The Right Tools for Telecommuting

Several things have to be in place for successful telecommuting The right toolset is critical. The first is a good computer. A computer is something reliable that works for what you need it to do. It doesn’t take much browsing through this blog to find out what is considered a good computer. But you have to make that choice for yourself.

A good scanner is important as well. There are several types of scanners on the market. The ScanSnap series from Fujitsu is an excellent choice as are several others. A lot of people like the all-in-one multifunction printer/fax/scanner. It has been my experience that under typical workload, these are not as reliable as specific devices. There is both a flatbed scanner and a sheet-fed ScanSnap here. The flatbed scanner is nice for pictures but the ScanSnap excels at documents.

The software is the most important part of working from home. One of the reasons that make Macs a good platform is the productivity tools available and the ease of use. With the addition of VMWare Fusion or Parallel’s Desktop, you can add the Windows tools that you need or are used to to help transition. So I have a list of the things you need to successfully telecommute no matter the platform:

• Microsoft Office
• OpenOffice
• Adobe Acrobat Professional

These tools make it easy to work from home. Microsoft Office does not even need to be explained. OpenOffice is useful because, it’s free, and because it can open just about anything. Adobe Acrobat Professional is incredibly powerful and useful to have around. Acrobat has the ability to scan files and perform object character recognition so the files become text searchable. This makes files amazingly easy to find on a Mac with Spotlight or on Windows with Windows Desktop Search or Google Desktop Search.

If you choose Windows as your platform of choice, Windows Desktop Search or Google Desktop Search is a must. Which you choose is up to you. I have found that Google tends to provide more relevant searches, but Windows Desktop Search is a better interface and a little easier to find things in the results. On the Mac you have Spotlight if you have 10.4 (Tiger) or above. Files are only important if you can find them quickly. Creating massive folders full of other folders that are full of other folders is silly. Create a folder for work, personal, etc. But don’t spend a lot of time working on creating specific folders. The computer can find things much faster than you can, so let it do the heavy lifting for you.

There three other tools that you should really think about as well. These are mentioned very little but I think they deserve a lot more attention. The keyboard, mouse and monitor are the real interface to the computer for you, they should be worth more than 10 bucks each. I have a nice Logitech MX Laser Mouse and one of the new Apple Keyboards (the pretty flat and thin ones) and I love them both. There are a lot of mice out there to be used and tested, but you really need one with multiple buttons that you can assign to things to help you be more productive. I use most of the buttons on my mouse for Expose (Window management). However, another really good use for the extra buttons is to assign them as Cut, Copy and Paste shortcuts. Copying and Pasting is something every does a lot and having them that quickly on your mouse can save you some time. The Keyboard is just as important. Spend the money on a good keyboard that feels nice to type on and doesn’t jam up or break. 10 dollar keyboards are find if you spend 2 hours a day on the computer, but if you are spending 8 to 12 on the computer, get something that will last and can take the abuse.

Lastly, I want to discuss monitors. I have two points here. First, you should have two. Meaning, you should have two monitors of course. Monitors are much less expensive than they were just 3 years ago. Even a laptop user can have multiple screens, using the screen on the laptop and typically being able to add another screen. It really is amazing how much more productive when you have that much screen space. If you are going to stare at the computer that many hours a day, blow the money on a nice Apple Cinema or Viewsonic LCD. They aren’t cheap and you can certainly get something less expensive, but the quality of these two monitors in my experience is far above what you get with a $250.00 LCD from someone else.

Those are just some of my tips. More to come… Please as always, let me know what you think and any other suggestions for good tools that you use to help you be productive.