Webcraft Studios

I love to travel. I want Webcraft to support a mobile work life for both myself and anyone who comes along for the ride in the future. I thought I would take a moment and blog about the value of a mobile office and some tips I’ve been learning along the way.

To me and many others, a mobile work life is freedom. I’ve spent far too many days looking out of an office window admiring the beautiful day that was passing by as I worked. A couple of weeks ago, I was working from a barstool in a little Mexican surf town called Sayulita. A couple of years ago, the town completely lacked an ATM or any medical facilities. Even then, there were several places in town to get online. While I was there, I would catch up on work in between surf sessions and delicious meals. It’s a completely different way to live life.

Being able to telecommute also tends to be very green. You don’t have to drive to an office. In fact, you don’t even have to have an office. If you do, you can get by with a lot smaller office. That means less energy usage. In fact, mobile technology (such as laptops) tend to be far more efficient than most office equipment. There’s also the often forgotten cost of climate control. If your office runs the A/C, it’s creating a heat signature. And, did you leave the A/C on at home for the cat?

Mobility also gives you the advantage - and responsibility - of choosing when you work. I’ve noticed some telecommuters will still stick to a very tight 9-5 schedule. This is great if you want to be actively working and available when all of the office gnomes are being productive. It also creates a sense of structure so you know when you’re at work and when you’re not.

Conversely, I’ve noticed that other telecommuters are “always at work” and still “always at play”. This comes down to a lifestyle choice - and you might find it harder to manage than you think. For some, it’s easy to get so caught up in work that must get done - that they forget to play. For others, playing is so fun, they fail to get enough work done. In fact, the topic is so popular that there are a number of great books written around the topic including: The Four Hour Work Week, Getting Things Done, and Bit Literacy.

Over the years, I’ve found that the best way to manage a mobile work life is with a goal orientated business model rather than an hours based system. This can be difficult as we normally value a service based on the amount of time it takes to accomplished multiplied by some hourly rate. However, consider that rarely will any given task take two people the same amount of time to accomplish. With that in mind, you can see where a goal based system actually makes more sense.

I’ve often used project management tools such as activeCollab and Basecamp to break projects down and establish a milestone schedule. More recently, I’ve been using basic task tracking tools that are little more than feature rich to-do lists. While I’ve found the interface to be incongruent to the way I prefer to work, Remember the Milk is an excellent example.

For Webcraft, I’ve also put a strong focus on choosing browser based tools. For example, the previously mentioned Google Apps decision provided excellent mobility support.

Ultimately, the biggest decisions affecting mobility for Webcraft have more to do with “what” the work is. Digital Theatrics is the ultimate mobile job. Most of the work can be done with nothing more than a Web browser. An employee could potentially do a full days work via their mobile phone. To me, this is very exciting.

As I sit in this busy coffee shop on Folsom street, surrounded by laptop screens buzzing with wireless connectivity, I suspect that this trend of mobile computing may very well be in its infancy.

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