Anyone who’s ever worked from home will tell you it’s hard to stay focused with too many distractions all around. Having no children, the only distractions at home for me would be the cat. But we have both learned to respect each other’s space and daily habits, so there’s no problem for me there.
Now, I thought this would change once we came to Italy. I had a goal to work in public places at least once a week since we came here. I have managed to do that a couple of times so far.
The key was being well prepared. I have a couple of extra batteries for the netbook I use (Acer Aspire One). The larger one (12cell chinese made) will stay up for about 7 hours without wifi. With the UMTS/broadband USB key however, I found it will stay up for about 4 hours. The other batteries keep me up for the rest of my 8 hours work day, so I’m covered there.
The other thing to look for is a good place to sit and be comfortable while trying to concentrate on troubleshooting server problems š
I tried doing that at the pitti palace gardens (boboli gardens) last month, but it was too hot to bare. I had to go find another place to work as mosquitoes and other annoying things were eating me up in the heat. The solution then was a nice busy restaurant with good air-conditioning and friendly staff.
The best time I had so far working in public places was at the Piazza della Signoria. The main attraction for tourists in Florence. It’s where you find the free open-air meuseum, the Palazo Vecchio (with the fake David up front) and right around the corner from the Uffizi Gallery.
I found a nice spot under one of the historical statues (not the one with the warrior holding high the severed head of an ennemy). There was a street musician playing guitar (same tunes over and over). And there was a nice cool breeze all day. I completely phased out of my surroundings as I started to work, up until the time when Pia came back from her self-made tour at the Bargello.
I hope I can do that again sometime. Maybe with the nicer weather I could find other interesting places to work at. It’s so nice to work from home, but troubleshooting Linux server issues at a museum is a dream come true!
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