Philippians Virtual Assistance Services

Keep Your PC From Slowing Down With Simple Steps

July 7, 2020July 7, 2020Leave a comment

Slow and steady wins the race — an old phrase that we have all been accustomed to, but in this age, regrettably, a slow and steady PC may cost you the race. Operating with a slow PC is not only frustrating but also wastes valuable time in handling a task. It may come gradually or all of a sudden, neither of which is pleasant to be in.

In the virtual assistant or remote work industry, efficient work means quick execution of activities without compromising output quality. However, how can you achieve this without a workspace that makes it possible?

It is not about having a poor set of PC specifications all the time. There are cases that other factors also lead to the slow performance of your computer.

Fortunately, there are simple tweaks that can help boost PC performance even on the slowest of computers. Here are some helpful system performance issue-based tips to consider:

Check if you have more juice in your computer. One possible reason for your PC slowdown is that you just do not have enough Random-Access Memory (RAM). RAM is the temporary storage for your laptop or PC. Specifically, it keeps all the things your computer needs on standby and when the time comes, it quickly pulls the information and hands it over to your processor.

The ideal RAM for tasks are as follows:

2-4GB of RAM for basic tasks like word processing and surfing the web
8-16GB for multi-tasking or graphics-intensive programs

While adding more RAM will not always speed up your laptop, you do need to have more than the minimum amount of RAM for certain programs to run properly. To find out how much RAM you have:

Go to search icon or click the magnifying glass icon in the bottom-left corner of your screen.
Type About in the search bar.
Click Open. You will then see how much RAM you have under Device specifications, next to Installed RAM.

Disable startup programs. If your PC is taking a long time to boot up, you may have too many programs that are eating up your RAM and starting up when you turn on your PC.

To fix this issue, simply follow these steps:

Right-click on the Start button.
Click Task Manager.
Select the Startup tab.
Arrange the list of programs by Startup impact, if you’d like to see the programs that are taking up the most time.
If you see a program that doesn’t need to be there, right-click it and click Disable.

Disable Windows tips and tricks. Odds are, you already know what you are doing and do not need a machine to tell you how to operate your PC. These Windows 10 tips scan your computer to function, and this process has an impact on performance.

To turn off these tips:

Go to Start.
Select Settings.
Click System.
Select Notifications & actions.
Toggle off Get tips, tricks and suggestions.

Defragment your hard disk. Over time, when you keep saving and deleting files on your computer, it becomes fragmented. This results in your computer needing to check in multiple places for the pieces. Hence, it can run more slowly. The term defragment basically means putting those files back together so your system can run more efficiently. To carry out a defragment:

Type defrag into the search box and press Enter.
From the screen that appears, select the drive you want to defragment.
Click the Optimize button to defragment it.
If you want to have your disk or disks defragmented automatically, click the Change settings button, then check the box next to Run on a schedule.
Select the frequency at which you want the disk(s) defragmented by clicking the drop-down next to frequency, and choose from daily, weekly or monthly, where weekly is recommended. Note: You only need to do this if your computer uses a traditional mechanical Hard Disk Drive (HDD). A Solid-State Drive (SSD) works another way from an HDD, and there is no need for defragmentation.

Try these simple and helpful tips to avoid frequent slow PC performance. The given pointers do not require too much time nor less penny from your pocket. Simply follow them and you will no longer have to worry about delaying your work every time the rush hour arrives. Remember, no matter how skillful you are, a slow outturn could lead to a poor impression for your employer or client.

Avoiding Client’s Trust Issues as a Remote Worker

July 2, 2020July 2, 2020Leave a comment

Being a remote worker entails a lot in terms of sustaining the trust of your client. With the difference in working virtually or not personally interacting with your employer, it is nothing but expected that he or she would have episodes of trust issues. However, fret not, for there are ways for you to avoid these.

You could begin with the situation of you working without the client supervising you personally. Apparently, this is the point wherein your employer would likely think about how active you are during your working hours. There are cases that virtual assistant encounters assumptions from their clients that they are not carrying out their tasks, as necessary.

In order for you to prevent your employer’s trust issues in terms of your activity during your shift, you may simply maintain your responsiveness. Most clients surmise you are doing something else aside from the tasks he or she assigned if you do not respond to his or her messages immediately. Responsiveness has always been effective in ensuring your client would not have any problem with coordination. Even if there are urgent activities up ahead, your employer will never worry relying on you to be there, whenever needed.

On the other hand, in terms of assuring your client would not have any doubts relative to your productivity, a full report would be most helpful. Every end of your day, a list of your accomplished works would be efficient in showing your employer that you are not stagnant. You would also be helping your client to understand how efficient you are in terms of time and project management. Your report somewhat serves as your validation to contest how contributive you are to their organization’s growth.

With the virtual environment for your entire work with your client, taking advantage of technology is one way to ensure he or she would not doubt your work result. For instance, he or she is having reservations as to whether you are looking for the materials needed or not (since you were not able to provide it given it is unavailable), then you may give him or her proof of where you have sourced it. At present, you could provide links, attachments, or even screenshots to your clients, giving them a better understanding of how you carried out your work. This will keep them from thinking that you slack off.

Lastly, in terms of leaves and absences, clients tend to develop trust issues whenever they do not have further proof of your reason for not reporting. For instance, you have been gone for too long due to sickness. Then, it is best to submit a medical certificate, which could somehow avoid their clouded thoughts on what keeps you away from work. Transparency and honesty are keys here.

With the aforementioned pointers above, you would understand that trust issues would never develop with the right management of your relationship with your employer. No matter how different your setup is compared to office-based employees, you could still make your remote work life ideal and valuable for you and your client.

Remote Work Life: How to Deal With Power Interferences

June 24, 2020June 24, 2020Leave a comment

Laptops, smartphones, tablets, and PC have already been part of our everyday lives and these gadgets run on power. As a remote worker or virtual assistant, you may use all the aforementioned devices, but among your top choices would be desktop PCs. These are known for durability despite long hours of usage, convenience of use, and efficiency of operation. PCs rely on a consistent stream of power to stay on, but sometimes, your main supply may not be so dependable. In areas prone to electricity interferences, damaging a PC is likely.

To understand more about power interferences, here are its different types:

Blackout. This normally takes place due to uncontrollable factors, such as electrical lines damage and disruption in the power station.
Power outage. This is an interference that occurs during the summer commonly. With extreme temperatures and high demand for power, it is anticipated that electrical equipment may fail.
Power surge. This occurrence is characterized by electrical draw changes and interruptions. One good example that could cause this is whenever your home equipment or appliances share the same power supply.
Brownout. This is observed when power does not black out completely, which explains the name itself. There is simply a temporal drop in electrical voltage.

If you work from home, you would have certainly experienced an instance wherein a power interference occurred while your PC is turned on. Take note that this does not imply all is well simply by powering your workspace back. A sudden loss of power in your PC could result in hard disk damage.

Should the said instance happen, it is best to run a system check when your PC completes a system start. Here are the steps you need to follow:

Tap the Search button on the taskbar.
Type cmd in the search box.
Choose Command Prompt on the top.
Select Run as Administrator.
Type chkdsk to perform a hard disk check.
When completed successfully, you would see whether there are problems found or the outage has not affected your hard disk.

In the instance of detected problems, Windows will prompt and automatically fix the issues. There will be an auto repair upon restart of the PC.

Otherwise, you would see the message, Windows has scanned the file system and found no problems. No further action is required.

There is an old saying that prevention is better than cure, so here are solutions to keep your PC from being damaged by power interferences:

Surge Protectors. These devices are used to keep your gadgets, such as a computer, from unanticipated blackouts. By simply plugging your workspace into these protectors, you would be able to change the direction of excess power to the ground wire of outlets.
UPS Devices. UPS stands for uninterrupted power source, which is a device that can protect your devices from all power interferences. What makes it more reliable is its additional five to sixty minutes of power in combination with the surge protectors’ functions. It gives your desktop PC a battery backup, providing you ample time to save your work and avoid sudden computer shutdown, in the instance of power interference.
Data Backup. One of the biggest risks of power interference with your computer is data loss. In order to prevent your work from getting lost, make it a habit to back up your files regularly. Apart from relying on your local system for file backup, it is also best to utilize cloud storage solutions. These allow you to save your data remotely via the internet. Even if you experience power interferences, cloud storage applications often save your work and corresponding changes in real-time. Hence, there is a higher chance for your backup to exist even if you fail to save your activity manually before your PC shuts down.

Dealing with power interferences should be done seriously if you are a remote worker or a virtual assistant. Losing your data could lead to missed deadlines and poor productivity, which are big factors that determine your work performance. With you being totally reliant on the internet and power during work, protecting yourself from associated problems with them should be among your priorities.

Simple Ways You Can Practice Discipline as a Virtual Assistant

June 12, 2020June 12, 2020Leave a comment

Working at home or becoming a virtual assistant does not imply that you are exempted from the ‘professionalism’ requirement of your employer. Be reminded that despite being in a more comfortable zone, you still have to practice habits, which would ascertain that your work performance will not be tainted by slacking or behavior portraying less commitment.

It is your obligation to ensure your employer that despite having the convenience of easily reaching your loved ones or amenities of your home, you will never be losing focus. One way you could sustain professionalism while working at home is through discipline. However, what are the means of exhibiting this trait?

A few below might help:

Being on time. Being tardy would never give your employer a good impression. This shows that you do not give consideration to the others in the company, especially if the others are office-based. Simply imagine their efforts to reach the office on time. They have to wake up very early and travel. As for you, your work could be a foot away from your bed or a few steps from your bedroom.

You have a lot of reasons not to be late and you have more time to prepare beforehand. You are not required to don an office attire either, which gives you less time to prepare.

Setting up a dedicated home office. Yes, you are never restricted to a single space when working. However, be reminded that your concentration would not be greatly affected if you are in an area where fewer distractions are present. Moreover, setting up an environment, where you would feel you have to put your mindset to your job solely, is highly helpful in one’s performance.

Simply imagine having to sit in the living room where most of your loved ones stay. From time to time, you would not be able to help yourself but mingle with them. If you have a superb control of yourself, it is highly likely that they will enforce the distraction.

By having a dedicated home office, you could shut yourself out from the rest of your abode while working. This gives you full attention to what you are doing. You will not simply have a higher chance of finishing your work early, but ensure your efficiency is not jeopardized.

Following a strict schedule. It is best that you follow the schedule your employer has set for your work. This will not simply put your mindset in work mode. Instead, it could also give you a chance to plan your activities at home effectively. You may even use your schedule to set rules in the household.

For instance, if you are meant to work from 8:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M., you may inform your loved ones that you are not available to handle any chore between those times.

Even if your employer allowed you to have a flexible schedule, wherein the delivery of the work is what matters most instead of hours accrued, this practice could still apply. You should still set your mind and body to work on a specific time, so as to ensure you are concentrated on what you have to accomplish.

Not taking advantage of easy absence/ leave application. While it is true that working from home gives you the perk of leaving work much more easily, this should not be practiced. Take note that your employer expects you to behave as a dedicated office employee and value your work.

You should never abuse whenever an employer gives you a lot of allowances in missing your job. This will only give him or her more reasons to give you up. Who would even want to keep someone, who cannot even assure one’s presence or assistance anytime?

You are not prohibited from taking leaves or absences, but do it with discipline. Consider the situation of your employer, as well. Before filing your leave, it is also best to check whether the season is a busy one or the contrary. If it is the latter, then maybe you may continue seeking for absence approval. Otherwise, delaying it would be helpful. It would also show that you are not simply thinking of yourself, but the rest of the organization, which should always be.

Sustaining the trust of your employer. Discipline can be clearly showed when you do not take advantage of your situation and employer’s trust. There are cases that remote workers tend to work on multiple jobs simultaneously, for they think they would never be caught. Obviously, they cannot be monitored personally. This will always cause you harm, even if your employers do not find out what you are doing.

Multitasking is not recommendable. The quality of work is always not at par the employer’s standards and often than not, it results in errors and repeated work.

There is nothing wrong with taking on various jobs to earn more, but do it with discipline. For instance, you already have an 8:00 A.M. to 12:00 P.M. part-time work, then you should only accept another position if the hours are beyond the said schedule.

Prove to your employer that you will offer what is expected of you — dedication to your work.

By practicing the given means of exhibiting discipline, you would not be having any issue with your employer. Be reminded that your personality weighs more than your skills at work. With the competition in the online industry, having both good personality and skills will give you the edge.

Four Free Antivirus Applications Every Virtual Assistant Should Consider

June 9, 2020June 9, 2020Leave a comment

Virtual assistance is providing professional administrative or technical assistance to clients remotely from a home office via the internet. As it is connected to the web, workplaces can be vulnerable to computer viruses and with the given fact, these should be protected from the said threats.

An unprotected computer is like an open door for computer viruses. Computer viruses are designed to replicate tenaciously, infect your programs and files, alter the way your computer operates, and even stop it from working altogether. Antivirus software prevents and protects your computer from these viruses by detecting and controlling it from spreading further into your computer system.

Antivirus software typically runs as a background process. It scans computers, servers, or mobile devices to detect and restrict the spread of malware. Many antivirus software programs include real-time threat detection and protection to guard against potential vulnerabilities as they happen. Moreover, these applications also include system scans that monitor device and system files to look for possible risks.

To give you options to consider, here are a few highly known free antiviruses that provide excellent and decent protection for your system’s needs:

Windows Defender. Believe it or not, but your computer device with Windows 10 comes preinstalled with it. It provides ample protection from viruses and installed with Windows by default, so even if you do not want to install a third-party solution, your system has at least some level of protection against threats. Furthermore, it detects other antivirus systems you may have installed. Therefore, Windows Defender removes any old scanners if you want to entrust it as your PC’s sole protection against online threats.

Kaspersky Security Cloud (Free). Kaspersky Security Cloud Free offers Kaspersky’s basic world-renowned cybersecurity software, which scans for malware, performs system clean-ups, and uses active scanning to prevent new threats. Moreover, it also provides complete privacy protection with a VPN, a password manager, and dark web scanning. Although Kaspersky Security Cloud Free does not offer some of the frills and bonus features available in the commercial version, there is nothing minimal with this version as it offers all of Kaspersky’s malware-fighting technology at no cost.

Bitdefender Free Edition. Bitdefender’s Free Edition is an antivirus scanner that users do not need to set further after the installation as it is designed to run in the background, with only important notifications in case of apprehensive program activity. Its minimal design will not slow your PC down at all and the built-in malware scanner is one of the strongest on the market. Basically, its Advanced Protection feature extends to ransomware detection so any suspicious behavior on your PC will get frozen immediately.

Panda Dome (Panda Free Antivirus). Panda Free Antivirus provides real-time antivirus, antispyware, behavioral analysis protection, process monitor, and URL and web filtering. It is a powerful and easy-to-use antivirus, offering 100% free protection. It is one of the most intuitive antivirus programs out there with no advanced setup required. The firewall feature is also quite powerful, blocking more intrusions than any other free antivirus applications can, including the built-in Windows firewall.

It is entirely your preference which of the provided antiviruses is most considerable for you. After all, they all have a good record of providing threat protection. Just be reminded that it is best not to disregard the perks offered by these free antiviruses. Else, you may face more challenges and expenses with a virus-attacked PC.