Is The Cloud a Productivity Tool?

This is a guest post by Joe Pawlikowski. He writes and edits several tech blogs across the web. He writes about his work-from-home experiences at A New Level.

Google recently wowed the internet with its latest product: Google Drive. This is no big innovation, though. Many services, such as Dropbox, have offered cloud storage services for years now. Yet Google was able to make waves with what in many ways is a mere clone. They put their big-market advantages to work as well, undercutting Dropbox’s pricing while providing more storage capacity at every tier. Google’s entry into the cloud storage market will likely raise interest to a wider audience. Yet, that might not be a good thing for the time-conscious.

A Cloud of Convenience

In many ways, the cloud provides features convenient for the modern citizen. By storing files on remote servers we can access them from more places. Instead of having to wait until we get to our home computers to access files, we can find them from almost anywhere. Whether it’s a phone, tablet, or remote computer, we’re able to access our cloud-stored files from any place that has an internet connection.

Oftentimes convenience does lead to greater productivity. In the case of the cloud, we’re now equipped to work at times and locations that weren’t previously possible. We can, for instance, perform maintenance and clerical work while grabbing a coffee at Starbucks. That wouldn’t be true if all of our files were stored locally. But with the cloud we can now perform tasks wherever we’re connected. That means we can work on our own terms, which typically leads to greater productivity.

Unfortunately, it’s not all upside. There are times when these conveniences turn against us.

An Imperfect Cloud

Taking the long view, the cloud might be our primary means of document and file storage at some point. But, that’s far off. At the moment there are just too many issues with the cloud to make it something on which we rely. Some prominent problems include:

• Connectivity. We’ve all experienced internet downtime at one point or another. It’s simply part of life. But if we’re relying on the cloud and we’re without an internet connection, we’re pretty much stuck. Without an internet connection the cloud is useless.
• Data centers. When you upload files to the cloud, you’re using someone else’s servers in someone else’s data centers. These are called control systems, which is funny, because they’re completely out of your control. That is, you can temporarily lose access to these files at any given time.
• Speed. If you try to access your files over a 3G mobile network and the network is at capacity, you won’t see your files any time soon. Ever accessed the internet at Starbucks when the place is packed? The internet can crawl along (if you can even get a connection). Internet connections are not always lightning fast. Slow networks mean long load times, which is a waste of your time.

Not only can these three factors waste your time, but they can derail your focus. The inability to access information that we need in order to work can cause stress. As Craig recently outlined, stress can destroy your productivity. At its worst, then, the cloud can be a double whammy of counter-productivity. It can waste your time and drive you berserk.

Finding a Balance

This isn’t to say that you should avoid the cloud if you want to remain productive. That would be akin to avoiding driving, because you might run into a traffic jam. As with most aspects of life, what’s required is balance. The best way to balance cloud usage is to remove any special reliance on it.

If you can use a tool to your advantage, you’d be a fool to ignore it. The cloud can, in many ways, make you more productive. It can turn an afternoon cup of coffee into a productive clerical session. The trick is to maintain a low degree of reliance. That is, if you run into problems, make sure there’s a Plan B. That way you can still get something done and not remain completely unproductive during a time when you had planned to do work.

Like many other recent innovations, the cloud can create unprecedented conveniences for us. We can then leverage those conveniences to better manage our time. Yet as with most technology, becoming too reliant can lead us down the opposite path. Technology, particularly web technology, is far from perfect. Issues abound, and we never know when they’re going to hit. It’s best to temper our expectations and usage, so that we can turn elsewhere when things go awry.

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