There are laptops I drool over, but I replaced my PC with my phone over a year ago, and I can’t switch back without taking a serious hit to my productivity. I know—I’m surprised, too.
5I’m No Longer Tethered to a Desk
For most of my career, I did most of my writing at either a desk or a table. Sure, my laptops were portable, but that just meant I could move from my desk at home to a table at the library or in a family member’s house. It doesn’t compare to the portability I experience now.
These days, I get work done all over the place. I can flesh out an outline in the car while waiting to pick up my kids from school. I can jot things down while I’m out for a walk in the woods. I can write a paragraph from the privacy of a public bathroom.
Judge all you want. I’m a working parent who has to work around two kids. I get my work in when I can, and the flexibility of a phone helps me do this in a way a laptop cannot.
4I Scale My Screen Size As Needed from One Device
When I say I work from my phone, I don’t mean your standard slab phone. I usea foldable phone as my daily driver. When I’m at home, I usually connect a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse. I often have the phone docked to an external monitor or AR glasses so that I can use Samsung DeX. Just as often, I simply plop the phone down on a phone stand instead. When I’m away from home, I can still get work done on the large internal screen even without my accessories.
Even when I miss the laptop form-factor, I’m not missing out. I havea lapdock I can connect my phone to. Thing is, I rarely do. It feels like weighing myself down.
3I Leave the House Without a Computer Bag
I can whip out my phone whenever time permits because my phone is always on me in a way a laptop can’t be. I’m not going to grab my laptop bag every time I pick up the kids or go out for a walk. I didn’t always have it on me when going to visit relatives nearby, only to find myself sitting around while family members talked, kicking myself for not coming prepared.
A laptop requires planning, whereas a phone allows for spontaneity. I’m not eager to give up the serendipity with which I now move through life.
2I Use Voice Typing to Work Anywhere
I find the virtual keyboard on my phone’s internal screen to be the perfect size. I enjoy typing on it to an extent I don’t enjoy on the smaller cover screen, a regular phone, or even a tablet. This form-factor feels just right, yet that doesn’t mean I do most of my writing that way.
I’ve learned todo quite a bit using voice dictation. I talk to my phone while pacing around a room or going for a walk outside. I’m even able to talk to my phone while driving, giving me the opportunity to transcribe things during the two-hour drives I do semi-regularly.
1My Files and Apps Are Always on Me
There’s nothing stopping me from doing all the things I’ve named, even if I get a laptop. It’s not like my phone would suddenly disappear. I could do all the same things and sync data over to my laptop later.
Yet it’s hard for me to put into words how accustomed I’ve gotten to having all my files in one place. I don’t have to sync things back and forth. I’m not dependent on a data connection to access cloud storage. Whatever I’m working on is always in my pocket, accessible whenever I want, wherever I want. This helps me give even less thought to managing files.
Long story short, if I absolutely had to have a laptop, I could make it work. That’s the thing, though—I’d be making it work. It wouldn’t help me work any faster. I already have the processing power tucked inside my phone, and with the right accessories, I have the form-factor, too. What do I have to gain?
