Obviously not all of us is able to work remotely as many jobs require employees to consistently attend their office or travel to undertake their work face to face. But for those of us given the opportunity to work remotely then I thought it would be useful to share what I have learned and give some practical wisdom by distributing it on the Internet with the sole objective of providing valuable timesavers for adapting to remote working or managing remote workers.

I must tell you you that there are many so called ’experts’ on the web who will try and make you purchase online education for big sums of cash, take my word for it you don’t have to do this.

I am fortunate to be allowed to work anywhere 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 be fooled here I am still improving the art of remote working as all of the time I meet tribes on the web who teach me new methods and I am repeatedly finding new tools and ways that make my life easier and make me more efficient.

During the past 7 years I have steadily adapted my working methods to let me to do the whole of my work remotely with a box of web tools and solid self discipline. One lunchtime whilst exploring the web I found Quickbooks online and this brought to my attention what just might be possible. The discovery of ’hosted’ ‘on demand’ small business accounting software was a life changing event for me and the beginning of my ‘remote working life.

I want to tell you up front that proficiently working remotely is as much about the systems as it is about self discipline. Working remotely also means teaching your co-workers, managers and clients as to what they can expect and how they will communicate with you.

In ‘Remote Working Part 2 – Managing yourself’ I talk about how to focus.