Online internships have a lot of perks: you’re working from home and you get to make your own schedule. But with this freedom comes a lot of responsibility.

It’s easy to let time get away from you, and you might not complete all of the work that you needed to.

Online internships are common in fields such as mass communication, specifically journalism and social media. Companies looking for virtual help are usually startups, and find it easier to have their interns work from home, and submit their work virtually.

1. Keep up connections:

You may find yourself losing that personal touch working in an office has. Your computer also creates a barrier between you and your boss.

Make sure that they remember your name, since you’re not face-to-face, by checking in with them regularly. Things like Skype and e-mail are your best friend in this case.

2. Clarify your deadlines:

While you are making your own schedule, deadlines are still just as important. Whether you’re writing an article, pitching an idea or posting on social media, make sure that you know when it’s due.

The worst feeling in the world is receiving an angry e-mail because you missed an important deadline because something was unclear.

3. Don’t get lazy:

Just because you’re getting credit for work that can be done in your pajamas, doesn’t mean you’re allowed to slack off.

Keep yourself on a schedule to make sure your work is being completed in a timely manner.

You can do this by setting a reminder on your phone, or mark it down in a planner, writing out your due dates and assignments and checking items off once they’re completed. This way there’s no room for error.

4. Stay organized:

If you haven’t already invested in an agenda, now is the time. Whether your internship is during a semester or during the summer, it’s easy to lose track of what is going on.

Keep yourself on a schedule by writing out all the work that you have to do, and check it off accordingly.

5. Save all your work:

Technology has made a lot of improvements over the years, but it can never fully be trusted. Whether it’s an Internet outage, or your computer crashes, save your work to an external hard drive.

This way if anything does happen, you have access to your work and can easily move to a different, working computer.

This will also help to have it on file in case your boss doesn’t receive the work.

6. Make an impression:

This is something else that may be hard to do because there’s a computer screen separating you and your boss. In order to make an impression, you have to go above and beyond.

Whether you landed an internship for the summer, or a semester, there are a lot of things that are different from an internship that requires you to come to work in an office.

Although an online internship isn’t the most conventional, don’t let it discourage you from applying.