Simplicity Is Bliss

I have covered aspects of how I work on this blog so I thought it was time to talk a bit about where I work. The environment we work in is influencing the result of our work and consequently the success we all strive for nearly as substantial as the methodology we apply and the tools we use to get the work done. My work often involves traveling around Europe and I tweeted about how my MacBook Air 11” became my perfect travel companion. When not on some plane or train I have the opportunity to work from my company’s local office, which is 20 minutes by public transport or 40 minutes by bike, or from my home office. In interest of my family life I try to balance work locations and depending on travel days throughout the week I decide to have the remaining days either at the local office or at home. If there is a lot of travel, I typically work the rest of the week from home, safe the commute and spend more time with my wife and kids.

Corporate Office

That said particular in spring and summer time I quite enjoy getting on my Canyon mountain bike in the morning and pedal to our downtown office (and the same back in the evening). Because of this I also take only my MacBook Air with me, protected by a robust Booq Viper case, as it perfectly fits by Camelbak biking backpack. The backpack also carries casual business clothes to wear in the office. I take the 13km bike ride serious and only bike in full gear. Luckily my CIsco office features a shower so I can get a refresh and change clothes on arrival. I also usually don’t have customer meetings at my local office and hence I can afford to dress down a bit. Our office is located downtown of Stuttgart, which is one awesome location. Many offices in Europe tend to be in some remote business park or close to the airport, so I am quite fortunate to have a spot in the middle of the city. One key advantage is that you indeed leave the office for a while over lunch and that helps your mind to unwind, at least temporarily. Consequenly I am typically quite productive after the lunch break. It is also convenient to drop out the office to get your dry cleaning, do some last minute groceries or get a gift. Like in many new and modern offices these days we don’t have fixed, personal workplaces and basically need to pick one every morning we come into the office. Typically you still end up at the same desk or at least in the same area of the office. Being at the local office is always a good chance to socialise with other colleagues and hence you to tend to pick a desk which is typically surrounded with people you like chatting with. Working for a large organisation most people I meet in the office are working in other parts of our business. As visits to the office are irregular these days, those members of my business line/team located in Stuttgart agreed to make Tuesday the “office day”. This means we’ll make all efforts to be in the office on Tuesdays - only travel, vacation or sickness counts as a valid excuse. The office is just about two years old and features the latest and greatest in workspace interior design. I believe we are truly gifted to have such an environment, which inspires me personally to think and work more creative. There is a combination of very connected, but still separated desks in an open plan layout and small ‘focus’ rooms and meeting areas you can go to anytime you need a change of environment or privacy for certain phone calls. Some of the relaxed seating areas and one room where you can stand while working are amongst my favorites. Also TelePresence and Video Conferencing rooms are readily available for audio-visual meetings with colleagues from around the world. The desks themselves are minimal: You will find power and network plugs (although there is perfect WiFi coverage in the entire office) and a Cisco IP Phone which allows you to login using your credentials. This is quite handy since your office number is available to you everywhere across the globe. We also have things like single number reach and iPhone mobile clients, which does make the whole telephony stuff a lot easier. I can also take public transport straight to the office (there is a station in the basement of the building) or my car for which we have free access to a parking lot close to the office, but when the weather and my schedule allows I stick to the bike. Advantage and disadvantage at the same time is that I need to leave the office on time to be home for dinner with the family, which usually means I can’t do calls after 6pm. Which, honestly, is a mostly an advantage.

Home Office

The commute is much shorter: 60 seconds into the basement. This is why after intensive periods of travel I tend to work out of my home office. Time saved on the commute normally goes to 50% back into work and 50% back into family. While there is no big city centre to pick a lunch place, some small shops are close by and I enjoy cooking my own quick and mostly healthy lunch in my own kitchen. But compared to the city office I tend to have a shorter lunch break and at times even eat in front of the computer, which is not good. I am generally more focussed on work since I obviously don’t have the interruption you get when working in an open plan environment where people just drop by your desk. But than again I miss exactly that every now and then dependent on the task at hand, I suppose. Interruption is not always negative. My home office is full of gear, but I am basically working of a MacBook Pro 15.4” which is permanently mounted in a TwelveSouth BookArc stand and attached to 24” Samsung display. You can learn a bit more about my setup on the Colophon page and explore my home office design in this Flickr album. The design of my home office is something I worked on for quite a while. The wall color was something which I chewed on for a long time in particular as it had to match the basement situation, but I also understand certain colors have a psychological effect on you and your productivity and focus. While the pictures suggest my home office is all red, it actually is just one wall. In terms of furniture I could have spent a fortune on top end designer gear (and I was ready for it), but then decided to give myself the challenge to buy all furniture at IKEA and find out if I can still maintain a high quality look and feel. I am very happy with the result. Again I am fortunate that my employer provides everyone with a full networking and communication infrastructure in the home office. Router and IP Phone make sure I am always connected to the company as if I was in a corporate office (again same phone number, voicemail access, …). There are very few limitations I face working from home and can do nearly everything I do in on of our corporate offices. The only piece really missing is the access to high-end Video Conferencing or TelePresence systems.

Travelling

Being with customer and teams in person is still very important for the job I do. And while I make lots of use of the communication technology my company makes, there is still the requirement to meet people physically. Not only for the reason that it is still a challenge to connect different Video conferencing and TelePresence system across company boarders. Due to the distance I need to travel I usually fly. When traveling for business reasons inside Germany I nearly exclusively use the high-speed train network of Deutsche Bahn. Both options provide me with the ability to work, learn, play or sleep and arrive (mostly) on time and relaxed. I can’t say I enjoy traveling by car to business meetings as traffic density seems to steadily increase and it becomes more and more a unreliable, stressful, expensive and environmentally unfavorable way of getting from A to B. Most trips I do include at least one overnight stay. Since a long time I planned to post about my Timbuk 2 bag and what I carry with me when on the go and this post will follow shortly. Computing wise it’s “just” my MacBook Air 11” and my iPhone 4. Having a light bag and still all flexibility is key and allows me to basically work from where ever I am and when ever I am. Maybe one of the greatest achievements and burden of the knowledge worker age at the same time.

Summary

As I started writing this post, which was triggered by the photo I took of my home office, I thought I share with you how I work. However, the post also helped me to better reflect on my working patterns, which environments make me most productive and/or creative as well as which aspects require further improvement. Although modern knowledge workers have the opportunity to work form nearly everywhere we should not stop being mindful of where we work and how this impacts our productivity and results. This is why ‘contexts’ inside David Allen’s Getting Things Done methodology make so much sense. You simply can’t do everything everywhere and this not only because of physical limitations such as no internet connection. I am happy to answer any questions you may have on my setup and way of working, but would also like to learn how you deal with this “freedom of choice” we have been given in terms of where, when and how we work and the struggle we have with it.