…what with some 15-hour days during Microsoft’s EnergizeIT cross-Canada tour, which is why the posting has been light lately. Regular posts will resume soon!
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Category: It Happened to Me
…is that I’m hoping to master this:
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The Temptation to Loaf
This article originally appeared in Global Nerdy.
There’s a small TV set in my home office that I sometime turn on – usually to one of the cable news channels — as “background noise”, which I sometimes find helpful when I’m trying to get work done.
Today, I’m on the road in London, Ontario with Microsoft’s EnergizeIT tour. I’m hanging out in the hotel room with my coworker Rodney with the TV on as background noise and here’s what’s on right now:
When I tell people that I often work from my home office, they ask if I ever get the temptation to plunk myself in front of the TV instead of getting work done. The answer is no, and part of the reason is that there’s nothing but this junk on during the day.
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Where I’m Working Today
Yesterday’s Coffee and Code – the weekly gathering where I leave the home and Microsoft offices and work in a cafe where I’m very accessible – was held at Le Gourmand in the Queen/Spadina neighbourhood. We were 13 people all told, not including the passers-by who wondered about a large gathering of people with laptops and with whom we started a conversation.
For more details, see this entry in the Coffee and Code blog.
My first Coffee and Code day – a day when I work at a wifi-equipped cafe rather than my home office or the Microsoft offices in order to be very accessible – was a success. For more, check out my article on the Coffee and Code blog.
Coffee and Code is an idea I’ve been meaning to try out for some time. Every so often – perhaps once a week – I plan to work somewhere other than my home office or Microsoft’s offices but instead spend the day working in one of Toronto’s wifi-equipped cafe.
The idea is to make myself available to you, to answer your questions and talk about Microsoft, programming, the tech job market, games, accordions or whatever topic strikes your fancy. I’ll be pretty easy to spot: just look for the guy with both a laptop and an accordion.
For this inaugural Coffee and Code session, I’ll be at Urbana Coffee (1033 Bay Street, a couple of blocks north of Wellesley, at St. Joseph) from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. I’ve picked the place for a number of reasons: a central location near parking and transit, friendly staff, free wifi, power outlets aplenty, recommendations from friends and a glowing review from Torontoist. If you’re in the neighbourhood, please drop by!
Since I live and work in Toronto, I’ll be holding most of my Coffee and Code days there. However, my job does involve a fair bit of travel, and it’s quite likely that I’ll hold Coffee and Code days in other cities. Some of my coworkers are also thinking about holding their own Coffee and Code days in their own cities as well.
If you’d like to know more about upcoming Coffee and Code days, keep reading this blog, or check out Coffee and Code’s site at coffeeandcode.org.