Before I give you my list of the best net tools that are sure to assist you to work remotely, I must make you aware of one more point concerning self management and specifically to do with maintaining your focus and powers of concentration
I’ve spotted and confirmed a consistent behavior in men and women who work on the Internet and I’ve been in contact with for some time and I call this trait the fifty minute effect. I uncovered these men and women who concentrate and work for fifty mins. and then kick back for a whole 10 minute break and are considerably more effective and generate a considerably higher quality of work than members of both sexes who don’t have set working practises.
OK as promised for your consideration is my list of favourite remote working tools:
E-Mail
Google Mail is free. For my money the search & label (a bit like folders) mechanisms are the best implementation I have encountered. So far the only gripe I have is that it runs a bit slow on not so new PC’s
Phone calls Skype continually perplexed me as the call stability was unacceptable, but hats off for the software tech’s at Skype now as they have really improved the quality of the service. For few dollars a quarter ! can call and conference in any handset and Skype subscriber in the world. The current edition of Skype has a collection of superb functions and there are now plenty of of valuable add ons.
Organising Content Evernote has reached more than a million users in a very short space of time – it lets you to store, organise and add notes to any type of digital media up on the Internet. Just go check it out…it’s free.
Invoicing, Time and Expenses capture, Accounting and CRM
You definitely know that my burning desire to work remotely was originally sparked off by Quickbooks Online, a small business accounting software system. But it is shadowed by the free edition of salesorder.com – a lead to cash system that’s as easy to use as a toaster I looked at NetSuite whose pricing (and people) scared me off. My choice here is salesorder.com – Go check it out.
The top reason people fail to adapt to working remotely is they don’t see the criticality of having first rate organisation and robust self management.
I have been operating remotely for over seven years since I first unearthed Quickbooks online an ‘on demand’small business accounting software online system and was blown away by the fact that if you can do accounting online then why shouldn’t it be workable to do other important types of work remotely?
Whilst working remotely has many benefits there are numerous mistakes that people make which lead to problems that result in reduced work output and reduced morale. The most significant reason for low effectiveness in remote workers is interruption and it is a proven and well publicised fact that it can take a professional up to 20 mins to establish their original productivity level after experiencing a disruption.
Research also shows that men and women who are consistently subjected to disturbances are more likely to suffer from reduced memory capability and are prone to developing mental health trouble in later life. We exist in an over communicated time and it is critical that you are aware of the issues this causes before you decide to work remotely. When working remotely you must do everything possible to eradicate the threat of being distracted.
Here are my most important tips:
1, Get a routine, make sure that everybody knows it and obsessively maintain it!
Good examples are a regular time of day when you review or send electronic mail and make or will accept phone calls. Before I began working remotely I used to get in the region of hundreds of e-mails every 24 hours. Now I think I am unfortunate if I get more than 5. To start over with my electronic mail experience I modified my e-mail address and obsessively took precautions to guard the details being made available to anyone. I then educated every party who I gave my e-mail address to, to use it prudently. I also created an automatic response that swiftly informed anyone sending me mail my routine for attending to mail and if an item must have my urgent consideration to mark it as ‘Urgent’.
2. Get rid of alerts.
Turn off every feature that can send you a interruption. This includes portable and ordinary phones and forms of alerts from electronic mail such as visual alerts, beeps, screen 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 – ‘Tools of the trade’’ I will reveal my favourite tools and software.
Obviously not all of us is allowed to work remotely as many types of employment require us to consistently attend their place of work or travel to perform their duties in person. But for those of us who are able to work remotely then I thought it would be useful to share my experiences and present some practical guidance by putting it online with the sole objective of providing useful timesavers for adapting to remote working or supervising remote workers.
I would caution you that there are many self proclaimed ‘gurus’ out there who will try and get you to buy guides for vast sums of money, trust me you don’t have to do this.
I am privileged to be able to work in whatever location I choose and just about everyone who asks me what job I do wants to know how I am able to work remotely. Don’t get me wrong here I am still developing the science of remote working as all of the time I bump into individuals on the net who show me new methods and I am constantly coming across new packages and approaches that make my life simpler and improve my productivity.
During the past 7 years I have substantially adapted my working methods to let me to do just about all of my work remotely with a collection of internet tools and rigid self discipline. One day whilst exploring the Internet I came across Quickbooks online and this brought to my attention what just might be possible. My discovery of ’cloud’ based ‘on demand’small business accounting software was inspiration for me and the beginning of my ‘remote working life.
I should say up front that productively working remotely is as much about the software as it is about self discipline. Working remotely also means stating to your team members, superiors and clients as to what they can expect and how they will interact with you.
In ‘Remote Working Part 2 – Staying focused and maintaining concentration’ I steer you through how to focus.
