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collaboration Archives - The Successful Virtual Office In 30 Minutes

Telecommuting quiz: Are you ready to work remotely?

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Telecommuting isn’t for everyone. To find out if it’s the right fit for you, take this quick telecommuting quiz to determine if you are ready to work remotely:

1. You haven’t heard from your manager or other team members in two weeks and feel like you haven’t gotten much guidance or direction. What do you do?
a. Go back to working in the office. It’s lonely out here.
b. Imagine they’re all busy and just keep working.
c. Check-in with an email or instant message but then continue as usual.

2. Which of the following would best describe the average workweek for you?
a. Sometimes the workload is too much (or you bite off more than you can chew), so you end up working overtime or missing deadlines.
b. Most of your projects are finished by their due dates, but sometimes at the last minute.
c. You’ve completely the highest priority and urgent tasks for the week on time, have a plan for the other important ones, and ignored the non-urgent, unimportant ones.

3. If asked to describe you, your fellow team members would say:

a. Wait, who are we talking about?
b. You’re a good worker, but they don’t know any other details about you or your work.
c. You communicate frequently and are always willing to share information and give or ask advice.

4. You can’t open a file a fellow team member has shared with you. What do you do?
a. Cry — this happens all the time! Then think about buying another laptop.
b. Call the IT department or, if there is none, your techie friend for advice.
c. Troubleshoot the problem yourself, then ask your co-worker to send the file in a format you know works on your computer.

5. Work has slowed down and some projects have missing details or answers. What do you do?

a. Wait until someone gives you all the information you need and take a much-needed break.
b. Work on the recurring but less important tasks you have to do.
c. Keep moving on the important projects and circle back when you have the details; see if there are other projects you could be working on.

Telecommuting quiz from The Successful Virtual Office In 30 MinutesBy now, it should be obvious that “c” answers are ideal. If mostly answered “a”, the office is the better environment for you. These questions point out the essential qualities in teleworkers: self-motivation and ability to work independently, time management skills, reliability, ability to work as part of a virtual team, technical proficiency, and resourcefulness and discipline.

Mind-map your projects with MindMeister

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MindMeister is a collaborative mind-mapping tool that runs inside your web browser and comes with free mobile apps for iPhone, iPad and Android devices. Being cloud-based, MindMeister is ideally suited for remote teams and freelancers working in a virtual office as it stores all their mind maps online and permits easy access for all collaborators.
MindMeister: A mind map is a great format for project planning. Find out how to visualize ideas and turn them into actionable tasks in 4 simple steps.

Why Mind Mapping?

A mind map is a fantastic format for project planning because it lets you visualize not only the individual tasks, issues and questions in connection with a project, but also the relations between them. Here’s how to do it:

1. Create the basic mind map
Write the name of your project in the center of the map and create nodes for the main categories around it. If you’re for instance planning the launch of a new product, the categories could be “Website”, “Support”, “Marketing” and “Sales”.

2. Share your mind map with your team
Everyone invited can contribute to the map, and changes made are instantly visible to all collaborators.

3. Store and structure information
You can use your mind map as a central document where all project-related information is stored. Each topic can hold notes, links, attached files, images, votes and personal comments.

4. Define and assign tasks
Once you have a good overview of everything that needs to be done, you can assign to-dos to collaborators and even turn your mind map directly into an agile project board, using MindMeister’s integration with the online task manager MeisterTask.

MindMeister on Twitter: @MindMeister

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post