Remote Working Part 2 – The art of working smarter
The top reason men and women fail to adapt to operating remotely is they fail to see the criticality of having superior organisation and enduring self management.
I have been operating remotely for more than six years since I first unearthed Quickbooks online an ‘on demand’ small business accounting software online system and was blown away by the fact that if you can perform accounting on the web then why shouldn’t it be workable to perform other important types of work away from the conventional office?
Whilst working remotely has significant advantages there are numerous pitfalls which evolve into problems that result in reduced work output and lower motivation. The top reason for low effectiveness in remote workers is disruption and it is a verified and well publicised fact that it can take a person up to 0.33 hours to return to their original output level after experiencing a distraction.
Research also shows that men and women who are continuously affected by disruptions are more likely to suffer from lower memory ability and are prone to developing mental health issues in later life. We exist in an over communicated society and it is imperative that you are acquainted with the issues this causes before you start working remotely. When operating remotely you must do everything feasible to mitigate the jeopardy of being disrupted.
Here’s how I do it:
1, Get a habit, communicate it to absolutely everyone and obsessively maintain it!
Good examples are a consistent time of day when you look at or compose and reply to e-mail and make or receive telephone conversatiions. Before I began working remotely I used to receive well over 200 e-mails a day. Now I think I am unfortunate if I receive more than 4. To ‘restart’ my e-mail experience I changed my e-mail address and vigorously took precautions to defend the details being passed on to anyone. I then educated every individual who I gave my e-mail address to, to use it prudently. I also set up an automatic reply that swiftly told anyone sending me mail my routine for reading mail and if someone should have my urgent consideration to mark it as ‘Urgent’.
2. Get rid of alerts.
Disable every function that can send you a visual or audible alert. This includes cell and
conventional handsets and forms of alerts from e-mail such as on screen pop ups, warning sounds, screen changes to your inbox folder 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 – What should be in your tool box’ I will reveal my favourite tools and software.
Related posts:
- Remote Working Part 1 – Beginners guide (Overview)
- Remote Working Part 3 – What should be in your tool box
- Remote Working Part 3 – Best online software
- The Importance Of Working Together With Your Team
- When working on a resume, in the Experience section do I only include jobs that are related to position I want?
