happy. productive. loosecubes.

5 Tech Tools for Staying Productive Wherever You Work

Guest Post by Ivan Drucker and Caroline Green of IvanExpert

Technology has made it easy to work from anywhere, whether you’re traveling to a faraway city, renting an office part-time, or sitting at the kitchen table at home. A little preparation can make the difference between wasting time and getting things done. Here are 5 ways technology can help you stay productive, no matter where you’re working:

1) Have access to your email when you’re offline.

Just because you use Gmail for mail doesn’t mean you can’t read and write emails when you don’t have access to the internet. Apple Mail, Outlook for Windows and Mac, and all other email programs can be set to make local copies of your inbox, your folders, and your sent mail; any emails you write while offline will send once you’re back on wifi.

To get started, set your Google mail account as IMAP instead of POP, and then follow Google’s instructions on IMAP client settings for your computer’s email program.

2) Have access to all your documents from every device.

Use document or cloud storage utilities such as Google Docs, Dropbox, or SugarSync to make sure all your necessary work files can be accessed from any location—your laptop, a friend’s computer, even your smartphone.

We prefer Dropbox for a few reasons: It’s easy to grasp the concept and set it up, you’re not restricted to certain kinds of files, and you have your files stored locally on your computer so you can use them when you’re without internet. Plus your first 2GB is free!

3) Create and edit documents on your mobile device.

Smartphones and iPads now allow you to work on documents directly on the device. Documents To Go is the best-known series of apps in this category, and it’s available for multiple platforms including Android, iOS, and BlackBerry; it’s already set up for use with Dropbox for easier access to all your files.

4) Block out distracting noise.

You may not know ahead of time what type of environment you’ll be working in. To curb the risk of distractions, have your smartphone or iPhone prepped with your favorite white noise app so you can focus amidst background conversation.

A few of the best-rated iPhone apps in this category are White Noise ($1.99), Relax Melodies Premium ($2.99), and Sleep Machine ($1.99). All have “lite” or free versions as well. There are dozens more, so keep looking until you find the one that works best for you.

Noise-canceling headphones help too—they’re not just for airplanes.

5) Hide distracting visuals.

Although there’s not much you can do to hide movement beyond your computer screen, you can prevent your computer from distracting you by using software tools that prevent certain activities.

Pared-down word-processing applications that block out the desktop, all open windows, and all menus are a great way to avoid distraction. Try FocusWriter for Mac and Windows (free).

Other applications blur out or minimize all inactive windows. For Mac, try Think (free). For Windows users, Swept Away (free) automatically minimizes inactive windows after a period of time you set.

You can also use applications that restrict your access to certain sites on the internet, such as AntiSocial for Mac ($15, free to try) and Do Not Disturb for Windows ($40). Set it up with your personalized “blacklist” of websites, so you can still do your online research without getting tempted by Facebook.

Celebrating Worldwide #JELLYWEEK 2012

January 16-22nd marks the first ever Worldwide #JELLYWEEK, during which coworkers everywhere will come together in their own communities to collaborate, network, and celebrate the inspiration born through the magic of working together. 

We’re excited to represent the event in North America, and will be hosting a Meetup at our HQ on Monday for anyone who’s interested in working/hacking/crafting with us.

Several Loosecubes throughout the NYC area are joining in on the fun, too, including:

• Open coworking and awesome events at WECREATENYC
• Courtesy coworking day at Green Spaces on Tuesday, January 17th
• 3rd Ward is giving away 50 free coworking day passes

Follow our updates all week with hashtag #loosejelly, and join us in this celebration of global collaboration!

Happy Holidays from Loosecubes

From all of us at Loosecubes, thank you so much for making this past year an incredible one. While we’re usually big advocates of productivity, we hope you enjoy a relaxing, work-free holiday season.

Cheers!

Campbell & the Loosecubes Team

My Life Without Loosecubes

Part 5: The Refrigerated Conclusion

For my final destination on my tour of popular, public wifi hotspots, I chose to check out the often imitated, never duplicated Think Coffee. I had heard a lot about their flagship 248 Mercer location, so I thought it was worth giving it a shot.

When I walked in, I immediately fell in love with the aesthetics of the place. It’s a huge location, much larger than the exterior leads you to believe. I quickly ordered myself a hot cider, sat down at the bar in the back room, and fired up my computer. The wifi password was clearly labeled on the cash register allowing me to be up and running in no time. The space was packed with tons of twenty-somethings all hard at work (or at least pretending to be), and the playlist might as well have been pulled straight from my Spotify. This was it. I finally found my office away from the office that wasn’t a Loosecube. And that’s when the internet cut out…

‘It’s in the fridge,’ my fellow barmate said. ‘What? What’s in the fridge?’ ‘The router. They put it in there to cool it off when it gets overheated.’ Interesting. Whether this was true or not, I couldn’t find a signal. I patiently occupied myself with some offline work, and about 10 minutes later, the internet returned. Phew. Crisis averted. Or not.

For the rest of the day, the internet disappeared every hour for at least 5-10 minutes at a time. With each occurrence both my blood pressure and frustration level rose until I couldn’t take it anymore. I left broken and disappointed thinking I’d never find a productive, public place to work, and that’s when it hit me. Of course I was never going to find what I was looking for. It was impossible. All this time I had been trying to fit a round peg into a square hole. Coffee shops, hotel lobbies, cafes, libraries - they’re good for brainstorming sessions and casual meetings but something’s missing. Something big.

We’ve all heard stories about great ideas being born on the back of bar napkins. Even Think Coffee’s Foursquare page has a tip from Dennis Crowley referencing that the ‘mayor’ feature came from his and Naveen’s time there. But these public places all lack the pure collaborative and productive elements of a Loosecube. When you enter one of our locations, you’re instantly introduced to new people. You can bounce ideas off of the host and your coworkers throughout the day. You don’t have to worry about the internet cutting out, or where you’re going to take your conference call in the afternoon. It’s a much smoother experience; one that results in new business ideas, partnerships, and friendships.

But why should you take my word for it? Why not try it yourself and see how it goes? I have a feeling you won’t be disappointed.

My Life Without Loosecubes

Part 4: No Pictures Allowed

At the end of last week, I decided it was time to try working out of a coffee shop close to my apartment in Cobble Hill. I didn’t want to waste any time searching for one, so I just went straight to the Starbucks around the corner. It seemed like everyone in my neighborhood had the same idea, and the place was slammed. Not an empty seat in the house. I racked my brain for the next closest place I could think of and remembered that the Barnes and Noble a few blocks north had a Starbucks cafe inside. I darted over and was able to find a small table, but I noticed there were signs explicitly stating the seating was for cafe customers only. Luckily, I was pretty hungry, so it was a great excuse to treat myself to a grilled cheese and bowl of tomato basil soup (which wasn’t half bad).

After I finished my lunch, I powered up my laptop and tried to connect to the internet. Key word: tried. This was the first time all week that I was experiencing wifi woes, and it wasn’t pretty. I could see the network, but my computer wasn’t connecting. I turned my airport off and on again, restarted my computer, and did everything else I’ve ever been instructed by an IT professional to do. I eventually figured out that I had to play around with my network settings, which seemed odd to me since I had no problems connecting to other public networks all week.

My experience only went downhill from there. About an hour after my initial internet problems, I noticed that my airport was struggling to detect the connection again. I was able to apply the solution I discovered earlier, but not before I lost a few e-mails I was working on. That was also around the same time I realized my power was low, and there wasn’t an outlet in sight. Great.

On my way out, I turned to snap a few photos when I noticed a man walking briskly towards me. ‘You can’t take pictures in the store, sir.’ ‘Oh. Sorry. I didn’t know.’ The icing on my cake of unproductiveness, further proving that this was no place for me or anyone trying to get serious work done.

My Life Without Loosecubes

Part 3: I’m a Cheater

What can I say? I couldn’t resist the urge to work out of one of our Loosecubes locations after all. In my defense, I had booked Porter Contemporary for the day well before I found out I was going to be on the road all week. I thought it would be best to keep my original reservation, so that I could have a fresh perspective on the differences between working in public spaces and working in Loosecubes.

My experience at this quaint art gallery in Chelsea was seamless. I had been messaging with the host for a few days before arriving, and she told me that although she would be arriving late, her staff member would be there to help me get settled in. When I entered the gallery, I was greeted with a smile and shown to my desk by none other than the aforementioned staff member, Stephany. She and I chatted briefly about how she had come to work at the gallery, and she explained that they were preparing for an opening that night. Shortly thereafter, Jessica (the host) walked in, and while we were talking she invited me to the very event Stephany had referenced moments earlier. Amazing. In 30 minutes of arriving at my Loosecube, I met two awesome women and was invited to an art opening. Unfortunately, for me, I had a meeting scheduled in Union Square in the late afternoon, so I’d have to cut out before the wine started flowing. I worked until 3:30pm, said my goodbyes to everyone, and headed for the subway. But where was I going to work after my meeting ended?

When I arrived at Dogpatch Labs for my meeting with Trevor from Lean Startup Machine, I was blown away. It wasn’t so much the space as it was the people. Right off the bat, Trevor started introducing me to all of the other startups around the space. I knew immediately that this was the social interaction I had been missing all week.

Despite the fact that I hadn’t booked ahead of time, Trevor let me snag the extra desk at LSM’s pod (they share on Loosecubes for free). I was able to wrap up a couple of outstanding work items and wound up having so much fun, that I almost didn’t want to leave. It was a strong reminder that I still haven’t been able to find a public space that could match the community elements of a Loosecube. I’m starting to think that might not ever happen. Only time will tell I guess. Back into the wild frontier of coffee shops I go!

My Life Without Loosecubes

Part 2: Can You Talk Louder?

For my second office-less day in the Big Apple, I decided to head to the famous 5th Avenue branch of the New York Public Library. I’m still fairly new to NYC (10 months), so I thought this would be a great chance for me to check out a city landmark and, at the same time, get some serious work done.

Upon arrival, I navigated my way through crowds of tourists and middle school students and bounded upstairs to the renowned Rose Main Reading Room. I had seen it before in plenty of movies and photographs, but none of that really prepared me for how jaw-dropping the room truly is. 

I carefully (and quietly) slid into the first chair I could find, plugged in my laptop, and got to work. It quickly became apparent that there would be no talking in this room. Especially when I saw people getting dirty looks from their fellow table-mates for merely closing their laptops too hard. It was right around this time when I got my first customer service phone call. I practically sprinted out of the room, but I had to answer it before I was fully in the clear. ‘I can’t hear you. Can you talk louder?’ said the voice on the other line. That’s when I found the phone booth.

I definitely felt comfortable talking at full volume here, except there was one, tiny problem. The exact location of this telecomm relic is an AT&T dead zone. Go figure. So instead of having to repeat myself in a louder voice, I was just dropping calls altogether. A reminder that the library is no place for telephones.

Luckily, my afternoon wound up being distraction free, and I even conceded to wearing headphones. I was definitely able to get some work done to close out my day, but I had made up my mind pretty early on that the library wasn’t for me. If you’re doing quiet, solo work (writers, students), there’s no better place in the city. Just make sure to bring a warm jacket. It’s freezing in there.

My Life Without Loosecubes

Part 1: Ace in the Hole

On Monday afternoon, I was presented with a challenge: ‘This week, you’re not allowed to come into the office, you can’t use Loosecubes, and you can’t work from home.’ For a moment, I felt lost. How was I going to effectively get my work done this week? What about phone calls and meetings I had previously scheduled? There wasn’t time to waste asking these questions. I needed to find a place to call my office!

For the first stop on my urban adventure, I chose the Ace Hotel. I arrived yesterday in the lobby at around 10am, and it was already slammed. Multiple breakfast meetings were in full swing, and over the light chatter, I could hear the familiar hum of fingers click-clacking off of MacBook keyboards. I knew I was in the right place and quickly found an empty seat at a communal table. Now that I had a ‘desk,’ all I needed was a stable internet connection. As if he was reading my mind, a server appeared out of nowhere and handed me a card with an access code for the hotel’s free wifi. Perfect.

After diving into my e-mails and resisting the urge to order a snack for a few hours, I was convinced I was going to have an awkward interaction that would end with a staff member asking me to leave. But the moment never came. Instead, I wound up staying in the same seat for 8 hours without ever being made to feel unwelcome.

As great as this was for my productivity, I felt somewhat isolated. The conversations between strangers were kept to a minimum and most people seemed glued to their computers. Despite my brief run-ins with a venture capitalist and a grad student in need of iMovie assistance, I missed the collaboration and openness that I’ve witnessed at our Loosecubes locations. 

All things considered, my overall experience at Ace Hotel was a positive one, and I could see myself going back on occasion. I recommend it to small teams looking for a place to meet outside of the office or freelancers in between client meetings in need of a place to productively kill time.

Feature Updates:

Better Reviews, Regulars, and Comments

We’ve cooked up some exciting new community features just in time for Thanksgiving. Here’s the latest and greatest from the Loosecubes HQ!

Regulars and Who’s Worked Here - Natural light is nice, but if you’re like us, you know it’s the people that make a workspace awesome. Now it’s easier to see who works where. Hosts can specify who the ‘Regulars’ are and members can specify where they’ve worked.

Better Reviews and Ratings - Help our hosts build a reputation based on trust. Review spaces you’ve worked at and rate them on productivity, community, and cool factor.

Facebook Comments - Share your thoughts about a space in a snap. Add a comment on the space profile page and post it to Facebook.

These additions could not have been made possible without you, our amazing members! Log in, take a look around, and feel free to drop us a line at hi@loosecubes.com with any feedback you might have.