I have been remote working off and on since 2011. I had wanted to remote work before then but I did not know what it meant.
When we were younger my dad’s job meant we moved around the world, living in 6 different countries by the time I was 13. We were lucky to experience so much at such a young age as well as visiting many other countries and cities near to where we were living. However some places I lived, I really loved and did not want to leave. Therefore as a 10 year old, I vowed to work where ever I wanted in the world. Little did I know about digital marketing or online businesses.
Since going back to working full time remote in 2015, I have a lot of tips on what we should do to help you be as productive as possible. I try and take part in online events as much as possible, Alexandra hosts her Digital Olympus that was purely online and branched out to offline as well, there was even a global work from home day last year too put together by Remote How.
Now with many people working from home due to the coronavirus, I wanted to share these tips:
- Tell everyone you are working from home. Otherwise they may get you to do invisible jobs (like weeding or cleaning out the cupboards)
- Get a proper desk and chair. If you cannot go and buy one, see if you can borrow one from your friends or family.
- Change out of your PJs before 9am. It can be 8:58 but make sure you are in work or outdoor clothes before your official work time.
- Have a lunch and your regular breaks – you could do lunch with your mom/dad – whoever is not working
- Plan a proper stop time and do something away from your desk, this way you are not working into the night.
- DO NOT answer the door or phone calls that would go unanswered if you were in the office away from home
- DO NOT start doing cleaning jobs or getting distracted with that is on the tv
- BE STRICT with yourself, ask yourself if you would act that way in the office (eg watching tv all day)
- Communicate with your team. There are a lot of different channels to use, for example Slack, skype (yes skype) and mattermost.
- Keep up to date with your tasks, Trello is one way to record your to-do list, asana is a good project management tool.
- Have video conferences when you need to through GoToMeeting or Zoom or skype (yes still exists).
- Keep to a schedule as if you were in the office.
- Get up and walk around – sitting down for too long is not healthy. Your legs will not like you for it.
- Make the most of your non commuting time – you may need to get super fast broadband installed.
I went to IKEA to get my desk and chair, the chair was 159 Euros but it is the best chair I have had. Plus I also bought a foot stool. If you cannot find a footstool, get a small box or small step ladder to use under your desk
Working from home is not for everyone. However, during this coronavirus it is recommended everyone stays at home and avoids going out, I recently read about Florian Reifschneider who set up this StayTheF**kAtHome campaign to encourage people to stay at home. Avoid large crowds, do not take the metro or public transport and stay safe.