The IT industry has a dark side to those who work in and around it. Computers don't care about the time of day, yet they always seem to know when the middle of the night is. That cruel behavior requires the people supporting it need to be able to work anytime and anywhere. In order to be successful and efficient in this unpredictable business the tools to be as mobile and accessible as you are required to be become more important.
With the high availability and ease of access to information through Twitter, Google, Facebook, etc., there is an expectation that you are able to record and provide the same. In some cases a laptop isn't enough. Not because it can't do the job, rather it may not allow you to do the job as quickly as alternatives. I have spent the last two years trying to find the right partnership of laptop and mobile device in the business environment to make my life easier.
The laptop. The standard, business issued tool to create, communicate and consume information. Unless there is a shift of the tablet approach, I do not see laptops ever getting replaced, at least in not the next 5 years. Yes, you could potentially use an iPad or an Android tablet to do everything that a laptop does, but I am not looking for a single method, but the most efficient way to do it.
My laptop is the standard Lenovo T400. Nothing spectacular, but then again I am no longer on the front line of development and testing where I need the power. The laptop is the center creation point for my work. I do Email, archives, document writing, presentation building, file sharing, with the Microsoft Office software at the core. I carry a Blackberry Torch for my work cell phone and mobile email. For a while I tried to use the laptop as the complete package of data gathering, but I found that I need to be able to write, doodle, draw, and scribble diagrams that you cannot do with only a keyboard. I also realized that paper notebooks are sloppy, disorganized, and ready to get misplaced or lost completely. Not to mention the inability to quickly search through them. I wanted to find the middle ground and that's when I turned to the iPad.
At first I was not very interested in the iPad but after I saw more of my peers using them and how they were using them I started to see the benefits. So I picked up an iPad, 16GB 3G version, and started to experiment with a dozen or so production applications to find what worked best for what I was trying to do.
The first application I hooked onto was Underscore Notify. This is basically a notebook application but with one very important difference. It has handwriting capability. The Targus Stylus for the iPad is my iPad writing tool of choice and this allowed me to remove the need for a paper notebook. I can scribble away in one place. It’s not perfect, but it allows me to freely write as I would in a paper notebook but ina digital format. In addition, Notify allows you to backup to Dropbox, Evernote, and Google Docs. I use all three of those services for different reasons for many different applications. Applications I look at must be able to backup to one or more of those services for me to consider a purchase. A cloud based file cabinet is the way to go, if I lost my iPad, laptop, phone or they crashed, I don't lose my notes. I don’t care as much about reliance on the device because I am about the information and that can be put anywhere. The tagging capabilities of Evernote I now have a searchable archive of notes for even quicker access. Centralization using cloud technologies has significant benefits of accessibility because I can access my notes and tasks from any computer pretty much. I am no longer anchored to the one laptop or have to carry my planner everywhere I go.
My job requires me to juggle many projects at one time and I need to be able to keep track of my every growing list of tasks. This is where Task Pro comes in. I use this application for all my tasks business and personal. Task Pro is date based, has flexible tags, categorization, priorities, and the best part is that it alerts you when the tasks are due. Again, I backup my task list into the cloud so I don’t need to carry around my iPad, I can just have my phone with me. I am all for making things easy, flexible, and de-anchoring of a person from a device.
Some people have brought up the security issue, that I am putting private information out in the big bad Internet. I respond that this process is actually more secure than if I had a paper journal or notebook and accidentally leave it on the bus or at a restaurant. My notes are password protected and secure, paper notebook rely on your own personal responsibility for their security, anyone can read them at anytime and everyone has a brain lapse of forgetfulness from time to time. Now, no one should use personal storage sites for proprietary company documents, be smart about it. Your personal brain dumps, meeting notes that have been usually kept in a notebook that you leave lying on your desk, I feel needs to be more secure anyway than what most people do. Whether it's at your home, loose on your desk, or in a secure cloud area, which one would you prefer? I trust myself to keep my data secure; I don’t trust the other people in the office to do the same. That’s really what physical security is about.
The business world is constantly changing and more is being asked of workers every day. In the IT world, the old idea and practice of an assigned 9-5 downtown office is over. If that was the case then this article is null and void. As soon as you need to be able to get at your information, communicate, and create in areas outside that business office setting and hours, you need to be equipped to do so. Surround yourself with the tools to help you do so. The marketers will try to tell you that any device can do every single task you need to do your job. That may be technically true, but I could not do my job as efficiently and at the same pace as I do now if all I had was my iPad.
It truly is a partnership of technologies and styles to fit how you work and your lifestyle. This is what works for me and I am always looking to make it a little bit better. At the end of the day whatever tools you use to live and work are up to you.
Remember, there are always alternatives and it is actually fun to play around to find something new from time to time. The IT world is constantly changing and improving, if you aren’t willing to change and move along with it, you could be left behind.
Binary Blogger
@binaryblogger
www.binaryblogger.com
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