Kelly connects with authors Robert Pozen & Alexandra Samuel about their new book "Remote, Inc.: How to Thrive at Work . . . Wherever You Are"

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Central to this book about remote work is your idea of changing your mindset to a business of one, can you explain that?‍

“We think that business of one means that when you're working remotely, you control your own time, you control your own resources, you control your own skills - so it’s like you're running a small business. You should think of yourself as a business owner and therefore not an employee who takes instructions from your boss telling you what to do every day, so the implications of that are that you treat your boss as your client. You get directions from your client, but then you negotiate a set of deliverables with time targets from your client. And then it's up to you: when and how and where you work, because your client isn’t micromanaging every hour every day. So that's a change in mindset.”‍

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Although the focus is on remote work, I found the advice in this book to be just as valuable to our work behavior when we’re on site in our workplaces.

‍“The reason that we focus on remote work is that it's so hard for people, I think, when they first start working remotely to see the ways they not only need to change, but can change their way of working. And so, to our mind, the beauty of remote work is exactly what you're saying: that precisely because  it's so difficult to pop in and have a chat with somebody, it's so complicated and draining to have meeting after meeting over video, it challenges you to work in a different way. And once you learn that way of working, it actually makes you more productive wherever you are.”‍

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The biggest takeaway that I applied from the book is the OHIO method for dealing with your email. So right now, my inbox is under ten emails since I started using this method.‍

“OHIO is basically the concept that you get lots and lots of emails that you shouldn't be spending any time on or you should just be skipping over. But from time to time, you get a really important email from your boss or your spouse or maybe from the IRS, and so the idea is Only Handle It Once you get that important email, answer it right, then, and there. If you do that you'll save lots and lots of time.”

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