Self discipline more….

Before I give you my portfolio of the top web tools that are sure to assist you to operate remotely, I must discuss one more point related to self discipline and especially to do with keeping your focus and levels of concentration

I’ve spotted and confirmed a consistent trait in acquaintances who work on the net and I’ve been in contact with for some time and I call this behavior the 50 min effect. I discovered these acquaintances who apply themselves and work for fifty mins. and then pause for a complete 10 minute rest and are much more productive and generate a significantly better quality of work than men and women who don’t have such distinct working methods.

OK as promised here is my list of preferred remote working software:

E-Mail

Google Mail won’t cost you a penny. For my money the search & label (a bit like folders) features have no equal. Googlemail can be a little slow on aging PC’s

Phone calls

Skype used to drive me crazy as the service performance 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 ! am able to call and conference in any telephone and Skype user in the world. The current version of Skype has a ton of really good features and there constantly expanding collection of valuable add on applications.

Organising Content

Evernote has secured in excess of a million users in no time at all – it enables you to store, organise and annotate any species of digital media in the Cloud. Just go check it out…it’s free.

Invoicing, Time and Expenses capture, Accounting and CRM

You almost certainly know that my urge to work remotely was originally sparked off by Quickbooks Online, a small business accounting software system. But it is no match for the free edition of salesorder.com – a lead to cash system that’s as easy to use as a hairbrush I looked at NetSuite whose pricing (and people) scared me off. My choice here is salesorder.com – Go check it out.

Technorati Tags: Quickbooks online, Small business accounting software

The top reason men and women fail to adjust to operating remotely is they don’t see the essential requirement of good organisation and rigid self management.

I have been working remotely for nearly 8 yrs since I first found Quickbooks online an ‘on demand’ small business accounting software web application and was mesmerised by the fact that if you can do accounting on the net then why shouldn’t it be possible to do other important types of work remotely?

Whilst working remotely has significant advantages there are numerous traps that people easily fall into which lead to issues that result in reduced work output and reduced morale. The most cited reason for decreases in productivity in remote employees is interruption and it is a confirmed and well publicised fact that it can take a person up to twenty minutes to establish their original output level after experiencing a disruption.

Studies also show that persons who are consistently subjected to disturbances are more likely to be susceptible to decreased memory capability and are prone to developing mental health trouble in old age. We live in an over communicated environment and it is important that you are aware of the problems this causes before you start working remotely. Whilst operating remotely you have to do everything possible to reduce the threat of being disrupted.

Here’s how I do it:

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

Good examples are a regular time of day when you look at or send e-mail and make or take telephone calls. Before I began working remotely I used to receive nearly 200 e-mails in 24 hours. Now I think I am unfortunate if I receive in excess of 4. To start over with my electronic mail experience I modified my e-mail address and vigorously took precautions to shield the details being passed on to anyone. I then made sure everyone who I gave my e-mail address to, to use it wisely and sparingly. I also set up an auto-responder that swiftly told anyone sending me mail my schedule for reading mail and if an item required my urgent attention to mark it as ‘Urgent’.

2. Get rid of alerts.

Disable every feature that can send you a perceptible alert. This includes mobile and
conventional telephones and forms of alerts from electronic mail such as on screen pop ups, audible warnings, 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 – What should be in your tool box’ I will reveal my favourite tools and software.

Technorati Tags: Quickbooks online, Small business accounting software