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Work schedules are hectic even in a typical, at-your-desk-all-day situation, never mind when you’re working remotely and hopping from site to site or trying to balance work with life demands while telecommuting from home. With the number of worldwide mobile workers estimated to hit 1.5 billion by 2015, knowing and employing best practices for working efficiently and collaborating with others as a remote worker are paramount to success. Today’s powerful technologies make remote meetings thankfully effortless, with solutions that offer virtual collaboration never more than a click away.
However, for remote workers, keeping track of schedules and important files while telecommuting can almost become a job in and of itself, compromising productivity between meetings and wasting precious time. With just two simple changes, you can more effectively manage and even automate many of these processes so you can focus on getting actual work done rather than worrying about the “whens,” “wheres,” and “hows” of your next meeting or deadline.
Effectively Manage Your Schedule
As a remote worker, if you find yourself constantly regularly checking your calendar for fear of missing client meetings or forgetting project tasks, it might be worth employing additional support with reminder or to-do list apps that can keep you notified of the location and time of your next meeting or the specifics of your next deadline. Most reminder apps can sync with your existing calendars, whether they’re through Google, Apple iCal or Microsoft Outlook and can send you notifications well in advance of your meeting – that way, you can spend the time between meetings staying productive without worrying casino online about missing something important.
If you’re a power user, you can take it a step further with a service like IFTTT. Using IFTTT, you can set up powerful “recipes” based on events in your varying services. Got a meeting coming up? IFTTT can send you a text or even call you. On the go and need an event added to your calendar ASAP? Send IFTTT a text with the information and it will be added automatically. With a little leg work, IFTTT can completely automate your calendar management for you.
Store Everything in the Cloud
A true remote worker can’t afford to waste time tracking down important documents, information or meeting notes. As an example, I recently worked a conference where I was constantly on the move, sitting down every hour pokies online or so with my laptop to update a document or respond to emails. I kept all of my important files in Google Drive so that I could access them on my laptop, smartphone or tablet regardless of where I was. For notes, there are powerful apps available like Evernote and Catch that are accessible from a variety of devices and often integrate directly with your meeting software, allowing you to easily keep track of action items and deliverables. By keeping your files and notes in a centralized, cloud-based location, you’ll always know where they are and that they’re completely backed up and up to date.
Productivity is essential for all knowledge workers, whether they are in office or on the road; however, it’s especially a challenge for remote workers as organization and time management are key skills to refine and develop in order to nurture a successful career. By employing technology-based solutions for file storage and schedule management, remote workers can use the use the “in between time” to focus on deeper, more meaningful work rather than getting lost in the details.
Would you like to learn more about the future of collaboration and how it’s impacting remote workers? PGi has just released a free eBook reviewing the hottest trends in business collaboration today—learn more about these exciting trends happening in business environments all over the world.
Photo credit: blue2likeyou
