The thing about being a fully functioning high-tech mobile office from the dark far flung future of twenty thirteen, is that your list of possible office locations is limited only by your imagination.

Well you’re imagination, and cellphone reception.

Also some laws… and physics.

Also we want to be able to get there on bike.

What I’m trying to say is you don’t have to work in a cafe if you don’t want to. In fact, you can work in the great outdoors!

Mobile Office Reviews goes outside!

Today Johnboy and I decided that because we are men of the city, we should work in the city. We met at City Walk, picked a park bench that wasn’t too wet or sticky, and got to work.

We quickly discovered that the sun was in our eyes, so we cleverly went and picked a different bench. One that was in the shade. That was pretty good for a while until the sun moved and the glare meant we could no longer see our laptop screens. Again we moved, and again we missed the previous warm spots we’d made on the last bench.

This new spot was pretty good for a while, but then the sun caught up with us again. We shuffled about a little. At some point, Johnboy ended up on sheepback. That giant ball of fire in the sky continued to be more trouble than it was worth, so we retreated to the nice grassy area on Ainslie Avenue with lots of tree shade. This final spot was juuussst right.

Technology:

Nothing! No power, no WiFi! But of course that was to be expected. The mobile coverage was fine and we didn’t have any problems getting work done using mobile internet. However as I mentioned above, the glare on our screens was a big issue. This caused me to have to turn the brightness up on my monitor, which drains the battery faster.

Worth noting if you plan to work outside for an extended period of time.

Food:

You could try catching and killing one of the many magpies in the city, but there are a lot of them and they do act vaguely like a gang so I wouldn’t recommend it.

Of course being in Civic there are a million places to go for food, but I’m not reviewing those places.

Productivity:

Not ideal. I’m a very distract-able person who loves people watching. I was having a great time, but I did find it hard to stop watching the line for Subway and focus on what I was supposed to be doing. Johnboy seemed fine.

Once we moved to the quiet spot on Ainslie Avenue the foot traffic slowed down and I was much more productive. At this point though Johnboy swapped roles with me and started car watching. I think he was trying to keep track of how many diplomats were driving past.

We still got our work done, but it wasn’t ideal. Distractions galore.

Coffee:

I don’t have to throw to Johnboy this time!

No coffee, it’s not a cafe. You go buy it somewhere else and bring it with you. As a bonus you get to pick where you buy it from!

Comfort:

Again not great, the metal benches on Civic walk are not very nice. You are of course exposed to the elements. Today wasn’t an issue as it was quite a nice day, but we do live in Canberra so…

Things got better when we moved. The Ainslie Avenue benches were much nicer to sit on. Also the beautiful trees and obscure memorials were a lovely backdrop to work around.

Service:

I got hit up by a chugger at one point, but considering I spent the whole morning outside in Civic I think only getting hit up once is a pretty good effort.

Other People:

Everyone. It’s Civic, everyone is there. A million office workers, a bunch of homeless, some families with screaming children, the chuggers, one particularly amusing gang of truant private school kids, and of course the early morning junkies.

All of them there, all the time, living out their lives.

I loved it, but like I said, it’s very distracting.

Conclusion:

I had a really fun morning. I love the city, and being outside on a nice bright day like today is a pleasure. However I feel we got our work done in spite of the place, and that’s not a good thing in a mobile office location.

If we had started by going to the chairs on Ainslie Avenue I think I would be much more likely to recommend Civic as a place to get some work done, maybe I’ll try again at some point.

Maybe in Spring.

We’ve been storing up your suggestions and adding a few of our own to our shortlist, but that’s no reason to stop giving us ideas in the comments Rioters.

Where to next?