The top reason people fail to adjust to working remotely is they fail to see the criticality of having good organisation and sustainable self management.

I have been operating remotely for over seven years since I first unearthed Quickbooks online an ‘on demand’ small business accounting software service and was mesmerised by the fact that if you can perform accounting online then why shouldn’t it be possible to perform other important types of work remotely?

Whilst working remotely has significant advantages there are numerous traps that people easily fall into which evolve into problems that cause lower work output and lower motivation. The most significant reason for reductions in work output from remote professionals is distraction and it is a confirmed and well publicised fact that it can take a person up to twenty minutes to return to their original productivity level after experiencing an interruption.

Studies also show that persons who are regularly experience interruptions are more likely to suffer from decreased memory capability and are prone to developing mental health issues in old age. We live in an over communicated time and it is critical that you are acquainted with the problems this causes before you decide to work remotely. Whilst working remotely you should do everything feasible to reduce the risk of being disturbed.

Here are my most important tips:

1, Get a routine, make sure that everybody knows it and obsessively maintain it!

Good examples are a fixed time of day when you look at or send e-mail and make or will accept phone calls. Before I began working remotely I used to receive up to hundreds of electronic mails a day. Now I think I am unfortunate if I get in excess of five. To start over with my e-mail experience I modified my e-mail address and tenaciously took steps to defend the details being made known to anyone. I then educated everybody who I gave my e-mail address to, to use it wisely and sparingly. I also created an automatic response that swiftly informed anyone sending me mail at what time of day I would be processing mail and if an e-mail must have my immediate consideration to mark it as ‘Urgent’.

2. Get rid of alerts.

Turn off every possible mechanism that can send you a perceptible alert. This includes mobile and
conventional telephones and types of alerts from electronic mail such as visual alerts, beeps, 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 – Essential tools’ I will reveal my favourite tools and software.