If you are one of the many people that are now working remotely, you are likely faced with this new challenge. While remote work sounds amazing in theory, it is not so easy to work in such an environment if you have never done it before. Remote work takes a lot of discipline, dedication, and focus.
That is why today we will be sharing some of our tips and tricks you can use if you are now working from home.
Contents
1. Define Your Working Hours
Source: onblastblog
While remote work usually involves a bit of flexibility when it comes to working hours, if you are working remotely for the first time, it is recommended that you set your working hours and just work during those times. By setting your working hours, your transition to your home from your office will likely to go much smoother, as work will still feel like work, even if you are working from your home.
By having laptop access 24/7 many people fall into this trap of working all day long. When you exit the office and go home, you are no longer thinking about work until tomorrow. However, there’s always something that needs to be finished and people tend to work much more at home.
Also, with constant access to the Internet and nobody around you to monitor you, we get distracted easily. You need to prepare lunch, wash your dishes, do laundry, etc. That is why defining working hours is essential to be at your most efficient.
2. Socialize with Your Coworkers
Source: Savvy Tokyo
One of the biggest issues many people that are working from home are faced with is the lack of socialization. While you can usually socialize with your coworkers easily when everyone is in the office and physically close to each other, the situation with everyone at thome is quite different. To ensure that you still get much-needed socialization, you have to take initiative.
Talk to your teammates whenever you have free time. Ask them about their day, share funny videos or GIFs, try to mirror the usual office chit-chats and banther as much as you can. This will both help you and your teammates, as socializing can boost morale and make people feel less lonely.
3. Communication Is Key
Source: MadameNoire
As with any new and unfamiliar situation, some problems are most likely going to happen. If you want to minimize those problems in your company, you need to put an emphasis on proper communication, both with your teammates and with yoru management. Try to make some communication rules, ie. let everyone in your company know when they can reach you, what they should do if they have to reach you urgently but can get to you.
As you progress in your remote work endeavors, you are likely going to adjust to this new reality, and the way you prefer to communicate with people will likely change. When this happens, make sure that everyone is up to date with you as the lack of communication can cause huge issues for you, or for your teammates, or even for your entire company.
Also, do not be afraid to overcommunicate. It’s easy to run into misunderstandings when you are texting with people constantly, so make sure you give clear and detailed instructions. Besides, make sure you are available to your team if they need additional clarification on something.
4. Stay up to Date With Everyone’s Work
Source: uschamber
When working remotely, you need to be as proactive as you can. By keeping track of everyone’s progress, you are more likely to spot any potential bottlenecks before they happen. Staying up to date with all the work in your company can have a positive effect on reducing your stress, as it will be less likely that you get anxious when you are familiar with everything that is happening inside your company.
Previously, remote managers utilized employee monitoring software such as Workplus to stay on top of their employees’ work. These days, however, there are solutions that are lighter, modern, and more fair for the employees such as Workpuls. With Workpuls, business owners and managers can analyze and improve employee productivity by getting a clear overview of how employees use their work time, while still respecting their privacy. While in the past employee monitoring software relied heavily on keeping a close eye on employees, Workpuls analyzes the activity and behavior of the employees.
5. Nurture Company Culture
Source: entrepreneur
Even though remote work changes the way you work and communicate in your company, that does not mean that you should stop having all the fun at work you used to have.
Encourage your colleagues and management to still have free time at work where you can play online games, listen to music, or even eat meals together. By doing these and other similar activities online together, you can immensely help both you and your employees.
Remember that you are still a part of the team and even though you are working remotely, keep in touch with your colleagues via messages or calls. It doesn’t always have to be work-related, and you can sometimes just have a quick chat about any common topic.
Final Thoughts
Working remotely can be a great experience. However, to be successful at remote work, you need to be aware about all the potential problems that are most likely going to occur. To make the process of transition to remote work a bit easier, you need to: define your working hours, properly communicate with your teammates about work and non-work related stuff, stay up to date with everything that is happening in your company, and still nurture your company’s culture.
We hope that this article and the tips we laid out will help make your remote work adventure a bit easier for you.
