The number one reason workers fail to adjust to working remotely is they don’t recognise the criticality of having excellent organisation and solid self discipline.
I have been working remotely for over seven years since I first uncovered Quickbooks online an ‘on demand’ small business accounting software web application and was energised by the fact that if you can perform accounting online then why shouldn’t it be practical to do other important types of work remotely?
Whilst working remotely has a lot of positives there are numerous traps that people easily fall into which evolve into problems that result in reduced productivity and reduced morale. The major reason for decreases in productivity in remote workers is disturbance and it is a confirmed and well publicised fact that it can take a professional up to twenty minutes to return to their original efficiency level after experiencing an interruption.
Research also shows that individuals who are consistently subjected to interruptions are more likely to suffer from reduced memory power and are prone to developing mental health problems in later life. We live in an over communicated time and it is imperative that you know the problems this causes before you begin working remotely. When working remotely you should do everything possible to remove the threat of being disrupted.
Here are the essentials:
1, Get a habit, tell everyone about it and obsessively maintain it!
Good examples are a regular time of day when you read or compose and reply to electronic mail and make or receive phone conversatiions. Before I began working remotely I used to get nearly hundreds of e-mails over a period of twenty four hours. Now I think I am unfortunate if I receive greater than 5. To start over with my electronic mail experience I modified my e-mail address and vigorously took precautions to look after the details being made available to anyone. I then ‘trained’ every person who I gave my e-mail address to, to use it with special care. I also configured an automatic response that swiftly told anyone sending me mail at what time of day I would be attending to mail and if someone should have my immediate consideration to mark it as ‘Urgent’.
2. Get rid of alerts.
Disable every feature that can send you a interruption. This includes mobile and
ordinary telephones and types of alerts from electronic mail such as on screen pop ups, warning sounds, screen changes to your inbox list and of course facing a window. Get a door on your office and put up a ‘do not disturb’ sign on it.
In ‘Remote Working Part 3 – The basic implements’ I will reveal my favourite tools and software.
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