Remote Working Part 2 – The art of working smarter

Quickbooks online

The top reason individuals fail to adjust to operating remotely is they don’t realise the need for good organisation and sustainable self discipline.

I have been working remotely for more than six years since I first unearthed Quickbooks online an 'on demand' small business accounting software web application and was blown away by the fact that if you can perform accounting online then why shouldn’t it be feasible to do other key types of of work at a distance?

Whilst working remotely has substantial gains there are numerous traps that people easily fall into which evolve into issues that result in reduced productivity and reduced morale. The most significant reason for decreases in effectiveness in remote professionals is disruption and it is a confirmed and well publicised fact that it can take a employee up to 20 mins to return to their original productivity level after experiencing a distraction.

Research also shows that persons who are regularly experience disruptions are more likely to suffer from lower memory capability and are prone to developing mental health issues in old age. We live in an over communicated environment and it is imperative that you know the issues this causes before you decide to work remotely. When working remotely you have to do everything feasible to reduce the probability of being interrupted.

Here’s how I do it:

1, Get a routine, communicate it to absolutely everyone and obsessively maintain it!

Good examples are a consistent time of day when you check or write and send e-mail and make or will accept telephone calls. Before I began working remotely I used to receive well over 200 electronic mails in 24 hours. Now I think I am unfortunate if I get more than 4. To ‘restart’ my electronic mail experience I altered my e-mail address and obsessively took steps to guard the details being made known to anyone. I then educated every person who I gave my e-mail address to, to use it wisely and sparingly. I also created an auto-responder that swiftly informed anyone sending me mail my routine for attending to mail and if someone needed my urgent consideration to mark it as ‘Urgent’.

2. Get rid of alerts.

Turn off every function that can send you a visual or audible alert. This includes portable and
ordinary telephones and forms of alerts from e-mail such as visual alerts, warning sounds, screen changes to your inbox list and of course facing a window. Get a door on your work room and put up a ‘do not disturb’ sign on it.

In 'Remote Working Part 3 – ‘Tools of the trade’' I will reveal my favourite tools and software.