Running an online business consultancy and virtual assistant service I am pretty much 100% reliant on the Internet to be able to function. But there are of course times when I don’t have the Internet connection available and I would still like to be productive during those times, it might be when I am ‘out and about,’ travelling, with my kids or suffering the effects of unforeseen whether conditions causing my line to the Internet world to go down.
When I’m offline I tend to use my iPad rather than a computer, simply because I can, and it’s much more mobile and easier to pull out and work on. Here are my top 5 things I regularly do offline, using the iPad which can make a serious contribution to my business.
#1. Blog writing.
I always like to get ahead with my blog posts, and not having an Internet connection is the perfect excuse for this. I can catch up by writing a bunch of blog posts and then once I’m back online I can place them in draft posts of my blog to post at suitable times at a later date, this is great, because some weeks I’m much busier than others, and having those posts pre-prepared can save lots of time. You may also want to start writing a book, or giveaway report for your business. For this I use the Writings app.
#2. Correspondence drafting.
If you’re able to get into your email account before you are away from your Internet connection, you can make a list of all the emails that need responding to and then craft draft emails ready to send when you are back online. You can also craft emails from scratch that you need to send. For this I use Writings, but you can also use something like Evernote.
#3. Spring cleaning.
Not having any Internet distractions is a great time to review your policies and procedures, write new ones, and even refine old ones. It’s a great time to sit and think about the different ways you are able to improve your service, and then make notes and diagrams for things you need to look into when you are back online. It’s also a good time to write down ideas, for new projects you would like to pursue, it keeps your brain active, and your business evolving. For this I use my head! And the Writings app for working in text, or the Penultimate app if I’m drawing charts and diagrams or simply brainstorming.
#4. List making.
I thrive on list making in my business, it’s the single most effective way I can get my head around getting a lot done, and I use an awesome free app called Wunderlist which I recently discovered to organise all of my lists and their associated tasks. Once I have updated my lists offline, I can then connect online and sync the lists between my iPad and iMac.
#5. Journalling.
I confess, I keep an offline desk diary for all my business related daily notes, and I also have a filofax for all of my general personal notes. You might consider that a little non-technical for me, but I do still like to use a pen and paper for note taking and reminders on the fly, or to note essential things I need to do that day, or have done that day. Because these notes are very important for me to see what’s happening in my business, I transfer them into and electronic journal, for this I use the Day One Journal app, which also syncs with the iMac. I do this for 2 reasons, the first is that I like to ditch old diaries and journals for previous years, but I don’t like ditching the content, and the second is so I can look back over notes electronically from my offline diaries.
These are the top 5 things I like to do when I don’t have access to an Internet connection. I would love to know what you do for your virtual business when you don’t have an Internet connection.
Would love to read your comments below!
