When talking about consultants, the term “road warrior” isn’t so much about driving an SUV with a bunch of scrap metal welded to it while wearing hockey armour/squirrel pelts. It’s more about being completely mobile and able to do your work under most conditions. For most people, this means a smart phone and a laptop. You can take it a bit further by getting a sturdy external battery and a 3G wireless modem for your laptop but for most people, a smart phone and laptop will suffice. Despite having moved into a new office in September, I was grateful that I am still well equipped from my road warrior days.

I knew that there was going to be a problem yesterday morning when I got close to the office because all of the traffic lights near my building were out. A quick glance around confirmed my fears – the whole neighbourhood was blacked out. I entered the building anyhow and my building manager had implemented his blackout plan – glow sticks in all the stairwells. We had no emergency lighting.

I had a significant amount of work to do and I was concerned that the whole day was going to be a wash. Thankfully, I had my laptop, heavy duty external battery [read my review here]. I didn’t have internet access because that requires electricity but I could send and receive e-mails from my BlackBerry. In a pinch, I could use my BlackBerry as a wireless modem (and risk going over my data limit on my cellular account).

The power came back on by 2:30pm but I learned a valuable lesson – no matter how comfortable I get in my new office, I need to keep being a road warrior to a certain degree. I suggest that anyone who does consulting for a living should have a good “go bag” that allows them to work from a coffee shop, their car or their own office in case the power goes out.