Tools You Should Use to be More Effective as a Virtual Intern

Social IssuesEmployment

  • Author Corey Witt
  • Published April 29, 2011
  • Word count 437

Working from home sounds like the ideal set-up – wear whatever you want and work from where it's most convenient (hello, Starbucks)! But working virtually can be a challenge. To be successful, you need to constantly manage your own productivity and communication. Here are some suggestions for staying on the top of your game – even without a boss looking over your shoulder.

Never Miss a Deadline – Set-up your to-do list online to keep track of all the nitty-gritty details. Our favorites include Remember the Milk, which syncs with lots of Google sites like Maps and Calendar, and TeuxDeaux, which has a great layout for visually minded people. Smarter than the paper and pencil version, these online sites can send you reminders so you'll never forget a meeting or deadline again.

Simplify Sharing – Are you constantly sharing files with your boss or clients? Instead of clogging everyone's inbox, try Dropbox.com. You can share your documents with anyone and you can allow other people to make edits directly to the files you upload. You get up to 2GB of free storage space and upgrades are available. Best of all, your projects are backed up by Dropbox – just in case!

Remember Your Brilliant Ideas – Maybe your brilliant ideas come in the shower, but more likely they pop up when you're not at your desk answering e-mail and IM's. Chances are, your great ideas come when you're talking with friends or on the go. Evernote can help you remember and document all of your ideas and information in one place. But Evernote serves as more than just an online notebook of your thoughts. Here are Evernote's ideas for how to use the site:

  • Snap a photo of a business card with your phone, and have an easy way to store and access contacts.

  • Create to-do lists, jot down random thoughts, leave a voice memo, and more.

  • Create notes right from Twitter and save tweets that you like by following @myEN on Twitter.

  • Research web sites and clip pages directly from your browser.

Minimize Miscommunication – Set up Jott.com voicemail on your phone to make your day more productive. When you set-up Jott voicemail, and your boss or colleagues call you and leave a message, Jott instantly turns your messages to text and can e-mail or text message you a transcript.

Schedule Meetings Seamlessly – Are you in charge of scheduling a meeting or teleconference? Cut down on the back and forth of e-mail, and send a quick survey to see when everyone is available using MeetingWizard.com.

What’s your secret sauce for staying top of mind, even when out of sight?

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