How to make the best of remote work

9 tips to help you transitioning into this new reality

The pandemic that has recently plagued the whole of Europe has forced several companies to make the transitioning to remote work to prevent the spread of the virus and protect their employees.

In times of crisis and rapidly changing circumstances, this decision forced us to institute a new work dynamic for 100% of our employees with little or no preparation at all.

Working remotely can have its struggles and we are no exception!

We have been working remotely for 2 weeks and here are the main challenges presented by our team:

1. Control the desire to eat;
2. Resist the temptation to take long breaks to deal with one or another household chore (laying out clothes, washing the machine, etc.);
3. Maintain working hours;
4. Misunderstandings that sometimes arise in written communication;
5. Time management difficulties — Lack of focus or the opposite, which leads to forgetting to take breaks;
6. Lack of face-to-face interaction;
7. Isolation — Too many days of confinement at home.

If you’re feeling this way too, our kick-ass team gives you a solution for each one of these problems.

So here they are:

1. Keep the same number of meals
2. Take breaks, get some air/sun and exercise (you can go for a quick walk)
3. Define your own space to work away from distractions
4. Prepare as if we were going to the office (pretend that you’re not working at home)
5. Define boundaries around time and space: Don’t be available to others 24 hours/day, set an entry and exit time and stick to it.
6. Maintain sleep routines
7. Learn something new online
8. Establish dailies/retro with your team
9. Do video calls as much as you can

These frustrations can affect morale, engagement, productivity and innovation. So since we’ve been on quarantine, we’ve established some practices that we’re going to share with you.

The first one is our 15-minutes Coffee: every day we do a 15 minutes call where everyone on the company joins to share their morning coffee and contribute with some uplifting news, the way they’ve been occupying their free time or even something they’ve learned recently.

Also, we’re doing our daily stand-ups remotely at 5 pm to socialize, bring the team closer and talk about things that matter.

And last but not least, we’re doing team bonding sessions on Fridays after work, where we can play an online game, drink a glass of wine, or just practise some yoga together.

Your remote problems won’t disappear entirely with these suggestions, and Covid-19 won’t be an issue forever, but creating consistent rules, policies and rituals in the long run, will boost communication and motivation for your employees. So take time to learn from this period where you’re leading a remote workforce because this will likely become the norm later on.

With love,

Ana