There's nothing more frustrating than emailing 3 or 4 people to find a time that works for everyone or to show someone how to do something using the zoom. In this post, Tarina explains her top tips for overcoming these frustrations.
2020 brought many changes. An important change was remote working. I was used to seeing patients 4 days a week and working remotely for 1-2 days, now I work remotely all day. My situation is not unique and many physical therapists around the world have had to fundamentally change the way they work and how they view clients. I am often asked about the tools I use to connect with team members and moderators based in countries around the world. Here is my list of favorite technology tools that count up to number 1.
5th zoom
Zoom is the most used tool that comes to mind that made connecting with people feel seamless. It's part of my daily interaction with the Physioplus team and the moderators. The screen sharing option makes it easier to work with a remote team as we are literally on the same page. If you don't have the paid version, the free option still allows for unlimited two-person meetings and 40-minute group meetings. It's easy to reconnect to continue the meeting.
Oh and don't forget to change your background!
4. Timeanddate.com
timeanddate.com has 2 functions that I use a lot. The first is the Event Time Announcer. I'm using this to send a link so team members can easily find the event time in their time zone. The second feature I like is the World Clock Meeting Planner. This is a great way to add different cities to a list and find reasonable overlap time to host a meeting. For small groups, I usually just take a screenshot and share it to quickly schedule a time.
3. Scribble
Doodle is another event planning tool that is particularly useful when you have specific time slots and want to create a survey to determine which times are best for a group of people. I've only used the free version.
2. Calendly
This was a game changer for me. Calendly integrates seamlessly with my Google Calendar and Zoom and offers you a personal link that you can send to other people. Calendly allows you to manage your available time and how far in advance someone can schedule a meeting. The calendar is displayed in the time zone of the person viewing the calendar. As soon as you have selected a time, you will receive a calendar invitation with a zoom link and book the time in my calendar.
1st loom
At the moment the loom is my favorite tool! It is a video communication tool that allows you to create 5 minute screen sharing videos. The videos can be camera only, camera screen sharing (placing your face in a small circle on the screen), or just screen sharing. I mostly just use the on-screen option and make short web videos for training, feedback, or to ask questions about the work I'm doing.
Videos are shared with a link and do not need to be uploaded or downloaded which is a huge time saver. You can also create a video library and share the library link with team members, which makes creating a repository of introductory and training videos even easier.
What works for you?
These are some of the technology features that make my remote work easier on a daily basis. What are you using? Can you recommend a remote working technology? Please let us know on social media.
