EMBRACE THE SMARTPHONE
You don’t need to become a full-fledged
Crackberry addict to enjoy the benefits
of a Smartphone of some kind. It just
isn’t an option anymore. I use a Droid,
others love their iPhones, and still others
use Blackberry. While it shouldn’t hijack
your life, it’s an invaluable tool while
you’re riding in a taxi, sitting at the gate,
or taking a quick break at your program.
Use your downtime to keep up with
email and keep up with the office; it’s
comforting to know it isn’t piling up
while you’re away.
However, I’ve discovered your phone
can still leave you hanging when you
least expect it. Unable to get reception from my hotel room or an Internet
connection (to use Skype), I’ve had to
resort to using the hotel land line, which
can be absurdly expensive. So grab a
$10 prepaid phone card or calling card
service to make needed calls from your
room without racking up phone charges
or wandering around the parking lot
searching for a signal.
USE A THUMB DRIVE
What’s tiny, inexpensive and just might
save your speech? Answer: A thumb drive.
It’s an emergency backup for files essential to your trip. If your laptop is stolen,
your battery is fried, or you come face-to-face with the infamous Blue Screen of
Death, you’ll have a backup of the presentation you came so far to deliver. I had a
computer refuse to start up once, but was
able to load my presentation to the client’s
laptop and carry on. Or use skydrive.
com to upload to the cloud. Also make
sure to set up remote access to your office
files and programs on your computer with
logmein.com or gotomypc.com, just in
case. If can get to the Internet, you can
operate your computer as if it were right
in front of you.
SIMPLIFY WITH A DOCKING STATION
Do you transfer files between your desktop
and laptop computers when you hit the
road? This was one of my biggest frustrations, until I stopped using a desktop
altogether. Unless your work requires
some serious computer resources, use your
laptop as your CPU with a docking station
(Dell has some nice options). You’ll still
keep your nice big monitor and full-size
keyboard in the office. When it’s time to
fly, you simply pop your laptop out of the
dock, slip it into your briefcase, and have
all your same files in one place. It’s the best
of both worlds. Ruby Newell-Legner, CSP,
doesn’t dock, but swears by dropbox.com
to keep her files synced between desktop
and laptop.
USE THE LATEST TOOLS AND TECHNOLOGY
Get the necessary tools to stay in touch
with your home and office, so you
never use the lame excuse, “I was on
the road.” By keeping up with phone
calls, email, and clients while traveling,
you won’t have a pile of work waiting
for you when you return. I use a
hosted Microsoft Exchange service, so
Outlook is the same on my Droid, my
laptop, and any computer in our office.
My staff can check my calendar and
email remotely and add appointments
and tasks. With Exchange, you’ll only
have to process email once (instead of
reading it on webmail and then pulling
it into Outlook when you return to
your desktop).
CARRY A POCKET FOLDER OR PORTFOLIO
Conference materials, client notes,
receipts and articles can all end up
mangled, mixed up or lost if you don’t
keep everything together and organized
until you get back from your trip. Print
a separate envelope for receipts for each
gig, so they don’t get mixed up. For
multi-day conferences, like NSA, use a
seven-pocket folder to keep documents
separated by day.
