AnywhereMan

As many of you know, these days I am primarily getting my work done from the coworking space that I helped start here in Grand Rapids, MN. It’s been a huge plus for me in my freelancing lifestyle. The wifi is fast, the smack-dab-in-the-center-of-town location is ideal, the people are fantastic, and it gets me out of my home and into the hustle and bustle of the “real” working world.

However, lately I’ve been finding that it still does me some good to switch things up on a regular basis. If I get into too much of a pattern doing the same thing over and over, I tend to get restless.

As a result of that, I’ve been making it a goal to take advantage of the times when my wife and kids are gone and do some work at our dining room table. Or I’ll go back to the old standby and head over to the coffee shop for a few hours. It’s amazing how just switching things up a little stimulates my focus and helps me become more productive and/or creative.

So while I’m doing 90% of my work at CommonSpace, being able to change things up here and there keeps me from getting into too much of a predictable pattern.

How about you? Do you like things to be the same each day or do you like to move around a little bit?

If you’ve been following AnywhereMan over the past few months, you know that I’ve been working with the local Chamber of Commerce to create a coworking space in our town. We’re now up and running and I’ve spent the past few weeks calling CommonSpace home…or home office…or whatever.

My initial response: It’s awesome.

I still technically have an office at home but honestly haven’t even used it since I’ve had the key to CommonSpace. There are a few trends I’ve noticed since I’ve been doing the coworking thing:

• I get up earlier in the morning and get ready right away…no PJ-wearing until noon.
• When I go home for lunch each day, I actually relax. I don’t rush to get back to work, and I don’t have work on my mind the whole time.
• I feel a lot more socially connected and I’ve had the chance to meet a lot of new folks.
• My kids notice when I leave and when I get home, and they’re a lot more excited to be with me at the end of the day.
• I’ve been more productive.

Now, I did spend a few days working from home last week as my family was out of town. I still did not use my actual office and instead set up shop in our living room. Right away I reverted back to sleeping in a bit later, waiting until late morning to get ready for the day, etc.

I’m not saying that coworking is absolutely better than working from home, but so far it’s definitely been a positive experience. One of the only negatives is that I’ve blogged less and done fewer of my videos. I would like to find a way to work video blogging on a regular basis back into the equation and I think I’ve got a few ideas.

I encourage you to look into coworking as an option if you need to give your daily routine a bit of a jump-start. At CommonSpace, we’ve got a membership level that allows you to come in two days per week for $75/month.  Adding some office-time to your schedule might be enough of a change-up to improve the time you spend working from home.

As for that home office? It may be converted to a bedroom soon so my girls can each have their own room. I will still want a quiet place to get work done at home so you may be seeing the birth of the cloffice (closet + office). Stay tuned.

Don’t take that title the wrong way. I love what I do and where I do it. The Anywhere Lifestyle wins hands-down over the cubicle lifestyle 99 out of 100 times in my book.

But sometimes there are minor things I miss about my days working in an office environment…sort of. This is my tribute to those days and those people.

1 – Talking about football on Monday mornings

Wherever I’ve worked, most of the people there have been Vikings fans. Monday morning conversations have either helped soothe the wound of a wicked loss or sweeten the taste of a hard-fought victory for the purple. Now that I’m on my own, I’ve suppressed my emotions after the 31-28 loss to the Saints in the NFC championship game this past season. You know I’m headed for a complete breakdown at some point.

2 – Having people to laugh at YouTube videos with me

I can do a perfect imitation of the look on my wife’s face when I tell her to come and watch something funny on YouTube. She knows two things: 1) It’s going to be stupid, and 2) I’m going to laugh way harder than she is. This was not the case with my co-workers back in the office days. It was all funny, all the time.

3 – The intercom system

My years spent working for Vencio in St. Paul had all of the main staff working in one big front office area. We each had a cubicle but could talk to each other without leaving our desks. Yet, when we got a new phone system and it included intercom functionality, you just had to use it even if you were mere feet away from each other. Intercom systems are awesome.

4 – Inside jokes

Uhhhhh, intercom systems are awesome. Yeah. Fart machine.

5 – The camaraderie of sharing experiences that don’t make sense

Things happen that you’d never believe unless you had co-workers there to experience them with you.  Once, a gentleman walked in and asked if we made websites, which we did. He then proceeded to tell us what he needed. Sounded good. Then he told us it was for a particular “adult” website. Sorry, sir, out of luck here.

Seriously, why would you go to a web development company in person to ask about something like that??? Phone and email are just fine, buddy.

6 – Games

This actually gave me the idea for this post. My wife and I watched the Season 3 episode of The Office when Jim was working at the Stamford branch. He and his co-workers would spend time playing against each other in a first-person shoot-em-up computer game. I’ve done that a few times. We had a basketball hoop behind the building at one point too. It was fun when we all would realize at the same time how pathetic we were.

7 – Friday afternoons

There’s something enjoyable about getting ready to leave for the weekend that puts everyone in a good mood. I had a co-worker that always cranked up the same song every Friday at around 4 PM. We always knew it was coming. We pretended to be annoyed, but it was a celebration of about-to-get-out-of-here-ness. We usually accompanied it with a good bit of fart machine as well.

8 – Co-workers that make you go huh

At every company I’ve ever worked for, there’s always been at least one employee that makes everyone else just go “huh.” Just think about your time in an office. There’s always someone who is just a little on the whacky side and you feel kind of lucky to have experienced their views on life and nicotine-addicted deer.

Is there anything you miss about your days in the cubicle? Or do you get all of the above situations at home already?

I don’t remember where I first learned this trick, but in today’s video I show you how I clean my keyboards, computers, and related components. No need for a can of air or a big, heavy air compressor. You might just have this useful tool in your garage.

My keyboard was definitely due for a good cleaning.

My wife and I moved to Grand Rapids, MN in early 2006 after spending our time previous to that in the Twin Cities. I had been working at a small marketing services firm in St. Paul and ended up taking a job with an even smaller web company based up here. After a few months of getting settled in, my old company wanted me to come back to work for them and offered to rent me an office in Grand Rapids with a telework arrangement. I took it.

Today I was reminiscing on the year and a half of teleworking (I was still calling it telecommuting at the time, which it was, but I like “telework” better). I’m glad I did it, and it was my eventual leap into the Anywhere Lifestyle. Here are a couple of simple things I learned when contrasting my time there versus the way I live my life now as a freelancer.

Desktop computers are not ideal for the Anywhere Lifestyle

During my time working from my remote office, I used a custom-built PC with a VPN connection to our company’s network.  Obviously I couldn’t take my machine with me to places like Caribou (which is where I am right now). I could connect to my machine remotely using LogMeIn (which works great!), but connecting to a machine that is then remotely connect to another just isn’t ideal.

Notebook computers are simply the way to go, unless you never want to go ANYWHERE.

I have more human interaction working from home than an office

Though I sometimes complain about the kiddie-noise when working from home, I definitely have more human interaction there are opposed to the office I had previously.  My office was located on the lower level of a building which included a dentist office and counseling center. Neither of those were social hangouts…obviously. There was another person with an office on my level, but she was an insurance adjuster and rarely in the office. I also was not an active member of Twitter or Facebook at the time. It was not the most socially stimulating environment. Not that my home is either, but the option to escape to coffee, lunch, or the library and hang out with others is much better.

Cleaning a home office is easier

Well, for one, my wife is fantastic and really keeps our home clean. Hey, don’t yell at me – she stays at home and manages the family and I stay at home and run a business. Back to the point: when I had my own office, I had to keep it clean, and by that I mean I had to clean it. Yep, I did that about twice the entire time. I also had to supply my own cleaning products and supplies. Again, I only needed them about two times.  Well, needed might not be the right word since they were “needed” more than they were “used.”  The point is, the office didn’t get cleaned much.
These are just some random memories I had regarding my time working from a remote office. I enjoyed the company I worked for and what I was doing, but I will admit I am enjoying my time working from home and elsewhere. It’s good to take time to compare situations as you make changes in your life.

Okay I did this a few days ago,  but I put the tips that Stacy Kaplan shared into practice and organized not only my desk but the rest of my office. So far I’m LOVING the space and organization I’ve unveiled.  Here are photos of the process. By the way, I definitely spent longer than the 15 minutes Stacy recommended but I plan on doing a 15 minute mini-organization session on a weekly basis.

The start…or what I like to call “The Non-Blank Canvas”:

I actually started by clearing the whiteboard.  I was originally using it to write down my upcoming project schedule, but am now keeping to clear for daily planning:

Notice the new hanging file basket on the desk. Folders for “To File”, “To Pay”, “Receipts”, etc.

Stacy recommended recycling/purging a variety of documents and papers. Here’s just one of the things I purged (a birthday card). What drove me to even have this on my desk???

Does anyone still use a Franklin planner?

This I DO use…a lot! It’s my mini “Idea Book” where I write down any entrepreneurial-type ideas I get. It’s got notes, diagrams, and all sorts of top-secret stuff. I keep it on my desk, and it will stay on my desk. If you break into my house, just steal this and leave all my other stuff. It’s worth WAY more.

And here’s the final result: A clean desk, organized files (see the hanging file case I keep beneath my desk), blank whiteboard, and room to get stuff done!

Seriously, I’m loving the clean, organized desk setup. Thanks to all of you who sent in your own pictures, too! I’ll be drawing a winner of the Freshbooks shirt in the next week or so.  For those of you that haven’t commented with a picture of your desk, there’s still time to win!

Also, today is Blog Action Day, a date set aside on an annual basis to get people blogging about the same topic.  This year’s topic is climate change. Now as I type this, it is snowing here in MN and it’s been cold cold cold for the past month.  However, this is just my tiny little corner of the world. I’m well aware that other areas of the world may be experiencing a warmer, drier, or wetter climate than normal. Politics aside, it’s something we at least need to keep an eye on. Check out the Blog Action Day site and read some of the other things people have posted on their blogs.