Going Pro: Offline and Online

In this series of posts, I'll be continuing the conversations from my Going Pro book (which you can download for free). This time, I'll share a productivity technique that extends on the idea that I shared of doing specific tasks at specific times (such as that I used to write my Genii column whenever I was on a flight, which allowed me to always be ahead of my deadline - sometimes as much as one-year ahead).

The technique is this: Consider whether a task can be done online or offline, and plan accordingly.

For example, some tasks require me to be connected to the internet (things like replying to email and text messages, updating my website, and doing research), whereas others can be done offline (writing documents, designing images, laying out books, and so on).

By knowing which tasks can be done offline, you can better identify which jobs to do at any given time. For example, if I know I'll be on a train without good internet, I'll leave all offline tasks until I am on the train. Or if I know that I'll have slow internet at a hotel, I can prepare accordingly.

More and more apps are adding offline alternatives (Google Docs and Gmail being the two I use most often) and so that also helps to plan my workload too. If your todo list application allows you to tag your items, you can even tag and filter offline and online tasks so that you know what to prioritise.

This probably seems like a small tip, but it's a big part of what allows me to continue to keep working wherever I am, and whenever I need to.