Remote Working Part 2 – Why self discipline is important

The main reason men and women fail to succeed at working remotely is they fail to recognise the neccesity of first class organisation and enduring self discipline.

I have been working remotely for almost a decade since I first uncovered Quickbooks online an ‘on demand’ small business accounting software online system and was inspired by the fact that if you can do accounting online then why shouldn’t it be possible to do other key types of of work away from the conventional office?

Whilst working remotely has a lot of positives there are numerous pitfalls which evolve into problems that cause lower productivity and lower motivation. The number one reason for low effectiveness in remote workers is interruption and it is a established and well known fact that it can take a employee up to 20 mins to establish their original efficiency level after experiencing an interruption.

Deeper insights reveal that members of both sexes who are regularly experience disturbances are more likely to be susceptible to reduced memory capacity and are prone to developing mental health problems in old age. We exist in an over communicated era and it is imperative that you are aware of the issues this causes before you decide to work remotely. When operating remotely you should do everything feasible to remove the jeopardy of being distracted.

Here’s how I do it:

1, Get a consistent schedule, communicate it to absolutely everyone and stick to it!

Good examples are a fixed time of day when you read or compose and reply to electronic mail and make or be available for telephone calls. Before I began working remotely I used to get nearly hundreds of e-mails every 24 hours. Now I think I am unfortunate if I get over five. To ’reset’ my electronic mail experience I modified my e-mail address and vigorously took steps to guard the details being made available to anyone. I then educated every individual who I gave my e-mail address to, to use it prudently. I also created an automatic reply that swiftly informed anyone sending me mail my routine for processing mail and if someone must have my immediate consideration to mark it as ‘Urgent’.

2. Get rid of alerts.

Disable every possible mechanism that can send you a interruption. This includes cell and
conventional handsets and forms of alerts from e-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 – Essential tools’ I will reveal my favourite tools and software.