The Liverpool Street Station is buzzing with activity this early Wednesday morning. I’ve been in London for a few days to pick up my new productivity tool, the latest iPad Air, and to work from a place I once called home.
I chose the iPad Air over the MacBook to create a simpler workflow. The touch technology, cellular connectivity, and light weight reduce steps and make it simple to use from anywhere. Plus it’s designed for single-focus productivity.
The train for Cambridge is rolling in on platform two and I raise my wrist to open the gate with my Apple Watch. It’s my fourth week in Europe and I have not yet used my physical credit cards to pay for anything, only the Apple Watch. So simple.
I board the train, grab a seat, plug in my new iPad, and get onto the free WiFi. The whole process is effortless and automatic. No thinking, just doing. I’m on my way to see an old friend and collaborator, to enjoy real deep face-to-face conversations.
But I’m also in Europe to work and get things done. This is not a vacation, this is the real working from anywhere with all its moving parts and challenges. It’s early mornings, constant recalibrations, and lots of unexpected surprises.
If you don’t control your own time, attention, and creative energy the road will eat you alive. The promise of working from anywhere and anytime is seductive but without solid routines and a firm focus it just becomes another futuristic dream.
My Cambridge friend who wrote the bestseller Do Design reminds me that beautiful design is about mindset, process, and craft. I listen and think about how I can redesign my mindset to create more productive workflows and better craftsmanship.
The challenge I have every morning is to get started, going from thinking to doing, and then staying focused on the most important tasks throughout the day. By creating customized Home Screens on the iPad Air I can reduce the steps to simplify process and increase focus.
This is the first draft of my new workflow design: