5 signs you might be working remotely

Yes, you do not need to spend money and time on the road, but there are also disadvantages: from lack of communication and ending with the lack of a line between personal and work time. Let's highlight five signs that indicate that the transition to a remote location will be painless and comfortable for you.

1. Your work can be done remotely

It all depends on the position you hold.

First, there are responsibilities that physically cannot be performed remotely. For example, if you are a corporate sales manager, you are unlikely to close a deal without meeting a client in person. When working with equipment, it will also be very difficult to leave the office. Any position that involves personal contact or special technical equipment, a priori, cannot be remote.

Secondly, employers are not always ready to accept an employee for remote work. The main reasons: lack of competence in personnel management remotely, mistrust or a high degree of responsibility for key positions. There are two solutions. The first is to look for an employer who initially offers to work remotely. The second option assumes that you have been with the company for at least more than a year and have proven yourself well. If you have a good relationship with your boss, talk to him and prepare arguments for why you will be more effective remotely.

2. See the line between work and home

Being able to organize yourself is an essential quality for remote work. You can be productive if you have a plan and schedule ahead of time. But following your own plan is sometimes harder than it sounds.

If you do not live alone, you should warn loved ones about your daily routine. It is important to explain that you cannot run to the store or take your dog for a walk just because you are "still at home." Try not to get distracted by the little things. To avoid the temptation to check your Facebook feed hourly, turn off sound notifications in instant messengers or wear headphones with unobtrusive music.

Your goal is to prioritize all tasks and complete the most important ones. Therefore, in addition to the calendar, it will be useful to have a task manager.

Don't try to do everything at once. Take turns solving problems. If the case is large and you do not know how to approach it, divide it into several small ones. American productivity consultant David Allen developed the "two-minute rule." If the task takes 2–5 minutes, do it right away and only then proceed to the voluminous ones. Record the elapsed time. So in the future it will be easier for you to establish a comfortable work rhythm for yourself.

Unfortunately, it's not enough to just eliminate distractions and focus. There is the opposite problem - it is difficult to stop in time. This is especially difficult for perfectionists. Imagine you have three urgent tasks. Better to do the first 80% and move on than to waste time looking for perfection and get nervous that you haven't even started the rest. Don't forget about Cyril Parkinson's Law: "Work fills the time allotted for it." And also try not to reply to colleagues who post late. If the task is not too urgent, it can be postponed until tomorrow.

3. Know how to manage your time

Remote control is a format of work. In some cases it saves time, in others it is the other way around. The determining factor is what role you play in a project or company and how involved you are.

It depends on you how you organize your time and how you complete tasks. If you have provided not only a salary, but also a bonus part or interest, then the rule of direct proportionality applies: the more you work, the more money you get. On the one hand, the company gives you guarantees and confidence in the future, on the other hand, it is likely that your colleagues will let you down or the strategy of the entire department will change. But you don't know about it right away - simply because you work outside the office. Poorly built communication is felt more sharply at a distance. Waiting for a response from a colleague is wasting your time. And money.

Working from home cannot be equated with freelancing. Freelancer is independent and self-employed. And being a full-time employee means making compromises with colleagues, and conditional 40 hours a week, and regular Skype conferences.

The flexible schedule has two sides of the coin: you can get up later in the morning, but you also have to respond to messages in the messenger late at night, because remotely there is no such thing as "I am no longer in the office." If your activity is related to consulting or sales, then the working hours are scheduled literally to the minute. Your schedule depends not only on management, but also on clients.

On the other hand, no one will stand behind your back and control what you do. Out-of-state companies often give the opportunity to move the start of the working day within two hours. With good self-organization, you can travel without interrupting work.

4. You can do without communicating with colleagues

If you've never tried telecommuting, you may not even imagine that it will be psychologically difficult for you. At first, everyone is tempted by the opportunity to work at home in slippers and with a purring warm cat at their side. Perhaps in a few weeks you will miss the live communication with colleagues and you will not mind changing your home sweater for a suit.

But there are many people who work without problems in this mode and do not need daily offline communication. It depends on the psychotype of the person and personality traits. Introverts will find it easier The Awakened Introvert: Practical Mindfulness Skills to Help You Maximize Your Strengths and Thrive in a Loud and Crazy World to concentrate on tasks alone, while extroverts need to connect with others. It is difficult to understand in advance how comfortable it will be for you to work without colleagues. But knowing your type of temperament, you can already assume your reaction.

5. You are used to generating tasks yourself

When working remotely, you often have to take the initiative. Sometimes this is due to blurred areas of responsibility and a lack of quick response from colleagues or a manager.

It doesn't matter if you work for yourself, in a startup or in a large company, the result is expected of you. Responsibility and initiative are basic qualities at a distance. The trick is that no one stares at you to remind you of the deadline. And also there is no chance to meet in the office and personally discuss the details of the project. Therefore, every day you need to motivate yourself, fight procrastination and think about how to optimize your work.

Medium and large companies that hire employees for remote positions have their own control tools: management systems, task managers, time counters. Hiring remote staff is always a risk for the company. After all, a person can close the laptop at any time and not get in touch. On the other hand, it is psychologically easier for the management to make decisions about dismissal, since only professional relationships are formed with the employee without emotional attachment. In such cases, the employer is guided by numbers rather than sentimentality.

We are not trying to dissuade you from going remote. Rather, we remind you that the online format is not a panacea for problems at work. Perhaps you just need to rest or change your field of activity.