The Mobile Office

"The bicycle, the bicycle surely, should always be the vehicle of novelists and poets."  --Christopher Morley 

I have waited a long time to write this one. I consult to medium to large companies in my work. It’s challenging, stressful and rewarding. I also love to ride bicycles. Riding for me is the opposite of my work. My working rides emphasize comfort over speed. I have learned how to “relax my eyes” and appreciate the “here and now.” Riding and working are the ultimate paradox exercise. I am learning how to live with my own contradictions.

I have a very flexible schedule that I love. I have been at this for over 25 years now. I have wanted a way to combine biking with my office and I have worked at this long term. I am happy to announce, the time is now! 

Here are some of the ways I manage my workflow and manage to get a great ride in every day. I have a few tools that are essential and they help me to keep everything within my immediate reach to serve my clients.

I am an Apple fan always have been, so the tools I will mention will be Apple products. However, I am sure you can do all of what works for me with Android. We now live in an app world, I believe the web is dead, and soon everything will be Html5. Connectivity and collaboration will be part of our future by design and by necessity.  The best part though, it can all work seamlessly with a bicycle.

I have to mention the bike. My office bike is not your regular bicycle. It’s a recumbent one of those laid-back, sit on, put your feet in the air bikes. And it’s not just a recumbent. I love the long wheelbase recumbent for office work. At any moment, the iPhone rings, I can stop the bike, pull off to the side, put my feet down and answer the call as if I am in my office chair. This recumbent also has an under the seat steering mechanism which makes it easy to balance the bike when travelling very slow. A Tumi bag mounts on the seat behind and carries all of my tools. It’s a virtual mobile communications center.

My main tool is the iPad-2. I have Wi-Fi and cellular connections. I don’t miss a call or an email wherever I travel. I live by certain apps that help me to keep it all together. My favorite organizers are Omni Focus and Google+. For my business, I gave up on Facebook. I find it is too distracting and bloated with too many ads. I like Google+ because I can target select circles of clients for sending and receiving critical information.

I maintain a fairly consistent discipline. I put together my daily list a-la David Allen in “Getting Things Done.” Next I take my morning ride. As I ride, I think of other things - riding creates a great way to meditatively go through my day. When new thoughts come to mind, I can stop by French Creek, reach into my vest, pull out my iPhone and dictate the thought. If I want, and it’s a nice day, I can sit on the rocks by the river and practice my Mandarin for an hour. Siri promises to change this workflow a bit, as I will be able to talk to my phone.

The endorphins I produce help to give me an optimistic view of the world, and seem to open me up to new possibilities. The iPhone saves important thoughts for processing after my ride. It all works seamlessly through iCloud. Computing and commuting are one. I can exercise my body, do my work, and even get in a few errands, all the while keeping my carbon footprint small.

Back at home, I assemble my random thoughts and hit the office seriously, relaxed and refreshed. On the road, I can travel with a bike as well. I trade in the recumbent for a folder that fits in a suitcase. A lot of my work consists of helping my clients with innovation. I practice innovation and innovation is my practice. The bike / iPad / iPhone combination works well! If you see me out there multi-processing on my recumbent, please do not honk. It disturbs my wa.

Rain is one problem I don’t have a great answer for yet, but I am working on it. If you have other thoughts on how you innovate in your daily life. I’d love to hear from you.