Across the country, thousands of students, teachers and employees are learning to work and learn from home for the first time. As challenging as that could be in itself, the current circumstances are creating extra hurdles: kids are home, organizations had little or no advance warning, and on top of it all is the stress of coping with a serious global health threat.

But we know from experience that you can continue to maintain aspects of your routine. The sense of community you shared with the rest of your class or office will carry on, even when you’re all working from home. As a company whose entire workforce and student body have operated remotely for years now, we can offer some guidance to not only how to adjust and be productive, but to continue turning out meaningful work.

It takes more than just finding a quiet space at home and making some extra conference calls. Here are some of the proven techniques we’ve tested over the years that help us work together and support each other in a remote environment.

Working from Home

Create a new routine, collaborate with your office fam, and continue to put out your best work — even from home.

1. Keep in touch with your office fam on a personal level. When you’re all working from home, you’ll have to make a concerted effort to keep the casual convos going — especially now, when you’re all dealing with very new circumstances. Set up Slack channels dedicated to sharing pics of your pets, Spotify playlists and healthy lunch recipes. You can even schedule weekly calls where you strictly chat about non-work stuff.
2. Block out times on your calendar for breaks and deep thinking. Erin Rosenblatt, VP of Education Operations, advises: “get used to over-communicating. Let your teams know if you are going to be heads down on a project for a while and not responding to messages. Block off time for lunch or doctors appointments on your work calendar so that people can see when you aren’t available.” This gives you the freedom to step away and not feel like you’re on call 24/7.
3. Don’t just attend virtual meetings: participate. In a conference room, everyone can see that you’re present and engaged. That’s not necessarily the case in virtual meetings. Keep your camera on. In larger meetings, most of you will keep your microphone on mute (which is a good best practice). Un-mute at least once, even if you’re not asked a question directly. Affirm someone’s idea, or go ahead and voice that question.
4. Comment in chat threads. Some of us are less compelled to communicate through writing, but a comment here and there makes a huge difference in the world of remote working. Even a short response or emoji shows the rest of your team that someone’s out there listening.
5. Reach out to other departments. Ivy Rueb, Community Manager, learned that she had to keep reaching out to other departments, especially when you’re not running into them in the kitchenette anymore. “You can be deep in a project and forget to get feedback or not check with other teams to make sure that what you are working on aligns with their goals. It is better to continue getting feedback along the way so you don’t have to go back and redo the work.”

Learning from Home

Our education team offers their favorite techniques for staying positive, focused, and promoting collaboration in a remote classroom.

1. Find a way to participate that works for you. Asking questions on video might feel weird at first (we promise you’ll get used to it!). If you’re hesitant to speak up, there are other ways to ask questions. Comment in the sidebar or reach out to classmates and instructors after class.
2. Schedule your study time. The delineation between school and home life is blurred when you’re taking classes from your living room, so do yourself a favor and schedule specific times to focus on projects and studies. Educator Andrew Dao recommends, “treat your study time like class time so you can build a habit of doing it.”
3. Keep doing the things that keep you sane. You don’t have your usual schedule of extracurriculars, but you should keep participating in the activities that help you stay happy and healthy. Even if your gym is closed, you can find other ways to give your brain a break, like organizing a video-call yoga break with friends.
4. Develop your own time management skills, and keep them. This period of learning from home could help you hone your organization skills, and even excel in the workplace after you graduate. Lead instructor Tauhida Parveen finds that in a remote environment, her students are “learning to be disciplined, be accountable for all the work and how to manage time and activities.” Try out different time management techniques and tools to find the best one for you.
5. Make time to recognize your successes. Lauren Jacobson, Associate Director of Academic Success, advises that students in a remote environment should “celebrate your wins with friends, your mentor, and colleagues.” Set up a weekly video chat to talk about what you’ve learned, challenges you’ve overcome, positive feedback on a recent assignment or how you’ve gotten better at time management.

As you’re coping with so many sudden changes, we hope these tips help you return to some sense of routine. Give yourself time to adjust, and be patient with yourself. You will be able to achieve the shared sense of community that classrooms and workspaces provide; it will just take a different form.

And if you’re ready to keep learning online, browse our programs here.