It’s old news that we are taking our work home with us more frequently than we were decades ago.  Yes, Americans are workaholics, but this rise in the appearance of the home office is due in part to the almost overwhelming accessibility of technology.  Don’t get me wrong, we need time away from work, time to unwind, and time for other personal endeavors, however, our ability to stay connected to our work, regardless of our physical location, may actually have a positive impact on productivity in the workplace.

IBM encourages businesses to allow employees to use their own devices to get their work done.  They say, “Employees can’t get behind a mobile policy that’s behind the times, especially when more than half have better technology at home.”  No doubt organizations want to increase productivity; IBM claims some businesses have seen a 20% or higher increase in productivity by allowing employees the flexibility to use their own devices in the workplace.  If your employees are requesting to use their personal devices at work, consider the benefits:

• Less time spent transferring data between devices
• More accessibility to in-process projects
• Less money your company is investing in resources (devices)

In line with the mobile office concept, another way to stay connected and productive is to consider a virtual assistant.  It’s not as futuristic as the name implies.  John Brandon, in an article for Inc. magazine, titled “At Your Service: The skinny on virtual assistants” compares two popular virtual assistants: Siri, for the Apple iphone, and Vlingo, for Android and Blackberry mobile phones.  Here’s the verdict:

Siri

• Great for dictation for texts and e-mail
• Uses voice commands to send reminders
• Adds meeting, checks stock quotes and searches popular search engines

Vlingo

• Works well with other mobile apps
• Reads texts and e-mail automatically

The bottom line says Brandon, “If you’re mostly interested in dictation, Siri is great.  If you need a voice-recognition system that works well with other mobile apps, Vlingo is the way to go.”

One more tip to consider in the mobile technology realm, that may help you or your employees keep e-mail organized is Mailbox.  Entrepreneur magazine calls it “The first great e-mail app for the smart phone age.” Mailbox, allows users to efficiently manage e-mail on the go.  How does it work?  “Using simple swipes, readers can archive a message, delete it, move it to a folder…or schedule it to reappear an hour, a day or a week later. ”

In today’s business world, taking your work home is generally unavoidable.  However, with the accessibility of technology (devices, virtual assistants and apps) it’s a little more tolerable and productive.  For more information on how you can help your company become more productive, give us a call at CTC Productivity, or better yet, tell Siri to do it.

–Can the Clutter/ CTC Productivity: Home and office organizing in Eugene/Springfield, OR and Minneapolis/St Paul MN

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