September 8, 2009

Quickbooks online edition

The main reason workers fail to adapt to operating remotely is they fail to recognise the criticality of having first class organisation and rigid self management.

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

Whilst working remotely has a lot of positives there are numerous mistakes that people make which lead to problems that cause cuts in productivity and lower motivation. The top reason for low productivity in remote employees is disruption and it is a verified and well known fact that it can take a worker up to 20 mins to return to their original output level after experiencing a disruption.

Studies also show that members of both sexes who are regularly experience disturbances are more likely to suffer from decreased memory capacity and are prone to developing mental health problems in later life. We exist in an over communicated society and it is critical that you are aware of the problems this causes before you decide to work remotely. Whilst working remotely you have to do everything possible to mitigate the probability 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 regular time of day when you review or compose and reply to mail and make or receive telephone conversatiions. Before I began working remotely I used to get in the region of two hundred e-mails over a period of twenty four hours. Now I think I am unfortunate if I receive over four. To ’reset’ my electronic mail experience I changed my e-mail address and obsessively took steps to shield the details being made known to anyone. I then ‘trained’ everyone who I gave my e-mail address to, to use it with special care. I also created an automatic response that swiftly told anyone sending me mail my schedule for processing mail and if an e-mail must have my urgent consideration to mark it as ‘Urgent’.

2. Get rid of alerts.

Turn off every feature that can send you a visual or audible alert. This includes cell and
ordinary phones and forms 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 room and put up a ‘do not disturb’ sign on it.

In ‘Remote Working Part 3 – What should be in your tool box’ I will reveal my favourite tools and software.

 

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