Mindzle

Quickbooks online

The key reason men and women fail to succeed at working remotely is they don’t recognise the essential requirement of first class organisation and robust self discipline.

I have been working remotely for over seven years since I first uncovered Quickbooks online an ‘on demand’ small business accounting software web application and was blown away by the fact that if you can perform accounting online then why shouldn’t it be viable to perform other key types of of work at a distance?

Whilst working remotely has many benefits there are numerous mistakes that people make which convert into problems that result in decreased productivity and reduced morale. The most cited reason for low work output from remote employees is interruption and it is a confirmed and well known fact that it can take a worker up to twenty minutes to establish their original output level after experiencing a disruption.

Studies also show that persons who are consistently subjected to disruptions are more likely to suffer from reduced memory capacity and are prone to developing mental health trouble in old age. We exist in an over communicated time and it is important that you recognise the problems this causes before you commence working remotely. Whilst working remotely you must do everything possible to minimise the probability of being disrupted.

Here are things that really do work:

1, Get a consistent schedule, make sure that everybody knows it and stick to it!

Good examples are a regular time of day when you review or compose and reply to electronic mail and make or be available for telephone conversatiions. Before I began working remotely I used to receive up to hundreds of e-mails over a period of twenty four hours. Now I think I am unfortunate if I receive more than 5. To start over with my e-mail experience I changed my e-mail address and tenaciously took precautions to guard the details being made available 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 informed anyone sending me mail my routine for processing mail and if an e-mail must have my immediate attention to mark it as ‘Urgent’.

2. Get rid of alerts.

Disable every function that can send you a visual or audible alert. This includes mobile and
ordinary handsets and types of alerts from e-mail such as visual alerts, audible warnings, 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 – The ‘kit’ list’ I will reveal my favourite tools and software.