The number one reason men and women fail to adapt to working remotely is they fail to realise the neccesity of first rate 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 online system and was motivated by the fact that if you can do accounting on the web then why shouldn’t it be possible to perform other key types of of work remotely?
Whilst working remotely has many benefits there are numerous mistakes that people make which evolve into problems that cause lower productivity and lower motivation. The key reason for reductions in effectiveness in remote workers is disruption and it is a proven and well publicised fact that it can take a person up to twenty minutes to return to their original productivity level after experiencing a disturbance.
Research also shows that members of both sexes who are consistently subjected to interruptions are more likely to be susceptible to lower memory capability and are prone to developing mental health trouble in later life. We exist in an over communicated era and it is imperative that you recognise the problems this causes before you commence working remotely. When working remotely you must do everything possible to remove the risk of being disturbed.
Here’s how I do it:
1, Get a consistent schedule, make sure that everybody knows it and obsessively maintain it!
Good examples are a consistent time of day when you review or send electronic mail and make or be available for phone calls. Before I began working remotely I used to get nearly two hundred e-mails in 24 hours. Now I think I am unfortunate if I get greater than four. To start over with my electronic mail experience I changed my e-mail address and obsessively took precautions to guard the details being made available to anyone. I then made sure 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 something needed my immediate consideration to mark it as ‘Urgent’.
2. Get rid of alerts.
Disable every function that can send you a perceptible alert. This includes cell and
conventional telephones and forms of alerts from e-mail such as visual alerts, warning sounds, screen changes to your inbox folder and of course facing a window. Get a door on your work place 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.
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