Using Remote Work Tools to Make You More Productive as a Self-Employed Professional

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How to Ensure Your Employees Stay Safe During Lockdown

The world has changed immensely due to the Coronavirus in terms of the way that business is done. For those who still can’t work from home, Sneeze screens from Simply Plastics can be used for protection in the office environment. For those that are self-employed that worked remotely in the past, not much has changed. Utilizing this time where others might be struggling to optimize your productivity can work wonders. The beauty of being self-employed is that the harder and longer you work, the more money you will earn. If you want to improve your productivity there are plenty of tools that can be of great assistance. A proactive approach can reveal a number of remote tools that can help with your daily work routine. Below are the types of tools that can improve your productivity.

Make a Point of Video Calling Clients

Video calls with clients can provide the comfort of being able to see body language. Not all clients will want to jump on a video call which is fine but it can be convenient to do so in the case of needing to share your screen. Video calls can also have their cameras disabled so there is only audio and the ability to share screens/instant messages. Building personal rapport with clients is important in terms of retaining clients. High client retention numbers can allow self-employed professionals financial comfort. This can also allow them to concentrate on growing the business while keeping current customers happy.

Video Meetings Internally

Meeting with people that you work with on projects on a video call can give you a great idea of where they are in terms of progress. Screensharing is important in these types of projects as someone that is behind can be held accountable. Being self-employed means that you will have to rely on other freelancers or businesses to scale certain projects. There are so many collaborative working platforms where members of a project can track the progress of others. Being able to meet with people you are working with during lockdown in many areas of the world virtually can be great. Seeing former coworkers or those that you work with can provide a sense of familiarity that many people are yearning for.

Use Time Tracking Software to Optimize Your Routine

The freedom of not having to log time does not mean that you shouldn’t track your time. You will be able to improve your productivity with time tracking software in the following ways:

· You will be able to accurately schedule out work as you will realize exactly how long a particular task takes. Far too many self-employed professionals get upset about not finishing the work that they had planned. You have to remember that it is not a failure if you do not complete your work if you gave yourself an unrealistic workload.

· You might be able to see that you finish a certain task more quickly in the morning than in the afternoon. You can schedule out an agenda that promotes maximum productivity.

· You can develop training for freelancers or employees that you are going to bring in.

· You can figure out where you are wasting time and what work can be outsourced as it does not pay as well as handling other tasks.

Project Management with Automated Features Saves Time

Project management platforms that incorporate automation can save a self-employed professional time. The ability to put important documents into one platform provides convenience. The ability to send something to a client for approval that automatically notifies them via email can be a huge help. For those people that have a myriad of clients this is going to be imperative. It is easy to miss an email from a client when working on something important.

Team Chat Apps

The self-employed professional most likely works closely with a team of freelancers. Being able to ask a quick question to a point of contact on a project instead of wait for an email response can help streamline communication. Slack can be used as a great tool to handle internal communication or it can be done within a project management platform. Sharing information via instant messaging like a link to a doc will make everyone working on a project with you more efficient. Self-employed professionals that work with freelancers with other skills can maximize their income. This allows for the scaling of processes to meet even the largest project’s needs.

Take the time to see how much work you can truly get done daily without burning yourself out. You might find that there are tools that eliminate tasks that are not only tedious but also time-consuming. You might see a huge jump in your monthly income once your working processes are optimized.