Between my current role and my past time as a consultant, I’ve now been working 100% remote for well over a year. I had previously worked occasionally from home, but never in a fully remote setting, and the transition was more challenging than I imagined. Now I’m nicely settled into the remote life, but it wasn’t without a few rules and systems to get there first. Here’s a few lessons that come to mind:
Insist on video calls
I’ve been lucky to work in video call-focused environments where this is just the norm, but if your teams default to audio only, it’s worth insisting on video calling, especially for important meetings and 1:1s. The human personality evolved for face to face interaction with others – and while we can never fully replace that with technology, video calls go a LONG way.
And when your entire existence interacting with your team is spent behind a camera, it’s worth investing in a better camera than whatever came with your laptop. You can easily go crazy here with camera setups, which isn’t what I’m suggesting. Just something with better resolution and a wider camera angle that’ll give a better image than the typically potato-quality built-in cameras on even high-end laptops.
Lighting is important too – yet even more rarely addressed by remote workers. The fact is that solid, consistent lighting can work wonders for how you appear in video conferences. If you don’t already have consistent lighting in your workspace, invest in some simple external lighting sources to help remove shadows and light your face more evenly.
Go for a walk
This is an obvious one for workers in the office and remote. But it is incredibly easy to become a hermit as a remote worker and never leave your house. The issues with remote work are rarely what most managers fear—distractions and poor productivity. Instead remote work is much more likely to create unhealthy overwork situations. The boundaries aren’t there for a good work-life balance – you have to create them yourself.
Even taking a quick 15 minute walk outside—I have dogs so I have a ready made excuse to take a walk around the block—can work wonders for your focus.
Get in public, even if it’s not a coworking space
The value of a great home office setup is undeniable, but it is absolutely critical you get in public at least a few times a week. For me that’s coffee or eating lunch out. I’ve explored coworking spaces but I’m not sure they’re essential to the equation. Plus the cost of using them can add up, and they’re not often conducive to the quiet needed for frequent video calls. Simply getting out in public somewhere is typically enough for me.
Make time for off topic irreverance with your team
It’s important to not be all business all the time with your remote team – you ought to make time for fun and irreverence. As a remote worker, those off topic slack channels you might ordinarily view as needless distraction are actually quite important to building a sense of connection to the rest of the team. Don’t ignore these. Instead, factor in time for engaging in some fun with your team.
Check in regularly at the home office
If your company does have an HQ, it’s worth the trouble and expense to visit people face to face occasionally. Note – this should be seen as different than a retreat or conference. If you can manage it, it’s worth spending working time with your coworkers, in-person on occasion. I shoot for once or twice a quarter.
Build boundaries
If you have the option of a dedicated room for your home office, use it. I don’t – I live in a 100 year old, 1 bedroom house, so my office is in my bedroom, which was initially a challenge to separate work life from home life. But even a small, seemingly innocuous change, like rotating my desk to form a separate partition worked wonders.
Equally important to creating a work environment is respecting your personal time when outside working hours. Stay away from your office when it’s time to unplug. If you need to get on the computer, maintain a separate computer for personal work to avoid the temptation to be always on.