The Architect Balances Her Home Life

Laura is a tech-savvy designer at work, but when she got home, the last thing she wanted to think about was her own digital life. Yet with a computer on the verge of collapse, her long-overdue problem had become an emergency.

You first came to us with an overloaded hard drive and a bunch of scattered cloud accounts. How would you describe your state of affairs?

I spend all my energy being hyper-organized at work, so when I come home, I have no bandwidth to deal with my own tech. However I have lots of important files I would die to lose - pictures and my academic portfolio in particular.

I panicked a little every time I thought about the risk I was taking by not being on top of these issues. By the time we met, my computer was locking up randomly. If I waited any longer it would have been a disaster.
 

We both breathed a huge sigh of relief when we got your contacts, calendars, and notes into a simple system. Tell us about what was going on.

Somewhere along the way between being busy and lazy, I had created a bunch of scattered email accounts.  In fact my personal email account had been renamed “Holidays in the United States” due to a Gmail glitch. So yes, things were a bit of a mess.

I share work and personal on my phone so creating a clear separation was key. Robbie asked a few questions to understand my needs and helped me streamline and reorganize.  Now I have two clear accounts and a lot fewer headaches. 

The new atrium atop 1 Union Square West in New York City, designed by Laura and her team.

How do you see yourself operating with this improved setup?

Robbie was able to quickly and efficiently get my digital life to a place where I could easily pick up where he left off. It’s so much easier to stay organized once a system is in place. Feeling at peace with my tech is a welcome change.