Obviously not everyone is able to work remotely as many jobs require individuals to consistently attend their office or travel to undertake their work face to face. But for those of us have the chance to work remotely then I thought it would be useful to share what I have learned and share some practical wisdom by distributing it on the web with the sole objective of providing helpful timesavers for adapting to remote working or supervising remote workers.

I must tell you you that there are a substantial number of so called ’experts’ on the web who will try and get you to buy courses for big sums of cash, trust me you don’t have to do this.

I am lucky enough 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 the wrong idea I am still learning about the science of remote working as everyday I find folks on the web who show me new approaches and I am continually finding new software and approaches that make my life easier and make me more effective.

Over the past 7 years I have slowly but surely adapted my working practices to enable me to do most of my work remotely with a mixture of web tools and solid self discipline. One day whilst surfing the web I found Quickbooks online and this inspired me as to what just might be possible. My encounter with ’cloud’ based ‘on demand’ small business accounting software was the turning point for me and the start of my ‘remote working life.

I have to inform you up front that proficiently working remotely is as much about the systems as it is about self discipline. Working remotely also means stating to your colleagues, supervisors and customers as to what they can expect and how they will interact with you.

In ‘Remote Working Part 2 – Fundamental behaviours – Basic discipline’ I talk about how to focus.