Quickbooks online

The main reason workers fail to adapt to working remotely is they fail to realise the criticality of having first rate organisation and enduring 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 inspired by the fact that if you can perform accounting online then why shouldn’t it be viable to do other key types of of work at a distance?

Whilst working remotely has many benefits there are numerous things that workers don’t realise which convert into problems that result in reduced productivity and lower motivation. The key reason for low work output from remote workers is interruption and it is a established and well known fact that it can take a professional up to 0.33 hours to return to their original output level after experiencing an interruption.

Research also shows that people who are consistently subjected to disruptions are more likely to be susceptible to reduced memory capacity and are prone to developing mental health issues in later life. We live in an over communicated world and it is critical that you are acquainted with the problems this causes before you commence working remotely. Whilst operating remotely you should do everything possible to eradicate the threat of being distracted.

Here are my most important tips:

1, Get a habit, tell everyone about it and obsessively maintain it!

Good examples are a specific time of day when you read or compose and reply to mail and make or will accept phone conversatiions. Before I began working remotely I used to receive well over a couple of hundred electronic mails a day. Now I think I am unfortunate if I receive over four. To ‘restart’ my e-mail experience I changed my e-mail address and obsessively took precautions to protect the details being passed on to anyone. I then made sure everybody who I gave my e-mail address to, to use it with special care. I also configured an automatic reply that swiftly informed anyone sending me mail my routine for processing mail and if something needed my immediate attention to mark it as ‘Urgent’.

2. Get rid of alerts.

Disable absolutely everything that can send you a visual or audible alert. This includes cell and
conventional phones and types of alerts from electronic mail such as visual alerts, beeps, display 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 – Top tools and tricks’ I will reveal my favourite tools and software.