Mac at Home Helps Mobile Practice

After five years of what seemed like annual PC replacements for my family’s home computing needs, I decided it was time to make a change. I don’t have anything against PCs (I use one at work everyday). I was just tired of buying cheap ones every year or so and not having the confidence that it would last. It was time to bite the bullet and open the wallet.

So I did it. I bought an iMac for our new home computer. But why a Mac this time? I’ve been listening to so many podcasts and reading so many articles about ways to use my iPhone and iPad, and they all end up discussing ways to carry workflows over to the Mac. I just didn’t have one. Was I missing something? I don’t know. But we’ll find out.

I have already downloaded the Windows Remote Desktop client so I can work on “work” stuff at home, directly in my work system. I’ve also downloaded Byword (my blog writing app of choice), so my works in progress can sync via iCloud between all my iDevices. I think this is going to be good.

The new Mac will certainly be fun to have at home. But much like my previous post about starting to use an iPad, I really believe this will help me with my work. Having a dependable machine at home absolutely helps, but having something that so seamlessly interacts with my iPad and iPhone is invaluable.

My practice keeps me mobile. I spend almost as much time out of the office as I do in it, so I need my tools to be mobile too. When I first switched to an iPhone (from a BlackBerry) I was amazed at how much more I could do. Reading emails and attachments became easier. I could dictate on the go and send it to my assistant for use in our digital dictation system. Then I moved on to the iPad. Creating and editing documents became so much easier that my iPad quickly became my mobile tool of choice instead of the Windows laptop I had been lugging around (it’s actually a very nice laptop – I almost feel bad for it now).

Having the Mac at home will just be the next step to unifying so much of the “out-of-office” work that I do. I can start a memo in Drafts on my iPhone, send it directly to Byword, continue writing in Byword on my iPad, and then finish it up at home on the Mac — which happens to be exactly what I did for this post. Believe it or not, I really think that investing in a Mac for home will help my mobile productivity – and that is exactly what clients have come to expect in this mobile world.