Portable Apps – Become Serious About De-cluttering!
In my new Nomad Lifestyle series am going to talk a lot about mobility in our business and how we can apply this to real life. I will also hunt down useful tools and applications to make your mobile life easier. One of the major attraction to a nomad lifestyle to me is the fact that it is straightforward and often uncluttered.
The more we are on the move, the more we have to let go of things. Things that don’t mean anything, yet we treasure them as if they would. What really matters in life is our health and the people we love; family and friends. Everything else can be replaced one way or another.
In this post I want to talk about portable apps and how cool they really are – if you place safety at the forefront of using them. Mobile portable apps are not only lightweight, but they also allow you to carry applications with you when you are on the go. For freelance writers like me this means I can take with me tool such as:
- Open office portable
- Sumatra PDF portable
- PNotes portable
- 7-Zip portable
- Mac-on Stick
- PortableApps.com Backup
- ClamWin portable
- Mozilla Firefox portable
- Firefox Accessibility Extension
- FileZilla portable
- Notepad++ portable
- and many more
All these allow me to run my business on a foreign host computer without compromising my mobility or safety. However, to keep your portable apps safe you have to make sure to follow their on-site instructions.
Portable apps bonus use
Who is to say that we have to only use these apps when we travel? Why not let go of the heavy applications of domestic computer use and install portable apps instead to save space on our hard disks.
I like clean and I also like lightweight – it is usually how I travel too. Using tools like portable apps allows you to run your business from a small USB stick if you so wish without the need to carry a laptop. While this is is for the very frugal, also note that as a writer it might not be the best idea to travel notebook-less as we are always writing something.
Having to rely solely on Internet cafes and friends is a bit too much of a hassle when you are desperate to get writing at odd hours of the day. With portable apps however and a small netbook you can do just that – without the cumbersome weight of traditional laptop computers.
Monika
About the Author: I'm a passionate freelance writer and problogger. To further build my business I'm also in the process of building my own niche empire which pays me residual income.
Brett Legree | Jan 24, 2009 | Reply
Woohoo! I use portable apps all the time (makes it easy to do some of my own stuff on my lunch at work without leaving anything behind) and it is great!
You’re really on the cutting edge too – I agree that this, along with a netbook, is the way to go. You can literally keep everything you need in a small pocket on your backpack – work anywhere with the netbook – and if you have access to a PC with a larger monitor, you are good to go.
-Brett
Monika | Jan 24, 2009 | Reply
@ Brett: Somehow I knew you would.
I’m only getting warmed up to all those space and clutter saving tools and still learn every day about new ways to work even smarter. I can tell you though, it is a whole lot of fun for me.
As I’m writing this I’m sitting at my former workplace by the pool and if it wouldn’t rain like god knows what I’d even make a picture. LOL
Brett Legree | Jan 24, 2009 | Reply
@Monika,
Now I just need to get that netbook and I’ll be good to go. My Mac is a heck of a machine for sure, but sometimes I just don’t want to take it with me (in case someone might mug me and take it!) – something smaller and less flashy is ideal.
Hopefully it has stopped raining for you!