Remote Working Part 2 – Effective working styles
The top reason workers fail to succeed at operating remotely is they don’t recognise the need for good organisation and robust self discipline.
I have been operating remotely for over seven years since I first found Quickbooks online an ‘on demand’ small business accounting software service and was inspired by the fact that if you can perform accounting on the net then why shouldn’t you be able to do other key types of of work at a distance?
Whilst working remotely has a lot of positives there are numerous pitfalls which convert into issues that cause lower productivity and lower motivation. The most significant reason for reductions in effectiveness in remote employees is disruption and it is a established and well publicised fact that it can take a person up to twenty minutes to establish their original efficiency level after experiencing a disturbance.
Research also shows that people who are regularly experience disruptions are more likely to be susceptible to decreased memory power and are prone to developing mental health problems in old age. We exist in an over communicated environment and it is important that you recognise the problems this causes before you decide to work remotely. Whilst working remotely you have to do everything possible to reduce the probability of being distracted.
Here are things that really do work:
1, Get a habit, make sure that everybody knows it and stick to it!
Good examples are a fixed time of day when you review or compose and reply to mail and make or receive telephone calls. Before I began working remotely I used to get in the region of two hundred e-mails in 24 hours. Now I think I am unfortunate if I receive over 4. To ’reset’ my e-mail experience I modified my e-mail address and vigorously took precautions to defend the details being made available to anyone. I then ‘trained’ every person who I gave my e-mail address to, to use it prudently. I also created an automatic response that swiftly informed anyone sending me mail my routine for processing mail and if someone required my urgent attention to mark it as ‘Urgent’.
2. Get rid of alerts.
Turn off every function that can send you a interruption. This includes cell and
ordinary phones and types of alerts from electronic mail such as display events, beeps, 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 – My list of essentials’ I will reveal my favourite tools and software.