I had to use the word ‘base’ in this article because where you work can mean so many different places these days, whether in an office, on-site, at home or on the road we all work in far more dynamic environments than in previous generations have done.
So I’ve been away from ‘base’ recently and although part of it was a holiday and part of it was work, I thought I’d share the technical aspects of my time away.
Days 1-10
Vendee, France, Two days on the road driving through Italy and France, led us to weeks proper holiday destination, lovely, but absolutely no Internet access what so ever. Luckily I had set up my Auto-responder to let people know my limited access and as per my previous post this let people know I really was ‘on holiday’.
Work was reduced to answering a few emails every few days.
Days 11-16
Lyme Regis, England, officially the holidays were over and we were staying with family, who at least had Internet access, this meant roughly 3 hours work per day. It was a quasi work time, there was no one client to focus attention on, but it allowed plenty of catching up on email, titbits and maintenance.
What was virtually impossible was to sit down and get proper work done. Being away from the ‘base’ meant trying to work in a strange environment. And that was tough.
Days 17-22
London, England, spending 4 weekdays meant I seized the opportunity to meet up with as many clients as possible averaging 4 per day, this was too much and time on the computer answering emails proved extraordinarily difficult, with an hour here and an hour to spare here, arriving back at base in time for Dinner or leaving straight after Breakfast meant no free time at all.
The real crux of the situation was travel, the time it took to attend meetings was amazing, public transport in London while functioning extremely well, took real time out of my day.
Thank goodness for my iPad and Virgin Internet who gave me free access to the Internet in Tube Stations.
Days 23-30
Dorset, England, back in the country things eased up a little and while I did visit a couple of clients time generally came back on my side and I was able to catch up a bit. Then the final two days were spent driving back to my ‘base’ in Italy.
Greatest Set Back
A couple of technological things, namely, I was surprised at the lack of Wireless Hotspots, UK Internet is definitely slower than Italy, and France was hopeless. I was also disappointed that it wasn’t easier to work in unknown environments. You need to be on a Mobile internet contract in the UK to get anything done.
I work from home and plenty of people ask me how I manage not to be distracted by life at home, the answer is familiarity and routine, these keep me on the straight and narrow and mean I am not easily distracted, the downside is that when out of my environment it was all the harder to do any constructive work.
Greatest Step Forward
Again sticking to technology – I found the iPad invaluable, albeit slower, working from an iPad was indeed possible and I was able to do most of my email via this method when I could connect. I particularly enjoyed getting online in public places the few times I was able to.
Overall, with absolute honesty, while I was on holiday I achieved exactly the amount of work I expected, but when I was officially working I was sorely disappointed by the amount I was able to get done. It’s not an experience I would like to repeat.
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