It’s just after ten in the morning and I’m sitting on my balcony writing this. The sun is blazing, I’ve got a good cup of coffee. It’s perfection. Last summer I spent two months in Ibiza working on the beach and making friends the the local lizards.

Lizard vs coffee

I thought I’d share a few tips I’ve picked up for working while sunbathing.

(I had a quick look around and other articles recommend working in the shade. Bollocks to that. You could always wear this laptop sock.)

Seeing the screen

  • Back up. Sitting by the pool in the sun, sipping a cocktail is a high risk environment. It’s like something out of a Health & Safety advert - “circle the risks here”. So do a laptop backup.
  • Face the sun. I move around like a human sundial to keep it directly in front of me.
  • Clean the screen. This makes a huge difference. Little bits of dirt that are barely noticeable indoors wreak havoc with your eyes outside. Wiping the screen down with glass cleaner massively improves readability.
  • Wear a dark T-shirt or no T-shirt. Don’t wear white. The less light that is reflecting off the screen, the better you can see it. And along those lines…
  • Prefer working with a dark wall behind you. Again, minimise the amount of light being reflected into the screen.
  • Use a white background in whatever program you are using. I work in VIM and change my theme to habiLight which provides the highest contrast I have found.
  • I tend to make a cardboard hood that fits around the laptop screen. Yes, I look like a loony typing on a fake laptop made out of cardboard. No, I couldn’t give a shit. Even just a piece of cardboard put behind the screen cuts down on the amount of sun being reflected off the keyboard. This is a big deal on Macbooks because the Aluminium is like a mirror.
A piece of cardboard behind the laptop makes a great difference
  • Sunglasses probably help. I don’t wear them but only because I don’t own a pair.
  • Make sure the screen brightness is set to max. My laptop turns its brightness down if a menacing cloud comes overhead.

I find that Macbook screens work better than other laptops - despite their high reflectivity. I think this is because they tend to be brighter than any other screen I’ve used. A non-relective screen with the same brightness would probably be best.

Protecting the laptop

Another reason I keep a piece of cardboard behind the laptop is to keep it cool.

Don’t forget your phone. Far too many times I forget all about my phone and pick it up an hour later to find it’s roasting and there’s a message on the screen to say it’s overheated. This probably explains my dismal battery life.