3 Tech Tools to Help You Travel Lighter

During this past holiday season I spent about 18 days in Syracuse NY visiting family and friends.  I decided for the first time ever to travel for an extended holiday vacation without my laptop – having to walk through several airports lugging heave luggage I figured the less tech gear I had to take with me the better!  Thanks to two small pieces of technology (that fit in my pocket) and one service I use I was able to stay connected, entertained, and when needed – productive.

Watch this short video to learn more about how I took The Anywhere Office with me and was able to work from anywhere while traveling lighter than ever before!

Two things I forgot to mention in the video . . . The reason I have an iPod Touch and not an iPhone is because I refuse to switch from Verizon to AT&T as my cellphone provider.  I have been a loyal Verizon customer for years for two main reasons – excellent signal (I can make and receive calls from just about anywhere and almost never have a dropped call) and great customer service (sadly almost unheard of today).  The minute Apple gets smart and moves away from their exclusive deal with AT&T and brings the iPhone (or some variation of it) to Verizon I will be the first one in line to get one!

Also one additional app I use on my iPod Touch that really helped me stay in touch was Yahoo Messenger.  Yahoo is the main IM service I use and I was able to seamlessly stay connected using my iPod Touch so I didn’t miss any messages from my family, friends, and colleagues – simply awesome.

BTW – I shot this video using my new Flip UltraHD camcorder and the Gorilla Tripod – 2 more great portable pieces of technology I have!

Comment below and let me know what is the key technology you use to stay connected when on the road.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (15.5MB)

Phil Montero 2.0 – Why 2 heads are better than one!

I recently entered a fun video contest sponsored by HotHardware.com and Viddler where they asked you to upload a short video telling them about your personal hardware or tech gear and why it enhances your world. The prize was a Flip UltraHD Camcorder.  These amazing video cameras shoot in HD and are small enough to fit in your pocket (a perfect addition to The Anywhere Office).  I’ve been wanting one for a while so when I saw the contest I just had to enter!  After some brainstorming with Jason we came up with a fun idea that not only highlighted some great tech but also explained the productivity boost I get from using it.  There were some very creative entries to the contest but happily about a week ago they announced me as the winner (waaahoo)!  Here is my winning entry:

If you’re not familiar with their website, HotHardware.com features computing/hardware news and reviews f0r technology enthusiasts and IT professionals. They have a wonderful active community and I highly recommend you sign up for free and join in the discussions. Read more

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (5.6MB)

Sandbox Time – The Importance of Play When Learning New Technology

One challenge many teams and organizations face is getting their people to use and embrace much of the amazing collaboration software and technology that is available. In working with virtual teams, we find that many people tend to fall back on email rather than shared online work spaces – or opt for traditional conference calls rather than using web meeting or conferencing services.

Find Their Comfort Zone

The biggest stumbling block is getting your team comfortable with the new software or service and truly understanding the benefits it provides.

In short, why would it make my life or job easier?

Far too few companies provide training on these technologies – so you and your colleagues are forced to figure it out as you go along or after a very brief tutorial. This sink-or-swim mentality causes many of these powerful tools to go untouched and impedes productivity.

The secret to turn this all around is simple . . . play!

The Power of Play

Play is a non-threatening way to remove stress from learning and encourage exploration of the features of new technology. Create some type of project for your team that’s fun and everyone will be excited about using the new tool.

Want your team to start using SharePoint or some other type of web-based discussion board or collaboration space? Why not setup a place where they can share recipes, bios, and information about their hobbies and families?

Want them to use WebEx or some other meeting service? Create time to have a regular virtual water cooler where they can share photos, create a Read more

Should I upgrade to Windows 7? A quick primer

This is a questions I am sure many of you are asking yourself – and a lot of people have been asking me.  So with Microsoft’s Windows 7 now a week old here are my thoughts and some links to help you make this decision for yourself.

If you’re running Vista – it’s almost a no brainer.  It’s no surprise to anyone all the issues Vista has.  It has made many people down right disgruntled (me being one of them).  Plain and simple Windows 7 is what Vista should have been.  It takes less resources to run (even runs on portable netbooks), it’s snappier, more stable, works with more hardware, and had some really nice interface improvements that are more fun and can make you more productive.  The great thing if you are upgrading from Vista is that you don’t have to reinstall everything – you can just run the upgrade on your current Vista system and it will keep all your programs and data in place.  Of course that being said – make SURE you backup your system before doing the upgrade just in case something goes wrong.

One thing to note is that while I have read that installing Windows 7 on a freshly formatted system only takes about 20 minutes – doing an upgrade to my existing Vista system took almost 5 hours.  From what I have heard that is not unusual.  However after answering a few initial questions I did not need to interact with or babysit the install.  It chugged merrily away on the laptop in my home office and 5 hours later I was punching in the activation code and playing around with the new interface.

Normally I always like to wipe my system clean before installing a new operating system but I honestly am too busy to take the 2 – 3 days it Read more

The Lost Art of Focus: Multi-tasking vs. Mono-tasking

Further research continues to indicate that focusing on more than one task at a time actually decreases productivity and may jeopardize the fundamental quality of our work and communication. But this data seems to contradict what many people hold as the vision of a fully engaged and adapted 21st century worker.

The people who engage in media “multitasking” are those least able to do so well, according to researchers. This recent BBC article examines the results of a study done at Stanford University.

And this NPR radio segment also highlights some enlightening research into multi-tasking.

But in today’s workplace, and even just in our day to day lives in the information age, a certain amount of multi-tasking is unavoidable. So it seems the skill to develop is knowing when, where, and what to multi-task. Ali Hale weighs in with what I feel is a reasonable and well thought out opinion in her article ‘Multi-Tasking vs. Mono-Tasking’:

So how do you know when you should “multi-task” and when you should “mono-task”? And how do you manage to do the latter? Some things lend themselves brilliantly to multi-tasking. These tend to be activities which are purely physical, or which by their nature take a set amount of time to complete – however well you focus.

All of this has given me food for thought – as I am a person who is prone to multi-tasking and have convinced myself that I am pretty good at the juggling routine. In fact, I half-jokingly said to my brother just the other day, ‘I’ve got to focus, no more multi-tasking, from now on I’m only going to do two or three things at a time.’

So, here’s a little eye-opening challenge if you feel the same way: try this online game called MULTITASK and see if it might start to change your opinion.

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