14 Tips on Working Remote Successfully

This week Gartner, Inc. released a survey showing "that 88% of organizations have encouraged or required employees to work from home, regardless of whether or not they showed coronavirus-related symptoms."

With this rapid shift to a fully remote life, employees have new challenges - when to work, where to work, how to establish boundaries between work and personal life and many, many more. Plus, with schools closed parents are challenged to set a homeschooling schedule while successfully completing their full-time job duties. 

Here are 14 essential tips for a productive remote-working lifestyle:

• Create a dedicated workspace

  • Find yourself a dedicated workspace that isn’t used for something else. Working at your kitchen table might seem logical, but it is also likely surrounded by many distractions? Having a dedicated work computer is ideal as it improves security. 
  • Protect your dedicated space. Anticipate distractions and plan for them. This means talking with your family or roommates to set expectations. Consider creating a 'Do not disturb' or 'On call' sign to make boundries clear.
  • Get comfortable as we may be remote for a while. Now may be the time to buy a new desk chair, headset or upgrade your home WIFI network.

• Communication is key!

  • Since you’re no longer a few desks down from your coworkers or your manager, it's important to keep communicating and figuring out how much interaction you need to feel connected.
  • Set time to meet with your team regularly to make sure that everyone is staying motivated and on track with their tasks.
  • Utilizing a tool such as Microsoft Teams, a powerful collaboration tool, especially as organizations adapt to a near fully remote workforce is highly recommended! You can easily chat, call, file share, and so much more!
  • Use video - seeing your team's smiling faces helps keep you connected.
  • Aside from continuous communication within your organization, you are going to have to set ground rules with those in your space, i.e. in your home. With the children home from school, it is important for them to understand the boundaries.

• Stick to a schedule & include breaks

  • Make a daily schedule and build in breaks. Set a schedule and stick to it...most of the time. Having clear guidelines for when to work and when to call it a day helps many remote workers maintain work-life balance.
  • Be sure to schedule breaks into your schedule when working remote. Give yourself a lunch break and a few shorter breaks throughout the day.
  • Take time to step away from your workspace a few times a day. We don’t realize it but when we are in the office, we get up for coffee, for a bathroom break, to meet with others, etc. When you take breaks, you'll be more productive. 

• Wake up earlier than when you log in

  • Waking up earlier than when you log on will allow your mind to “wake up”. When you work in the office, you wake up at home, get ready, commute in and start your workday. That will allow your mind “wake up” so ensure to allow yourself enough time to “wake up” for a productive day.

• Don’t work in your pajamas

  • Putting on clothes other than what you slept in will do wonders for your mind and will get your brain out of relaxing mode and into work mode.

• Know when to “log off”

  • This can be one of the most challenging parts. Receiving emails after you have logged off or at any hour can make it difficult to actually log off. Setting a time when you officially “log off” for the night will avoid unnecessary stresses and burnout. 

Whether encouraging or mandating remote working, firms must remind  employees to follow two factors for successful remote collaboration continuous: 

• Communication (Overcommunicate!)

• Knowledge sharing

This is where Microsoft Teams comes in. Microsoft Teams is a unified communication and collaboration platform combining workplace chat, video meetings, file storage, and application integration all in one place.

Watch the full 26-minute webinar replay to catch Microsoft Teams hints and shortcuts shared by Eze experts in the full discussion.