3x More Productive than an Office Worker
Elite remote workers are three times (3X) more productive than their office-bound counterparts.
"Productivity is never an accident. It is always the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligent planning, and focused effort." ~ Paul J. Meyer
“It can’t just be slightly better. It’s got to be a lot better.” ~ Elon Musk (video)
Introduction
Elite remote workers are, on average, three times (3X) more productive than their on-premise, office-bound counterparts. There are several reasons for this which you will learn during your time in RemoteU.
More importantly, you’ll learn the skills required to put yourself among the elite remote working class. This is critically important because, if your remote productivity is only marginally higher than the average office worker, your professional journey will be neither easy, nor ultimately successful.
Roadblocks
Without 3X productivity, your career won’t achieve the velocity necessary to overcome the inherent challenges every remote worker faces. These roadblocks come in two primary forms:
Negative stereotypes
Entrenched hiring practices
Negative stereotypes
As we covered in the previous article, there is a lot of misinformation in the world about remote work - and about remote workers. Negative stereotypes create misunderstanding, and lead to strongly-held misconceptions by companies everywhere.
Negative stereotypes include the idea that all remote workers are “digital nomads” working from the road, or on the beach. That they are free-spirited, non-committal, or just plain lazy.
Unfortunately, as you begin your own journey as a remote professional, you automatically inherit these negative stereotypes, whether or not they are true. In short, you’re put at a disadvantage even before you begin.
Entrenched hiring
The other primary source of resistance you’ll encounter when choosing to pursue a remote profession comes in the form of entrenched hiring practices among most companies.
The truth is, the remote work trend is growing, and won’t stop anytime soon. Yet, the vast majority of companies today are struggling to make the leap from the on-premise paradigm to a remote one. Or worse, they are fully stuck (i.e, comfortable) in the industrial-age model.
Our own decade-long success as a 100% remote company proves this point-of-view false - and we’re not the only ones! Dozens, maybe hundreds, of remote enterprises have shared similar, or even greater success than ours. Yet, the tide turns slowly.
Organizations, like people, are resistant to change. While more companies than ever are hiring remotely, they still represent only a small fraction of the available positions in the marketplace.
Your only hope - the one true path - for overcoming these formidable roadblocks is to be three times more valuable than the status-quo alternative.
Road to 3X
At this point, you're probably asking, “How can I be three times(!) more productive? That’s such a large increase!”
Well, buckle up, and keep working through this curriculum, because it’s designed to help you achieve exactly that. And don’t worry, you'll receive step-by-step instructions, and each lesson builds upon the last.
However, there is one concept so critical to achieving 3X productivity that we must introduce it here. It is a principle so highly valued that we refer to it as the “secret sauce.” This is the concept of owning your quality and productivity.
We dedicate an entire article to this topic in tomorrow’s (Day 3) module. However, we want to define it for you now. When we say “owning your quality and productivity,” we mean taking radical responsibility for delivering unparalleled value and results. This is the business of elite remote workers. But how do they do it?
Elite remote workers take initiative to surpass the goals given by their manager. They go above and beyond minimum requirements and continually push past the status quo.
On the other hand, average remote workers may demonstrate all kinds of subpar performance, including passively waiting for their manager to give them direction. When they accomplish only the minimum (or less), they make excuses for why.
They can speak to their challenges (i.e., excuses) far better than they can speak to their metrics (i.e., ownership). But don’t worry. If you’re diligent about following instructions, you’ll develop the skills to go far beyond average.
In the end, there are many skills required to be a high-performing remote pro, many of which you will learn throughout this curriculum. However, owning your quality and productivity is the most important, among them because it’s more than a skill - it’s a mindset!
Asynchronous skills
It should be obvious by now that the skills you need to be successful as a remote worker are different (sometimes even opposite) from those you need in an office environment.
In a physical environment, for example, if communication between you and your coworker is unclear, you are able to simply walk to their desk and ask for clarification.
Similarly, if you are great at verbal communication, but not at written communication, then your on-premise colleagues may choose only to engage with you verbally when they need your help.
However, in an asynchronous environment, you do not have these opportunities. Therefore, a large portion of our curriculum teaches you how to communicate optimally with remote teammates, managers and clients.
Conclusion
In order to join the elite remote working class, you must outperform “average” performance by 300%. Without “3X productivity,” your career can’t overcome the challenges every remote worker faces.
The skills you need to be successful remotely are different (even opposite) from those needed by on-premise, office workers. Your primary path to success in the face of these obstacles is to be three times more valuable than the status-quo alternative.
Videos
In the first clip below (starting at 0:59), Elon Musk explains why startup companies, in order to survive, must create products that are exponentially better than entrenched alternatives. The same is true for remote workers.
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