The stormy winter weather has hit the west coast, and that means we are entering the “Power Outage” season. Of course, being island bound doesn’t help much. When we have big outages they often need to bring teams in from the cities to assist our local crews, and since most of our island is heavily tree’d, majority of our outages are due to fallen foliage.
This means a lot of chainsaws going before they can even start to fix the wires.
But, life must go on. And work as well.
In our business we have deadlines and online events, and ensuring we are available for the scheduled commitments is a necessity.
And when your compensation for said events is worth more than a regular weeks work, you make SURE you are there.
So, here are a few tips to keep you online, even when your town is offline this winter.
1. Prepare in advance.
Winter work is always completed PRIOR to deadline. As soon as drafts are returned they are scheduled and published, and whatever can be done today is, well, done today. I try to schedule as much as possible to go out with out me pressing the button. This means that my “online life” is longer than it really is.
2. Save Your Juice
Always make sure you work plugged in when there IS power so you are fully charged when there isn’t. As soon as the power goes down for us I check my schedule and save my juice for what I NEED to do that day (or the next) vs what I can do. Your laptop should give you about 3hrs of power, fully charged – keep it for when it is needed. Of course, having a generator on hand, or a power convertor for the car can also help in a pinch!
3. Varying Your Internet Source
We have our wifi through one company, and our cel service and data through another. This means that when our local internet crashes, I can hotspot from my cel phone for important events. One of the best things we did was to upgrade to a higher data plan. We get 6G on our phones (hubby and I both) and that is one heck of a lot of hot spotting. This means I am not panicking about racking up my bill just so I can keep working. See if you can upgrade your plan, and find out which service is the LAST to go down when there is an outage! THAT is the cel service provider you want!
4. Know What You CAN HotSpot
A hot spot doesn’t always have the juice you need for everything on your list, so figure out ahead of time what it is capable of, or if there is an option to head outside for bette cel reception. I know I can participate at 80% in a twitter party, but I can NOT do a live stream hangout on my hotspot from my home. I can either drive around in bad weather to find better service (only in an emergency) or re-book the things I can’t stream.
5. Let It Go
Lastly, be ok with letting things go and rescheduling. With a bit of communication most situations can be re-booked. Of course, some can’t so be sure you are prepared with solutions before you start to panic.
The best thing about power outages though are the fodder for your brain! Being offline, playing games, cooking over a wood stove: all of these things are beautiful stories and experiences you can share with your readers! So have faith that even though you may not be doing what you THINK you should be at that time, you will still be able to appreciate the experience!