The top reason individuals fail to succeed at operating remotely is they fail to see the neccesity of good quality organisation and sustainable self management.
I have been working remotely for nearly 8 yrs since I first uncovered Quickbooks online an ‘on demand’ small business accounting software service and was energised by the fact that if you can perform accounting online then why shouldn’t it be possible to do other key types of of work remotely?
Whilst working remotely has a lot of positives there are numerous pitfalls which turn into issues that result in lower productivity and lower motivation. The major reason for decreases in productivity in remote workers is disruption and it is a proven and well known fact that it can take a employee up to twenty minutes to establish their original efficiency level after experiencing a disturbance.
Studies also show that persons who are continuously affected by distractions are more likely to suffer from decreased memory ability and are prone to developing mental health trouble in later life. We exist in an over communicated era and it is important that you know the issues this causes before you decide to work remotely. Whilst working remotely you should do everything possible to mitigate the threat of being distracted.
Here’s how I do it:
1, Get a habit, tell everyone about it and obsessively maintain it!
Good examples are a consistent time of day when you check or send mail and make or will accept phone calls. Before I began working remotely I used to receive well over a couple of hundred electronic mails a day. Now I think I am unfortunate if I get more than 5. To ’reset’ my e-mail experience I modified my e-mail address and obsessively took steps to shield the details being made available to anyone. I then ‘trained’ every person who I gave my e-mail address to, to use it wisely and sparingly. I also set up an automatic response that swiftly told anyone sending me mail my routine for processing mail and if something required my urgent awareness to mark it as ‘Urgent’.
2. Get rid of alerts.
Disable every feature that can send you a visual or audible alert. This includes portable and
conventional telephones and types of alerts from e-mail such as display events, warning sounds, screen changes to your inbox list and of course facing a window. Get a door on your study and put up a ‘do not disturb’ sign on it.
In ‘Remote Working Part 3 – Basic Toolkit’ I will reveal my favourite tools and software.