An easy area to underestimate while in a remote role is the value of face time with your coworkers. Remote work is mostly an asynchronous world. A space that requires the willpower to stay focused, even without a team around you.
And it’s true one of the greatest gifts of remote work is the ability to control your environment and focus, while escaping the often crippling distraction of a traditional office.
But if you go too deep down the path of isolation as a remote worker, you can end up alienating yourself from your team and purpose.
The value of team meetings, and even informal 1:1s becomes urgently important as a remote worker. And wherever possible these ought to be video conferences. There’s probably some science to this, but face to face communication, even digital, feels so crucial to building camaraderie, empathy, and trust in your team.
Moreover, you still occasionally ought to meet up in person, at least once in awhile. It’s helpful to ground yourself and your team in reality, and that is best accomplished face to face.
There’s more great thoughts on the subject of remote work in Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson’s Remote: Office Not Required.