Perspective, Burton

Every so often I go mobile with my workflow. For example, with the exception of one situation, I have not used my iMac for over a week. I otherwise have worked exclusively off my iPad and iPhone.

I do this exercise for three reasons:

1. It promotes creativity in figuring out how to get work done.
2. It helps me explore new and existing apps that can be used for “heavy lifting” work (i.e., not the low-hanging fruit, such as checking emails or social media).
3. It helps me focus on what I should be doing and what should be delegated/outsourced to others.

[Side bar: The one exception referenced above? I needed to do some substantial edits on a pleading and then electronically file it. Could I have done that on the iPad? Yes, but it would've taken too long.]

When going mobile, it is fascinating how simple tweaks to apps can increase productivity.

Since using Box as our firm’s document-management platform, I rarely send actual attachments to emails. Instead, I send a Box link to a document so the receiving party can download it to their computer. Sending the link has many purposes, including: reducing the actual size of an email when a large document is involved, sensitive information can be password-protected, the link can be disabled at any time, and access stats are available.

Gone are the days of emailing an attachment and not really knowing where it is going.

Box recently updated their iOS apps to allow you to directly copy the Box link to a document.

This, previously, was a convenient functionality through the web browser. There were mobile work arounds, but they involved too many steps. Now, the link to the document can be copied in the Box app and then simply pasted in an email or other messaging system. To me, this is a big update.

Nerdy, technical mobile workflow improvement? Absolutely.