My friend was moving from San Francisco to Chicago and needed help packing. I told him I could give him a hand, so I took a day off work and drove up from LA late on a Thursday with the intent to help him pack on Friday. I feel like when you’re getting ready to help someone move, you have to mentally prep yourself for any possible variable – heavy objects, broken objects, injury, fatigue. Any given move has the potential to be the most brutal NFL game ever played.
When we woke up on Friday, I told him I was ready to go, to which he replied “Great, I just need you to protect the truck.” Huh? He went on to explain that a bunch of other guys were helping in the move and apparently, when moving apartments in San Francisco, you have to guard the trucks. The two justifications he had were 1) Someone has to make sure nobody steals anything, and 2) Since the truck will be blocking a driveway, I may have to move it at any given time.
Let me explain how boring protecting a truck is. Actually, I bet I don’t need to explain it. I think it’s pretty self-explanatory. Unfortunately, I didn’t bring my computer because I didn’t think I’d have time to use it. Fortunately, my friend let me borrow his computer during the daunting protection hours, and I logged onto my cloud.
While I was essentially doing one thing – “moving” a.k.a. protecting – I was fully getting work done. We’re connected to the cloud through ElephantDrive, and it allows cloud access from any given web browser – no software required. Personally speaking, I love getting two things done at once. And not just any thing: helping someone move and accomplishing work tasks are a big deal.
When my friend came to the moving truck and saw me working on my personal files he was pretty amazed that I had access to it. Honestly, I think he was going to ask me to give him a hand moving something, but we got caught up talking about the cloud. After our conversation he went back in, and I stayed protecting the truck.
It was a win-win. I got everything done I didn’t think I’d have time to, and technically, I helped someone move.
