Take Your Office Out of the Office

With the abundance of electronic gadgetry doing my work for me these days, I occasionally feel like I am not even needed, except to carry it all around. Sometimes the only thing keeping me at my desk is a feeling of guilt that, if I am not there, I am not 'working'. Fear not, I can overcome this quickly.

As the warmer weather arrives, I am already plotting my escape to a place I like to refer to as my 'waterfront office property'. Before you imagine my Ferrari being valet parked at a high glass tower overlooking crystal blue Caribbean waters, think again.
I will be pulling my Honda Civic in the visitors lot, paying a small fee and walking to the boardwalk at the edge of Lake Champlain in Burlington VT. No fancy-schmancy mahogany office furniture here, it has been replaced by a porch swing nestled in the shade. The patter of footsteps are not those of my co-workers, but of by people walking their dogs, bikes, children, etc.

My favorite conference call last Summer was interrupted by a client asking 'what the noise was' in the background. Well...it was a duck, who was apparently very intersted in the granola bar perched atop my briefcase. He paced back and forth, squawking louder than the Aflac duck in desperation (he didn't get any).

I once spent 20 minutes wathcing a dog swimming after sticks in the water, refusing his owner's orders to 'come in, we have to leave!". Big smiles all around.

How about you? Can you break the bonds and take your office 'out of the office'? Is there a special place you enjoy, where you can set up shop for the day? It's a feeling that cannot be beat, whether it's in your back yard, at the beach or the top of a mountain.