A Day in the Life as a Virtual Volunteer and 4 Productivity Tips

Take a glimpse into the lives of United Planet’s virtual volunteers. Also, find out what their productivity tips and tricks are when volunteering from home! The common theme of the volunteers’ experience is the flexibility.

Pic Credit: Thought Catalog by Unsplash

Usually I’d like to spend around an hour or two in the afternoon working on the volunteering tasks in my room. Volunteering online is more flexible and allows me to be more relaxed going about my day, which is certainly a huge plus. — Kimi Weng, working 10-20 hours a week on an environmental sustainability project with Costa Rica.

My usual day is pretty relaxed as I space out my work incrementally throughout the week. On Mondays, I meet at 7:45 AM with my supervisor to go over my tasks for the week and review my past work. — Bennett Daneshrad, working 10-20 hours on a South Africa project with children through sports.

It is very flexible and I am able to alter my schedule to fit in around my school schedule. I have google meets with my classes for school and also took 3 AP exams during this time. Working as a virtual intern, I was able to decide how many hours I could handle. — Bridget Gleason, worked 10 hours a week for a month with an organization in Mali supporting children and women.

READ MORE: Bridget Virtually Raises Awareness for Mali, Africa

Productivity Tips

Photo by Anete Lūsiņa on Unsplash

1. BREAKS! “Without any downtime to refresh and recharge, we’re less efficient, make more mistakes, and get less engaged with what we’re doing” (Seiter, 2014, p. 5).
   

   I believe that taking a break every once in a while really helps me to stay focused, especially since a lot of the work involves staring at the computer screen. — Kimi Weng

2. Set goals.
   

   I set daily goals for myself each week in order to stay focused and decrease stress. I didn’t want to save all my work for the last day. So, I created an efficient schedule that would allow me to know how much work I had each day. — Bennett Daneshrad

3. Plan.
   

   I looked at the week ahead and planned to work on the project at least 2 hours per day, working around my classes and exam schedule. At the beginning of the week I made a plan and stuck to that plan throughout the week. — Bridget Gleason

   My planner has been a key resource in keeping me organized and on-task with all my commitments. I am taking two summer classes through my university in addition to my internship, so organization is paramount. I like to break up my day according to what I have outlined in my agenda, and block off times of the day to get specific things done. — Ashley Oerman, works 10-20 hours/week on a community development project in Mali, Africa.

4. Create a workspace.
   

   Interning from home requires extra willpower and motivation. To stay on task, I have created my own workspace and do my best to minimize distractions. I also keep my workspace clean and free of clutter. This helps me get in the mental groove of working and concentrating on my work. — Ashley