Remote Working Part 2 – The art of working smarter
Saturday, August 8th, 2009 Subscribe To Our Feed
The main reason workers fail to adjust to operating remotely is they fail to see the essential requirement of excellent organisation and solid self management.
I have been working remotely for over seven years since I first found Quickbooks online an ‘on demand’ small business accounting software web application and was inspired by the fact that if you can do accounting on the net then why shouldn’t it be possible to do other key types of of work at a distance?
Whilst working remotely has many benefits there are numerous mistakes that people make which convert into issues that result in decreased productivity and reduced morale. The number one reason for reductions in productivity in remote workers is disruption and it is a confirmed and well known fact that it can take a worker up to twenty minutes to return to their original efficiency level after experiencing a disruption.
Deeper insights reveal that people who are continuously affected by disruptions are more likely to suffer from decreased memory ability and are prone to developing mental health issues in later life. We exist in an over communicated time and it is essential that you are aware of the issues this causes before you decide to work remotely. When operating remotely you should do everything feasible to reduce the probability of being distracted.
Here are things that really do work:
1, Get a habit, communicate it to absolutely everyone and rigidly adhere to it!
Good examples are a regular time of day when you look at or send mail and make or receive telephone conversatiions. Before I began working remotely I used to receive nearly a couple of hundred electronic mails in 24 hours. Now I think I am unfortunate if I get in excess of 4. To ‘restart’ my e-mail experience I modified my e-mail address and obsessively took precautions to look after the details being passed on 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 processing mail and if someone should have my urgent consideration to mark it as ‘Urgent’.
2. Get rid of alerts.
Disable every possible mechanism that can send you a perceptible alert. This includes cell and
conventional phones and forms of alerts from e-mail such as display events, warning sounds, display 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 – Best online software’ I will reveal my favourite tools and software.
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Remote Working Part 1 – DIY Guide – OverviewRemote Working Part 1 – The essential guide to working from anywhere (Intro)Remote Working Part 1 – Start here
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