I’m working a full time job in Corporate America still, am married with three teenagers, two cats, and a dog. Time is my most valuable resource, and also my most scarce resource. I realized early on that I would have a challenge finding the time I need to dedicate to building my startup. I knew I would have to find different ways to work because the idea of having large blocks of quiet time to work at home just wasn’t a reality.

The biggest tool I’ve used to combat this so far has been my cell phone. With my cell phone and a few apps (Word, Excel, Chrome), I’m able to be fairly effective at getting things done just about anywhere. Sitting at a kid’s sporting event, commuting on the train, sitting in the Living Room waiting to leave the house; I am able to convert all this time into productivity. All of these blog posts have been written using Word on my phone on my commutes home from my day job. I’m able to work on documents, emails, and spreadsheets on my phone, as well as tweak websites and upload files.

Complimentary to this, I’m using DropBox to store files I’m working on. This allows me to move between devices very easily. If I’m writing a document on my phone, I can set it to save to Dropbox. When I get home, I can easily fire up the laptop and jump into the same document, without having to try and get a file off my phone and onto a PC. Without DropBox, none of this would work very easily.

It’s not perfect. Writing on a phone isn’t the most pleasurable experience imaginable. At times it can be very frustrating, and my first drafts have more typos. Some things can’t really be done on the phone, like messing with webpage layouts or writing complex Excel formulas. If I didn’t use my phone though, I’d be many weeks behind my current progress. Using the phone has allowed me to turn more time into productive time even when I’m not in an ideal environment.

What kinds of things are you doing to improve your productivity?