5 simple routines for improving your remote working life
Remote work is not just about having a laptop at home, it requires a cultural change. Embrace it.
The pandemic accelerated the “work from home” movement more than anything before. Many companies advertise heavily — either in their employer brands or job ads — that they allow remote work. That’s really great. But let’s be honest about it: Most of those companies will hand out laptops and a policy that allows people to work from home. Simply taking current work routines to employees’ homes doesn’t make a company a remote work company. It requires more than that.
As Thorsten Dirks, former board member of Lufthansa, once said:
“If you digitize a shitty process, then you’ll end up with a shitty digital process”.
The same thing applies to remote work.
I’m not saying that you need to turn your company upside down from one day to another. I know that this cultural change has a lot of dependencies and is a huge challenge. So let’s start with the small things that can already lead to a change:
#1 Activate your video cameras
In the “old normal” it was impolite to not shake one’s hand. Not turning on your video camera is the “new impolite”. So if your internet connection allows it please turn on your camera. With this simple move your meetings get way more personal.
#2 Create an office setting (as good as possible)
Remote work often had the pale aftertaste of couch and sweat pants or pyjamas in the old days. Let’s not stick to that stereotype and exchange the couch for a proper desk, the sweat pants for something you would wear in the office.
This will also support hint #1 ;-)
#3 Say “hi” and “goodbye” to your colleagues
When you walk into the office you say “good morning” to your colleagues, right? So why not do that when working remote as well. Just say “hi” in Slack, MS Teams or whatever communication tool you use. I can ensure you that this will enhance your team spirit on a daily basis. Letting them know when you’re off for lunch or even enjoy lunch remote together will help as well.
#4 Asynchronous instead of meetings all day
Do you jump from meeting to meeting since you’ve moved into your “home office”? So if you’re in meetings all day, how or when do you actually prepare for those meeting? Exactly. You don’t at all. Do yourself and everyone else a favor and block some focus time during your day to prepare for the tons of meetings and keep them efficient and short. Everyone will appreciate that.
If you wanna know how, check out my post here.
#5 Use digital whiteboards
Do you sketch things on a sheet of paper, take a picture and send it over to your colleagues? If that’s the case you should definitely consider using online collaboration tools such as Miro or Mural. With those tools you can easily replace a real whiteboard and collaborate in realtime with your colleagues. I’m a Miro heavy user (as you can e.g. see here) and happy to help you getting started.
