Tag: remote work

Why Working on a Fixed Schedule Is Advantageous for a Virtual Assistant

Why Working on a Fixed Schedule Is Advantageous for a Virtual Assistant

Working remotely has always been associated with flexibility, not only in terms of location but in schedule, as well. Virtual assistants tend to have more convenience in blocking a time dedicated for their work. However, flexible time may be favored by most of your peers, but it does not mean it may work for you. You could start with the fact that not all tasks or projects do not require constant coordination with your team members.

Concerning the said matter, it should not be overlooked that a fixed schedule in remote work has its advantages, which may be ideal for your current job. Here are a few:

Better Understanding of Operations. If you are new in the team, it is best you work on a fixed schedule following the operational hours of the company. This would provide you a better understanding of how things work. Through this, you would be able to figure out your role in the organization better. Furthermore, you may be able to identify what other things you could contribute to the team to make the operations more efficient.

If you work on a flexible schedule, you would probably be simply focused on your tasks alone. You may not even comprehend the significance of other co-workers’ corresponding works. This may in turn cause you to delay others or not even consider helping out to accomplish a project as a team.

Having a projection of how the entire company works will make you a more considerate employee rather than just a productive one.

Seamless Coordination. There is no assurance that working flexibly could offer you seamless coordination. Indeed, tasks may be relayed via e-mail or messaging applications, but there would always be clarifications involved. Particularly, if an activity would need a team of people for accomplishment.

If you work on a fixed schedule, your employer would be able to reach out to you at the right time without worrying about waiting for your response. This goes the same if you have issues to raise. This is more advantageous if urgent retort is often needed for your task.

On the other hand, should you work on a flexible schedule, it is most likely that you would not even have a chance to catch up with your employer or team member. There would definitely be instances that it would take hours before a reply can be expected. Things could go amiss if this is the case.

One good example is when your employer would often require your assistance whenever a meeting is to be set. For instance, he or she would need to meet up with clients. In order to do this, he or she has to check his or her schedule with you from time to time. If you are not working on a fixed schedule, your employer may find it difficult to reach out to you. At the very least, if you work on a set block of time, more so alongside his or her working hours, confirmation of his or her available time would be done swiftly.

Personal Interaction. It is not healthy to have limited personal interaction when working. At times, it also helps if you are able to coordinate with your team members regarding various matters. Working on a fixed schedule enables you to do this.

If you are a remote worker based in another country than that of your team members, working alongside their schedule will make you feel one with them. This would allow you to ask questions, clarify confusions, share ideas, or even simply chat while on break. 

Working with people instead of individually in a remote setting will help you grow. If you interact, you may learn from your team members’ work ethics. Furthermore, they may be open to giving you guidance as you carry out your tasks, and vice-versa.

With the benefits of working on a fixed schedule provided above, you may now be able to consider it as an option in your remote work setup. You may ponder giving it a try, particularly if you are encountering issues with your flexible setup, such as limited understanding of your tasks, miscommunication, and poor engagement among your co-workers.

Self-Assessment as an Ongoing Process for Remote Workers

Self-Assessment as an Ongoing Process for Remote Workers

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Working virtually has become an accepted setup nowadays, following the height of the pandemic. With no option but to let their employees work from home, the convenience of home-based reporting was uncovered further. Apart from the remote work setup being appreciated, even independent contractors or freelancers were further welcomed as equals of office-based employees.

It has long been debated that virtual assistants could be unreliable in terms of their lack of personal interaction and dependence on communication platforms. Nonetheless, as time went by and how their performance remained at par with every employer’s standards, this argument had ceased gradually.

With the aforementioned fact, remote workers have the obligation to continue proving that they could be an effective resource in the long run. Hence, one’s performance must not deviate from the employer’s expectations. In order to do this, a virtual assistant should consider self-assessment as an ongoing process during their employment.

It is natural for a remote worker to appraise one’s self during the adjustment or the early stage of work. For instance, you just started reporting to your employer and you have to evaluate whether you are coping well with the training or not. This is an established routine to ensure that you are at pace and would not disappoint in terms of your learning efficiency.

However, self-assessment should not stop when you find out that you are already accustomed to your tasks. There will certainly be a period that you will perceive this. You tend to accomplish your activities more quickly, and you can already be someone to train and guide your fellow co-workers.

In the long run, you should always see yourself as someone who is prone to making mistakes. Assess if you are failing to think of this matter. You never know, your contentment could lead to poor judgment.

One good example is the constant disregard to your employer’s reminder regarding the new training materials you should check, which could help you with your tasks going forward. Given you consider yourself adapted to your work, you end up not checking the said materials. There came a time that you made a mistake, which could have been prevented if you had been considerate to your employer’s prompt.

Relating to the given instance, no matter how settled you are at work, there would be changes that would come. You need to continue learning; you need to keep on growing.

The activities may seem monotonous, but it does not mean that there could be no change with how these are being done and no possible issue could arise while carrying these out.

On the other hand, self-assessment as your key in keeping yourself in check could help you identify your current or frequent errors. This would give you the ability to amend your mistakes right away without making things worse.

A good example is when you noticed that lately, you have been missing the deadline of projects frequently. This evaluation could lead you to check various factors that contribute to this poor performance. One, you may not be managing your time effectively. Also, you may be prioritizing your tasks incorrectly. Moreover, there could be distractions around you (which you may have brought yourself) that keep you from committing to the accomplishment of the projects. 

Relatively, by identifying the possible causes of your mistake, you could eliminate them and keep your good performance preserved. You may start using a time management tool, such as a scheduler or calendar. Every day, you may begin a habit of listing down the high and low priority tasks you should work on. Lastly, you may remove distractions that could be hampering your concentration while at work, such as social media, television, snacks, etc.

At times, not only the people around you can help pinpoint the improvement marks you should keep in mind. It is also probable that you will judge yourself best since from your strengths to weaknesses, you know yourself more than anyone.

Open Communication Means You Can Speak Up

Open Communication Means You Can Speak Up

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As a virtual assistant, people often think that it is all about following orders and carrying out the tasks expected of you. There are times that some employers even go overboard to the point that their remote workers cannot even speak up or open up their side in different matters. This should not be the way things are in work-from-home setup. Online work is still a job. The only difference is the setting of the contractor or employee.

Open communication has always been an integral part of an employer-employee relationship, which is inclusive of those working from home. In actuality, it is much more important since face-to-face conversation is no longer involved in remote work. All you have are your messaging channels, such as e-mail, conferencing, and messaging applications.

Both parties involved in a remote work relationship should understand that without open communication, nothing could be accomplished properly. It is given that an employer should be respected and complied with. Nonetheless, open communication also entails that a contractor or employee has the right to speak up.

One good example is in a situation of misunderstanding. Let us say the employer is disappointed over an unaccomplished activity. As a result, he or she decided to cut off the involved remote worker and this is without hearing his or her side. If only he or she allowed the virtual assistant to speak up, then he or she would have understood that it is not an intentional mistake. Instead, it is due to incomplete instructions given by him or her. This occurs often in a remote work setting. The remote worker does not receive the necessary materials for a certain task, resulting in delayed output. Take note that he or she made attempts to get in touch with his or her employer and exhausted possible resources to make things happen.

If only open communication was applied in the aforementioned example, the problem did not end with a person losing his or her job. Moreover, the employer may still have a reliable employee to work with.

Other than the given instance, open communication on the end of the virtual assistant should be used in terms of helping out your employer. By speaking up, you could help him or her improve his or her operations in many ways. It should not always be a “Yes, that is great.” You should also try saying, “What if we try this?” By applying open communication, you can be a valuable asset to your employer. Try correcting their possible incorrect handling of situation, giving them better options, and voicing out your thoughts on their plans.

Some are disinclined to open communication for they think remote workers would be way too disrespectful and may forget their boundaries. Relatively, if you are working with a professional virtual assistant, you would not have this kind of problem. A remote worker with integrity would know his or her limits in communicating his or her thoughts, ideas, and even disputes. There would always be respect and consideration involved in his or her statements.

Conclusively, only if open communication is applied properly, a remote work relationship would never fail even in the long term. There would always be understanding of one party to another. Hence, better execution of every activity or objective involved.

Improvement as a Remote Worker Is a Continuous Process

Improvement as a Remote Worker Is a Continuous Process

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Being a remote worker is no longer a far reality for most people. As the pandemic ensues, there is no denying that more and more employees will have to get used to a comfortable workplace setting, specifically, for utmost health protection.

Nonetheless, the comfort brought upon by being a work-from-home worker should not negate your professional improvement. Your home office is now your ground, where you would mold yourself into a better employee as time passes, unless, you are a naturally stagnant person, who does not chase improvement of one’s self.

Improvement should not be defined as knowing what you need to do with regards to your work. As a good example, you should never consider yourself an improved employee simply because you got used to your tasks or you have finished the training. Learning what to do is different from being better at what you do.

If you want to be a better professional, you should look far ahead on what more you can be. How can you do this? It is easier said than done, as they would always say, but there is no refuting that it all starts on knowing what steps to take.

Primarily, you would never improve unless you do not know what should be improved. As mentioned earlier, it is not simply knowing what you need to do at work. You have to be better at what you are tasked to carry out. For instance, it is not simply submitting the deliverables on time, but challenging yourself to give results earlier than expected. Find out where you are most consistent, and you will be surprised at how much you can actually improve at.

Furthermore, you should also ask yourself if you have a career goal in mind. Do you see yourself handling bigger tasks in the future? If you do, then ask yourself, can you already be relied on in terms of the basic and small ones? At times, remote workers tend to be complacent with their usual activities, to the point that they do not realize it is a sign that they are not improving at all. Observe and you may discover that you are not progressing at all. Your employer may actually be hesitant to trust you for bigger responsibilities because you do not give him or her reason yet.

Simply because you are working online, you can no longer be a better professional. In truth, when you are a remote worker, there is a wide spectrum of skills you can obtain. This is regardless of your usual day-to-day tasks. If your job is concentrated on administrative tasks, why not take trainings to explore other work, which you have been interested in since then. For instance, website development, graphic design, accounting, etc. The online work industry is way too open at present for you to ignore the many opportunities to learn.

You also have to admit your mistakes at work if you want to improve. There is no person that would get better unless he or she embraces the truth that one errs. No matter how used you are to what you are doing, there will be instances that you will somehow lose focus or forget an important detail leading to your misstep.

Improvement as a remote worker can also be defined by how you appreciate the work you currently have. No one would be able to better himself or herself unless he or she obtains comfort in his or her space. If you get impatient, that is when you would start seeing your work as a burden or a chore. When that happens, even the possibility of getting used to your job is no longer there.

Lastly, bettering yourself comes from not-so-technical things, as well. Who would be a better professional, who does not even give importance to professionalism, teamwork, loyalty, or even honesty? No matter how effective and productive you think you are, if your personality is questionable at present, then you are overall an inefficient employee. Assess yourself and do not be consequential simply because you give results. Remember, if you are talking about skills, that could be taught. However, if you tend to give importance to how you deal with people around you, that could leave a mark not only on your superiors, but on your co-workers, as well.

As you go on with your professional journey, remember that you are in a continuous process of improvement. Be vigilant and watchful of yourself. If you maintain to do so, a path full of possibilities for success and growth would be laid down for you.

Time Management Make Your Day at Work Much Better

Time Management: Make Your Day at Work Much Better

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Remote workers failing to meet deadlines are most probably practicing poor time management. Yes, it is particularly comfortable working from home, but it also implies that there would be more factors that could hinder proper time allocation for work. You could start with the distractions, which would keep one from focusing on his or her job – the internet, television, house chores, unexpected guests, etc.

However, it is not an excuse for you to perform ineffectively at work simply because you are based remotely and you cannot keep yourself from being caught by home-related disruptions. There are various easy ways to ensure the time dedicated for your job would not be impacted negatively. Remember, despite being in your comfort zone, professionalism should remain intact. This is not for your employer alone, but your reputation as a remote worker or virtual assistant.

To begin with the ways you may follow to ensure your day at work is much better, here are some time management tips to keep in mind:

Identify most time-consuming activities during your day. These activities are the ones that would most likely keep you from spending sufficient time at work. Once you have found out these time wasters, you could already manage yourself better. Let us say you identified social media browsing as your major time waster, then while reporting, you should keep your accounts logged off. Though you may still sign in your accounts to kill time, once again, but being offline could be a start of disciplinary measure. It could keep you from constant notifications luring you into another time wastage.

Set a time for each task at work. Time would never adjust for you. Hence, what you need to do is manage yourself. Put restrictions to yourself while at work. You can do this for every task you will carry out. For instance, you need to accomplish a report for the month worth of sales. Set a couple of hours for it at a specific schedule, say, 10:00 A.M. to 12:00 P.M. Within those hours, you would only focus on the said sales report without succumbing to calls, texts, or e-mails.

Know what to prioritize. You have to consider the relation between your energy levels and how effective you can manage your time. Be reminded that at the start of your work, it is when you are most active. Hence, it is best to carry out the biggest and most important activities at the onset of your shift. This would also guarantee that you would not be compromising the quality of your output given you can pour out all of your resources to the said tasks.

Keep in mind that multitasking is not always the solution. If you think you are accomplishing more by multitasking, then probably, you are wrong. A study done by David Strayer, Ph.D., University of Utah’s Director of Applied Cognition Laboratory, stated that 98 percent of people cannot multitask. It is not a surprise if you are part of the said percentage. Take note that this study is not based on observation alone, but in accordance to what Strayer found out in the brain region structure of multitaskers and the contrary.

Take a break. For certain, this is a surprise for some, since they may think that having a respite would require time. However, your mind and body also require rest. Human beings will never be machines and can only focus for 90 minutes before needing rest. This has been discovered by Nathaniel Kleitman and was named ultradian rhythm by other researchers. How would you know a break is necessary? There are signals, which include concentration loss, drowsiness, and hunger among others. Without break, you would not be able to function more effectively and even think clearly.

With the aforementioned tips, you can already begin your journey to better work days. Conclusively, it is more about managing yourself instead of chasing time. It is simply discipline to achieve your goal daily. With the changing setting of workplaces due to the pandemic, you should be more motivated to shape yourself into becoming a professional remote worker regardless of your location – either office or home.