20 Tips for Working Remotely
We might’ve ignored the sarcasm rule on some of these
We’re living in unprecedented times. Some of us are extremely fortunate to be working from home during this pandemic, but working from home for extended periods of time has its own challenges. Here’s our top 20 (for some reason) tips for working from home.
This post was co-written with the one and only John Hartley
- Close your laptop to signal the end of your day
It seems a bit silly, but by shutting your laptop and putting it into your bag at the end of the day, you can trigger that part of your brain that subconsciously is like “OH! END OF DAY!” The ritual itself may help guide you into a non-work state, but the overall sentiment is, figure out a way to signal your workday has ended.
2. Be Vulnerable
This is not the time to be the tough person in the office capable of handling anything. Especially if you live alone, it’s alright to acknowledge if you’re missing the interactions of your co-workers. Try doing something with your team like hosting a Netflix watch party or playing some games virtually (JackBox, Tabletop Simulator or Minecraft come to mind). If you’re not comfortable with being vulnerable and saying how you are feeling, make sure you allow others to be vulnerable around you.
3. Be Empathetic
Everyone is going to react differently to being remote for an extended period of time. Some of you have likely found that you enjoy being remote because of the different benefits it affords, but others may not be adapting as well. It’s alright for them to have off days. Be empathetic and reach out even more than you typically would. We’re all in this together.
4. Learn a new skill or revisit an old one (but it’s okay if you don’t)
If you’ve been putting off learning something, this is the perfect time to start getting into it (unless it was up-close street magic). To find a better work/life balance, learning something not directly related to your job will help create some separation from work and play. If you don’t end up with a new skill, that’s also totally fine. We all have our own responsibilities, so don’t pressure yourself too much.
5. Over-communicate
One of the biggest challenges of working from home is that we no longer have access to all the non-verbal communication we had in person. If someone wasn’t responding to your slack messages you could walk over to their desk to see they have their headphones on and are typing away, so you know they are busy. But we can’t exactly walk over to our co-workers homes anymore. It’s increasingly important to over-communicate exactly what’s going on.
Some examples might be:
a. “Making lunch for the family back in 45 minutes!”
b. “The garbage truck just launched my garbage bin directly into my neighbor’s azaleas, back in 24 minutes.”
At first it might feel a bit silly, but it’s helpful in the long run.
6. Create boundaries (yourself, your family, your work)
This one can be tough, especially for folks working remote that have anyone else in the house (dogs included). Figure out what boundaries you can set and make it very clear to them what the boundaries are. While it’s easy for them to come show you a 12/10 goodest boi meme at 10:13AM, if they know 9:00–11:00AM is uninterruptible time, they can either send it electronically or wait until then. We realize this is sometimes impossible (children likely don’t care about your focus times) but do your best to try and set some boundaries to help limit distractions.
7. Do some sort of exercise
Our CEO is notorious for doing push-ups during meetings to keep the blood flowing, and we’re also on the same page. There are countless benefits to exercise but most importantly it stimulates the release of dopamine and serotonin otherwise known as the happiness endorphins. Exercise can range from going on a walk, to doing a crossfit workout in your living room (flipping couches can be a good workout), and both of these are excellent ways to get your mind off of work. Who knows, you might get the solution you’ve been searching for on your 6th power clean!
8. Get out of bed
As alluring as it sounds, working from bed is probably not the best idea. Some studies hint that keeping work materials like laptops in your bedroom, strengthen the mental relationship between work and sleep thus making it harder to fall asleep because your brain will think you are in a place of work.
9. Take time off
This one is extremely important. Working remotely makes us think that we have much more time than we used to, and time away from work doesn’t seem necessary. But it absolutely is. We don’t just take time off to relax and unwind, but also to recenter ourselves around our individual value systems. Do you feel scatterbrained or disorganized? Odds are a few days with your notifications turned off could help you align yourself with your core tenets. Burnout in the remote world is still a very real thing, so take some time for yourself.
10. Be introspective
“But if these years have taught me anything it is this: you can never run away. Not ever. The only way out is in.” ― Junot Díaz, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
Practice introspection, but remember to take a break from being introspective as well 😅
Notice how your body reacts to certain things like reading the news, or video chats. When do you stand tallest?
11. Go toward the light
Moving to a room with sunlight can sometimes be a huge help! Not only will darker areas begin to strain your eyes if you’re looking at a screen all day, but being in a room with natural light helps with your Circadian rhythms. Oh, and add some house plants while you’re at it.
12. Form new habits
Try going for a walk twice a week, or doing laundry more often. If you make an achievable promise to yourself try as hard as you can not to break it. With no commute, you’ve now got some extra time to experiment with the habits you want to add, those you want to remove and tweaking the ones you already have.
13. Find a new subreddit
Some extremely non-biased suggestions.
14. Try all the things
Be open minded to new opportunities! We’ve noticed a big uptick in people baking their own bread or making homemade pastas and tortillas, and we think this is so cool!
15. Cut yourself some slack
We alluded to this earlier, but just like non-remote work you are bound to have off days. Don’t chastise yourself over this. You are not alone! If you feel comfortable doing so, communicate this with your team and manager.
16. Find your cornerstone
If you’re familiar with Westworld, you know about the cornerstone that all hosts have, one significant memory or song that triggers them into a certain state. We’ve found that we have similar triggers into types of work. Need to read or write something? Mick Gordon’s Doom OST usually gets us in the right headspace.
17. Find something mindless
Ever heard of a little game called Animal Crossing? You can literally spend hours just catching a variety of fish off the pier (our sometimes just a bunch of sea bass 👊).
One of our developers has gotten super deep into Minecraft and even recreated our Beam logo and Beam Brush in-game.
18. Talk/Sing to yourself
This one sounds a little sillier than others on this list, but it is very effective. Talking to yourself out loud or in your brain has shown to reduce anxiety through something called self-distancing. Essentially, when we talk to ourselves in the 2nd or 3rd person we are able to frame the problem from a logical perspective instead of an emotional and biased one.
19. Be more direct with questions
If you have someone you are specifically asking, say their name first “John, I was curious what your take was on the latest Hot Ones episode” Don’t ask, “does everyone agree” instead ask “does anyone disagree.” Asking for agreement will generally give you total silence, whereas asking for disagreement will either bring it to the surface or allow you to continue.
20. Beware of sarcasm
Sarcasm is a lot harder to convey via text than it is in person. If you are being sarcastic consider throwing a 😏 emoji at the end or we have the :troll: reactji we can use. Regardless, establish an emoji that works for your team and be aware of how your sarcasm is being perceived.
The above tips are obviously not a complete list (we started with 48), so be sure to let us know if you have any cool ones we should try out!
