1. Turn your camera on for video calls
Video calls are *video* calls for a reason. Research has found that over 50% of our communication is non-verbal: How you looked when you said it is just as important as what you said.
Of course, we understand that when working from home, sometimes it’s not convenient for everyone to turn on their camera. This is perfectly fine if you’re just listening to a presentation and is not expected to speak up or contribute. Still, we recommend that when you are speaking, you turn on your camera so that your messages are fully conveyed.
It’s now 2020, and we have evolved beyond phone calls, so let’s make the most of the technology we have at our hands! Don’t turn your video calls into phone calls.
2. Stay in the Virtual Office the whole day for important projects
If you are working on an important project as part of a scrum team, and need to have constant and intensive communication with teammates, consider starting a Virtual Office and hang out with your team there the whole day.
Lark’s Virtual Office feature is designed to help you re-discover the flow of working together in person. Essentially, it’s an audio chat room that can hold up to 50 participants at the same time.
How does Virtual Office differ from a regular Video Call or Audio Call? Video and audio calls are meant for “purposeful communication”. Usually, you would pick a topic, schedule a time, and have a very controlled discussion about something that has been predetermined.
Virtual Office is meant for “spontaneous communication”. Think of it more like “hanging out” rather than “having a meeting”. It is intended to replicate the offline in-person work environment. Knowing who’s online and knowing that you can talk to your teammates whenever you want makes you feel like you’re working at the same table.
3. Consider putting everything in your calendar, including eating and sleeping
When working from home, you might need to cook for your family and have meals with them. If you know that you can’t take meetings during those times, why not put them on your calendar?
Putting all events — even things like eating or going out for a walk — on your calendar helps to eliminate unnecessary back-and-forths by aligning expectations on when you’re available for meetings, and when you’re not.
On Lark Calendar, you can also set your working hours to let your teammates know when you’re working and when you’re not. This is especially useful if you and your teammates are in different time zones.
4. Use “Do Not Disturb” to stay focused
When working remotely, teams usually rely on instant messaging to stay connected, and naturally you will receive a lot of notifications.
If you really need to focus on something — say you are writing an important document — and you don’t wanna get distracted, click on your profile photo on Lark, and then the “bell” icon to turn on “Do not disturb”. All your Lark notifications will be muted for the specified amount of time.
This is also useful when you’re on a video call and don’t want to be interrupted by notification sounds. A “Do not disturb” icon will appear next to your name, so your teammates won’t expect you to reply immediately.
5. Use the SamePage method to conduct meetings
The SamePage method is a way to host efficient meetings using Lark Docs. This method is especially helpful for remote meetings. Watch this video to learn more:
We recently launched an exciting new integration between Lark Video Conferencing and Lark Docs, so that you can not just share your screen during a call, but also share a Doc, and everyone can edit or comment on the Doc right from the video conferencing window — even when they’re on the go.
If your teammate is calling in from their phone, the shared doc is adjusted for mobile viewing. They can even tap “View on your own” to scroll the Doc at their own pace!
Lark is a next-generation collaboration suite that enables teams to work together remotely as seamlessly as they do in person. Visit www.larksuite.com to start using Lark for free.
