Category — travel & technology

Just a little piece of self-promotion: If you live in German-speaking continental Europe and fancy meeting me and my suitcase - this is your chance. The magazine ZEIT Campus did a feature on Consulting, and they asked me to show them what a Consultant packs for a normal week of travel. You find me in the current edition (September/October 2008) on pages 52/53.

For those of you who are wondering if there are some rules to follow when packing your bags - well yes, there are! My heroes at Manager Tools recently started covering travel-related topics, and as luck has it, they cover packing your bags first. You find that podcast here.

Another real two minutes post this time. When it comes to clothing, I am sure you are ironing your shirts, or have them ironed. You take care not to spill spaghetti sauce over your suit because the dry cleaner costs you a little fortune…. but ties and shoes, some people seem to ignore.

Never leave your ties tied, and don’t crumble them.
After work, when you switch into something more comfortable and get rid of the leash tie, undo it. NEVER leave the knot it. Your tie will hate you for that, and go all ugly way too soon. When traveling, fold it or roll it up and store it so that nothing with edges can cause the fine fabric (your ties are out of silk, right?!) damage.

Shine your shoes.
Those expensive Oxfords you bought? They need a lot of care, and they deserve it. Even when your shoes were not expensive - shine your shoes, at least every week. Go get some good stuff - real shoe polish that you apply with a soft cloth, let dry, and then polish off. Don’t go for the "quick and easy" stuff.  By the way, my shoemaker gave me a great tip: Instead of using the bulky wooden shoetrees, simply stuff your shoes with newspaper. It has the same effect (keeps the leather in form), does not overstretch your shoes (which shoetrees with springs do) and you save yourself weight and space in your luggage.

Any more tips to add? What is your trick to keep your clothes as sharp as you are on the road?

[Update/Disclaimer: The ideas in this post apply for when you are in a good mood, and happen to have a halfway decent taxi driver. If you are tired as hell, stressed out, in the middle of nowhere and with a bad driver - well, then just be lucky that you don't have to walk.]

We all sit in taxis / cabs all the time. Now - there is the “standard consultant way” of spending the ride, and there are, in my opinion, many better ways to get the most out of a taxi ride.

The standard way
The standard way for a consultant (talking cliché here, obviously) to behave during a taxi ride is simple. They enter the cab, sit in the back (which is a notable thing only in countries where you have the option to sit next to the driver, obviously), barf the direction, and then a) start calling people about work-related stuff / listen to their voicemail, b) stare at their shoes/out of the window, c) work, d) sleep. Does this ring a bell?

The better ways

• Sit in front (where you can), next to the cab driver. Say hello, smile (!), look them in the face (!). (By the way, the part of saying hello, smiling and looking the driver in the face (even if through the rear view mirror) applies to all the ways.) Start a conversation with the driver - ask them something, tell them something. When in a new town, ask them to tell you something about the town. When you are in a familiar town, talk about what has been going on lately. When you just heard a great joke, tell it to them. You will be amazed how much those little conversations can give you.
• Use the ride for some sightseeing! I am not implying to ask the driver for a route along all sights of the town - but open your eyes, look out of the window (don’t just stare into the sky!). Chances are, you’ll see something interesting. Chances are, the cab driver can tell you something about what you are seeing when you ask him politely.
• Make a quick call to your loved ones to check in with them. For your significant other, tell them you are thinking about them and wish them a great day. Now - from what I have heard, cab drivers don’t mind it at all when you make a phone call… as long as it is not stuff that they really do not want to know. I despised the job calls earlier because, come on, you should take breaks when they are offered to you and you can chose - but making a good deed with a call (which ups your Karma and boosts your energy) is a perfect thing to do. Just…. no dirty talk. No fighting. No excessive swearing. Only say what you would tolerate to hear from others’ conversations in public as well.

There you have it. Go, make your next cab drive something enjoyable - for you AND the cab driver.

And for heavens’ sake - give a tip. Your company is paying anyway, and I have not heard of a travel expense policy yet that slaps you on the wrist for rounding up on cab drives.

[UPDATE:

The gods of the internets are against me today. And for you. As of now, Xobni is directly available for you to test and indulge - which of course means that there is no real incentive anymore for you to jump through any hoops at the KillerConsultant to get it. Which blows my great idea of some semi-forced audience interaction.

But if you really like the KC, you will tell the rest of the world how you like your Xobni plugin in the comments anyway, right?!]

Hey there,

it is Monday, let’s see if we can get a conversation going. The deal is simple: I have five invites for Xobni to give away.
Xobni, if you have not heard of it yet, is a cool new plugin for Outlook which gives you a whole new look on your email experience: In a sidebar, it shows you all sorts of information about the person whose email you are just reading. When in the day, for example, you get most email from that person, their phone number, their contacts, a list of recent conversations and files received from them. Apart from that, Xobni also does a whole lot of statistics-voodoo on your mail - but that main sidebar in itself really is something you should try. I might go as far as saying that this could make email management fun again!

Xobni is in invitation-only beta right now… and you can get one of these invitations.
There are only one and a half conditions:

• Within a week of receiving the invite, you write a paragraph worth of your experiences with Xobni - what you liked, what you thought was cool, what features you missed, and if you’d recommend it. I’ll publish those short reviews here, of course with your name and a link to your website, if you want.
• The “half” condition: I’d prefer consultants to get the invites, of course - but if in the next days there are no consultants to be found reading this site (darnit!), I’ll open the tickets up for everybody else.

Go, sign up in the comments!
I am looking forward to seeing how you guys like / use / see Xobni.

The little device that is praised and demonized so often: The CrackBlackberry. For most consultants, this device is a constant companion, at least during the work week. In worst cases, it is within reach 24/7, and you get all tingly when it has not rang or buzzed for your attention for half an hour… even at night. But that is your personal business, really.

Today I’ll give you some hints towards making the Blackberry do more stuff that you want (because it can already show you stuff that you are supposed to do - aka mails from your boss - and that is just an imbalance we cannot tolerate!).

First of all - a small disclaimer. I have a BB Curve, the 83something, and as I am telling you about my setup, all software mentioned has obviously not been tested for any other Blackberry device. So if you still cling to the old paperweight, or opted for a Pearl because it is “slimmer” (and because you did not know that typing on it would be a complete pain) - your mileage may vary.

Apps

• Google Maps Mobile - now it even detects where (roughly) you are, and you can get a route planned from there. Good when the nav of your rental car brakes down (like it did for me yesterday). Free.
• Gmail Mobile - awesome. Just tell it to fetch your private email (if it is not already on Gmail anyway), and woosh, you got your corporate AND your private mail on the Blackberry. Free.
• Opera Browser - OperaMini is a free browser for your Blackberry. Why, you ask? The Blackberry webbrowser is terribly rudimentary. It manages websites well that are designed for mobiles, but everything else is a pain. Opera handles those sites gracefully, as well, and also integrates with desktop Opera installs, should you run it on your PC as well. Free.
• The built in media player - I know, it is not an iPod. Neither has it the capabilities. But with the built in memory of the new Blackberrys and the media player, you can darn well put some music and some podcasts on it. Standard headphone jack on the device means you can plug in your own (probably higher quality) headphones and rock on! Free (already on your device, if it has the new software)

Webapps/Websites

• Qype mobile: Especially good in Germany, but catching up in other countries as well. Qype is user generated yellow pages, with great articles on everything you might look for in a city - from Aspirin to Zoo.
• Google Reader: Good mobile version. Have a few minutes spare time? See what your favourite news feeds are doing! (And of course, find the newest entry on KillerConsultant.com waiting for you… what, you did not subscribe to the newsfeed yet? Shame! Klick the orange button on the upper right-NOW!)
• Twitter mobile: See what your friends are doing and update them on your next night shift.
• Dopplr mobile: Good stripped down version of dopplr - enter your next trip, see who of your friends is in the area. Might give you back some of your social life!
• Instapaper: Great little tool in combination with Opera. Instapaper lets you add things you want to read later in any browser with a little bookmarklet, and when you then go to the site, your reading list is waiting for you.

Now who would have thought that there is some real life quality enhancement hidden in your blackberry? Now go, try stuff out! I am looking forward to your comments - also tell me about great stuff that belongs on the list!