you need to know about working from home · essential tips and strategies that you will need to make sure that you are at the top of your game no matter where you are working from

1Everything you need to know about working from home - Ebook.

Everything you need to know about working from home

2 Everything you need to know about working from home - Ebook.

Table of contents

What is remote work and why most people choose to work from home?01 4

Benefits of working from home for employees02 6

Benefits of working from home for employers03 12

Remote work is here to stay, it’s not a temporary trend04 16

Debugging work from home05 18

Designing your home work space06 22

Art of Staying Productive07 26

Motivate yourself!08 36


How to make yourself known and seen09 42

Creating “virtual water cooler” in your work space10 48

Switching off11 52

Addressing loneliness while working remotely12 54

Meditation & mindfulness13 58

Global Work From Home Day14 62


With continuously improving tech-nology and an ever changing work-ing culture, remote work is becoming increasingly common in companies around the globe. But now a lot of us are finding ourselves in a situation where we have to work from home due to the recent COVID-19 outbreak. It’s not ideal that a large proportion of the workforce are having to face home office without proper training or support. Neverthe-less, we’re here to help give you all the essential tips and strategies that you will need to make sure that you are at the top of your game no matter where you are working from. We originally created this guide to tie in with our Global Work From Home Day that we ran last year. Now it’s become more useful than ever as companies and teams are searching for the best ways to work from home and minimise the impact to their busi-nesses during this extraordinary time.

We’ve revisited some topics to provide you all with new, updated, and essen-tial information to help everyone who now is having to work from home, all for free. It’s just our way of helping us all get through the situation we’re in, and to help people feel more confident in developing their remote work skills. Just a quick word of warning: not all the advice and articles will be directly applicable due to the global lockdown that has already begun to take place.

Coworking spaces, social activities, and regular outdoor trips for example may not be relevant or recommended depending on your location and local government guidelines. Please take what you feel makes sense to you and apply it in the safest way possible. We want everyone to be healthy, produc-tive, and happy, so please keep this in mind before you follow on any advice. We wish you all the best and good luck with starting or continuing on your remote work journey!

01 What is remote work and why most people choose to work from home?



A lot of employees value flexibility in their working arrangements for a number of reasons, often depend-ent upon their own personal circum-stances and priorities. With COVID-19 now changing the current working landscape hugely to one where remote work dominates, many workers are now perceiving the benefits a bit more differently than usual. We can see that working from home is a crucial part of maintaining a global pandemic, and can help in keeping us and our loved ones more safe. How we perceive working from home, and the benefits that we get from it, has all of a sudden seen a massive change. Now that a lot of us are forced to work from home regard-less of our choice, people can perceive their own personal benefits differently.

When given the choice to work from home under normal circumstances, one common group to really benefit are parents. This group perhaps need to work from home to look after chil-dren or simply to make their day more manageable when organising their family routine. FlexJobs, also cited in the HBR article, found that parents ranked work flexibility and work-life balance as the most important work benefits.1 This beats even salary and health insur-ance in the list of priorities.

1 https://www.flexjobs.com/blog/post/survey-par-ents-rank-work-flexibility-ahead-salary/

Flexible working arrangements also help employees better manage their work-life balance. It’s been shown to be conducive to a better standard of mental and physical health, reducing stress and burnout. FlexJobs reports that 97% of over 3000 respondents in their 2018 annual survey said that a flex-ible job would have a “huge improve-ment or positive impact on their overall quality of life2”.

“This is my first experience of working from home full time. I wondered if it was too good to be true, because in previous companies they subscribed to the idea that dedication meant being in the office all hours. Now I feel valued and trusted. We’re all free to build a work environ-ment that encourages our productivity. We still have constant communication and “office” jokes; you don’t miss out on that just because you’re remote. And you don’t have to do big tea rounds!” - Maygen Jacques, Marketing Manager from Code Enigma.

Not needing to commute and signifi-cantly reducing your travel costs can lead to an increase in real income. You also save precious time spent commut-ing, and the stress associated with trav-elling to work. 55% of people reported increases levels of stress due to their

2 https://www.flexjobs.com/blog/post/flexjobs-2018-an-nual-survey-workers-believe-flexible-remote-job-can-help-save-money-reduce-stress-more/

02 Benefits of working from home for employees


daily commute, according to a report by the UK Royal Society for Public Health as cited in Forbes.3 Saving both time and money will of course lead to an improvement in your overall work-life balance.

Many people also get tempted at work to splash out on expensive meals or takeaway food when taking their lunch break. Significant reductions in the

3 https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrealoubi-er/2017/07/20/benefits-of-telecommuting-for-the-fu-ture-of-work/#1d1e0ec316c6

amount spent on food can be found when working at home, along with improvements in the overall health-iness and nutrition of what you eat. These costs can significantly add up over time, meaning that working from home can have a big financial benefit for you over working in the office.

“I live about 45 minutes from our local office so the time saved from my commute, getting “office” ready, and socializing throughout the day really

Career or family,why should i choose?

- by Nancy Aharpour from DonnaJobs

All over the world, there are millions of talented women who find it difficult to enter, emerge in or simply re-enter the workforce after mater-nity leave. These barriers could be due to family commitments or other reasons related to their status as women.

For both private and public companies, these women are a considerable resource of relia-bility, competence and talent but for them it is often difficult, if not impossible, to find a job We all know that the family comes first!One great solution to this problem is Donna-Jobs and the possibility that the platform gives to all women to #WorkFromHome with flexible jobs.

If I am the master of my work, if I am the master of my time, then I am no longer obliged to pickfamily over a career, I can have both of them. Why should I choose?

Deciding to work from home is a fantastic answer that helps everybody, not only the women but even the environment too.

So DonnaJobs also supports our Planet by encouraging and promoting #WorkFromHome, which in turn has a series of benefits in addi-tion to those already mentioned:

• You do not use your own car or public transport for moving to and from work, so you are reducing the use of fossil fuels and carbon emissions, thus improving air quality;

• Less commuting, less traffic. This also leads to a smaller number of accidents;

• #WorkFromHome saves considerable time that can be used with children, with family, for yourself;

• If you have more time for yourself then you are more satisfied and happier;

• The energy consumption of office equip-ment is greater than domestic ones, once again #WorkFromHome gives a global advantage.

My name is Nancy Aharpour and I am a #Work-FromHome Mother, the CEO & Founder of the DonnaJobs’ Project.I created this project with the aim of support-ing and promoting #WorkFromHome not only for women who want to reconcile the joys of motherhood with love for their career but for all of us.

In conclusion we can say that #WorkFrom-Home is the way of working of the future and it acts in favour of the family and to the safe-guard of our Planet.

So, let’s #WorkFromHome.


adds up. I have found that working from home several days a week frees up an average of 3-4 hours per day, which is time I can use to be more productive with my work, accomplish other tasks around my home, or take care of admin-istrative tasks for a non-profit that I support. This balance has allowed me to enjoy my days in the office and seek out more opportunities to engage with co-workers face-to-face without feel-ing a major loss in productivity. Like all things in life, it’s about finding a balance that works for you.” - Ashley Dodge, Director Go-To-Market at Appirio

“We are located in India’s highest traffic city Mumbai. Hence travelling from one end to the other end of the city takes way too much time. Having remote work is relaxing for our associates. They do not need to get in to jam-pack trains, buses. No need to spend 2-3 hours in one way of travel. Rather, all get the opportunity to spend time with their families. We have semi remote policy at the moment which allows our associates to meet each other in-person. That way they can plan with teams face to face collabora-tion. Also by this strategy they do not experience loneliness. I would say they get the best of both worlds. Some of our associates have moved to Mumbai from other cities. So remote work policy allows them to work from their native place and get to spend time with family.” - Shivani Thakur from Kiprosh

5 Remote Work Benefits and How You Can Make the Best of Them

- by Alexandra Cote, Digital Marketing at Paymo

I’ve been working remotely for well over a year now and had the chance to talk to other fellow remote workers and see their own take on this experience. Working from the comfort of your home is not always sweetness and light, but I soon got to realize that while we all had the same problems, we also enjoyed similar bene-fits. Here are the most common remote work benefits I and other people working remotely have experienced:

1. More energy left for the things you love after work

Compared to the typical office job where you leave at 6 and spend another hour stuck in traffic, plus more time wasted shopping for your lunch ingredients, when you’re working remotely you can just end your work day at 6 and focus on your hobbies. No more aimlessly walking around the park-ing lot trying to find your car or that dreaded feeling when you get home after a long day and it’s already time to sleep.

Remote work leaves you with an extra 4 hours feeling more energized, so you can focus on the things that truly matter to you. Whether that’s spending time with your kids, walking your dog or just lounging around watching your favourite TV show.

2. Organize your time your own way

Wake up whenever you want to. I for instance don’t need too much time to wake up and get straight to work. This literally saves me at least two hours I would spend on prepar-ing for work, packing lunch, and commuting each day. Or maybe you want to start work in the evening so you can run your errands before. One way of doing this if by organiz-ing your work day into two distinct 4-hour schedule chunks.

Just remember to have a set schedule for each day. A predefined plan with a set start and end hour for your work is the key to maintaining your work-life balance. Other-wise you’ll just be relying on the same old “I’m definitely going to finish work in the evening.” excuse.


Working From Home While Being An Extrovert - a Personal Story

- by Vanessa Tierney, co-founder of Abodoo

“Outgoing, likes to be social, a people person” This is how I have always been described and so, ten years ago, if you had said that my choice of working would be remote working from home I would have replied “NO WAY”. Imagine the loneliness I would have thought, and could I really do my job of interviewing and hiring remotely?

3. No need to buy so much stuff

Frankly, you won’t need a car, fuel, a park-ing permit, car insurance, not even Uber to take you to work and back home. You’ll also be saving a lot, and I mean A LOT of money on lunch you’d get from pricey food chains around your office. Just be careful not to order take out food too often. I’m guilty for that.

4. Change your workspace according to your own requirements

When you’re working in an open office, it’s impossible to please everyone. There will always be someone who’s too cold, needing to open a window in the middle of winter, or just wanting to move their office table.

Remotely, your office is whatever you make of it. You can work from your bed, a coffee shop, your car, a beach, anywhere really. And set the room’s temperature as high as you want it without fearing others won’t be happy with this.

5. Keep yourself sane and stay happy

Indeed, remote work does keep you sane. Of course, you’ll still need to interact with other humans, but working remotely means more downtime every day to spend time with your friends and family and less money lost on lunches or commute.

Say no more about your extra sleep time, scientifically proven to boost work efficiency and overall happiness levels. Actually, at Paymo our motto is just this: Work Happy! And that’s exactly what working remotely is like.

No compromise Fast forward to today and even if you offered me a lot more money, I would not change the location of my work – my home. Initially going remote was not actually my choice as unfortunately I was ill and so was unable to commute for months, let alone do a full day in the office. However, I quickly realised that my role could actually be done, with a little crea-tivity, remotely and that I was absolutely not an isolated case. The more I looked, the more I realised there were many talented, creative and brilliant people who craved and needed a similar solution.

So can an extrovert really enjoy remote working?There is no doubt there is a bedding in period for everyone the first time they go remote. There is a self discipline that you develop as to how to structure your week, factoring in video time with others and ensuring you step away. However once you find your flow you discover you can achieve a lot more both in your career and in managing your home. So in short, yes, you can still be sociable, get fit, have more time with your loved ones and much more whilst working from your home office or any other remote location.

What I don’t missMind numbing license plate watching, listen-ing to radio DJ waffle, fighting for the last few car spaces, being late, apologising for being late, being squeezed into a crammed train, the repetitive “how are you” with no interest in your answer, the cost of take-away coffee and a wrap, the heat of sitting inside a fishbowl on hot days, not being at the nursery/school gates, the panic as you can see the traffic build past 4 p.m. outside your window, that feeling of need-ing to stay late to show your dedication, the lack of space in your diary for private appoint-ments, the crash on the motorway, the queue at the petrol station at rush hour, the train cancellations and roadworks, the washing of work clothes, the planning of the outfit for the next day, THE TIME and MONEY WASTED doing all of the above.

I am grateful for all the geniuses that devel-oped the connectivity and technology to make remote working an option. So yes I am a people person, so I make sure to see and interact with people each week. I love being remote and I’d have it no other way.


The Appeal of Remote Work Isn’t Only for Globetrotters

- by Dino Kukic from Hundred5

There’s a common preconception that remote work is all about travelling, as it has increasingly become tied to leading a digital nomadic life-style. But, the reasons people seek out remote working are much more diverse than picturing themselves ‘crushing it’ whilst sunbathing on a Balinese beach. As we’ve seen in the recent research by Buffer, even if there’s a possibility for remote workers to be at any place in the world, they tend to choose to stay at home. In fact, 84% of the respondents said they work primarily from home and when asked about traveling, the majority travels rather infre-quently.

At first, this might sound surprising, but the underlying reason is that people do not neces-sarily choose remote work in order to be able to travel more.

People try remote work in-between the jobs - Often people find themselves working remotely without realizing that they have been shifting towards it. My first remote job was after I finished university and was looking for an internship in my field of study. It took months to find a suitable place and in the meantime, I landed my first clients and experienced what it was like working for someone who’s sitting in an office 8000km away. This, of course, eventu-ally helped when deciding to go with a full-time remote job, as I realized that afternoon hours, during which I spent time in the office, were not the most productive for me.

Higher income for people in developing countries - The possibility to work remotely is open to anyone with a steady internet connec-tion, regardless of their location. This also opens up the opportunity for remote workers to earn a higher salary than they would be offered in their home country. For example, at Hundred5, even though we’re based in Esto-nia, we have people located in Serbia, Hungary, Poland and Scotland.

Work hour flexibility at its finest - More and more companies are offering ‘flexible working hours’ as a part of their benefits package— ‘flexible’ being open to the interpretation of the company’s offer. In practice, it usually means

what’s called flextime, with core time being, for instance, between 11 AM and 3 PM and employ-ees being able to arrive at the office anywhere between 7 AM and 11 AM. While this timeblock does provide a certain window of flexibility, it’s still not fully on the employee’s terms. Full flexibility, is being able to decide when you work, and at what pace you work at — such is the mantra of flexibility at Hundred5. If some-one is a night-owl, and performs best during the graveyard shift, then the early birds have no place to complain. Although, we do have weekly meetings which all members attend.Albeit, it’s always good for the team hours to overlap, so they can talk F2F over a video call.

Remote work reduces commute time and makes people focus on what matters - In busy cities, reducing the commute time is one of the most important reasons for companies to allow at least some amount of time being spent working from home. In the USA alone, the average commute time to work is 25.4 minutes, which can stack up when you look at longer periods of time. Additionally, working from an office is often far less productive than what it seems like. I’ve personally experienced lunch breaks that drag on to two or even more hours with general chit chat. And, no, that doesn’t shift to people staying longer hours to make up for that.

It works well for parents / carers - In most countries of the developed world, new parents can claim time off to focus on nurturing their children in their first year (the most impor-tant time for bonding). Granted, this crucial time off may have a negative overhead when parents have to play catch-up upon returning to their location-dependent job. On the flip-side, parents that work remotely can strike a healthier balance between time spent on their career goals, while still juggling the needs of their children, even if the former is purely on a part-time basis.

Travelling isn’t a big life goal for all people - Probably the biggest point I am trying to make will be the fact that not everyone wants to travel the world full-time. For some people, choosing remote work means that they can stay in the place they actually want to be, without having to compromise by taking the job that’s avail-able to them locally, but rather one that they actually want - not bounded by location.


Also, traveling while working remotely comes with challenges of its own. Unless we’re talk-ing about residing in a certain country for 1-3 months, it requires a tremendous amount of discipline and organization to make it right. Some of the responsibilities include finding proper accommodation, taking care of visas and finding locations with a steady WI-FI—which is not all that common in many countries, even in the developed world.. At Hundred5, we consider a steady internet connection as the most important part of working remotely. Without it, communication would be broken, and work progress would hit a roadblock. To address this risk, we cover the costs for employees to work from a co-working space, and/or their monthly internet bill. Bottom line, it’s always up to a remote employee to make sure they are online.

With the continued growth of the remote workforce globally, a corresponding segment that doesn’t fit into the atypical digital nomad mould (nor wants to), also continues to grow. And, with the further expansion of remote-based jobs, the distinct segments of workers therein are only set to become even more diverse, as will their unique needs too. In addition, this idea of how the connection between traveling and working remotely actually looks like has been gradually shift-ing towards demonstrating its challenges and being rather transparent about its challenges.

To sum it up, remote work isn’t always about enabling a digital nomadic lifestyle. It can solve more fundamentally important needs, such as work-life balance. Remote work can help your employees discover how they can be their best, and most productive selves.

https://www.whereverwriter.com/disadvantages-of-working-online-while-traveling/


One of the biggest benefits for employ-ers when allowing their employees to work remotely is the increase in productivity shown by workers. Global Workplace Analytics Costs & Benefits survey shows that teleworkers in a number of large companies are actually between 35-40% more productive than their office counterparts.4 They also found that “two-thirds of [all surveyed] employers report increased productiv-ity among their telecommuters”.

4 https://globalworkplaceanalytics.com/resources/costs-benefits

03 Benefits of working from home for employers


A flexibly-remote company - how does it work?

- by Diana Veron from XWiki

For employees For employers

When working for XWiki, you can choose between working at one of the offices, with the benefit of partial remote working (all our colleagues can take up to 2 days of remote working, every week), or working fully remote. Remote working is a benefit offered by XWiki to its employees in order to improve their produc-tivity and their well-being in their every-day-life at work. In order for remote collaborations to work well we have set up procedures, but mostly, we’ve given our trust to our team. We are using means of communication at distance to keep the teams united. We encourage the

• Better life-work balance• Higher satisfaction and motivation, higher

commitment• Less time spent with transportation• Fewer distractions• Higher productivity• Money Saving• Healthier routines• The flexibility of the schedule• A better relationship with colleagues

• More satisfied, motivated and happy employees

• Reinforcement of the company’s culture and positive image of the company

• Differentiation from other companies• Builds trust among the team members• Fewer costs with transportation• Fewer costs with certain benefits• Reduced risks of medical leaves• Reduced turnover• Can bring in within the team talented

people from different locations

XWikiers to offer as much transparency as possible, to announce when they are not avail-able for a certain period during the day, to be reactive, to be responsible for the whole infra-structure at their home/external venue etc. At XWiki, we have more than 10 years that we offer this flexibility and the possibility to work from home and we have noticed that it is a win-win situation that brings a lot of advan-tages both on the employee and the employer side, a couple of them are listed below.

In terms of working from home, XWiki is flexi-ble and likes to find the solution that best suits its employees while not impacting team effi-ciency. We are proud and happy to have this process implemented within the company and we support the idea “Remote work is here to stay, it’s not a temporary trend”.


The talent pool offer also increases, as hirers are no longer limited to those that can make it to the office and live in the surrounding geographical area. The whole country is now open for those that allow for flexible working arrangements, along with the whole world if the company allow for fully remote workers who are allowed to create their own schedule.

“At Talent Place most employees work remotely from all across Europe. Owing to that we are enabled to work with the most talented people without being constrained by physical location of the specialists what gives us an edge over our competitors, and broadens our know-how. This form of work saves us costs threefold as compared to an ordi-nary office based model. This structure based on a distributed model require us to measure our efficiency much more precisely and also give more responsi-bilities to our employees, which in turn strengthens their dedication and yields them better results.” - Angelika Blicharz, HR Manager at Talent Place

As previously mentioned, we also see a tangible reduction in costs associ-ated with running a fully equipped and staffed office for all workers. IBM for example managed to save $50 million in real estate costs. 60% of employers questioned in the costs and benefits survey reported cost savings overall as a significant benefit of allowing people to work from home.

“The modern workplace has changed a lot. We are slowly but surely switch-ing from agriculture and manufactur-ing to services and intellectual work. So why are we still sticking to processes invented in the 20th century that were specifically designed for the “old” economic sectors? Most employers are

still resilient to letting their employees work remotely and even cutting down on home office allowances. At Biotron Labs we found that remote work has some major benefits. Attracting talent on developed markets is a nightmare. If you were recently hiring engineers or data scientists, you know it’s close to impossible to find senior employ-ees without overpaying. Millennials also want their flexibility and—if possi-ble—work on more projects in parallel. Commuting is getting worse all over the world, with people spending hours in traffic jams. And in Slovakia, where Biotron is based, the situation is ever more difficult. Being part of the EU has its advantages, such as free movement of the workforce. However, attracting talent from Western Europe is close to impossible and hiring from outside the EU is complicated because of the immigration laws. It can take months to get work visa e.g. for somebody from Ukraine, which is just across the border. Solution? Remote work! We have all the technology to make it work – Skype, Hangouts, Slack, or any other commu-nication tool that suits your needs. We even have processes that can help, like Agile, Kanban, and Scrum.

Collaboration and project management tools? No problem – Jira, Airtable, Trello, Google Docs, Outlook 365, Github, or Bitbucket to name a few. Of course, you need to be wary and put clear and concise rules in place. Our team has daily sync calls to keep everybody involved, share knowledge and discuss problems as they happen. Weekly planning and reviews keep everybody aligned and working towards the same goals. Monthly retro-spectives provide a platform to give feedback on anything. And quarterly and yearly OKRs planning helps us stick to our long-term goals. Obviously, we’re trying to spend as much time with the


team as possible. But forcing everybody to be at one place from 9 to 5 is simply not necessary anymore. I would even argue that it’s counter-productive, as everyone has their own patterns and different productivity peaks. In return it’s much easier for us to hire top talent and even lower our costs. But the most important benefit is engaged and moti-vated team that’s less likely to burn out or suffer cabin fever.” - Pavol Magic, CEO, Biotron Labs

“Without a doubt, remote work is becoming an increasingly hot trend in HR. It is expected by more and more employees, and on the employee market we are dealing with in many industries, employers have no choice but to adapt to this trend. A kind of thaw in the field of remote work (even in industries where it would have been unthinkable until recently) should not be treated solely as an answer to another “whim” of spoiled employees. Of course, from the perspec-tive of many organizations, it is still diffi-cult to accept that a potential employee chooses a different job only because it offers a more flexible form of employ-ment, and the current employee wants to work from home at least once in a while. Making the working environment more flexible, however, is a trend that seems unstoppable. Therefore, what the employers have to deal with in the first place is not only to create formal conditions for remote work but also educate the managerial staff and grad-ually instill remote work in the compa-ny’s DNA. Only this approach will give organizations the chance to respond to the need for remote work, as well as derive tangible benefits from it, both in the area of employee engagement and business results.” - Adrian Juchimiuk, Employer Branding Director & Partner, MJCC


According to LinkedIn’s Global Talent Trends Report for 2019, 72% of talent professionals agree that work flexibility will be very important for the future of HR and recruiting. In the past two years alone, there’s also been a 78% increase in LinkedIn job posts advertising flexi-ble work arrangements. It seems than that remote work is here to stay, and won’t just be a temporary trend in the job market.

04 Remote work is here to stay, it’s not a temporary trend


Remote Work is Here to Stay

- by Mark Lautman, CEcD, and Shelly Fauset from SoloWorks

The best evidence that remote work is here to stay is the steady evolution of the four stake-holder groups in the remote work market: 1.) remote workers, 2.) employers, 3.) product and service providers, and 4.) the economic devel-opment community.

The number of people working remotely contin-ues to grow rapidly according to GlobalWork-PlaceAnalytics’ Remote Work Statistics,

• “Regular work-at-home, among the non-self-employed population, has grown by 140% since 2005, nearly 10x faster than the rest of the workforce or the self-em-ployed”

• “4.3 million employees (3.2% of the work-force) now work from home at least half the time.”

• From 2015-2016: “The telecommuter population grew by 11.7%, the largest year over year growth since 2008.”

The ranks of employers adopting remote work staffing strategies is also expanding rapidly as more work becomes remote friendly. Accord-ing to Upwork’s 2018 Future Workforce Report,

• “53 percent of companies are utilizing more flexible workers (freelancers, temp or agency workers when compared with three years ago.”

• “38 percent of hiring managers predict that their employees will work predomi-nantly remotely in the next 10 years”

• “55 percent of hiring managers agree that remote work has become more common-place compared with 3 years ago”

The number and the range of product and service providers focused on helping remote workers become more productive and comfortable with the lifestyle is also expanding rapidly. This includes everybody from software developers who create tools for better remote collaboration to internet service providers meeting increasing demands to people who develop and run coworking spaces and create communities.

Another sign that remote work is here to stay is the recent adoption of remote work as a formal

economic development job creation strategy by the economic development community. See International Economic Development Council Spring 2018 Journal article on Solowork. The Community Economics Lab, a non-profit, 501(c)(3) think tank developed and tested the first viable program model designed to systemati-cally recruit, train, place and advance local resi-dents interested in working remotely.

Remote work has some important advan-tages over traditional economic development efforts. The number and types of jobs available are unlimited, they can be created quickly at a fraction of the cost of traditional job creation programs and have limited impact on the envi-ronment. Remote work is one of the few job creation strategies with the potential to work in remote rural communities.

In response the state of New Mexico estab-lished a post performance incentive program to fund local remote work job creation efforts. In the last two years the CELab has been trave-led to China, Singapore, Austria, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and multiple cities in the US and Canada.

As remote work becomes a mainstream economic development strategy we should expect the rate of growth of the industry to accelerate - more remote jobs available, more qualified and productive candidates, ever expanding markets for product and services providers and strong growing local economies. Remote work is not only in the future – it is the future.


We’ve gone through the benefits that working from home can bring, but there are also a number of possible disad-vantages (or as we like to call them - challenges). These can be avoided with proper practice and by following our tips and hints! Throughout the rest of this e-book, we’ll lay out different strat-egies to make sure you don’t fall into the usual pitfalls. You’ll want to make sure that you’re making the most out of working from home, so avoiding these common problems will help you enjoy the benefits of working remotely.

Possible disadvantages from flexible working arrangements

1. It’s possible to feel less relevant to your workplace when not physically in the office. A lot of collaboration, ideas and socialising is done spon-taneously, so to make this happen from home a different approach is needed.

2. Some people can struggle with lone-liness when working from home or remotely. If you happen to be trav-elling, not having friends and family around may take its toll. Not being able to take a break to socialise with other coworkers can also be diffi-cult. Communicating just with tech-nology isn’t quite the same.

3. The lines between work and home will be blended, making it difficult

to switch off when you need to. You can also find yourself getting distracted with home comforts like your TV, games-console or bed! You may also find it difficult to stop working as you no longer have any physical boundaries between your work and living spaces. Having to set aside space for a working area will also take up living area.

4. Whilst it’s been shown that there are actual productivity gains to be had from remote work, people do strug-gle with motivation and productivity. Not having a manager to check on your work and being totally depend-ent upon yourself takes willpower!

“Two key things of working remotely are tools and culture. To be able to have employees work remotely successfully, there needs to be a culture of trust and mutual understanding. At Work-space 365, we use our own digital work-space to easily work anywhere, from any device, and to be able to reach all our documents, information, apps and news. This also simplifies working with our remote employees, combined with many semi-personal contact moments, such as video chatting. We also make sure to have actual personal contact with our remote employees by having them visit the office regularly and by organizing team activities, to strengthen the culture in the team.” - Workspace 365 Team

05 Debugging work from home


11 Good Practices to get the most out of a Remote Software Team

- by Maks Majer, ITCraftShip

Having been a remote engineer for the past 8+ years I have developed some good practices, that are helping the teams, I have worked with, become more productive. This guide is a part of the onboarding package, that I now give to all our new hires and it’s constantly updated as we gain experience.

1. Embrace Equality

Treat other remote team members on the same level as on-site people. Include them on important meetings and discus-sions — even if it’s harder to schedule a time with them immediately. Use tools to help you do that: shared Google Calendars, Calendly, etc. You can also wait to your regu-lar standup — it’s unlikely that this can’t wait.

Example: People working on-site at my current team used to connect to our daily standup from a conference room and from a single computer. Recently we’ve tried having everyone to connect from their desks as if they worked remotely. This has made the remote team members feel more as part of the whole. It was also nice to see all the faces instead of just the agile board through a screen share ;)

2. Visualize your progress

One of the Kanban rules works very well in a remote team setup. If people don’t see you working they need to see the results, you’re producing. Make sure you:

• Commit & push your code often to your remote code repository.

• Report status in your issue tracking soft-ware — make notes on your progress, add comments and store history of your approach (links, motivations for deci-sions, etc.)

• Record everything either in your issue tracking tool or code: your doubts, ques-tions and findings should not be stored just in your head — it will be easier to bring it into the discussion during standups and scheduled calls with other team members if it’s down in writing.

• Push broken code to the remote repos-

itory anyway, when you’re done working for the day. Just add an appropriate comment to the commit message and/or your issue tracking software.

3. Organize your workspace

Be conscious about where and how you like to work and prepare your workspace accordingly. Make sure you have the right hardware and tools, that will help you be the most productive. Ask your employer to provide them for you.

4. Create habits

People are creatures of habit, so having routines in place will help you keep the balance between your work and your life. Set some regular work hours, no matter what time of day you prefer to work. Communi-cate those habits to the rest of the team, so they know what to expect.

5. Communicate

Don’t hesitate to engage in communication with other team members on a frequent basis, but also don’t expect them to respond immediately. Use the channels like:

• Instant messaging (ex. Slack, HipChat) — when you’re looking for quick support hit Slack. Especially useful, when anyone on the team can be of help. Use open channels instead of direct messages. If you’re not getting the immediate response propose to set a meeting.

• Issue Tracking tool (JIRA, YouTrack, Trello) — tag people in your comments when you need support and explain what is blocking your progress. If neces-sary create separate tasks to unlock the one you currently can’t complete. Increase the awareness of roadblocks, to get them removed faster.

• Online Meetings (Skype, Hangouts, appear.in) — use them for scheduled meetings (daily standup, planning meetings, etc.) and discussions (archi-tectural, design, etc.) about issues, that are harder to handle through other channels. Be mindful about people’s time — only include the people that are required and only for as long as it’s needed to resolve the issue.


• Collaborative Programming (ex. Slack screen sharing with remote control) — useful for scheduled pair programming sessions and ad-hoc support, when onboarding new devel-oper or helping team members grasp some new concepts your team is accus-tomed to.

6. Ask questions

If you have trouble solving a problem, go ask the team. Someone may already have a solution for it. Don’t keep hitting the wall with your head just to solve it yourself. It’s counterproductive and a big waste of your time. Learn to use the power of collabora-tion.

7. Estimate

When being assigned a task you should estimate how much time it will take, so that we can compare that to the actual time it took. Use your issue tracking or project management tool to record the estimate. After completing the time compare it to how much time you spent to help you become more aware of the accuracy of your esti-mates.

8. Timebox your work

After having made assumptions about the estimate of your task try to break it into fixes time intervals (2–4h) and evaluate if you’re making enough progress after each interval. If not, you should consider chang-ing the approach or reach out to the team for some perspective.

9. Prepare for status meetings (ex. daily standups)

To make the most of your scheduled status meeting, make sure to follow these steps:

• Do a check of your in-progress and completed items.

• Pan your work ahead of time to know what you’ll be working on.

• List the blockers and who can potentially help you move things forward.

• Review what you recorded in your issue tracking software and bring it up if rele-vant.

• Prepare to provide your availability so

you can schedule meetings to get and give support.

10. Learn to live with blockers

ASAP is Poison. Get used to being blocked by the work of others. Be prepared to take on another task and wait until the blocker gets resolved. If there really is no task you can work on, ask if someone needs your help progressing on their task. Don’t just sit with your hands tied.

11. Record time when you work

It’s hard to look back and remember what you have been doing yesterday and going back as far as few days is almost impossible unless you have been doing your bookkeep-ing. Be consistent about recording your time in a time tracking tools — it will help you keep track of your productivity and improve the accuracy of your estimates. Look back at the time you spent on given tasks and reflect if there’s anything you could to in the future to be more productive.

This is by no means a complete list, but it makes the base you can use to work your way into the standards and practices that best fit your team and culture.

If you’re thinking of tasting the remote model I suggest you make sure your team is mature enough to jump on this bandwagon. A good trial is to let a couple of team members work from home and see if that increases the productivity of the whole team or business.

Before you do it, please take the time to prepare: read through some materials on remote work, take my guide, adjust it to your needs, go through each point after your daily standups and get conscious commitment/affirmation of each team member that they understand it, that they will try to follow it and improve it as you go along.

If you already measure the velocity and produc-tivity of your team, try evaluating it after a set period of time (say 1 month). For most teams I have worked with this has become clear: saving on the commute, introducing more transpar-ency into your work and being flexible when and where they worked helped their busi-ness generates more value and deliver better results, faster.


envision receiving constant phone calls about minor updates? While it may seem common-sensical, too many employees waste time communicating over the wrong channels. The fear of interrupting other’s work can see employees steer away from picking up the phone. Likewise, the value of face-to-face communication via video chat is oven dismissed when it comes to remote meetings. Overall, communicating is a multifaceted concept, so the channels must cater for diversity. Don’t Go AWOL

When working in the office, employees consist-ently encounter interruptions to their regular workday. This is absolutely the same when working at home, The problem is, the rest of the team may have no way of knowing what is going on and ultimately leads to misunder-standing and disillusionment. The remote worker simply needs an easy and quick way of notifying others when they’ll be unreachable or tied up with some other engagements. Having knowledge of other’s movements promotes transparency and understanding.

How to Establish a Flow of Communication While Working From Home

- by Polyglot Group

One of the key methods to encourage effec-tive communication is helping your team to understand its importance. After all, you may implement first-rate communication systems, but their effectiveness will always be in the hands of the user. As such, it is vital that employees always take the time to communi-cate with remote workers and never assume that something is known. A great rule of thumb is, if in doubt, over-communicate! It’s better to inform an employee of something they were aware of than have them miss some important information altogether. Choose the Right Channels for the Right Conversations

Can you imagine trying to explain a long and complicated problem over email? Or, can you

https://www.formassembly.com/blog/remote-teams-communicate/


Selecting a place to work from home When choosing to work from home, it’s recommended that you make a clear distinction between your work-ing space and other areas for winding down or relaxing. You may also need to think about the possibility of clients visiting home, family interruptions or noise levels. Although it may seem fairly simple to pick an area to work from, there can actually be a lot of different factors that play into making a great decision on your home working space.

Home Office

We recommend that you find the opti-mum spot by utilising the Ds: demands, distractions, dimensions, and desirabil-ity. Demands include having a suitable area for visiting clients if that’s part of your job, access to a physical connec-tion with your router, an appropriate place for making video or conference calls.

Distractions should also be thought about. If you share your home during the working day with family members or flatmates distractions can occur. Think about where you are least likely to be interrupted, but also fulfills any demands that are required for your working space.

Dimensions are also important, as

you may need more space for certain jobs and tasks. When working with just a laptop, it can be easy to work in smaller areas. However, things can easily become cluttered when working with physical documents or materials. Also make sure that you feel physically comfortable in your home office, aren’t too cramped and have enough room to breath and stretch.

Desirability is another aspect to consider when choosing your space. You may have a certain room that gets better sunlight, or has a nicer view. Choosing somewhere desirable is likely to have a positive impact on your productivity and also mental wellbeing.

You’ll probably struggle to try and fulfill every requirement and want when setting up your home office space. Try to strike a balance between the demands that have to be met and the other factors that will make your desk a pleasant place to work at!

Equipment

Once you’ve chosen your space, it’s time to get it kitted out with all the equipment you’ll need to successfully work from home. The most important piece of furniture is the one you’ll prob-ably using most: your desk chair.

The benefits of choosing an ergonomic

06 Designing your home work space


and comfortable chair are well known. You can reduce back pain, improve posture and prevent long term work related injuries. You can improve your productivity by being less distracted from uncomfortable seating positions. Also take into consideration the height of your desk, which should be at a suit-able position in comparison to your chair. Your arms should rest on the desk at a comfortable height without causing any change in your back posi-tion.

Other pieces of equipment to think about include video conferencing technology such as a microphone or webcam, correct lighting and other office basics you may need like pens, paper and filing systems. A decent router and ethernet cable for a direct connection is also recommended to ensure that all video conferences happen seamlessly.

Lighting

There are three types of light to consider when setting up your home office: natural, ambient, and task.Natural light is of course one particu-larly good way of lighting your home office, but cannot be used all the time. At certain points of the day, you may experience glare or just not enough have natural light to complete a particular task easily. Maybe think about the particular times that you are able to utilise sunlight to it’s best ability by either installing blinds to avoid glare and other lighting methods for early morning or late at night.

Task lighting is smaller, more concen-trated sources of light such as desk or floor lamps. Another term for this is office lighting. For tasks where concen-tration is needed, such as computer work or a focused tasks, a targeted

source of lighting will help with concen-tration. We recommend using them in contrast, so when working with a task light try to keep other lighting in the room at a lower level. This will reduce overall glare and help improve concen-tration.

Last of all is ambient lighting, which provides a whole room with a more gentle glow rather than directed at any source. It can either help create a more relaxed environment within the room, enhance the natural light already coming in or be used as a base to build on with task lighting.

With tall these kinds of lighting, it’s important to think about what exactly your requirements are:

• The lighting should help keep you alert and also awake

• Help improve your productivity• Reduce eye strain• Create an inspiring environment

Front of seat not pressing on back of knees

Feet resting on footrest

Adjust chair levers for height, seat & back tilt

Back rest supporting lower back

Document holder

Minimise bend at wrists

90º-120º

90º-120º

Top of monitor at eye level

Back slightly reclined

Monitor at an arm’s length away

Setting up your workstation

02 9351 [email protected] sydney.edu.au/whs


Environment tips

- by Zlatina Pachedzhieva from Xogito

xg Consider the coffee shop We’ve all faced the mid-afternoon lull. When complete isolation makes it harder, rather than easier to concentrate, it’s time to relocate to somewhere with some friendly white noise. That might mean the neighborhood coffee shop, a local park, or a co-working space.

xg Make place for video calls You may not have them often but the anxiety that the washing machine behind you can be seen by a client or a colleague is pretty unpleas-ant. Make sure you have that place in the room you are working in where you can take a video call and look OK.

xg Switch rooms if possible Staying in one and the same atmosphere all day may make you feel bored and unproduc-tive. If possible change rooms at least once per week, just for the sake of it.

xg Dress up for work Do not make the mistake to skip the shower before work or stay all day in your paja-mas. Take the time to make yourself tidy and good-looking before work. Ladies, you can still save some mascara but everyone knows look-ing good makes you feel good. Not only will you feel better but you will save time as well in case you need to go out during your workday.

xg Minimize interruptions If you live with other people, ask them to respect your working time. Parents mumbling to put something warmer on, children scream-ing or neighbors dropping by uninvited are not the best idea for your concentration. xg Create a cozy work desk Keeping your work desk clean and tidy is really important but you can create some lovely mess as well in order to make yourself feel more comfortable. Keeping a bunch of pictures, favorite items, a flower or anything you love around your desk will make your home office beautiful and personalized. Why not consider a pet as well (one that does not create lots of noise).

xg Create your own co-working space In case you have friends who also work from home you can create a co-working space in your own homes. Inviting a friend over your place or dropping a visit at a friend’s house from time to time will make sure you have someone to chat to or have a coffee with during your break. You can share some valuable experience or contacts as well.

xg Separate your digital devices One thing that makes switching between work and play particularly difficult is having all your emails, phone calls, and other communica-tions mashed together. Use one set of devices for professional matters and the other set for personal.

xg Ensure you have your working space at home All you need is a stable internet connection, a door that shuts, roommates, family members and kids that respect the fact you are at work.

xg Skype This is good for ad hoc conference calls, instant messaging with clients, or even creating low ceremony chat rooms. Consider Skype Out, which lets you take and make calls from your phone to Skype contacts. This is awesome, especially for times when you’re away from your computer and (you’ve miscalculated a time, client has an emergency, etc.). xg Always have a backup plan ... In case you encounter a problem with your Internet connection, elec-tricity or heating while working, you should always have in mind that coffee nearby or friend’s house you can rely on.

xg Make your work as transparent as possible Set up a file sharing service with your team-mates so you can keep on top of document changes while you’re working. Dropbox and Box.net are both great services for sharing documents and files between groups.

xg Be present If instant message is your preferred form of communication, be sure you’re available during your working hours, and remember to set the “away” notification when you’ve stepped out. This will be a big help for your co-workers who may be looking for you.


Bits, Bricks and Behaviours

- by Philipp Bohn, VP Circuit and CEO of blueKiwi Software at Atos

Productive and enjoyable work environments are always a combination of bits, bricks and behavior. This is also true for the home office. I want to share a few tips based on my own expe-rience as a home and co-worker, and building tools that enable these new work styles. BitsStarting off with the obvious, you need fast DSL as 100% of your communication and collabo-ration happens online. To ensure good quality for your voice, video and screenshare sessions, make sure you have sufficient download and upload speeds over home WIFI. My recommen-dation is 1 Mbit/s or higher.Another important element is the collaboration platform you and your virtual team choose. Here are a few key points to consider:

• All collaboration and communication channels should be in one, easy-to-use and scalable platform to facilitate orches-tration of work. Considering your work is completely virtual, you and your team have many calls and share a lot of content throughout the day and week, and having to switch between different apps for messaging, VoIP, screensharing, etc. is inefficient and exhausting,

• To make sure customers and partners can reach you in the home office, your collaboration platform should integrate with telephony services in the cloud or on premise,

• If there‘s a risk of unplanned or uncontrol-lable background noise, noise-cancelling headsets with an easily accessible mute button make a lot of sense.

BricksThere are many useful tips online about how to set up your home office and they essentially come down to two key aspects. First, the home office is office space and should be equipped accordingly: Work close to windows and natu-ral light, get ergonomic chairs and tables, set up your monitors on eye level. Second, define a separate space for work. It can be a separate room, or a clearly demarcated space within a bigger room. It‘s important to maintain clear

boundaries between your private and work lives. Wirecutter has shared a few great tips on how to work from home with children. BehaviorWhile you work alone from home, you are obviously part of a larger organization or community.Besides the actual work results, it‘s important to maintain a high level of trust and personal visibility. There‘s a few things you can do: First of all, use video conferenc-ing particularly for important meetings with new colleagues, customers or partners where it‘s important to see physical reactions. Once you‘ve built a good level of trust and connec-tion, you can go back to voice-only. Some teams found it efficient to make video mandatory to keep distractions during virtual meetings at a minimum. In case of doubt, overshare. With the right collaboration tools, it‘s easy to leave a quick message with your team about your priorities, blocking points or to celebrate accomplish-ments. It‘s in fact the only way to keep track of what‘s going on outside your home office, and to ensure your work is visible for others. For virtual teams, it makes sense to have regular, even daily standups, to provide an agile but structured framework to keep each other in the loop and ask for help where needed. With these tips in mind, you will benefit from a healthier work-life balance and greater flexibil-ity, while controlling risks and downsides these environments inevitable bring.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/05/smarter-living/wirecutter/how-to-stay-sane-when-working-from-home-with-children.html


When you’re working from home, it’s important to make sure that you manage your time well. For many new remote workers, it can be daunting to think that you have full responsibility for how you plan your day. However, working from home can actually remove many of the distractions that you usually find in a normal office situ-ation. Without coworkers, long lunch breaks and clock watching, it’s actu-ally fairly easy to make sure you have a productive day in a home office or other remote environment.

Here we’ll provide some tips and guid-ance that will help you organize, plan and execute a successful working day outside of the office.

Create clear definitions for success

When figuring out your daily process, have a think about how success is measured within your particular field and job. Although it’s not quite the same, try to adhere to the usual meas-ures of success that you would be judged by when in the office. This of course can change from job to job. The main question to ask is: What would a productive day look like for both you and your employer?

This could be measured in a few differ-ent ways. Perhaps it’s by the amount of tasks completed, or maybe by the

amount of hours worked. Think also about what you would do with any spare time you end up with. Whilst it may be tempting to relax in a home environment after all your work is completed, it almost always pays off to dedicate those spare hours to other work related tasks that you might need to do tomorrow or in the near future.

It’s good then to begin your remote work career with some clear defini-tions and goals as to what you should do each day, and what else can be achieved if you finish early.

Figure out what times are best for creative or more repetitive tasks

Most people find that they perform certain tasks better during different parts of the day. Maybe you find that in the morning you have improved concentration for more focussed and intensive tasks. This could then be followed by a period of creativity in the afternoon, where you have less energy but a more open mind for creative thinking and ideas. Try and find your natural flow and work with it. You’ll more often than not come out with better work and improved productivity.

Budget your time well and don’t over or under spend

This tip is of particular use to the remote worker. Often there are less distractions from coworkers when working remotely, but it can be easy to get distracted with home comforts like your TV, games console or even your bed! This is more so when working from a coworking space or public area like a cafe or hotel lobby. By making sure you effectively budget your time, you’re

07 Art of Staying Productive


much more likely to meet productivity expectations set by your team leader or manager.

Much like the previous time, budget your time according to your natural workflow. Don’t over or under spend time on more creative tasks, or arduous one. It can be easy to get carried away, but it’s not an optimal way to spend your time when working remotely.

Contrary to what a lot of people believe, it’s fairly easy to overwork when not in an office. You don’t have the natural on/off switch that comes with leaving your work premises. The line between working space and your home can be blended, so it’s a good idea to not go over your allotted time budget for any specific task.

We recommend setting your daily routine out in the following way:

• Allot a certain amount of time for scheduled tasks from your team lead or manager

• Make sure you also include enough time for any meetings you have scheduled for the day. This can sometimes take up a significant amount of time, so plan accord-ingly and make sure not to over run.

• For larger tasks, create blocks within your calendar. You may use a tool like google calendar or some other system whereby your coworkers can see that you will be busy with a specific job.

• Also don’t forget that it’s fairly natu-ral for there to be some procras-tination in your working day. Therefore don’t forget to account for this in your daily schedule.

Time management while working remotely

- by Ayush Jain, CEO & Co-founder of RemotePanda

Remote work can feel like a dream come true. You can work from home or spend the life of a digital nomad, feel comfortable, in your casual PJs and t-shirt all day. No boss or nosy cowork-ers. You get to ditch the commute and enjoy working from your home office or a cozy cafe. It feels awesome, doesn’t it?

But it’s NOT. Once you start working from home, remote work can be frustrating, it has its own challenges. You are completely accountable for managing your time as well as for finding an environment where you can be productive and get stuff done.

There are numerous struggles a remote worker has to face. To name a few:

• Loneliness: Working remotely, you lack social circle, you are working alone. Inde-pendent work leads to stuck at work, glued at home, missing social contact.

• Unplugging from work: When you work remotely, there’s a threat of working all the time because there’s always some-thing to be done. You start working before the morning coffee, working all day, drag-ging your laptop till your bed, while you watch your shows or attempt to hang out with family.

• Distractions: Major concern is distraction. Binge eating, long breaks for attending phone calls, family and friends, interrup-tions if you have small kids, watching or reading long pending books and shows.

• Motivation: With all the distractions around, self-motivation can be difficult and full of hassle.

• Vacation: Responding to emails and being available to take important calls can be expected while working remotely. Finish-ing extra work before taking vacation is another task. It could be difficult to avoid work completely while on a break.

• Time-zone difference: This can be diffi-cult again, leads to early mornings and late night work pattern.

It is entirely up to you to build your schedule and get stuff done. If you are not mindful, work-


ing from home can actually have the opposite effect where you might feel like you’re working all the time. If there are no clear parameters between work and home, it’s all too easy to check emails, or be in work-mode late into the night.

You may have coworkers in different time zones and you may end up being available all day long. Remembering to step back and clock out your day. Here are some tips to balance work-life when working remotely.

and decisions. The result will be a lot better when participants take time to think, share information and discuss the main argu-ments before the actual meeting starts. Use a goal oriented communication tool, like Yabbu, to not only make it an active discus-sion, but also a focused discussion. Don’t replace a dysfunctional meeting with an aimless online discussion.

3. Digital transformation is an opportunity to reduce meetings to the essence

Meetings are for sharing information, discussion, decision making and teambuild-ing. Of those four aspects, the first three can, for a large part, be taken care of with online tools. We already use email, chat and collaboration tools for sharing information, discussion and decision making, so it only makes sense to think about what can go into an online preparatory phase and what really needs to be in the conference call. This prin-ciple is easy to apply with remote teams that are used to trying out new tools.

If you have an agenda item that is just an announcement, use an online tool to communicate this before the meeting and be done with it. The same goes for simple administrative stuff and simple issues you can decide through a quick online discus-sion.

It is our experience that most organisations can easily cut meeting time in half by follow-ing these principles. It’s also easier to make faster and better decisions when more people are actively involved. Finally, short and effective meetings are simply more fun. Instead of being a drag, meetings can become inspiring moments of team-build-ing.”

How to hold effective meetings in a remote organisation

- by Christian Zierleyn from Yabbu

It’s hard to have good meetings and it’s even harder to have good remote meetings. There are a lot of tips on the internet about effec-tive meetings, but the danger of focussing too much on tips is that you don’t think about the root cause of the problem and a structural solu-tion. That’s why at Yabbu we focus on a set of principles that we believe structurally improve meetings. The good thing is that these princi-ples are ideal for remote organisations. Here’s what you need to know.

1. A meeting is a process you can improve

Start by approaching a meeting as a process you can improve like any other business process. The remote meeting begins with setting the agenda and closes with send-ing out the minutes. A meeting done right should be more than just that one hour in a conference call. You should look at each aspect of the process and take some time to think how you can improve it. Use tips you find online and embed them in a structured improvement approach.

2. Make it an active process

An effective meeting is part of an active process. You need to create ownership from the moment you start the process. Make somebody responsible for each agenda item. Formulate the agenda item in such a way that it generates an online discussion, long before the meeting. The aim of activ-ity is to raise the quality of the discussion

A day in the life of a Ubiwhere home working employee

- by Ubiwhere

9:00 am. It’s the hour that the alarm clock rings every day. All because I’m lucky enough to get up and be ready to get to work in just 5 minutes. Before, when I worked 30 minutes from home, I would wake up at 8:00 am. Now I can sleep more. I do not waste time getting ready and preparing the kettle. I only have 5


Tips for regaining control and getting things done

- by Matej Latin from Gitlab

Here are a few tips that I picked up from others or learned from my own mistakes and applied to my life. I think they’re especially useful for people working remotely.

minutes to brush my teeth and face, wear something comfortable (or put on my pajamas if you feel like it) and put the toast on. Before the coffee machine warms up and I hear the characteristic roar of toast, I start turning on my computer to check my inbox. It’s the advan-tage of working remotely, I can crack the toast while I write the answers.

It is not always easy to manage time, habits and concentration, but you learn. And I learned to be everything I wanted to be. I’ve learned that I do not need to go to the office to be an excel-lent professional. That’s something I’ve always ambitioned. And I wanted to have this life, a quiet life.

At first, I often lacked concentration. I got easily distracted. I get up from the chair more times than expected and take three times more to complete the tasks. But in the extra comfort that I got for being in my house, I found the answers that I needed. Over time, I realized that it was all a matter of routine, balance, and dedication.

There is no price for the fact that I can work and, at the same time, have my dog at my feet. To be able to take it to the street in the morning pauses. Catching both sun and vitamin D. It is comforting to be able to balance agile work and family or leisure time more quickly. The secret is very simple: we have the common sense to know that, just as they trust us and give us the possibility of doing remote work, we must be mature enough to know how we should recip-rocate and show that we deserve that place.

It’s 6:00 p.m. and I check out the Ubiwhere online platform. The day is over and I am immediately where we all want to be: at home. And there is no more comforting sensation than this.


1. Establish a routine

When it comes to productivity, nothing beats a well-established routine:

• Get up early and exercise to get your body going

• Plan for your day ahead• Have a few hours of “focus time”• Plan for the next day• Wrap up work and disconnect• Go to sleep early• Repeat

It sounds kinda boring, I know. But estab-lishing a routine like that will free up time for the fun things you want to do. Not every day needs to have the same routine either. Just make sure you plan your days out instead of leaving all your time up to others for grabs.

After a while, your routine will turn into a habit, so you won’t need to spend willpower and energy on deciding when to start work-ing, have lunch etc., you’ll simply start at the designated time. And you’ll be able to spend that extra attention and energy on work instead of deciding.

2. Write down your MITs

MIT stands for “Most Important Thing.” The idea is simple: write down a few important things that you want to do that day. I write

these down in a small notepad the first thing in the morning. The key here is to have a visual cue in front of us that reminds us of the things we want to do and keeps us focused.

3. Book out your “focus time”

Each day, try to find a slot of 3-4 hours and reserve them for your “focus time.” Try to spend those hours completely undisturbed and focused, with short breaks of course.

4. Turn notifications off

At least for those few hours that you reserved for focused work turn off your email, phone and chat notifications. I have Slack notifications turned off all the time, and I check it outside of my “focus time.” The same goes for email.

Research suggests that it takes a person 25 minutes and lots of mental energy to refo-cus on their work after a distraction. Stay strong and ignore the dancing panda, at least for a while.

5. Wrap up work and disconnect

If you work remotely it doesn’t mean that you need to work all the time. Treat your work just like you would in an office. Set your working hours and stick to them.


Disconnect from everything work related after that. Spend time with your family, read a book, play a video game, write a journal…

I go even further and set my “Do not disturb” mode on my phone from 8 p.m. to 9 a.m. and simply don’t check in on it during that time – it’s hard at the beginning when your brain is hardwired for that dopamine rush every time you check it, but it’s doable.

6. Set a deadline for yourself

We have such a negative association with deadlines, but a self-imposed deadline is different. First of all, it needs to be realis-tic. If you can’t hit that deadline it will only lead to depression, burning out and chronic apathy. You know what’s cool about self-im-posed, realistic deadlines? The feeling you get when you cross the tasks out and mark them as complete. People think that motiva-tion is a thing that comes out of thin air but it doesn’t. The best way to get motivated is getting things done – even if it’s little things.

7. Focus on one thing at a time

Multitasking really is a myth. Even if you think you’re an exception, the reality is that you’re wasting energy and attention when you’re switching from one thing to the other.

Bonus Stuff:

If you’re feeling edgy and want to go even further.

8. Dedicate a room to work

If possible, dedicate a room to work, you know, like a study. Don’t work in a room where you do other stuff or where you sleep. If you do, your brain will start asso-ciating one with the other and soon it won’t know whether you’re going into the room to work or to sleep. This results in less focus when you work and lower quality of sleep. If that’s not possible, try going to a co-working space or even a coffee shop.

9. Getting things done spreadsheet

This is my systematic approach to getting things done. I didn’t come up with this idea, I picked it up from somewhere and modified it so it works for me. It’s quite simple: I keep all the things that I want to do in a spread-sheet, where I can set to which project each item belongs to, the status of the item and the deadline. I set my filters so it only shows me items with “To Do” and “Doing” status labels and sort by the Due Date. You can see it in action and make a copy here. It feels so good to mark things as done and watch them disappear from the list


Six Tips For Preparing To Take The Plunge As A Remote Consultant

- by Outpost Asia

At Outpost, we create coworking and coliving spaces designed not just to give you the edge on the remote life in amazing locations, but to help you get prepared to succeed through fostering a creative and collaborative commu-nity. After all, going remote doesn’t mean going it alone.

Here are our top six tips on preparing to take the plunge into the remote life!

1. List big or stay home

The first thing you need to do is make a list. A biiiiig list. List everyone you’ve worked with, contacts you have from university (hello, LinkedIn!), friends and family, as well as people who can act as ‘connectors’ to other people.

You want this list to be 10x longer than you think it needs to be. Begin MANY conversa-tions, not a few.

2. Customise, customise, customise

Work on your pitch to each of these contacts. Each email or phone call should be tailored and to the point.

If you know they might be looking for some-one with your skills, by all means say: “Hey [friend/guru/great human], I know you have Project X coming up: are you looking for the perfect [insert your genius skill here]?”

If you’re contacting them to open up a conversation, don’t try to sell. Instead, be friendly and humble: ask if they have any advice, or if they can connect you to some-one that might have use of your skills. Make sure you include your website and profes-sional links. Consider what of your socials are public, and if you’re happy for them to be searchable.

Though we’re kinda loathe to say this (#letyourfreakflagfly), if your IG stories are full of chats about your latest yoni egg purchase or the full moon party you went to, perhaps consider making it private for a bit.

3. Know your dollars

Do a budget. (Yes, we get it: the horrors!) But, actually, this is going to make you feel like

a total boss. There are loads of templates available on the internet to help you esti-mate your monthly spend.

Make sure to set aside money for tax (and know where you plan to pay it!), and a little extra for emergencies.

4. You’re the boss

Get clear on your rates. Think hourly, day or project. Chat to others in your field about what they’re doing (see tip 5).

If you’re based in a remote location where your cost of living is much lower, consider how you use that to your advantage in the beginning? Can you afford to charge a bit less than if you were living in a big city? How can that help you overdeliver to delight a client?

Or, how might you pitch so that you can work in the “off hours” – ensuring a company can have a product delivered “overnight” their time?

5. “I’ll be there for you…”

Now, it’s time to network! If you’d rather trek through the jungle alone for three days than go into a room (virtual or otherwise) of random people: you’re going to have to force yourself to put it in your diary, and stick to it.

But, happily, these days there are plenty of great online communities for remote networking (virtual coffee date, anyone?) AND and plenty of great coworking spaces or similar that will help you meet other people in a similar place to you.

We’d suggest joining Outpost (of course!)— where we have a member forum with a bunch of clever peeps and regular network-ing, learning and social events. Or check out FB groups for digital nomads and freelanc-ers.

6. The three-month rule

We’d suggest you save about 3 months worth of living expenses to give yourself a buffer before launching into the remote consulting life.

Or, why not begin freelance work *before* you leave your current role or location. Take on some evening or weekend work to get in the flow of having clients.


Staying productive

In order to stay productive, there are certain areas that you should focus on. They’ll help you make the most out of your working day and produce the best possible work that you can! The first is ritualization. Creating habits will allow you to perform tasks without the usual mental and physical strain that you would normally feel. When you ritual-ize an activity, you end up conserving energy for more rigorous and produc-tive activities that you may need to perform. You’ll improve focus, effi-ciency and time management by creat-ing rituals out of your everyday work.

The next area to focus on when improv-ing productivity is planning. Planning will allow you to have a better idea of what you are supposed to currently be doing, what you should do next and what to prioritise when under a time constraint. This is even more important when working remotely. Whilst you have less office type distractions when at home or travelling, a lack of struc-ture can end up being your downfall. A manager may make sure that you don’t spend too much time on breaks or at lunch, but at home you only have your-self to rely on. Figure out what time you work best and plan accordingly.

Finally, focus on your natural flow state. Getting yourself into a focused work state depends upon the way you naturally work. It could be that you work better on some tasks at different times of the day. With flexible working arrangements, it’s up to you to figure out exactly when you feel in the zone. Producing work independently means that you can choose when and how you produce your best best quality of work.

Creating positive rituals in your day to day life are also effective when trying to

increase overall productivity. Some are fairly basic, but making sure to create positive habits will improve your over-all energy and focus when working at home. A few examples include:

• Eating a good, healthy and balanced breakfast. For many it’s easy to skip breakfast or just go for some-thing easy and practical. However, a good breakfast has been proven to increase morning alertness for those who perhaps struggle to get their best work done before midday.5

• Listing all the tasks you want to complete in the day, either on paper or some kind of time management software. The feeling of ticking off another piece of work can be both satisfying and motivating!

• Try not to check your emails first thing in your working day. You may have already prioritised a certain task which could then get side tracked due to an email request from a coworker or manager. Usually, if some work is incredibly important and time specific it won’t be communicated through email! These things can wait till later in your day.

• Pick one important and kickass objective that you need to complete in your days work. Try to complete this first and then feel great for the rest of the day.

Make sure that you are structuring your day in a way that you can have positive rituals that will reinforce your produc-tivity.

How to effectively plan your day

“In an office environment, it wouldn’t be uncommon for a manager to walk

5 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/096374899101382


around the halls in the evening and encourage the team to go home if they felt that people were working too hard. But in a remote setting, there is no simi-lar way to know if work hours are getting out of hand. Time tracking provides early warning signs for burnout or the need to hire additional resources.” – Carrie McKeegan, CEO of Greenback Expat Tax Services

When looking to plan out your day, there are a variety of different tools you can access to make sure the process is easy and efficient. One resource we recommend is TimeDoctor, it gives you pop alerts that remind you when you’ve run overtime on specific tasks. You can access a number of different metrics, set personal goals and track your progress over time. It’s easy to see when you’ve over run and spot any recurring patterns in time mismanage-ment.

You can also achieve similar results by using some kind of calendar app, like google calendar or your inbuilt calendar in any smartphone. You can even go old school and go for a white board. Find out whatever works best for you! This is best used in combination with writ-ing down your daily, monthly and quar-terly goals. Keeping track can provide you with more structure, that some people can find lacking when not in a rigid office atmosphere. Create mile-stones for yourself too and celebrate big achievements and meeting goals. These will all help you stay productive throughout your remote work career!

Flow State Focus

We’ve mentioned it previously, but finding your flow state focus is really one of the most important aspects of staying productive. It helps you find

your natural rhythm and flow through-out the day, where you can really get in the zone and produce your best work. It’s the ability to enter a high level of productive work, where you’re excited and enthusiastic about what you’re doing. Here are some tips that will help you to enter into your flow state:

• Separate your workspace form your social space. This can be a bit diffi-cult, especially when working from home. Try and find a space that you don’t associate with relaxing and down time. Your bedroom probably isn’t the best place to enter a flow state!

• Use the previously mentioned tools, like TimeDoctor, that allow you to plan out you day and avoid overspending time on certain tasks.

• Make sure you have a complete set of instructions and brief for the things you need to complete in your work day. Having to email your manager for more instructions and and any relevant documentation will make you less productive. This is all part of having a strong meth-odology when working.

https://www.timedoctor.com/



Working from home has a large number of benefits for the remote worker. The degree of flexibility you have in your working conditions is much greater and of course no lengthy commuting times! However what can’t be denied is that the number of distractions are much bigger than in a traditional office setting. It could be your TV, social media or even your comfy bed that stops your concentration and motivation!

Self-motivation can waver and this, in turn, will affect your productivity when working from home. So we’ve gathered together some simple tips to make sure you stay in a working mood all day long.

Get dressed for when you begin work

Working from home obviously has no strict dress code! You can really wear what you want. This however isn’t always conducive to a good day’s work. Sometimes simply what you are wearing can affect your concentration, motivation and productivity. Wearing your dressing gown all day, or not even getting properly dressed at all, do not lead to a working mood. Whilst you probably don’t need to get in a full suit or business attire, try to wear some-thing that doesn’t make you feel too much like having a lazy day at home.

“When working from home, it’s easy to

roll out of bed, fire up the laptop, and get to work. After all, what is more luxu-rious than working in your pajamas? Resist the urge! Take the time to dress as if you were going into an office. Keep a routine for your work day, with a start time and an end time, and include breaks during the day. Set a timer -- once every two hours does the trick for me!” – Carrie McKeegan, CEO of Green-back Expat Tax Services

Create working patterns for yourself

Whilst one of the benefits of working from home is having flexibility in how you plan your day, it’s still good actu-ally make a plan! Keeping some sort of regularity in these plans is also a good idea. Perhaps you perform more diffi-cult and lengthy tasks in the morning, followed by easier ones in the after-noon. Knowing what work you’ll be doing and when you’re doing it can improve self-motivation.

Reward yourself for great perfor-mance

In an office setting, feedback on your work comes back quickly and often. Supervisors and other coworkers can give you praise for a job well done, which is proven to improve productivity and mental well being. When working from home, this process isn’t so instantane-ous. After completing a large project

08 Motivate yourself!


or some work that you’re particu-larly happy with, give yourself some kind of reward. Doing this frequently directly increases motivation accord-ing to a recent study from the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.6 This could be a short coffee break, a snack or anything else that will give you some motivation! Even just a moment of self-reflection and acknowledgment of your success can help.

Plan time for self-improvement and education

Putting some time in your day for self-improvement or learning a new skill can improve your motivation. It can sometimes be hard to motivate your-self to complete work tasks when you don’t see any gain. However, learning a new skill related to work or educating yourself in a relevant area can provide some motivation. You learn new things and feel satisfied!

6 https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Fp-spa0000116

3 Steps to Supercharge Your Daily Drive

- by Danny Page from StudySoup

“Workers around the world face all sorts of challenges on a daily basis. Solving complex problems, presenting at tense meetings, navi-gating internal politics. But there is no single challenge greater than maintaining motivation throughout the day.

Believe it or not, the way we sustain moti-vation is rooted in how we start the day, and here we’ll share a short five minute process that will prime anyone for success first thing in the morning, and provide the tools needed to thrive until the sun goes down - and often later.

Can you give five minutes? Start your timer...3...2...1...GO!

Step 1: State Your Mission - (Less than one minute)

At the core of the deepest levels of motivation exists a set of principles that serve as an intrin-sic guide which can drive one to achieve the highest of heights. Over the next week, spend five minutes per day, and think about what your mission is. It can be one long sentence, or a collection of statements that you believe in. Shape this into a specific document, print it out, and place it on your bedside table. Read it every morning as soon as you wake up. Memo-rize and recite it at specific times throughout the day. Whenever the mind wanders, and you navigate to a social network site, think of taking a nap, or start responding to the throng of messages accumulated in a WhatsApp group, say your mission statement aloud and remem-ber why it is you do what you do. Here are a few excerpts from my personal mission state-ment that I recite first thing each morning:

TODAY IS A BEAUTIFUL DAYWHAT IS IT YOU PLAN TO DO WITH YOUR ONE WILD AND PRECIOUS LIFE?BE A GIVER, NOT A TAKERPROGRESS NOT PERFECTIONBALANCE IN ALL THINGSNOTHING IS MORE POWERFUL THAN AN IDEA WHOSE TIME HAS COME


Step 2: Prep Your Priorities - (Three minutes)

Once you have recited your guiding principles, transcribe your core goals for the day relating to the most important components of your life. Set between 1-3 reachable micro goals that will keep you motivated throughout the day, and leave you feeling accomplished at day’s end. Just as with your mission statement, quickly review this priority list every few hours to maintain focus and motivation. I keep a daily document called “Danny’s Daily,” that tracks this data, which I can then review throughout the day to stay motivated - and also analyze of periods of weeks and months, to provide senti-ments of consistency and accomplishment.

The areas of the greatest emphasis for me are…DIETEXERCISESTUDYSOUPFAMILY AND FRIENDSENTREPRENEURSHIPFINANCE

Step 3: Build Your Vision - (1 Minute)

Similar to the mission statement, build a docu-ment that contains the vision for what you want out of your life. This can be your vision for the next year, the next decade, or the rest of your life. Draw it visually, create a list of bullet points or build a powerpoint.

For me, I want to teach people and companies how to leverage remote work to revitalize trust and transparency in the workplace, thus giving hundreds of millions of knowledge workers greater purpose and ownership in their work and lives. I remind myself of this every day as part of my vision document. It drives and moti-vates me when energy and purpose are low. I also want to own an apartment here in my new home of Barcelona, and that’s part of this docu-ment as well!

Time’s Up!

Well that’s it, our five minutes are over. By building a set of guiding principles, tailor-ing your goals for the day to those principles, and reminding yourself constantly of the big picture, you can maintain motivation and purpose throughout the day.

Oh, and also, espresso helps. Lots and lots of espresso.”



If you find yourself lacking self-moti-vation, perhaps you need to plan set breaks throughout the day. It could be that you’re not spending enough time working through difficult tasks and taking breaks too often and too early. Knowing that you need to spend a set amount of time doing continuous work, rather than taking a small break every hour or two, can help you stay moti-vated. Also, make sure you plan larger breaks and holidays from work! If you have some big trip to look forward to then you’re going to be much more motivated.

“Working at home can be challenging if you get easily distracted. I keep myself motivated to focus by rewarding myself with small things like sweet treats, a detox facial mask or a 10 minute brisk walk outside after completing a set of tasks. Additionally, when I watch some-thing on YouTube or Netflix during lunchtime, I set a timer on my phone and stick to it.” - Serena Ramos, Communi-cations Specialist at The Greater Sum Foundation

Music can be a great way to stay focussed whilst completing longer tasks. We do however have a few tips and tricks to make sure that you don’t get too distracted and stay focused when working from home.

Think about what kind of music you’re listening to. Some types are more suited to different kinds of work, and some will probably hinder your performance! You will have to find out what exactly works for you. Most of the time, instru-mental music will better for any kind of writing task you need to perform. Lyrics can be distracting and may inter-rupt your train of thought. Something relaxed, but not too relaxing, can also really help with concentration.

Try and find out what works, for what-ever different kinds of tasks you need to perform.

08a 08bPlan breaks and holidays

Matching music with tasks



With the number of different commu-nication tools available, you can make yourself known and seen fairly easily. Slack for example is in use within many offices, and makes it easy to chat instantly with other co workers, share files and make sure everyone is up to date. Try and make extensive use of messaging so that people know you are available and easy to contact.

In order to make yourself really seen, we recommend that you try and prior-itise video calls over other means of communication. This isn’t always prac-tical however, but the more often you show your face the easier it will be for people to realise that there is a real person on the other side of the email or message!

Another helpful tip is to take notes on meetings, making yourself useful and in need. People will remember that this is something you do and be in touch to get the notes off you. It also reminds people that you were an active part of the meeting, even if you weren’t there in the office physically.

By organising meetings and being proactive, you can also make sure that you’re not left out of networking. Bring-ing in new clients, reaching out to other companies and making an effort in

networking will really help you to stay relevant.

Over communicate your status and progress of your work

Giving constant updates provides bene-fits for both you, your employer and other coworkers. First of all, it commu-nicates the status of your tasks and gets any possible issues out of the way that you may have. Without being able to quickly check in person, you proba-bly need to give out more updates than you usually would do that in the physi-cal office.

Second of all, doing this gives you presence and reminds your cowork-ers that you are actually a part of the team! Checking in only when absolutely needed will put you in the back of many coworkers’ minds. Staying relevant is much easier when you make use of all your communication tools and put in the effort to over communication.

“It’s so much easier to communicate with other human beings in real life, therefore in a remote setting, it’s better to overcommunicate instead of making assumptions and not vocalising things.” - Jan Zborowski Co-founder and Board Member SoftwareMill

09 How to make yourself known and seen


“When recruiting people to work remotely, I have found that there are two key factors that make the recruit-ment a successful one; the first is find-ing skilled people are outcome driven and their outcomes will always benefit and support the business proving they are valuable. The second one is ensur-ing that the employee will communicate promptly and frequently. It’s important to let colleagues know when you will be online and available to contribute and support and when you will be offline and when colleagues can expect a response or outcome from you.” - Michelle Black-more (Head of HR) Topcontent.com

Remote teams live and die based on trust

- by Ryan Chartrand from X-team

Trust is built not only by the quality of your work and whether you deliver on time. In many cases, you might not even last long enough on a remote team before they get to witness the quality you can deliver.

Trust is built and maintained on a remote team in one way and one way only: by showing your team how you’re adding value every day.

At X-Team, we do this through journaling. We create a Slack channel and post updates in it throughout the day so others in our team can see how we’re adding value. By reading through everyone’s journals each day, it gives us all a sense that we’re moving forward together and not off in silo’d worlds.

It’s different from a “daily standup” post in that it’s about more than just “what did you do? what do you plan to do?” and is a livestream of your thoughts throughout your day, articles that inspired you that day, things you learned that could benefit others, ideas you’re baking in your mind that others can jump in on (or not). A daily standup is static and usually a couple lines of text, whereas a journal can be visual, dive deeper into your thought process, and is collaborative so others can jump in and help based on your progress or thought process.

Journaling allows your team to feel connected to you, and it’s through seeing the value you’re bringing each day that they’re able to build trust with you. We’ve found that people who journal are not only more trusted by their teammates, but are given more empathy, team spirit and support than those who don’t journal.

Without trust, a remote team has incredibly limited potential and will invite toxic behavior very quickly. Make yourself, your thoughts, your routine, and your value known to your team each and every day and they will follow you into battle like Spartans.


Overcommunicate your status and progress of your work

- Yuri Kruman from MasterTheTalk

“When you’re working remotely, one of the most difficult things to manage is expectations, deliverables and effective communication with your boss and team. Team members may be working from different time zones, come from vastly different work cultures and have wildly different expectations of what “good” or “great” works looks like in terms of cadence and communication. Plus, there is the factor of little to no “face time” at the office. As a remote worker, you’re got your work cut out for you. So what can you do to create clear lines of communication to give your team regu-lar updates, ship your deliverables regularly and maintain a good working rhythm and rela-tionship with your team members? Turns out, quite a lot. Firstly, make sure you have regular calls and check-ins scheduled with your boss and team over teleconference tools such as Zoom and Skype. Zoom lets you record calls, then get them transcribed by such services as Eva and others, allowing everyone to focus on the substance of the call, not on taking notes. This also you gives you coveted “face time” on the call, which is quite important. Next, you must set up systems that let you update team members and your boss on things you’ve shipped. Email is the mainstay, but becomes a massive distraction when you get hundreds of messages a day and don’t have your folders well-organized. Try Slack to organ-ize your workflow and team communication. It lets you loop in anyone you need for specific projects and keep the 1-on-1 with your boss, but in a visual format that’s easy to see from start to finish, helping you build your case as a good and productive employee. Taking things one step further, there is project planning software like Airtable, Trello and Basecamp. I use Airtable for all my client work, letting me create a visual project timeline, list of tasks with deadlines and priority levels, stakeholders and team leads, with all sorts of ways to track who’s doing what and at what

stage, update the entire team at once, attach important documents on the fly and otherwise get organized and DONE. Best of all, Airtable connects seamlessly to specific threads in your work Slack channel to update your boss and/or team members when updates have been made, including task completion or project plan update. This saves much email back-and-forths. Lastly, one of the simplest, yet most game-changing tools I’ve used to help make my remote work productive and clearly commu-nicated is Calendly. Not only has this taken away all those annoying back-and-forth emails to schedule calls and appointments, but it’s also made it easy for all project stakeholders to never miss meetings or calls, plus show the boss through a CSV download when their calls and appointments are scheduled or were held. This keeps the team’s time used efficiently and tells the boss that everyone is working hard and smart. Working remotely has become more main-stream, especially with Millennials now the majority demographic in the workplace. Seam-less integrations and free software tools have made communication and over-communica-tion quite easy, enabling remote workers to enjoy many of the same benefits of working in the office, without the commute and distrac-tions thereof. When you make an effort to show yourself and your work to your boss back at company HQ, you can make sure to keep your work and career on track. Best of luck!”


Communication principles for remote teams

- by Moodle

At Moodle, we want to foster a strong and empowering culture that keeps everyone connected regardless of where they are or how they work. So we created a set of guiding prin-ciples to help us communicate more effectively and more respectfully, particularly considering our geographical spread and range of cultures that make up the world of Moodle. They were created to align with and support our values and culture.

1. Assume positive intent

• We are aware of cultural differences. • We respect other people’s points of view. • We speak the truth, but do so with kind-

ness.

2. Respect other people’s attention

• We don’t always require an instant response.

• We are aware of time-zone differences. • We trust each other to work towards our

shared goals.

3. Contribute to organisational culture

• We bring our full selves to work. • We consider those not in the room. • We listen to one another before

responding, and we work openly with one another.

4. Use the right tool for the job

• Personal feedback should happen in private.

• Ask groups or a queue/on-call channel if you need a quick response.

• Use searchable asynchronous tools for information that affects everyone.

5. Make it easy to collaborate

• Don’t assume context: provide all rele-vant details.

• Pin important messages to the top of communications channels.

• Schedule time if you need to talk things through or get more details; avoid just ‘dropping in.’

6. Make meetings a positive experience

• Ensure every meeting has an agenda with key points, action items and follow up dates.

• Recognise the impact of time zones and office space when scheduling meetings.

• Be on time, prepare, and ensure your equipment is functioning correctly.

“Setting the ground rules has gone a long way in making sure our team members are produc-tive, engaged and happy.” Holly Barnes, Head of People and Culture

Building great remote teams and a connected culture needs to be intentional. You don’t have the benefit of water cooler chat everyday. At Moodle we rely on a few basic things in conjunc-tion with our Communication Principles • Thoughtful consideration - e.g. time zones,

working hours, appropriateness of our various collaboration tools

• Preface your context • ALWAYS assume positive intent... • And the use of LOTS of emojis


How to stay relevant while working from home?

- by Xapo

Xapo remote best practices:

• Regular team calls, active Slack channels, Xapo Buddies, and companywide virtual events are just a few of the ways that we stay connected as a distributed organiza-tion.

• We use Zoom video conferencing to facili-tate face-to-face interactions and cultivate productive working relationships.

• We organize regular, companywide virtual events, which are available live and recorded to accommodate different time zones. The purpose of these events is to align, engage, and develop our remote team. We encourage team members to attend live when possible, share their video, and ask plenty of questions.

• We host a biweekly “Open Office” event in which different teams and executives have an opportunity to present what they are working on and how others can get involved.

General tips:

• Having a designated workspace is key to establishing healthy habits as a remote worker. Your workspace should be sepa-rate from your living space, making it easier to shut down at the end of your workday

• A good connection is essential to working remotely. Test your connection and equip-ment before videoconferences to ensure that you do not waste time troubleshooting during the meeting.



While you may miss out on being around a physical water cooler, most jobs that utilise some kind of instant messaging system will have a channel dedicated to this kind of chat. Staying part of the more relaxed and social side of work, and not just your tasks, will help you stay relevant too and main-tain good relationships with cowork-ers. Balsamiq, a company that hires remotely, makes great use of slack to maintain these kinds of workplace interaction:

“Slack greetings in our water cooler room are typical. Some employees might take the day off, but that’s up to them… Slack is a cloud-based applica-tion that connects teams of workers, allowing them to collaborate in real-time on projects and share documents, images, video calls, and other data necessary to do their job.

It is available as a stand-alone app for desktops or mobile devices. Slack allows PeopleG2 to bring remote individuals together to help them work more effi-ciently and effectively as a team. Of course, it’s not just about work! Slack lets PeopleG2 to make interactions fun, which has been a big part of our success: public channels can often be filled with GIFs and celebratory Green Flags sent between colleagues, creat-ing a digital watercooler.”

10 Creating “virtual water cooler” in your work space

Replacing Water Cooler Chat In A Remote Work Environment

- by Jen Raines-Loring, VP of People, Springboard Retail

Developing gratifying relationships with colleagues in a remote work environment requires being more intentional and proac-tive in your interactions. But when done correctly, we have found that remote work actually encourages deeper, more meaningful conversations than casual run-ins at the water cooler. As a Springboarder recently said, “it’s hard to get past sports scores and weather at the actual water cooler.” But when you have a thoughtfully designed range of virtual interac-tions around various topics and interests, you get to know different sides of your coworkers.

Our tips for replacing the water cooler with something even better...

Building your company community is key! Our success formula involves mixing a variety of virtual formats to appeal to everyone. Open social events, like holiday parties or coffee dates, require no agenda. Just normal catching up and a few laughs, all via video. Structured social events, like trivia games or icebreakers, have been some of our best. We have found that a bit of structure goes a long in terms of increasing social comfort (and participation) at virtual events. Learning events, like special interest discussions, allow people to nerd out on whatever they love as a shared experience, whether that happens to be musical theatre or finance (no judgement!). Asynchronous social events, like Secret Snowflake gift exchanges, allow for participation regardless of time zones or schedule.

Complement your community with social-ly-oriented Slack (or other messaging tool) channels. Channels dedicated to kids, pets, food and WorkFromAnywhere locations have been popular among Springboarders. Related, use your tools to increase inclusivity. Make it a priority to keep profiles up to date and use Birthday Bot or other helpers to acknowledge special occasions. And even if it’s not strictly social, encourage openness in general. If the information isn’t sensitive, let interested people have visibility so that there is a general sense of connectivity and awareness.


I’m New Here, Where’s the Water Cooler?

- by Greater Sum Foundation

If you’re new to remote work, you may be noticing that some of the distractions of the workplace were actually productive. Building rapport with your colleagues, gaining inspira-tion through conversation, and maintaining a professional network can be harder to accom-plish when you work from home. After a few years of tinkering I’ve found a way to incorpo-rate these typically face-to-face interactions into my remote workday.

Teambuilding

Do you work on a hybrid team? It’s hard to get over feeling like you’re missing out when your colleagues are still wearing party hats from a lunchtime birthday to your 2pm virtual staff meeting. And, if your team is fully remote, it can take quite a while to get into the groove of sharing and learning about each others’

Set people up for success early by making relationship development a primary goal of onboarding. We discourage people from imme-diately taking on new projects. We feel that people should fully embrace being new and spend time simply getting to know the team. We facilitate connections for new Springboard-ers and get them up and running on video on day 1. Finally, though somewhat counterintuitive, be disciplined about measuring the results (the fun doesn’t just happen on its own!). We meas-ure “interpersonal satisfaction” as a key metric, right up there with productivity and collabora-tion. Actionable feedback as to how to encour-age further relationship development is key. Most of our best community building ideas have come from Springboarders.

Though it can be awkward to join your first virtual coffee date or special interest chat, over-coming this is key to replacing, and ultimately upgrading, water cooler chat in remote work environments. With lower barriers to participa-tion and a mix of formats that allow for broad participation, we have built an inclusive, thriv-ing virtual community. With a bit of experimen-tation and creativity at your own company, we are confident that you can too!

personal lives. Making the most of any time when you’re face to face helps remote workers to bond with colleagues, and you can then keep the connection going by scheduling a “chat” time into virtual meetings, starting a silly group text, or creating a Slack channel around shared interests.

Brainstorming

Until you’re alone with your own thoughts and your houseplants (Hi, Wilt!) you may not real-ize how valuable it is to pop your head in the office next door and shoot the breeze about a current project or learn what folks in other departments are up to. I schedule subject-spe-cific meetings with team members so that we have time to brainstorm together but don’t get too sidetracked. Volunteering for interdepart-mental committees is a good way to feel less siloed in your own work, and you can also just let people know that helping them with projects helps you stay connected. Once the marketing manager at a prior job of mine realized I was a compulsive proofreader she started asking me to take a look at her monthly newsletter. As a 15 minute brain break for me and an extra set of eyes for her, it was a win-win..

Networking

Does hearing the LIttle Mermaid sing “I wanna be where the people are!” make you a little teary-eyed? You’re not alone! Schedule a few work-adjacent lunch meetings into your monthly calendar. Use your workday flexi-bility (or volunteer leave policy) to volunteer in your community. Seek out other virtual workers with similar needs and interests who may be getting together in local coffee shops or community centers. I have a friend whose neighborhood has a Watercooler Club with regular meetings - she was amazed to see how many people were working from home all around her! Online networking opportunities abound, although they’re not always easy to find. Find out whether one of your company’s Slack channels is actually where the entrepre-neurs hang out. Your industry probably has a variety of social media groups, one or two of which will be full of kindred spirits. Groups that have traditionally convened for face-to-face networking are taking it online; my university has launched virtual networking events as well as a virtual book club.


Discord is our watercooler

- by Ctrl Solutions Group

Working in an environment where teamwork counts, isolation is the enemy. Previously, collaboration occurred because team members would be a short walk down the hall or across the floor. Economics and social changes have revolutionized the way people work. Now, many people work from home across conti-nents, spanning the globe. This modern busi-ness reality doesn’t mean communicating the old fashion way has to deteriorate.

Today technology has made it possible to be on the island and still talk to the ship offshore. In rescue parlance, the remote worker can send up a flare to ask for help on a project. They can ask someone how to build a fire on the beach that can complete a job requirement.

CTRL Solutions Group team members work across several different states and countries, but still, collaborate using the Discord applica-tion.

The application provides the essential water-cooler effect - allowing several channels for team members to congregate on shared interests and interact on a social level. Our hard-working team has a creative side as well as technical expertise. Currently, we have channels that discuss photography techniques, web, and graphic design creations, as well as gaming. All of these passions can be satisfied using the Discord channel set up.

“When the web design team uses it to discuss technical information and graphics, we drop in a graphic and start fine-tuning the product for delivery right away. That is a must for meeting tight deadlines” says Megan Bair - head of busi-ness development.

Setting it up is easy and works well on all of our devices. That is vital since building a company never stops and having the ability to commu-nicate on a Smart Phone or laptop is essential to a project’s workflow from initial requirement discussions to product and service delivery.

Another quality feature Discord brings to the company work environment is the voice channel selection, enabling everyone to easily discuss topics, join in meaningful conversa-tions, or participate in group activities. This element, combined with text channels, makes the communications process smoother. This workflow process of sharing links a co-worker can click and see or dropping in graphics such as charts or design elements as a presenter reviews them makes integration and coordina-tion as easy as a boardroom meeting.

We especially like the no limits on usage and storage features that come with using the appli-cation. It is a handy feature for the company because that means there is no cap on team members communication and reviewing meet-ing history. It provides us, an effective way to communicate and socialize for business and gaming events. It’s become the go-to app for our company when we want to collaborate.

Discord’s communication features prove to our company daily that no employee is forced to be alone wherever they work, on an island or any remote location.

Pulling it Together

Your virtual watercooler may look different from mine but I suspect you’ll use the same “hack” to find it. Imagine growing up with a stocked fridge and then having to do your own shopping for your first apartment. You’re used to the milk being there to pour on your cereal in the morning, but now you’ve got to buy it the night before. Maybe it’s scheduling a power walk with a neighbor, saying “yes” to the conference planning committee, or turning your most engaged LinkedIn connections into a networking group; when you realize that you miss some element of office life, understand that as a remote worker you’ve got to go get it yourself.”



One of the biggest benefits reported by remote workers is the ability to improve your work life balance. A lot of people find that

Having a healthy work life balance is key to maintaining and developing your physical and mental health. We’re now more accessible than ever, with push notifications on your smart phone providing you instant updates of your emails, messages, texts and calls. It can feel wrong to turn these off and ignore your phone outside of work hours, but it can really be beneficial for your over-all well being.

11 Switching Off

Saving less intensive tasks for the end of your working day can really help you unwind. Finishing work with residual stress and burnout from an arduous task will not help you to fully enjoy your downtime. We recommend creating a wind down routine for yourself that you stick to. At the end of the day, you’ll feel more capable to relax and actually enjoy your time off.

The line between work and relaxa-tion when working from home can get blurred. That’s why it’s important to create a wind down routine that will ease you into your free time.

“Over the years that I have been work-ing from home, I’ve learned that one of the most important things to do, is to get your setup right. Create a dedi-cated workspace in a room that you don’t use that much. When I’m at this desk, I’m always in work-mode. When I leave this desk, I’m in home-mode. In the same way, having work outfits that you only wear when working helps to create a great work-life balance. After the day has ended, I change the outfit to something I would never have worn at the office. Hello sofa-mode!” - Øystein, Head of Sales at Topcontent.com

11aCreating wind down routine



Remote-work provides a large array of benefits and opportunities: Working from where you like, choosing your own hours, working exactly how you like. There are of course some difficulties that may arise. Not being around other workers in the office can bring about feelings of loneliness. This can be made even more difficult when working from different countries, without the social support of friends nearby.

Have no fear though! It’s fairly common that you’ll sometimes get a bit lonely working alone or across the globe. When loneliness strikes, get yourself to a coworking space!

The effects of loneliness on your work and health.

The effects of loneliness on the quality of your work have been well researched. It can affect your performance in a whole number of ways according to research from California State University. This includes teamwork, completion of assigned duties and overall contribu-tion.7 Apart from an obvious decrease in performance at work, it’s also associ-ated with a number of negative health effects. Anxiety and depression are correlated with loneliness and even an 7 https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sigal_Bar-sade/publication/323007916_No_employee_an_is-land_Workplace_loneliness_and_job_performance/links/5aa05c300f7e9badd9a1865c/No-employee-an-is-land-Workplace-loneliness-and-job-performance.pdf

12 Addressing loneliness while working remotely

increased mortality rate, equivalent to smoking 15 cigarettes per day!8

In order to stay healthy, productive and happy you should make sure to try and stay connected with others. A cowork-ing space is an easy and effective way of combating loneliness when working remotely. Even on your travels, you should be able to find somewhere to work with other remoters and freelanc-ers. Of course, you don’t always have to use one, but they are available for when you need!

The benefits of a virtual office

While coworking spaces have previ-ously been a solution to solving lone-liness, at the moment a lot of us are faced with lockdowns and quarantines to help combat the corona virus spread. Companies that have never experi-mented with remote work before are now beginning to notice that the social side of an office needs to be replicated in some way for all their remote work-ers.

Setting up a virtual office where people can hang out with each other, drop into video call rooms, and stay connected whilst working can all help bring about a more social atmosphere. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to be chatting all the time, but it does still help

8 https://hbr.org/cover-story/2017/09/work-and-the-loneliness-epidemic


bring out more of an office community feeling.

Your colleagues can see that you’re available during your office hours, and it helps people to remember that you still actually are all connected as a team. It can be easy, especially for new remote workers, to fall off the grid when work-ing at home. So help your team stay in the collaborative mindset by setting up your own virtual office. You can do this in a way that benefits you, either with a voice chat program that allows for breakout rooms, or some other soft-ware solution that suits your team.


Filling the social deficit: Dealing with loneliness in remote teams

- by myworkhive.com

Remote working brings so many benefits for both staff and employers, but it’s important to recognize the potential downsides, too. Work-ing remotely can be a lonely experience for some people, and loneliness can have a serious effect on physical and mental health. Research shows that loneliness has the same impact on health as smoking 15 cigarettes per day, and increases the risk of depression (Source: Campaign To End Loneliness).

Remote specialists myworkhive.com have shared their favorite tips on how to avoid lone-liness when you work remotely - and what employers can do to make sure it doesn’t become a problem for their remote teams.

Beating loneliness: Tips for remote workers

Think about how much social contact you need: If you are new to remote working, the first step is to accept that working remotely is different to being the office; you will lose some day-to-day social contact, and can no longer easily join in with social events at work. Particu-larly if you are a very social person, it’s a good idea to plan how you will fill this ‘social deficit.’ Just recognizing the role that work has played in your social life, and thinking about how much ‘people time’ you typically need to feel happy, is a good place to start.

Connect with colleagues: Those easy social connections - such as popping out for lunch - don’t happen in the same way. Remote-first employers such as Buffer and Doist are very good at filling the gap, organizing social events by video and whole-team get-togethers in person. However, some employers may not be so pro-active. If that’s the case, talk with your team leader about how to build in some more social time:

• Explain that those ‘water cooler moments’ are important for team creativity and cohe-sion, as well as your own wellbeing.

• Offer suggestions! Suggest trying some-thing simple, such as a weekly video ‘coffee and chat’ with colleagues to help bring people together.

• Make your own plans to regularly meet up

with colleagues, either in person (if you’re near enough) or via video chat.

Try coworking: Working remotely doesn’t have to mean working alone. Coworking can be a great way to meet other remote-workers. Some employers even offer membership in a coworking space as a staff perk. Many cowork-ing venues pride themselves on organizing talks and social events to help members get to know each other.

Build your ‘real world’ network: Attending networking events and conferences is another way to build your connections (and build in a little social time too.) If your employer doesn’t have a huge budget for this kind of activity, look out for low-cost meetups near you. For example, try local business networks, or the ‘jelly’ movement (which organizes free cowork-ing pop-up days). Or try groups specific to your sector - if you are in tech, many cities have regular developer meetups, for example.

Don’t just rely on work: If you’re working long hours it can be hard to make time to social-ize. But it’s extra important when you work remotely. Getting together with a friend - even if it’s just a phone call - can be a really valuable way to reconnect after a long day spent working solo. If you’re in a new city or don’t know many people locally, volunteering your time can be a fantastic way to start feeling more connected to the community around you - youth projects, hospitals, seniors’ homes, homeless shelters, and many other projects are almost always in need of volunteers, and nothing makes you feel connected like getting involved and giving back.

Don’t struggle alone: If you are feeling really lonely, don’t struggle on without seeking help. Feeling isolated can eventually have a negative impact on your mental health - so do tell a line manager or trusted colleague how you are feel-ing.

Beating loneliness: Tips for remote team leaders

Take loneliness seriously: Feeling isolated can affect the productivity and motivation of your team; left to fester, it can start to have a serious impact on people’s mental health and well-being, so don’t just assume all’s well with your remote team members.

https://www.campaigntoendloneliness.org/threat-to-health/


Check-in personally: It’s harder to have a casual chat when you can’t just drop by some-one’s desk. A little effort here can go a long way. A weekly, short social call with each team member allows time to check in and catch up.

Treat remote and non-remote team members equally: For example, if you cele-brate birthdays in your office, don’t leave out the remote team members - maybe you can’t share a cake, but you can acknowledge the day in other ways, such as posting a card or popping a birthday GIF on Slack.

Build in regular online social activities for your team: You could try including a few minutes just for a social chat at the start or end of team meetings. Or have a regular ‘team social’ once a week, such as a video lunch. Check out the blogs of experienced remote-first companies such as Buffer and Doist for more ideas for team activities that can work well online.

Do recognize that different people commu-nicate differently: Whole-team get-togethers might actually be stressful for some intro-verted team members. Instead, find ways to get people together in smaller groups. For example, if your team is on Slack, the Donut app pairs people up with a colleague, prompt-ing them to set up time for a video chat - some-thing like this can be easier for those who don’t like big social occasions.

Meet in person when you can: If you can afford a big annual whole-team get-together, that’s great. And if only part of your team is remote, pay for remote staff to come to the office occasionally. If budgets are tight, encour-age social meetups for team members along-side other events you’re attending anyway, such as client meetings or conferences.

Hopefully, these tips have given you some fresh ideas on how to tackle loneliness among remote workers, keeping remote teams happy, healthy and productive.


A lot of the time during our working life we will have to deal with a certain amount of stress. This can actually help improve our performance if we have a certain upcoming deadline, but too much of it is detrimental to both your physical and mental health. A 2014 survey from PGI looking at remote workers reported that 82% of telecom-muters had lower stress levels when working outside the office. Neverthe-less, we recommend periods of mind-fulness when you find that stress strikes!

Mindfulness

Mindfulness is a mental technique and method of meditation. It makes us more aware of our emotions, impulses and biases that drive us on a day to day basis. It allows you to take a step back, evaluate and refocus our attention on what is occuring or more impor-tant tasks and feelings when needed. With practice you can make conscious choices and be more in control of how your emotions affect you, allowing you to become your own master.

Basic Mindfulness practices

Although mindfulness has benefits in being practiced in quiet and comforta-ble place, you can’t always find such a

13 Meditation & mindfulness

spot when stress strikes! You can still use the following guidelines when you feel that you need a moment of relaxa-tion and clarity.

1. Begin to observe the pres-ent moment and any particular thoughts and emotions. Try and take a step back, let thoughts just pass through your mind and do this without judgement. Simply observe!

2. As you notice any judgements arising during your mindfulness session, take a quick mental note and then release the thought. Try not to dwell on them.

3. As you notice your mind wandering, try to return to observing the pres-ent moment. Your mind can and probably will get carried away in thought, but notice this and return to concentrating on what is happen-ing now in the present.

4. Don’t worry about what thoughts and emotions appear, just notice that your mind has wandered. It’s OK for this to happen, and you shouldn’t judge yourself harshly for it.

Throughout these steps, the key princi-ples are in observing your moods and energy and trying to concentrate on the present. This could be in the simple background noises that are occuring or how your body is feeling.


Getting into a mindfulness routine

In order to practice this technique effectively, it’s recommended that you work it into your daily routine. Making a good habit out of mindfulness will require some time and dedication, but the benefits on offer make it worth it! Consistency here is key, so dedicate even just a small amount of time every-day to practice. You’ll find that in no time you can easily enter a mental state to help combat the stresses of worklife.

We recommend starting small. Try just 10 minutes a day and see how it goes. From there, you can increase the amount of time spent and really begin to master the skill. Setting a fixed time every day, perhaps when you wake up or before you go to sleep, will help you on your way.

A great resource to take a look at is headspace. They offer some free beginner mindfulness sessions where they walk you through the techniques needed to help you reduce stress, anxiety and other problems you may encounter. It’s easily downloaded onto your smart phone for whenever you need.

5 Effective Mental Health Practices for Remote Teams from Industry Leaders

- by Acework

Of the 2,500 remote workers surveyed in Buff-er’s recent report The State of Remote Work , unplugging after work hours made the number 1 spot as the biggest struggle employees faced with remote working. Loneliness came in second place, while collaborating/communica-tion came in third.

Amir Salihefendic, CEO of Doist, states in the report how “we need to acknowledge that isolation, anxiety, and depression are signifi-cant problems when working remotely, and we must figure out ways and systems to resolve these complex issues.”

1. Loosen your grip on policies

While having a well-thought out policy in place is a good start, it’s easy to become over-reliant on them. In the worst case, they can even make managers lazy and fearful. “They’re frightened of saying the wrong thing or saying something that may be taken the wrong way,” says Hayley Lewis, a chartered occupational psychologist, and founder of HALO Psychology..

Hayley recommends managers trust their judgement and instincts. That is, drop the legalese policy content and be courageous enough to step forward and have a human-to-human conversation with the person who is struggling.

2. Create a safe space for open conversa-tion and learning

For Doist, mental health is a hot topic because their team members talk openly about it and share their experiences. To reduce the stigma surrounding mental health, the team started a mental health initiative. Among other practices, they prepare a “Mental Health Monthly” to discuss a specific topic such as stress, burn-out, or imposter syndrome.

“Navigating mental health is compli-cated because there’s no “one-size-fits-all” approach. By creating a safe space for our

https://www.headspace.com/

https://buffer.com/state-of-remote-work-2019

https://twitter.com/amix3k

https://doist.com/

https://halopsychology.com/

https://doist.com/


team members to learn, share experiences and discuss, it doesn’t take long for us to realize that mental health affects us all as remote employees, and as people,” says Andrew Gobran, People Operations at Doist.

3. Lead by example

At Buffer, Marcus Wermuth (Mobile Lead), shares with his team and direct reports how he takes care of his mental health, which includes therapy appointments. By being open and transparent, some of his colleagues were comfortable enough to let him know that they, too, sought the advice and help of a therapist.

“We consider therapy appointments just like any other health appointment. Leaders and managers are open with their teams, offer-ing an open and comfortable environment that reduces the stigma,” says Marcus.All Buffer employees also have access to Joyable, an online digital therapy tool that offers proven solutions for depression, anxi-ety or stress.

4. Embrace compassion

As human beings, we all want to be seen and heard.

Going back to leading by example, manag-ers and leaders should consider tapping into their inherent sources of compassion. This is a tried and true method of helping team members, who are struggling with mental health challenges.

Next time you notice or have a feeling someone on your team is struggling, keep the following in mind and have a human to human conversation:

- Hey, I see you- I’ve noticed - I care enough to say something about it

5. Take an Unsick Day

In addition to sick leave and a flexible time-off policy, Buffer is a founding partner of a program called the Unsick Day. Every employee is encouraged to take at least once a day a year off and book in for preventa-tive treatments such as: counselling, dental

cleaning, eye exams or any other treatment that feels good.

Let’s keep talking

While mental health is a complex and nuanced topic, the more conversations we have in the remote community the better chance we have to find solutions to isolation, burnout, anxiety and depression.

At acework we are warriors for greater flexibility and happiness at work. We are always curious how the rest of the remote work community gets this done. Get in touch and let us know your ideas and best practices ([email protected]).

This piece was originally published on Linke-din & Medium. Read the full article here: LINK

Top Dos and Don’ts of staying healthy when working from home

- by TopContent

There are so many pros to working from home! Saying goodbye to long commutes, traffic and thinking about a wardrobe are some of them! However, taking care of both your physical and mental health is paramount if you are serious about pursuing a career in remote working. At Topcontent, we have put together a few do’s and don’ts for our employees. Enjoy!

DO … mind your hygiene

Feeling fresh from a hot shower will give you a boost when starting the day! Change into some “work clothes” anyway. It will help give you separate the work from the home part of your day!

DON’T … stay indoors all day

Without realising, days will pass and you won’t have left the house. The great thing about work-ing from home is that you don’t really have to be at home. Take your laptop outside and find a great wifi hotspot and work away!

DO … set up an office space

Likewise, it’s important to have an office at home to help you concentrate and give you

https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewgobran/

https://buffer.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mwermuth/

http://acework.io/

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-successful-remote-teams-manage-mental-health-angelina-ebeling/


that sense of “going to work”. You don’t need to redesign your home and if space is tight, grab yourself a corner and make sure everyone knows that’s it off limits when work is on.

DON’T … snack

With the kitchen in arms reach, mindless snacking will creep in. Stock up your fridge and pantry with healthy alternatives such as fruit and nuts and stick to a time dedicated for lunch - it’ll help you get your break in too!

DO … seek company

It will get lonely - human interaction is still important. This is a quick fix:• Integrate social breaks into your routine• Work from a local coffee shop or co-work-

ing office so you can feel part of society• Go to networking conferences or arrange

a meetup

DON’T … procrastinate

Remove things that can distract you and prevent you from getting on with work. You can deal with this by establishing a routine, having a schedule and sticking with it.

DO … mind your posture

Working from your bed and/or couch is a no-no. Invest in a good office chair and make sure your computer screen is at eye level. Consider a standing desk too.

Now you know how to stay healthy and enjoy all the great benefits of remote working, why not sign up with us and give it a shot?

https://app.topcontent.com/signup


After going through all the tips, tricks and advice, we’re sure that you’ll now be equipped to make the most of your time working from home. As we mentioned before, we originally tied this in with our Global Work From Home Day 2019, which ended up being a fantastic success. We had 140 compa-nies participate, 1.2 million reach on our socials for the event, and 1200 people sign up to download this e-book! Over-all it was an amazing celebration of working from home for all employees and employers around the world, and an amazing way to promote the bene-fits of flexible work arrangements.You can also keep up to date with the event and network with other remoters by searching the socials for #WorkFrom-HomeDay every year.

It can seem a bit daunting at first, with a lot of areas to cover and think about, but when everything is taken into consid-eration you can really begin to reap the benefits of working from home. All aspects covered within this e-book have been contributed by a number of different remote work experts from around the globe. By sharing their experience and expertise, you’ll be able to miss some of the pitfalls and get off to a flying start in your remote career!

If you’re interested in taking your work from home experience further and want to learn more, then you can

check out the Remote-how Academy. It’s an educational platform powered by and for the community of leaders of distributed teams. Think of it as an online campus, where you get to meet and grow with top remote manag-ers from all around the world. Every skilling program offered as a part of Remote-how Academy is prepared and delivered by industry experts working for companies like inVision, Buffer or Doist.

14Global Work From Home Day

https://remote-how.com/


partners




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you need to know about working from home · essential tips and strategies that you will need to make sure that you are at the top of your game no matter where you are working from