Wherever I go, there I work (and play)

Take a walk with me through the woods while I debate whether having a smartphone and data plan are worth it for me. While trying to simplify, cut down distractions, and lessen the noise in my daily life, I am unsure if having a web-enabled device in my pocket at all times is necessarily a good thing.

For some, it’s a requirement. But I work from home or wifi-enabled public locations. If I’m neither of those places, I don’t want to be working or tempted to work. I want to be catching fish, focusing on my family, or just enjoying whatever moment is presented to me.

There are three main areas where I question whether having the web available at all times is good for me:

1. I want to spend less time on the internet, not more. By subscribing to a monthly data plan, I’d feel like I was wasting my money if I wasn’t using it.
2. I’m trying to reduce the number of “in-boxes” in my life and the number of times I check my email daily. Mobile web/email would add at least one more.
3. When I’m not working, I want to focus on not working. If I’m in my canoe, going for a hike, or out on a date with my wife, I want to enjoy those things for what they are at that moment, not how they’ll sound in a Twitter update.

What do you think? If you use a web-enabled smartphone, does it simplify your life?

We’re all different and what works for one person might not work for another. I’m just debating what makes sense for my lifestyle today. Smartphones are everywhere and I even had one for a short while a few years ago. I realized it didn’t make sense for me then and I’m still not sure if I really need one. I’m the AnywhereMan, not the EverywhereMan.

And yes, I will probably change my mind on all of this next week.

You hear me talk about tools, apps, practices, etc that are helpful to working from anywhere, but today I share a piece of equipment that is absolutely essential to my life as the AnywhereMan.

What are the essentials for you to be able to work from wherever you want?

What are you going to do today?

This is the question you should be answering each and every morning whether it’s a work day or a personal day. In the last post I challenged to you to list something you wanted to get better at in 2010. Well how do you do that? It needs to be part of your daily routine if it’s going to be an area of improvement. Today I talk about that concept.

Apologies for the bit of out-of-focus look to this video. I didn’t have my camera on the close-up setting…great feature to have unless you forget to use it!

Be safe tonight, everyone, and tomorrow start your day by completing the sentence, “Today I’m going to _______.”

If you are operating a one-person business like I do, who keeps you motivated? Who makes sure you are completing things on time and not slacking off?

It’s all you.

Sometimes I feel like the absolute King of Slacking Off but I’ve come to the realization that if I keep enough “fun” things spread out through my projects (especially big projects), the excitement will linger throughout the parts of the project that I might not normally enjoy that much. This helps me stay motivated, focused, and on-task.

What keeps you fresh and excited during various phases of a big project or the day-to-day routine?

Are you motivated today?

Living the Anywhere Lifestyle requires a lot of motivation. We don’t have managers literally looking over our shoulders to keep us on task like we did in days at a corporate office. 

As a freelancer, it’s basically just me and my clients. While client deadlines and payments on invoices are often incentive enough, it still takes motivation to put the time in on my in-house projects, bookkeeping, self-education, blogging, and planning out the direction of my business.  Nobody is there to do these things for me or cover for me if I take time off. It’s all my responsibility.

A few weeks ago I watched an excellent clip by one of my favorite personalities, Gary Vaynerchuk.  In the segment he discussed his belief that enourmous talent is not enough.  He believes that hard work and “hustle” can be  just as important as your talent level. In addition to having the talent, you need to have the attitude and drive of a winner.

I love hearing this stuff. It gets me pumped up. In fact, I’ve heard someone else say something very similar. Who else could it be but the original Gary V…

Ted Nugent.

(Please stay with me here)

Some of you know that I play guitar. I even played in a few bands back in the day. I taught myself how to play electric guitar by listening to classic rock albums, reading guitar magazines, and watching instructional videos. The best instructional video I’ve ever seen was by Ted Nugent. It contained a valuable piece of rock and roll guitar-playing advice I have never forgotten:

While skill, nice guitars, and loud amps are nice, it’s all about attitude.

(Really it is – if you’re a guitarist, go pick up that thing and pretend you’re a hyper-macho Ted Nugent clone. You’ll be an instantly better guitarist.)

In the video, Ted shreds through some mean riffs and then goes on to talk about just returning from 39 days in the swamp, not having touched a guitar that entire time.  He talks about “diversionary tactics” and escaping once in a while to “re-align the attitude.”  Basically, to Ted, attitude is every bit as important as skill and talent.

See, when you look at it that way, it sounds like Vaynerchuk, doesn’t it?  

I agree with both of these guys.  From a freelancer’s standpoint, I do my best work when I have a driving attitude.  If that starts to slip, sometimes you can just keep going with what you are doing and it’ll come back. But, like Ted says, sometimes it’s good to try some diversionary tactics.

If I’m working on multiple projects at once, I’ll step aside from my current project and go take a look at another.  If my schedule is dominated by one major project, a lot of times I’ll step back for an hour or two and just plan on putting in some time after my kids are in bed that night.  (and actually I find this is when I do my best work) Even music can be a good tactic. What pumps you up or gets you in the zone? Fire it up in iTunes!

Evaluate your attitude today. If you find it starting to slip, experiment with different ways to get re-charged.

Talent is important. Tools are important.

Attitude is essential.

PS – I did manage to find the most valuable five minutes of Ted’s video on YouTube. Entertainment, hustle, and motivation at it’s finest.

 

In an effort to make this site as honest and transparent as it can possibly be, I’m going to ask for your help.  I have a home office. I have a desk. I have a filing cabinet. Yet look at all this stuff:

Help me.

I would love to hear what type of system you use to not only file paper documents, but what you do with your data backups on CD/DVD, post-it notes, books, pens & pencils, checkbooks, etc.  What organization plan is the quickest to learn and implement? I don’t have a week to devote solely to organizing. I need to be able to pick it up on the fly.

What system has worked best for you? Please share some insight.

I’m going to try something new and I think it would be great to detail my progress here on AnywhereMan. Hey, it could be fun. The funny thing is, my digital workspace (email, digital files, etc) is way more organized than my physical workspace.

Seriously…help.

Thanks everyone!