The main reason men and women fail to adapt to working remotely is they fail to see the neccesity of first rate organisation and enduring self discipline.

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

Whilst working remotely has many benefits there are numerous mistakes that people make which evolve into issues that result in reduced productivity and reduced morale. The number one reason for low productivity in remote professionals is disturbance and it is a verified and well publicised fact that it can take a professional up to 20 mins to establish their original output level after experiencing an interruption.

Research also shows that members of both sexes who are continuously affected by interruptions are more likely to be susceptible to reduced memory power and are prone to developing mental health problems in later life. We exist in an over communicated world and it is imperative that you know the issues this causes before you begin working remotely. Whilst operating remotely you have to do everything possible to mitigate the threat of being disrupted.

Here are my most important tips:

1, Get a routine, communicate it to absolutely everyone and obsessively maintain it!

Good examples are a specific time of day when you read or compose and reply to electronic mail and make or receive telephone calls. Before I began working remotely I used to receive as many as two hundred e-mails over a period of twenty four hours. Now I think I am unfortunate if I receive greater than 4. To ’reset’ my e-mail experience I changed my e-mail address and obsessively took precautions to protect the details being made known to anyone. I then made sure every person who I gave my e-mail address to, to use it with special care. I also set up an automatic response that swiftly informed anyone sending me mail at what time of day I would be reading mail and if someone must have my urgent awareness to mark it as ‘Urgent’.

2. Get rid of alerts.

Turn off absolutely everything that can send you a perceptible alert. This includes cell and
ordinary telephones 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 study and put up a ‘do not disturb’ sign on it.

In ‘Remote Working Part 3 – ‘Tools of the trade’’ I will reveal my favourite tools and software.