My 5 favourite tips for Remote Working
My name is Benoît and I am part of a team of passionate people here at Knowledge Expert (KE) who are on a mission to make change a reality for even the biggest, most complex organisations. We’ve been working successfully in remote and distributed teams for years. This article is a short summary of the things that I’ve found practical and useful in my day to day working remotely. All of which have come in especially handy within the last few weeks! I hope you find it helpful and if you have anything to add, please do so in the comments. I’d love to hear what’s working for you too!
KErs also created a nice infographic of the main tools that do work for us and this article goes through some of my personal preferences from this list.
#1 Separate and organized workplace
As much as working from a crowded Starbucks coffee could sound like cool or fun, not only are these days over with covid-19 but it is also highly unpractical when working on sensitive subjects for customers. I found that safeguarding a room at home and dedicating it for work is rewarding. It provides a safe and quiet place where I can focus on work for my clients, teams, and colleagues with full concentration (I have two little monkey tornados🐵️🌪️ at home and it would literally be impossible to work if not in the basement).
#2 Cool down at the end of the day
I can get really, like really really, absorbed by work and it is difficult for me to switch from work/productive thoughts and concentration to the cosiness of home and family time. Whether or not you used to have a long commute to the office, the time between leaving work and arriving at home does provide the perfect buffer. If you don’t have that physical buffer anymore it can be difficult to make the distinction between work time and home time. Creating time to simulate the commute helped me keep a much smoother transition from work to personal life. What works for me is a simple routine to tidy up my desk and walk around home checking on plants for watering and care. It acts as a shooting routine and help me enter family time much more present and energized.
#3 Sococo virtual office
Just loving the feeling sococo software brings to working with colleagues. You actually work remotely like you would in a physical office, entering rooms instead of switching between conference calls and providing visual feedback of when we are on Do Not Disturb mode or in meetings.
#4 Use a microphone & speaker instead of a headset
Non verbal communication gets much more limited and paying special attention to making voice communication as high quality as possible greatly improves the communication results and reduces fatigue at the end of the day. I personally much prefer hearing people with a speaker than a headset as it feels much more like they are in the room with me. I also love the sound of my boom for playing my favourite music. The quality of your voice does matter and there’s nothing more annoying than the default laptop mic carrying over a robot voice and any movement over the keyboard. It’s worth investing in a quality microphone, I promise and I found RØDE smartLav absolutely great.
#5 keep time organised
I have been a big fan of the pomodoro technique for years and days can still seem to fly by very fast. The Make Time framework added a lot more meaning and satisfaction to my work. It provides a great frame for orienting how I use and plan my time (not just at the day level).
Summary
I hope those simple tips will help you make your work from home situation a pleasant and productive one. Don’t underestimate the power of taking some time to set yourself up for remote success, a little can go a long way!
Bonus — Infographic
The team at KE has put together a nice infographic of the tip and tricks we use internally.
