The Friendly Anarchist | Your Life, Your Pace, Your Rules

Working on Trains

by Fabian on December 28, 2011

Last week I rambled about workplaces beyond rules. But when it came to naming my favorite workplace of all, I noticed how dependent it is on the work I want to do or the mood I’m in. But, as I said, if I’d have to choose one single place, it would probably be on board of a train somewhere in Germany.

The Marvels of Working on Trains

Why a train, of all things? As with the other places, vibe is a major factor. The atmosphere on a train is leisurely yet overall somehow concentrated: People are reading, watching a movie on their laptops or engaged in a relaxed conversation. Depending on the train, they might be talking some pretty weird (and often inspiring!) stuff – but if it gets too much, I simply put up some music and gone they are. (Ear plugs might work if you need silence to focus.)

There’s no dreadful radio music (as in many coffeeshops!) and, most of all, no wi-fi! I know that many people hate that and prefer taking one of the newer trains or routes that provide internet access for their passengers, but I personally hope that most trains continue to be offline territory. It’s precisely what seems to help to create the atmosphere that I enjoy so much.

On trains, dead time can easily be transformed into creative time. Watching out of the window and seeing the landscape pass by helps me more than anything to find the right words when crafting a new article or book chapter. You can get a coffee or some simple food in the dining car, but apart from that, distractions are low. You can walk around a bit whenever you feel like it, but it isn’t really incentivized. Preferably, you just remain seated and do some work. (And keep watching the landscape, of course!)

Talking of seats: Even the second class in the German train system is nowhere near as cramped as economy class on airplanes. Seats are bigger, there is sufficient space to use a laptop, and more often than not you’ll be lucky to have another free seat right next to you, allowing you to use two tables to have more space for your documents and paperwork.

Best of all, working time on a train comes with a hard deadline. As a regular reader, you might know already how important I deem these to be for higher productivity. A train ride might last 30 minutes, four hours, or maybe even a whole day. But when embarking, you know already that by 8.26pm you will reach your destination. That’s the time you’ve got, so there is no excuse not to use it.

The Cons

How about the downsides? Screaming children account for some of the negative experiences I have had. They simply aren’t helpful if you want to focus on your work. Overcrowded cars are worse. (Expect them during rushhour on commuter trains and before important holidays, like Christmas.) Overcrowded cars with lots of crying children… well, you get the idea!

The worst thing to encounter on a train, to be honest? Drunken football fans (that’s soccer in the US). They mostly ride regional trains (because they are incredibly cheap, especially for larger groups) and if they are in a bad mood, they will not only make work impossible, but life on trains in general. Fortunately, these guys are easy to avoid by simply not traveling during their peak hours. (Saturday afternoons, mostly. Sundays aren’t that bad, probably because most of them have to work the next day or face their spouses at night.)

One other major downside of working on trains might be the price! While competetive in comparison with airline prices, travel on German trains isn’t cheap – especially if you are a spontaneous traveler that doesn’t book his trips weeks ahead. A regular ticket from Hamburg to Munich, for example, will set you back 135 euros.

There are several discount cards available, though, that normally pay off over the year: Buy them once and get 25 to 50% discount on any ticket you buy later. The biggest temptation for me is the “BahnCard 100″: For about 4000 euros ($5200 USD, give or take) you get to travel as much as you want during a whole year. Just think of the possibilities!

Given my addiction to working on trains, I’m pretty sure that if I ever have that much spare, I might as well just get one of those cards and become a full-time train writer exploring every single city in the country. Until then, I’ll probably continue to work on the cheap regional trains, as long as there aren’t any football fans around!

Appendix

On December 25th, I embarked on an 8-hour train trip to Cologne, in order to join a big Christmas dinner on December 26th. That train trip wasn’t work-related, to be sure: One of my best friends and a good bottle of red wine accompanied me on that unconventional Holiday celebration on the road, and made 8 hours seem like 20 minutes. Conclusion: As a nice office, trains lend themselves for much more than just work!

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Workplaces Beyond Rules

by Fabian on December 19, 2011

After the release of Productive Anywhere, a couple of readers asked me about my favorite place to get things done. Over the last few years, dozens of spots have been my home and my workplace, but which of them did I prefer?

As with many tough questions, it’s probably better to start at the opposing end and look at the workplaces I dislike: Cubicles! Luckily, I only had to work at one twice in my life. The first time was during a short job as a callcenter agent and the second during an internship with the European Commission’s Delegation to Colombia and Ecuador.

The callcenter job was hellish and mind-numbing by itself, as you might imagine. Screaming into a cheap and nasty headset trying to interview pensioneers and stay-at-home mums about their shopping habits is about as bad as it gets once a country moves beyond creating employment opportunities in sulfur mines. Now multiply the people screaming into those cheap headsets by 30 and put all of them into one large, overheated room and you’ll understand why I became highly motivated to get a different job immediately after starting out at the callcenter.

Work at the Delegation was much nicer and also way more interesting. I was even so lucky to have some great and smart colleagues – but my desk in the 11th floor of a random office building in Northern Bogotá simply didn’t feel like the appropriate place to do great work. Somehow, the atmosphere there did confirm the stereotypical image of a slow EU bureaucracy. As much as I enjoyed my stay there, I doubted that working in a cubicle (or even a normal office environment) would be something I’d enjoy doing in the long run.

Experimenting with Work Environments

To improve matters, I ended up cutting some of the office hours towards the end of my internship. To compensate, I transferred part of my work to the studio apartment I had rented in the lively Chapinero area. Even though it was a very simple place, this move alone spurred my productivity, as it entailed a whole new freedom: Suddenly, I was able to decide on my own about when to work and when to relax, when to walk around thinking and when to isolate myself from my surroundings in order to focus completely on my job.

In the following years, I continued to experiment with different work environments while finishing my academic studies in Germany and Colombia. Coffeeshops did work, but not for everything: Until today I love to go there for brainstorming, simple reading and light writing. Preparing exams, reading more complex texts or doing final edits, in contrast, is best done at other places. Libraries work great for this kind of stuff and also to get things done I don’t enjoy particularly: I remember locking myself away for whole weeks when preparing a painful linguistics exam. Being at a place full of quiet and concentrated students (most of them reading and memorizing data for their respective exams) simply created the right ambience.

Going Beyond Rules

Over the past couple of years, I took experimentation even further: I spent time working in parks and in beach bars, in the apartments of friends and strangers, on airplanes and airports, on buses and boats. All of these had their allures, and I’d love to go back to many of them because of the good experiences I made.

I experienced two of my personal highlights during the creation of my first two books. When I started to outline Beyond Rules¹ I discovered my personal “author’s paradise” on Earth: A cozy hotel right at the beach in Cartagena. In the shadowy patios, artists, writers and part-time philosophers of all sorts encounter Colombian tourists, elderly world travelers and the occasional group of students. The resulting energy provides the ideal surroundings for me to let my mind wander, get inspired and put a text together.

Later on, I made major breakthroughs for both Beyond Rules and Productive Anywhere at the shores of the North Sea in Denmark and Germany. This was a great environment to dive deeply into the chapters of the books and slog away for a couple of hours. Whenever it got too much and I felt like my head was exploding, going out to breathe some fresh air and get myself almost blown away by the stormy winds was just perfect to get unstuck!

My Favorite Workplace

So were these my favorite workplaces? In some sense, yes – but only in the context of what I was doing at the time! I believe that being able to choose our workplace on our own brings two huge advantages. First of all, our motivation will be higher, as described above: Choosing freely about when and how to work is an empowering experience. Secondly, different environments lend themselves better for different kinds of tasks: The library for concentrated editing, the beach hotel to get inspired, and so on.

The major downside to choosing our own workplace is probably friction: Finding out about what works and what does not is only in some part a matter of common sense or scientific research. To a large degree it’s a question of personal preference and also of the circumstances of your life. Also, procrastination can be much more tempting if there isn’t anybody around controling you. Choosing your workplace wisely thus becomes much more important.²

So what’s my favorite workplace, then? It’s hard to say. But if I’d have to choose one, I’d probably go for… no, I won’t put this here. It’s worth a post of its own, so I’ll keep it up for next week! Be sure to come back or subscribe for free to my RSS feed!

Still available for free at the link. I will take it down later this month to start working on a 2012 update, so be sure to grab it now if you’re interested! [↩]
More thoughts on these issues can be found in Productive Anywhere, of course! In her interview, Lea Woodward shares some very interesting thoughts on how sometimes even a great place can be a bad fit for us to get things done. [↩]

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Barbecue Laws

by Fabian on December 8, 2011

An interesting excerpt from the (excellent) book Willpower by Roy F. Baumeister and John Tierney:

In nineteenth-century America […] there was a social convention called the “barbecue law,” which meant that all the men who gathered for a barbecue were expected to drink until they were soused. To refuse a drink entailed a serious insult to the host and the rest of the party.

Now, if you have been following my writings on TFA for a while, you know already that I’m not exactly an opponent to the occasional drink. More precisely, I used to be a rum collector when I still had an apartment and a good spirit can normally be found somewhere in my luggage, ready to celebrate with friends whenever I meet (or make) them.

(Time for a tangent: I already told you about the German proverb which says that you should celebrate the feasts as they come. I’m a huge believer in this. Really great parties are rarely planned and much more often simply turn up “like that”. This makes me think that the old pagan gods of wine and merriness probably do exist.

I remember once, when I was in Rome, a friend of mine and I went to an ice cream parlor near Fontana di Trevi in search for a restroom. The owners weren’t eager to lend their facilities to non-customers, so we ordered two beers and off we ran to the bathroom.

When we came back we started to joke with them about the location of their business and the funny experiences they had made with tourists over the years. When they found out that we were Germans, they immediately started to ask us about the Love Parade. (This episode happened back in the late 90s, so Love Parade was still existent and en vogue at the time.)

As it turns out, the guys were huge techno fans – and my friend was a semi-professional DJ who also happened to carry a couple of DJ sets from that year’s “Abschlusskundgebung,” the Love Parade’s great finale. Memories are blurry, but it didn’t take the owners more than five minutes to close the parlor down, open the bar and get that tape playing. We spent several hours there, drinking, repeatedly listening to the sets, talking a hodgepodge of German, English and Italian, dancing and joking around. When we finally left, daylight was already approaching at the Eastern skies.

Now, before I totally lose my tangent, let’s sum it up: While I didn’t travel with booze back then and the real clou of this story was without doubt the Love Parade tape my friend brought along, making new friends and celebrating whenever we get the chance to definitely is a good thing to do. End of tangent.)

Now, back to the main topic: “Barbecue Laws.”

I probably lost all my credibility somewhere between the words “rum collector” and “I spent several hours drinking in an Italian ice cream parlor”.

BUT!

Starting to drink just because of some social convention is something I have done at several points in my life. At barbecues and at other places. But: It’s also something I’m happy to do less now than I did in the past. Why that? Well, probably because drinking just to follow some social convention strikes me as extraordinarily silly.

Consequently, breaking this “barbecue law” sounds like a good idea.

But then, of course, there’s another notion to it that I cannot ignore here on TFA. Because socially enforced drinking isn’t the only social convention that’s extraordinarily silly, is it?

Actually, I worry there are many, many other “barbecue laws” nowadays.

And I personally prefer to break at least some of them.

Like the law to buy tons of useless stuff to give away for Christmas. (Another tangent, but let’s make this shorter: If I don’t stumble on something that seems like a great fit for a loved person, I’ll simply buy food. And, ahem, drinks. Everybody likes good food and good drinks, they don’t occupy storage space in your apartment (at least not for a long time), and if you don’t like them you can easily give them away without anybody noticing. A perfect gift, as far as I am concerned.)

Or the law to overeat during holiday season only to go on a diet later on. (Really, isn’t this weird? I mean, the dark winters in the Northern hemisphere certainly suck, but is binge-eating the best answer to that? Better get a flight to the Tropics!)

Or how about the “barbecuest¹ law” of all: The law to get up at 7am, board a loud and stinking car by 8, drive to an ugly glass-and-concrete building and sit down at some desk by 9, only to do senseless busywork until the clock hits 5pm.

Really, let’s find a loophole for these laws! Let’s start accepting the invitations to the barbecue (if we’re fine with them), but let’s keep the booze out of the game if we don’t feel like drinking. Or the hollow Christmas gifts. The binge-eating. The busywork.

“Barbecue laws” are both legally and morally superfluous.
Let’s break them and replace them with something better.

Grammar police will shoot me. Barbecue, barbecuer, barbecuest. [↩]

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Good Reads, December’s Here Edition

by Fabian on December 1, 2011

Happy December 1st, everybody! After the Productive Anywhere launch, I’m slowly getting back on top of things, including my online reading that had been quite limited during the last couple of weeks.

Here is some of the good stuff I read in recent days – but let’s start with a bit of shameless self-promotion:

If you think about it, freedom is a lot like apples: There are people who think they can control access to it, who want to sell it to you, or who want to prevent you from getting it. But if the time is ripe, you will find a way to get it anyway.

If you think about it, freedom, just like apples, is free – but it’s not: You often can’t just take what’s right in front of you and expect it to be sweet and tasty. Much to the opposite, it might often be quite sour.

But if all you do is to look at that bright red apple high up in the tree, and wait for it to fall down, it might get mealy and stale before you get it. Or someone else might eat it. If, on the other hand, you try to shake it off violently, you well might get it, but your freedom might have that foul taste just like a bruised apple.

That’s the thing with freedom: You don’t just have to want it. You don’t just have to look at it. You don’t just have to choose it, either.

If you want to get your personal freedom, you have to decide to climb.

This is a post I wrote for Illuminated Mind. It features apple trees and freedom and climbing children and I think you’ll like it. So if you miss a longer update here on TFA, be sure to check it out!

[¶]

The whole Christmas mall menagerie is so silly that it can barely offend anymore. It doesn’t warrant a serious condemnation, and being hard-nosed about it is a little like picketing a WWE event to convince showgoers that it isn’t real wrestling. More than anything I wanted to be entertained, and I was.

David Cain on his recent experiences in a local mall. Some good food for thought when it comes to Christmas shopping and what to make of it.

[¶]

Getting Started is Overrated:

Attend any talk given by an entrepreneur and you’ll hear some variation of the following: The most important thing you can do is to get started! I completely disagree.

This advice has percolated from its origin in business self-help to the wider productivity blogging community. You’ve heard it before: Do you want to become a writer? Start writing! Do you want to become fit? Join a gym today! Do you want to become a big-time blogger? Start posting ASAP! If you don’t start, you’re weak! You’re afraid of success!

Here’s the problem: I completely disagree with this common advice. I think an instinct for getting started cripples your chance at long-term success. And I suggest that, on the contrary, you should develop rigorous thresholds that any pursuit must overcome before it can induce action.

A smart and extremely relevant post by Cal Newport over at Lifehacker. This has been lurking in my “Good Reads” drawer for months already because I intended to write a longer post on the topic – but I think I just better get this out now.

The short version: Looking back, success always looks like a straight path, but the realities are different. For every person suceeding in, say, professional blogging, there are many others who failed. What to make of that? Read the whole thing!

[¶]

Sometimes, during the years of writing this book, I’ve found myself on a crowded train in Tokyo or Osaka, on my way to meet one of the people who live in the mountains, and I’ll look at the businessmen all around me, their suits and ties perfect, but exhaustion hanging over their faces, pallid and overdrawn like a bank account, and I wonder, if like Murata says, they also dream this dream. If so, do they lack the courage? Or have they made choices earlier on about family and house buying so that it’s much less easy to move? Or is Murata right, that it’s much more simple than that? They aren’t doing it because they simply don’t want it enough?

This ideal, I mention, might come from ancient India, where the texts talk about it as something one does as the fourth and last stage of life.

“Yes,” Murata says “for after you finish your working life, in your fifties or sixties…”

“But you wanted to do it sooner?” I ask.

Laughing he says, “Yes!” And then he adds, solemn as if he’s quoting something, “Whatever you can do, it’s best to do it soon.”

This site was recommended to me by Lawson, a good friend of my good friend Ben. The two are currently somewhere in Thailand, studying tropical forests, eating great food, exploring the countryside and whatnot. “Whatever you can do, it’s best to do it soon?” Definitely!¹ Thanks, Lawson! Keep those mails coming!

[¶]

George Christensen, a 55-year-old bike messenger, likes to set challenges for himself. In 1975 he sat through every inning of every game in the bleachers at Wrigley Field. In 1991 he made 73 deliveries in one day, a record for Chicago bike messengers at the time. Last spring he attended 70 movies in 12 days.

But of all his serial obsessions, one stands out. Any bicycling enthusiast might take one long trip of 5,000 or more miles. Some take two or three. Christensen has taken 15. He’s also done at least one 1,000-mile tour every year since 1977 and more 300-to-500-mile trips than he can count.

Epic story. Here’s his blog! This is lifestyle design for reals. I mean… wow. Christensen prefers to work as a messenger during winter because there is less competition and more pay. And then, he does his 1,000+ mile trips during summer. At 55!

[¶]

Another thing I did not write about quitting Facebook was that one of the great social pleasures in my life has been to leave gatherings or parties unannounced.

What I Didn’t Write About When I Wrote About Quitting Facebook

[¶]

The internet, as it turns out, is what you make of it. It’s the kinds of sites you visit, the communities you choose to engage with and the amount of time you spend doing so.

I’m always glad to read posts from J.D. Bentley. Unhypey, thoughtful, illuminating stuff. Like this one, about fishes in a bubble! Certainly a simple and relevant (practical!) approach to counteract the filter bubble problem described by Eli Pariser. (Here’s his TED talk, in case you missed it.)

[¶]

How to find focus? Do more of the following:

•   Sleep. Staying up all night to stay on top puts you at the bottom. Sleep is sexy.
•   Move. We are screen-beings, but fitness helps us focus, boosts our mood, and keeps this meat spacesuit alive.
•   Fuel yourself. Drink much more water. Eat the best food you can afford. Never settle for food. Celebrate it. (Sometimes, greasy beach pizza is the celebration.)
•   Find patience. We only have now. Learning patience is a huge part of learning focus.

I’m glad to see more and more people becoming aware of the importance of idleness and relaxation in life. Even guys like Chris Brogan. Yes, yes and yes: Sleep is good for you. And greasy pizza now and then doesn’t hurt, either. (Now and then!)

By the way, one thing I wholeheartedly disagree with is Chris’ notion that we are “over-informed”. Most of us are certainly “over-newsed,” but unfortunately still under-informed. Check this story about Fox News watchers being actually less informed than people who don’t consume any news at all!

Do you notice the contradiction to Cal’s post? I put these two one behind another intentionally! This is the fine art of embracing contradictions. [↩]

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Chris Guillebeau on Being Productive (and Idle!) Anywhere

by Fabian on November 23, 2011

Yes! I managed to do the impossible: I got Chris Guillebeau, probably the most productive traveler on this planet, to admit that he could relate to the concept of idleness as described here on TFA!

Idlers, rejoice: Even productivity mavens know the value of disconnecting, relaxing, and letting the idle brain do its job!

Of course, this is only part of the story! Because the real lesson from talking to Chris was that being productive isn’t just a matter of the right tools and tricks. Ultimately, it’s about doing the right work: Work that matters, work that you love, and work that helps other people.

All in all, I can honestly say that my Productive Anywhere interview with Chris was amazing! I was happy to talk to someone so smart and inspiring, and he was a perfect fit for the great line of interviewees I was lucky to talk to during the creation of the guide.

As a special treat for you and for the benefit of working travelers everywhere, Chris and I decided to give this interview away to you for free! Just listen in right here or feel free to download the MP3!

Productive Anywhere Interview – Chris Guillebeau

Additionally, a full PDF transcript is also available!

Enjoy!

The photo is CC-BY-NC directly from Chris’ Flickr account.

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