live in Minnesota so I know what it’s like. I used to absolutely hate getting a big dose of snow. Nowadays, I say BRING IT ON.

Let me first just say that the past two winters I’ve finally had the luxury of owning a snow blower…it makes a huge difference in how I view snowstorms. I don’t dread shoveling…and shoveling…and shoveling. Now I view snow as an excuse to see how far I can possibly launch it. I can hit my neighbor’s yard with it, no problem.

The second reason I don’t mind them as much anymore is that I work at home. Back when I commuted, a snowstorm meant driving under very stressful conditions for a period of 2-3 times the normal length of time it would normally take to get to work. I absolutely hated that. Also, after a long day of working/commuting, I’d arrive home to…you guessed it…shoveling snow. I’ll also mention that it would be dark when I left in the morning, and dark when I got home. What is the point of this, people?!

Once again, working from home is awesome. I’ll get up, head down to my office with fresh coffee, work for a while, and if the snow has let up, I’ll go out and fire up the John Deere whenever I feel like it. I’ll take the time to marvel at the beauty of the snow in the trees, maybe snap a few pictures, and maybe even play with my daughters and build a snowman. Then, back to work and back to remembering yet another reason that I love what I do and where I do it.

Working from Anywhere is great, and yet not having to go anywhere else has it’s advantages too.

I usually spend a morning or afternoon here and there each week working from coffee shops, cafes, or anywhere else wifi is available. This week my home office was not an option so I spent three days in a row working elsewhere. Here are three things I noticed about the days spent working in public, plus a bonus tip for coffee lovers at the end.