Making the Most of Working From Home

During these difficult times, millions of us have suddenly found ourselves stuck at home. Not only are we working and studying from home but we’re not really able to go out for recreation or a break due to social distancing guidelines.  We’ve already compiled a brief guide to some great tools for working remotely, so we decided to devote this article to share some ideas and tips for making the most of your time at home, not just for work, but all aspects of your life.

Treat working from home as actual work

It’s tempting to settle in to being at home and to treat it as the longest weekend that ever was. Resist! When you are working from home, you are really and truly working. Do the same types of things you would do to prepare for work. Get up at the same time you used to get up to go to work. We’ll give you some suggestions for how to use the additional time you’ve gained from no longer having to travel to work later in the article, but for now, don’t use it to sleep in longer; get up!  Get up, take a shower and get dressed as if you were going to leave the house for work. This all helps to put you in a “working” state of mind. Once you’ve started working, stick to a scheduled routine of working the same hours each day. You can be flexible, but the more consistent you are, the more productive you will end up being over time.

Eat a healthy breakfast

You know that breakfast is supposed to be one of the most important meals of the day, so get in the habit of not skipping breakfast, especially now that you have time to make and eat it.  Try to include lots of whole grains, fruits, and protein. It doesn’t have to be complicated or difficult to prepare. In fact, having lots of fresh fruits, simple whole grains and sources of protein on hand usually allows for quickly throwing together a very healthy breakfast and often raw foods are not only easier to prepare, but healthier.

Use the time gained from not traveling to work for consistent morning routines. 

You may have gained anywhere from 1 to 2 hours of extra time that would have ordinarily been spent traveling to and from work; for some of you with longer commutes, this could be even more. Use this time wisely by getting up at the same time as you normally would have and consistently doing things like reading, praying or meditating, planning out your day, considering all for which and for whom you are thankful, learning something new, and finding ways to express love to your family and friends.

Prepare your home working environment

Find a quiet area. If you don’t really have a quiet place, consider investing in a pair of noise-canceling wireless headphones.  They work great to cancel out environmental noise even if you’re not actually listening to anything. Set up your area with everything you need to work and make sure that there are as few distractions as possible.  If you are working primarily on your computer and phone, enable Do Not Disturb on all working devices during the times you will be focused on work.

Exercise

Try to get regular exercise each day.  Exercise releases endorphins, increases blood flow and improves concentration and motivation. You may already have home exercise equipment; even if you don’t you can do bodyweight exercises and stretches.  If you are able to, go outside for a walk or run and get some fresh air. The psychological release of being outside of the house for a bit (just make sure to stay at least 6 feet away from others) will help improve your mood and overall well-being.

Work in short bursts with brief breaks in-between

Working with intense focus for periods of 25-60 minutes with a 5-10 minute break in between bursts is a good way to be highly productive. Practice the Pomodoro Technique. This simple technique involves working in 25-minute periods with brief breaks in between and a longer break after every 4 periods of work.  You will find that you get a lot more done working this way than trying to slog through 8 hours all at once.

Focus on your relationships

Lastly, make sure you spend a good amount of time focusing on your family, friends and other close relationships. Take the time to play with your kids, love your spouse, take long walks with the dog, and talk on the phone or computer with friends and more distant family. This is a rare time when we can work hard and still have lots of time for our family, so you should make an effort to make the most of this time by spending a healthy portion of it on what really matters most. Keep an eye out for our next post where we will wrap up our troubleshooting series.

Simple Troubleshooting, Part 1: Internet Isn’t Working or Is Super Slow

Most computer users feel like they have no idea what to do when their computer decides to stop doing whatever it is supposed to be doing. They aren’t very comfortable with troubleshooting, and frankly some don’t feel like they have the time. However, there are a few easy things you can try before you decide to take a hammer (or keyboard) to your desktop. 

via GIPHY

This series will examine four areas where knowing some basic troubleshooting steps can help you find and fix what is wrong  and may help mitigate some of the stress that comes along with dealing with a malfunctioning PC.

Part 1. Internet Isn’t Working or Is Super Slow

You can’t do much without an Internet connection these days, so when your internet connection is trudging along like an oyster running a marathon or it stops working entirely, then you have a not so minor problem on your hands. The first thing you should do is check your internet speed. One of the easiest ways to check your actual internet speed is to run a speed test. There are several websites that you can use to run this test, but one of the easier ones to use is www.speedtest.net (formerly www.ookla.com). 

The browser interface on the site is quite easy to use; you simply click on the large “GO” button in the middle of the screen and let it do its thing. The site will give you your ping (the amount of time a request is sent from your computer to the destination and then back again) and your download and upload speeds in Megabits per second (Mbps). 

Now, ping time isn’t usually a huge concern for most folks (except for gamers, of course), so it’s best for the average user to focus on download and upload times. If you know what speeds you’re supposed to be getting from your Internet Service Provider (ISP), you can compare that to what you see in your speed test results. Keep in mind that internet service providers sell you on the maximum possible speed you COULD get, but your average speed won’t be that high all the time. There are a lot of factors which can affect internet speeds: the number of people on your local network, the number of people on the internet in your area at that time, peak usage (the more folks online, the more bandwidth being used), and other factors that can be beyond the service provider’s control. As long as you aren’t seeing speeds significantly slower than what your ISP quoted, you should be fine. You may want to check with your ISP and aggregate outage sites like https://downdetector.com to see if there is an outage in your area that could be the cause of your connection issues. 

Another thing to check if you’re experiencing slow internet is your browser cache;  sometimes clearing your cache will help speed things up. Also, if you have a habit of leaving multiple tabs open, closing some of these tabs might help.  You may also try restarting your router and your computer in that order. 

If you are experiencing much slower speeds than normal or no connection at all, you will want to give the classic unplug-your-router-wait-15-seconds-then-plug-it-back-in a try.  Most routers are router/modems and have several indicator lights in the front. Check to make sure all lights are back on according to the modem’s manual and you can move on to the next steps if you’re still without a connection. 

If you’ve confirmed that your modem is up and running properly but you still don’t an internet connection, then next you’ll want to use another desktop or laptop computer to try and connect to the internet. If you are hardwired into the modem, check your Ethernet cable by unplugging the cable end from the first computer and plugging that end into a different laptop or desktop.   

Hopefully, trying one of these fixes will get your internet back up and running. If not, you may need to contact a professional IT company for further troubleshooting and assistance. In our next blog post we’ll be looking at how to troubleshoot slow or unresponsive applications or programs. 

Don’t Live in Regret; Back Up Your Data!

How many of us as individuals or business owners know we should back up our data on a regular basis? How many of us actually do so? Making backups of our important files is something everyone agrees should be done, so why is it that so many individuals and  businesses fail to regularly back up their data?

One assumption that no longer holds true is that making backups is complicated and cumbersome. The process in the past required multiple floppy disks or tapes that would be used to back up your files and programs. Restoring these files and programs after a loss would take quite a bit of time. The process today is much simpler. Operating systems such as Windows and Mac OS make it very user-friendly; you can simply purchase a USB external hard drive, follow the step-by-step instructions on setting up the automated backup process, and let it do its thing. 

Another assumption is that restoring files from backup is a messy endeavor. Again, that process has been made much easier.  In Windows and Mac OS, you can actually go back to a specific point in your previous backups where you can restore individual files that may have been lost, corrupted, or otherwise overwritten by mistake. Mac OS’s backup system, Time Machine, even lets you go into the folder via a special graphic user interface to find and restore a particular file just as if you were looking for it normally. 

Thankfully, there are several options for backing up your files that don’t include floppy disks!  These backup options are fairly inexpensive and are simple to set up and maintain. You can use an external USB hard drive, optical disks (although these kinds of discs such as CD-ROM and DVD-ROM are being used less and less), flash drives, and even use a cloud-based backup system such as Carbonite or Barracuda. Cloud backup systems differ from the others in that your data is physically stored on a company’s server which you access via the internet.

No matter which storage type you choose to use, you are saving yourself time and money by making sure your important files are backed up so you don’t have to reinvent the wheel if something were to happen to your computers on site or at home. You should back up regularly and back up often; again, with today’s technology, making regular scheduled backups is as easy as following a few steps for setup and letting the computer do the rest of the work. 

How to Buy A New Computer

Cars. Furniture. Major appliances such as a refrigerator or washer and dryer. There are several high-priced products that most people need to purchase on a recurring basis but that they plan to own for years. For many people nowadays, a computer has been added to this list.  One thing that such products have in common is that there are many companies vying for your business and it becomes difficult as well as overwhelming trying to sort through all of the features, pricing options, and customization options being offered.  The good news is that the process of deciding what to buy is not very different between them either.  The more you know about what exactly you really need, why you need it, and what you are able or willing to spend on getting it, the easier it is to cut through all of the noise and find something that will meet your needs within your budget.

One of the first things to decide is how much money you are prepared to spend.  We won’t go into whether or not it’s better to buy, lease, or finance a computer, but that decision is similar to deciding whether or not to buy, lease or finance a major appliance or furniture.  No matter the source, you still need to decide how much you’re willing and able to spend on a new computer.  Typically, you should be able to find a computer that can meet your basic needs in any category within a reasonable budget. For a variety of reasons, we won’t give actual dollar amounts. Instead, we’re focusing on how to go about deciding how to spend whatever you’ve decided to spend to get the most value.

Once you’ve decided how much you will spend, think about what you want to use the computer for: 

• household tasks such as managing finances, research on the web, personal email, and light word processing or spreadsheets

• gaming

• a media server for streaming video and music

• professional work or serious hobby, in which case you also should think about the main type of work

  • video

  • audio

  • photography

  • programming

  • writing

  • visual design or art

  • 3D design

  • office work (heavy word processing, spreadsheets, databases, email, project planning, etc.)

  • special applications needed for work

• do you need a laptop or will a desktop be fine for what you need to do (you may need both)

Knowing what you want to use the computer for will help you decide what features and how much resources you really need to get in order to do what you want to do.  For basic household tasks, an entry level computer is usually fine.  If your primary use is gaming, on the other hand, then you’ll need a lot more resources (and money!).  If you are working with media, you should prioritize storage and processing power.  Laptops are more convenient than desktops, but generally cost more for similar features.

Once you’ve decided how much you’d like to spend, what you primarily plan to use the computer for, and whether to get a laptop or a desktop, you’re in a much better position to know what features to prioritize and you can negotiate and look for value in things like processor speed, amount of RAM, amount of storage space, etc.

If you are a sole proprietorship or freelancer the thought process is not much different. You may need to spend more time thinking through what tasks you will really need to perform.  If you are a small business with 3 or more computers, you need to consider things like taxes, compatibility, interoperability, what operating systems your employees use at home or prefer, scalability, total cost of ownership (including purchase cost, maintenance cost, repairs, backups, software and accessories, utility usage costs, etc.) and other variables which may not factor as heavily into the decision to purchase a single computer.

If you need help making technology purchasing decisions for yourself or for your business, Aeron IT Consulting LLC is able to help. Just send us an email or give us a call to schedule a consultation.

Stay Safe Online: Use a VPN

We continue to make rapid advances in technology and we are spending more and more of our time online performing tasks that used to chain us to our computers at home. While we experience the freedom and increased productivity this brings, we need to be aware that we are increasingly exposing ourselves to possible attack over the internet.  With much more powerful cell phones than even a decade ago, it’s become commonplace for most of us to bank and pay bills online, communicate with family, check our email, read news, and frequent social media sites.

It used to be that you only had to worry about security on your home network, but those times are long gone.  Before we had faster cellular data speeds like 3G and 4G, users had to rely on public Wi-Fi.  It used to be you’d have to go to a coffee shop or a hotel to find reliable(ish) Wi-Fi, but now you can hop on at most restaurants, retail stores, and even some outdoor public places. Most people don’t question connecting to these networks and don’t think about the digital trail they leave behind.  Since we are doing so much more of our business––both personal and personal––on the go, how do we secure ourselves from malicious actors?

One of the easiest ways to enhance our personal network security, short of not jumping on public Wi-Fi at all, is to use a virtual private network, or VPN.  Think of a VPN like a tunnel on the information superhighway, to use an old term.  Using a VPN puts your data inside that tunnel so that nobody can see it, with the possible exception of the VPN provider (often your data is encrypted from the VPN provider as well).  If, for example, you’re on a public network and someone was able to hijack the network and see all of the traffic, your activity would not be seen by the hacker because everything you send and receive through a VPN is in an encrypted tunnel.  

Many online banking services and other activities of a more sensitive nature use HTTPS security on their sites which does encrypt activity between you and the website, but a hacker could still monitor what sites you are visiting even if they couldn’t see what data you are transmitting.  More websites are using HTTPS, but it’s still a good idea to use a VPN in addition to secure browsing.  A VPN hides and encrypts all network data traffic, not just web browsing.  

There are free options when choosing a VPN, but you want to make sure the app you use is from a company you trust.  Paid VPN apps exist as well; one app that is particularly easy to set up and use is Encrypt.me, formerly Cloak VPN.  Setup is fairly straightforward, you can use it on multiple devices (e.g., phones, desktops, laptops, etc.) with one subscription, and you can set the app up to automatically connect to untrusted networks and add any trusted networks like your home network or a friend’s house, for example, to a list of networks that the app can ignore.  The app has different tiers and pricing depending on your needs; you can even purchase a week or month long pass for trips.

No matter which VPN you choose (there are many!), make sure that you do your homework and read many reviews until you know you can trust the provider and that the app is easy for you to use. You can almost always try the app out for a trial period to see how you like it and see if it suits your needs. 

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