Teleworking Improvements Part 1 - Productivity Gains.

Posted by: Neil Callanan

Teleworking, coworking, or workshifting; No matter what form of remote working you (or your staff) practice, there is always room for improvement. Continual focus on productivity gains, internal and external communication channels, and your workplace environment each play a huge role in determining how successful you and/or your company will be in your telework experiment. In this series, I'll touch on all three and how each has impacted my business.

Productivity Gains:

In any size business, productivity is one of the biggest reasons owners, managers and staff are willing to give teleworking a shot. But after the initial gains are realized through removal of distractions, many workers and businesses neglect to focus improvements after the initial switch. Over the last 4 years, a few tips and tricks that work well for me:

Timebox Everything- Most every task on my to-do list tends to take about twice as long as they should unless I budget specific time to each. When I fill out my daily list, I scribble rough estimates next to each item and try and come in "under-budget" timewise for each. I'm not always successful, but this keeps me from letting the tasks fill my day.

Evernote- Without the benefit an physical office filled with whiteboards, post-its and file systems, keeping track of everything while teleworking can be tough. Evernote, a simple tool who's tagline "Remember Everything" is spot-on, is my mental file storage system. I use  it to capture ideas, links, photos, prices, and pretty much any other tidbit of info that runs through my head. Evernote can be used on your smart phone, desktop, or directly in your browser. Check out this short overview video to learn more.

Inbox Zero- Whether working remotely or in-office, email is productivity's worst enemy. If you allow it, email will take over your workday (or life). Did you even make it through this blog post without checking your email? Didn't think so. Three tips that have made a drastic change for me:

• Set your send/receive frequency to 15 minutes, rather than 1 minute. Do it, now. Good now breathe; your boss or clients won't panic if they don't hear from you immediately, trust me. 
• Remove any pop up alerts from your desktop. It is impossible to focus on your other tasks if emails keep popping up in the bottom of your screen. 
• Don't start your day with email. If you start work at 8:30, don't check your email until 9. A clean email-free start to each day allows me to focus on outlining my day outside of email. 
• Keep your inbox clean. I list "Inbox 0" as a task on my daily to-do. While its not often I actually reach true emptiness, I find in a given 30 minute window I can hammer through 99% of emails in my inbox by responding, deleting, or assigning as a task to deal with later. 
• Don't be passive about email- Treat email like a task rather than a passive activity. This simple mental switch will make a drastic difference.