Experiencing true mobile productivity

Anybody ever managed to get all the way to London only to realise that they don't need to be there? No, just me then!

I woke up this morning feeling very inspired, I was really looking forward to attending a CIM course on Advanced Copywriting Skills. After getting the train at 7.30am I arrived at the venue to discover I had got the wrong day! "Oh no dear, that course is on the 12th", the lady said. 

After having a mild rage at myself, I got on the next train back to Northampton (present location) and made my way back to the office to be laughed at. 

My first thought when I was getting back on the train was what a waste of time, time that I could have spent being productive. Then as I looked at my phone I realised that this train journey doesn't need to be counter-productive at all. 

I have checked my emails and cleared out the spam ready to action the priorities when I get back to 'Crayon Corner.' I have cleaned up my to-do list in OneNote and I am now writing this blog, which I can publish when I get back to ACS house. 

I guess what I am trying to say is that you really can be productive wherever you are. I don't even need WiFi to do what I am doing now. Just the dexterity of my hands, the words in my head and a device to type them into. 

It is remarkable when you think about how technology allows us to stay productive in situations like this. If I had made this mistake before the likes of smart devices and cloud technology, I would have wasted nearly 2 and a half hours of my morning on empty travel. 

Now, when you think about this from an employer perspective it is gold. If your employees have the ability to access their work from anywhere, there will be no such thing as wasted time. So based on my catastrophe of a morning, here are a couple of tips on how you can be productive during unexpected downtime:

• Do your emails. Clean out the spam, respond to those that are urgent and flag those that need to be actioned.
• Check how you are getting on with to do lists. Get rid of any quick fixes. 
• Have a look at your diary and organise the time that you have outside of meetings etc...
• Read the documents that you have been meaning to look at for days (we all do it)

Or, if you have a job like me, you could write a blog. 

The beauty of it is, when I get into the office and turn my laptop on, all I have to do is open my desktop version of OneNote and all of this will be there. All of my devices are synced! Witchcraft I hear you say, nope, just the magic of Office 365. 

Just by writing this and completing some of my other tasks while I have been on this train makes me feel more relaxed about the whole situation. I am sure that will all change when I get to the office and the mockery starts.

On a serious note, the time that I thought I had lost no longer feels wasted, all thanks to the technology that I had with me. 

So, moral one of the story is always check the date of the course you are due to attend before you jump on a train to London. Moral 2 is for all of the employers out there. By giving your employees access to mobile and cloud technology you will get spontaneous productivity out of them when you least expect it. 

And all I have left to say as we approach Northampton train station is, thank god for OneNote on Office 365. 

London, it was brief but fun.