▯Working on the move

Short things with little input — looking things up, noting things down, ticking things off.

What works well:

• Looking up who someone is before you go into a meeting.
• Noting something down, straight after an appointment.
• Ticking off a task.
• Finding a phone number and calling.
• Skimming the inbox.

What you should save for later:

• Putting campaigns together and sending them.
• Generating reports.
• Data imports.
• Writing longer texts.
• Anything that needs a wide table.

The rule behind it: anything where a mistake is expensive belongs at the computer. A send with the wrong selection of recipients can no more be recalled on the move than in the office — but the likelihood of getting it wrong is greater.

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Immediately afterwards, in two minutes, with three details.

The three:

1. What you discussed — one or two sentences.
2. What you agreed — specifically, with a date.
3. The next step — as a task, with a due date.

Why immediately: after the third appointment of the day, you no longer remember the first one exactly. Two minutes in the car are worth more than twenty minutes in the evening.

How to make it easier for yourself:

• Dictate instead of typing. The phone’s voice input is perfectly adequate for a note.
• Skim it afterwards. Speech recognition makes mistakes with names.
• Keywords are enough. A note does not have to be pretty.

And the point that makes the difference: the task. Nobody rereads a note without a next step.

Anything far-reaching that is hard to check.

The list:

• Sending campaigns. Checking the recipients needs a wide view.
• Deleting data. A slip on the small screen happens quickly.
• Sending reports to customers. Checking for other people’s data does not work this way.
• Changing rights and accounts.
• Approving contracts.
• Bulk changes.

What these six have in common: they are hard to undo, and the check takes longer than the action.

The practical rule: if before the click you would have to check something you cannot see well on the phone — wait.

And if it really is urgent: find a computer. A twenty-minute delay is cheaper than a mistaken send.

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With three steps that take five minutes together.

1. Shortcut on the home screen. Open the page in the browser and add it to the home screen via the menu. After that it starts like an app, without an address bar.

2. Stay signed in. So that you do not have to sign in again every time. This requires the device to be secured by a code or fingerprint — otherwise do not do it.

3. Set a short screen lock. One minute, not fifteen.

What you should also set up:

• Remote wipe, in case the device is lost.
• Backup of the device.

Please do not: save the sign-in on a device that others use — a family tablet, a loan device.

And if you use a private phone: clarify within the business whether and how this is regulated.

Four things, and the first is the one that goes wrong most often.

1. Who can see your screen? On the train, in the café, in the waiting room. A privacy screen costs little and prevents the most common unnoticed disclosure of all.

2. Who can hear you? A phone call with names and figures in an open-plan carriage is a disclosure.

3. Which network? Public Wi-Fi only with a secure connection. If in doubt, mobile data — it is safer than free Wi-Fi.

4. Where is the device? Not on the table when you get up. Not visible in the car.

If a device goes missing: report it immediately. It is a potentially reportable incident — someone else does the assessment; your job is to report it quickly.

And the unspoken rule: what you would not say out loud in the office, you do not say on the move either.

Prepared, brief, and with a note afterwards.

Beforehand — one minute:

• Who is it? Have a quick look at the record.
• What happened last time? The history tells you.
• What do I want to achieve? One sentence.

During the call:

• Do not type at the same time. Listening is more important.
• If you are driving: only hands-free, and preferably not at all — a conversation that needs attention is out of place in traffic.

Afterwards — two minutes:

• Note, outcome, next step.

What you should refrain from: conversations with confidential content in places where others can listen.

And what is often forgotten: when you call on the move, you do not see the number that appears for the recipient. Check once what is displayed there — a withheld number is rarely called back.

Prepare for it — because without a connection, nothing works.

What this means: the application needs a connection. In a dead spot, in a cellar, on a train going through a tunnel, it stops.

How to prevent problems:

• Look at the key details before the appointment — name, number, latest status. What you have read, you know even without signal.
• Have important numbers in the device’s phone book.
• Take notes offline and transfer them later — voice memo or the device’s notepad.

What you should avoid: submitting an entry while the connection drops and then assuming it has arrived. Check as soon as you have signal again.

And the simplest precaution for an important appointment: write down the three details you need beforehand.

That is true — wide tables are not made for small screens. There are three ways to deal with this.

1. Search instead of scrolling through. If you know whom you are looking for, type in the name. That is faster than any list.

2. Use prepared filters. Set up a work list at the computer — “my appointments today”, “open callbacks”. On the move, you just call it up.

3. Hold the device sideways. With wide views, that helps more than you might think.

What you should not try: searching a large set of records on a phone without knowing what for. That takes longer than it is worth.

And the best preparation: set up what you need on the move beforehand at the computer. Five minutes in the morning save half an hour of searching over the day.

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Short ones yes, important ones no.

What can be answered well on the move:

• Confirmations: “Fine, see you Thursday.”
• Arranging appointments.
• Forwarding with one line.

What should wait:

• Anything where you need to look something up.
• Replies to complaints.
• Quotes and commitments.
• Anything that needs attachments.

Why: on a phone, you write more briefly than you intend, and the tone often seems curter than meant. With a delicate email, that is exactly the wrong effect.

A practical middle way: reply briefly that you will get back to them. “Thanks, I will look at this first thing tomorrow and get back to you” is better than three days of silence and better than an ill-considered reply.

And when forwarding: check what is still further down the thread.

Yes — with two restrictions, both of which matter.

How it works: take a photo, attach it to the record. For receipts, site documentation, business cards.

Restriction 1 — size. A phone photo is several megabytes. With many photos, that adds up. Reduce the size where possible, or tidy up regularly.

Restriction 2 — people. A photo in which people can be recognised is personal data. You need a basis for taking and storing it, and all the more so for any further use.

What matters:

• Assign it immediately. A photo lying in the gallery can no longer be assigned a week later.
• Give it a meaningful name, if possible.
• Delete it from the gallery once it is in the system — otherwise you have it in two places.

And with business cards: the text from them belongs in the record; the photo does not.

That is due less to the application than to the screen and the network, and preparation helps against it.

What uses the most:

• A bright screen.
• Poor reception. The device then keeps searching.
• Applications that are constantly open.

What helps:

• A power bank. The simplest solution and the only one that reliably works.
• Battery saver mode on a long day.
• Flight mode in a dead spot instead of searching in vain.
• Turn down the brightness.

What else you can do: look at what you need on the move before you set off. What is in your head costs no battery.

And the precaution for an important appointment: the number you need to call, on paper too. A flat phone is not a good moment to notice.

With three fixed points, between which you are on the move.

In the morning at the computer — fifteen minutes:

• Look at the day’s appointments.
• For each one, check briefly what it is about.
• Prepare work lists.
• Note open callbacks.

On the move — two minutes after each appointment:

• Note.
• Next step as a task.

In the evening at the computer — twenty minutes:

• Go through the notes and fill in where there are only keywords.
• Give tasks a due date.
• Send what was promised.

Why it works: the effort is spread over small units, and nothing piles up. Anyone who does everything in the evening has two hours of work then and no longer remembers half of it.

Finally, one rule that holds everything together: nothing goes into the next appointment unwritten.