The number one reason people fail to adapt to operating remotely is they don’t recognise the neccesity of first rate organisation and solid 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 web application and was struck by the fact that if you can do accounting on the net then why shouldn’t you be able to perform other key types of of work at a distance?

Whilst working remotely has significant advantages there are numerous mistakes that people make which lead to issues that result in lower work output and reduced morale. The key reason for decreases in effectiveness in remote workers is distraction and it is a proven and well known fact that it can take a professional up to 20 mins to return to their original output level after experiencing a disruption.

Deeper insights reveal that individuals who are continuously affected by interruptions are more likely to suffer from lower memory power and are prone to developing mental health problems in later life. We live in an over communicated environment and it is critical that you recognise the issues this causes before you decide to work remotely. When working remotely you must do everything possible to mitigate the jeopardy of being distracted.

Here are the essentials:

1, Get a habit, tell everyone about it and stick to it!

Good examples are a consistent time of day when you read or write and send e-mail and make or will accept telephone conversatiions. Before I began working remotely I used to get in the region of two hundred e-mails a day. Now I think I am unfortunate if I get more than four. To ‘restart’ my e-mail experience I altered my e-mail address and tenaciously took precautions to protect the details being passed on to anyone. I then ‘trained’ every individual who I gave my e-mail address to, to use it with special care. I also created an auto-responder that swiftly told anyone sending me mail my schedule for attending to mail and if someone must have my urgent attention to mark it as ‘Urgent’.

2. Get rid of alerts.

Disable every possible mechanism that can send you a interruption. This includes cell and
ordinary phones and forms of alerts from electronic mail such as visual alerts, beeps, display changes to your inbox list and of course facing a window. Get a door on your office 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.