Do you take the turn of the year as an occasion to think about your goals for the upcoming year?
Me too, so I put together a collection of the best advice on the TeamViewer Blog in 2016.
Christmas and New Year’s Eve are over and soon enough we’ll all be back at work. Maybe you already are?
It’s astonishing how time flies, right? Before you know it, another year has passed.
And wow, what a year that was!
Especially for us here at TeamViewer, it was probably one of the most eventful ones we’ve ever seen.
With milestones, such as launching IT Brain Backup, the super awesome TeamViewer Community, and of course TeamViewer 12.
For me and many others, the turn of the year is – apart from relaxing and being all cozy – a time to think about what we’ll strive to achieve in the upcoming year and what we can do better than in the previous one.
Now that you, me and all of us can enjoy some serious rest before going back to business, let’s take a few minutes to revisit 2016’s most valuable posts on the TeamViewer Blog we can implement to kick 2017’s butt!
Present Your Ideas Like a Pro
The greatest ideas can easily be overheard. That’s because most of the time, they just require a bit more effort than solutions that fulfill only the minimum requirements.
In the long run, you’ll end up in permanent mediocracy. So, if you have a truly great idea, you should not lack the skills to present it and get unconditional approval for your proposal!
In my opinion, the most important piece of advice to take away from this article is that my argumentation must be comprehensive and compelling.
What I mean by that is that I’d have to really point out how the implementation of my proposal is more profitable than any other solution.
That can be in terms of time savings, monetary savings/earnings, employee motivation, improved customer experience, or whatever applies to the case at hand.
Probably the most compelling way of presenting these profits will be a direct comparison in numbers, if possible.
With intangible goods, such as motivation, I’d think about doing a little survey on what my colleagues think about the idea.
That said, when I couldn’t really get to that point where it’s a compelling argumentation, I’d give my proposal some more thought until it’s really ready to be presented.
Write Your Emails the Right Way
When I first started to work, I was astonished by the huge load of emails that kept bursting into my inbox each and every day!
I finally understood why it happens all too fast that people start to just skim through their emails and reply short and without giving too much thought to what they’re writing.
However, when we’re aiming to evoke a positive reaction from our addressee, it’d be smart to consider these tips on writing emails that customers will love that Kayla posted on the TeamViewer Blog.
As the title suggests, the article deals specifically with emails to customers, but I’m sure the advice is applicable to every other email, too.
One thing Kayla mentions here especially helped me out: Too often I assume that the addressee of my response has a certain level of knowledge.
It can be hard for me to put myself into their position, sometimes, but of course they don’t know that much about what I’m working on or what the process for that is.
But by being aware of that common mistake, I can easily avoid it. Instead of using jargon, I’ll just use the easiest and clearest explanations I can come up with.
Kayla’s approach to that is to imagine she was explaining it to her mother, which works out great for me, too. No offense, Mom!
Increase Your Browsing Knowledge by Knowing Your Links
As a blog writer, you won’t be surprised that I love surfing the internet.
Surely you must have heard about these things they call ‘links’. Apparently, the place is full of them!
But seriously: Hyperlinks are what makes the web usable. On the other hand, we should not follow them blindly.
Should I happen to click a malicious link, I could be led to shady websites or fall victim to scam.
Luckily, we recently published some handy tips on how to check if a link is safe to click – this one is. Promise!
I really enjoyed the article, because it distilled all that quite technical knowledge into a few rules that can be applied by just about everyone.
Now I know that I can avoid most problems easily by hovering over the link and taking a good look at the URL.
Prepare Your Team for the Future with Smart Decisions
There’s tons and tons of software out there and at least a dozen options for each purpose you could think of.
Lately, I fought through the software jungle myself, comparing at least 20 different business process management tools.
Maybe you too are searching for a tool to support you and your team in 2017. It should be a long-term solution, however, so you don’t have to look for a replacement at this time next year already, right?
To narrow all the alternatives down to a reasonable amount, we came up with some criteria. These should answer all your questions about how to buy software that is futureproof.
The tip that especially helped me in choosing a tool for our team is to be really clear about the requirements we have towards the software.
It should do exactly what we need it to do and not that much more, really. That helped me to exclude 90% of the alternatives straightaway!
Enjoy Your Work and Try Workations
Working vacations – or workations as the cool kids say – are one of the more interesting trends that found their way into the modern workplace.
Though personally, I don’t think it’s an ideal solution, the idea is basically that working on a nice beach, or whatever you prefer for that matter, is far better than not being on a beach at all.
For the ones of us that want to try it out, you might have to pitch it to your boss first, though.
Doug gave some thought to the steps to prepare for it and how take your best ever working vacation. It will also help you find out, whether it’s an option for you at all or not.
If you’re just as oblivious as me when it comes to travel, you’ll love the section about what to remember before finally riding into the sunset.
I’ll definitely write a checklist based on Doug’s advice that meets the requirements I have towards my workspace.
Should I feel the urge to write my next blog post from a mountaintop in the alps, I’ll make sure there’s a proper wi-fi connection first!
Free Your Time by Defining Your Processes
I’m absolutely not a fan of constantly repeating myself and, admittedly, I’m also terrible at spontaneously explaining things to people.
Also, you probably too have some tasks that you unnecessarily have a monopoly on, don’t you?
That’s exactly why you need to create a process for everything you do more than twice!
And our guest author Benjamin from Process Street is a real expert on these things.
The advice in this piece will just save me so much time wasted on these things that I can put into actually being productive!
What really helped me to get started was his explanation of the process for creating a process.
With today’s possibilities to easily create screen casts and screenshots, explaining my processes to other people got a lot easier.
Because I can just show them what to do visually.
Have a Great 2017!
Hopefully these personal highlights of mine will help you achieve your goals in 2017.
While New Year’s resolutions don’t really work out for many people (pointing at the traditional rise in gym memberships each January), I believe in the small steps we can take towards realistic goals we set.
Little tweaks such as the ones I picked for this article can be a blessing for that.
Now, all that’s left to do for me at this point is to wish all of you a great start into the new year. It’s a pleasure to welcome you on the TeamViewer Blog once more in 2017.
What are your goals for 2017? Let me know in the comment section below!
