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Speaker 1: Good morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the New Corner Office,

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Speaker 1: the podcast where we share strategies for thriving in the

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Speaker 1: new world of work or location and hours are more

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Speaker 1: flexible than in the past. Today's tip is to give

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Speaker 1: a new workplace a try your own parked car. If

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Speaker 1: your house is just too loud or distracting, your car

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Speaker 1: presents a reasonable alternative. Now. I know that in normal times,

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Speaker 1: plenty of people work in their cars by taking calls

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Speaker 1: during their commutes. This is not really a great idea.

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Speaker 1: The data undistracted driving are pretty grim. If you need

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Speaker 1: to take a call, pull over. But I do understand

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Speaker 1: why people tend to take calls from their cars, even

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Speaker 1: beyond the perceived productivity boost of multitasking. A car is

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Speaker 1: enclosed and generally pretty quiet. It's also private, so no

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Speaker 1: one can overhear a conversation. If you're working from home,

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Speaker 1: you can capture some of these benefits by working from

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Speaker 1: your own parked car. If you stay parked in your

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Speaker 1: own driveway, you can probably use your house WiFi. Now,

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Speaker 1: I will put in here the obvious caveat that if

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Speaker 1: you're running the car for the air conditioning in summer,

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Speaker 1: you should not be in your closed garage. But if

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Speaker 1: the temperatures are moderate so you don't need to run

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Speaker 1: the car, then you can work where you want. If

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Speaker 1: you do need to run the ac, make sure you're outside.

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Speaker 1: Some libraries have kept their Wi Fi going while they're closed,

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Speaker 1: precisely so people can park in their parking lots and work.

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Speaker 1: In any case, if the kids are being loud but

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Speaker 1: they're old enough to leave unsupervised for a little bit,

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Speaker 1: or your spouse is on kid duty, try using your

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Speaker 1: car as a secondary workspace. Just bring your laptop and

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Speaker 1: phone out there. If you'd like. You can drive to

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Speaker 1: a nearby park for the scenery, or just stay put.

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Speaker 1: Move the seat back so you can angle laptop in there,

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Speaker 1: or prop it on the center car. Bring snacks and

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Speaker 1: a drink, and you may not need to emerge for

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Speaker 1: a while. This option might be especially useful for people

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Speaker 1: in small spaces who are trading off childcare duties with

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Speaker 1: a spouse. The spouse can be doing his or her best,

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Speaker 1: but noise is inevitable, and sometimes the kids can still escape.

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Speaker 1: If you are the parent that they often seek out,

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Speaker 1: no home office is really going to keep them away.

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Speaker 1: In normal times, you could go to a coffee shop

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Speaker 1: or library or coworking space, but even those places aren't

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Speaker 1: great for sensitive phone conversations. Hence the brilliance of the car.

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Speaker 1: I made use of this the other day when someone

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Speaker 1: was interviewing me for a podcast. I normally record my

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Speaker 1: own podcast episodes at night after people are in bed,

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Speaker 1: but other people have different schedules. In any case, I

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Speaker 1: set myself up in the parked car in the driveway

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Speaker 1: and enjoyed the quiet well for a while. Then my

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Speaker 1: neighbor began mowing his lawn. I guess silences never guaranteed,

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Speaker 1: but at least sometimes it's a little more likely than others.

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Speaker 1: If you've ever used your perked car or some other

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Speaker 1: genius spot as a workspace, I'd love to hear about it.

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Speaker 1: You can reach me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com.

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Speaker 1: In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and

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Speaker 1: here's to succeeding in the New Corner Office. The New

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Speaker 1: Corner Office is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts,

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Speaker 1: visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get

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Speaker 1: your favorite shows.