4 Tips for Streamlining Your Remote Working Experience

The rise of the internet has completely changed the nature of the business world in the 21st Century and has ensured that entrepreneurs now have more scope and capacity for self-invention, creative endeavor, and autonomy, than perhaps ever before in human history.

Following the immense success of books such as Tim Ferriss’ “The 4-Hour Work Week”, a whole new generation of entrepreneurs have taken to the remote working lifestyle, often travelling the world while making a living with nothing but their own skillset, reputation, laptop and internet connection.

Of course, while the remote working life can be deeply enriching, fulfilling, and adventurous, it’s not a walk in the park. It does require real work, and there’s likely to be plenty of stress and difficulty on the path to success.

For those reasons, it’s important to have a good series of strategies that you can apply in order to streamline the experience. Here are a few suggestions.

Find virtual surrogates for traditional business roles and features

Traditional office jobs and brick-and-mortar startups have certain things going for them that web-based endeavors do not. For example — having a physical and upmarket office address that you can include in your correspondences may seem like a small thing, but it can have a real impact on how prospective clients see you and assess your professionalism, credibility, and trustworthiness.

Another example would be the fact that traditional businesses often have employees in-house to handle tasks such as admin work and marketing duties.

To streamline your remote working process, find virtual surrogates for these kinds of traditional business roles and features. Physical Address is a company that can set you up with a credible-sounding mailing address, while virtual assistants and receptionists can help deal with your admin tasks without even having to be anywhere near your physical vicinity.

Procrastination and chaos will hound you — get as organized and structured as you can

All freelancers and solo entrepreneurs — essentially, everyone who works as their own boss — are inevitably forced to face up to, and struggle against, the compulsion to procrastinate and be disorganized.

When you work in a traditional office environment, you will have bosses, supervisors, and colleagues to hold you accountable. You will have a clear-cut schedule, mapping out when you arrive at work, when you leave, and what you do at the various stages in between.

When you’re working from home, for example, everything’s up in the air. There’s nothing much to stop you from staying up all night and sleeping all day, or having irregular mealtimes, or just generally losing the necessary structure that holds your day together.

Keep yourself on track if you want to be successful. Map out and give order to your own day. Have a set time that you wake up, a set time that you go to sleep, a set time for lunch, and so on. And be sure to have a task-management system, too, such as a daily to-do list.

You can use various apps and services — or just a pen and paper — to schedule your day in this manner.

Don’t focus on yourself in your marketing correspondences — focus on how you can help solve problems for your client

Many remote workers — due to the fact that they’re typically solo entrepreneurs — will make a pretty serious mistake when marketing themselves to prospective clients. Namely, they will tend to focus on themselves and their own stories to an inordinate degree.

This is understandable, but a mistake nonetheless. The simple reality is that your would-be clients are interested in hearing about what an incredible prodigy you are. They’re interested in hearing about the specific ways you can benefit them.

Instead of rattling off your list of personal accolades, describe how you can solve a problem that people might be experiencing. Can you help them to relieve excess stress in the office? Bring their websites more traffic? Improve employee productivity in the office?

Investigate the available software for your particular niche, and choose a program that works well for you

Certain types of job require certain types of software — or at least benefit from them immensely.

To ensure that you’re able to work as well and productively as possible, investigate the available software for your particular niche and choose a program that works well for you to use as your primary resource.

For writers, Scrivener is one of the most popular tools, and allows for the compiling and storing of a large number of articles and sub-sections in a single program, without the need to open multiple separate document pages.