How To Live a Synchronized Life (Electronically) - Part One

Part One - The Challenge

As some of you may already know, I live my alter non-author ego in the world of technology. Actually I think this is something that has helped me become a better Indie Author as the proliferation of self-publishing sites and software has evolved.

So today I thought I'd write a little about that other world I live in, in the hope that it is of some use to the rest of you out there. Let me start by defining my day-to-day problems. During a typical month I need to:

• Travel to an office 'day' job
• Continue writing upcoming novels
• Market existing books and generally keep up with Social Networking sites
• Travel for weekends away
• Check my email and calendar from anywhere
• Ensure that everything on all my electronic devices stays synced

It's a tough challenge and something that I am sure most of you are already familiar with. So how have I managed - someone who is supposed to be tech-savvy? Well first off, let me tell you that I still have not found the perfect solution. I live in hope of a fold-up PC with the power of a desktop, the closed footprint of a phone, and something able to give me, on demand, a screen that is at least 11 inches in size. Have I come close? Yes. But I'm still not there yet.

To give you a better understanding of why I need this synchronization, here are a few of my detailed challenges:

• I want to be able to edit my plot ideas from wherever I am and have them available to me when I get home
• I want to be able to write a page or two of my book if I suddenly get a great idea or I'm stuck somewhere with some time
• I want to be able to check and respond to all my emails wherever I am
• I want to be able to sit in a hotel room at 6 in the morning and crank out a chapter of my book
• I want to be able to read what other people are saying about different topics and maybe contribute some feedback to them
• I want to...

You get the idea. I'm no different to the rest of you out there. So that's it, the electronically synchronized challenge.

In the next post I'll give a little background to how I've tried to solve the problems during the past three years; what has worked and what hasn't. And then in the final post I'll write about the solution I currently use and the advantages and disadvantages to it all. I'm getting close to an ideal. Technology may soon not actually get in the way of real work!

Read Part Two HERE