A Helpful Remote Work Guide To Increase Productivity And Wellbeing

In the last few years, remote work has increased considerably. And predictions show us that will continue this trend in 2023. Thanks to the evolution of telecommunication technologies companies no longer need physical spaces to create a work environment.

In all our history as a company, our development team has been working remotely. With the experience we gathered in all those years we separate a few tips we believe will help other companies with their teams to improve overall productivity.

Working Hours

Here at Visian Systems we don’t have fixed working hours. We let it’s always up to our team and yourself to agree on the best time for work that fits your daily routines. However, you should have a few hours of online time overlap with the rest of the team. Always let the team know if you won’t be available during your usual hours or when you have days off.

Switching Off After Work

Due to the global nature of our team, many of us have struggled to switch off after work. It is important to maintain a healthy work-life balance and this is what we have found to help you achieve it:

1. Have a daily routine and stick to it as much as you can. Breaking the routine should be an exception not a regular practice. It will improve not only your working performance but also your well-being.
2. Find something equally important to you as work and plan that for your evenings (a hobby, gym class, meeting with a friend, etc). It’s good to do something else immediately after you finish your day and it will help you relax. Like going for a walk, going for groceries or visiting friends.
3. Create personal routines that signal to end your work day. Like finishing that one last small task, writing a to-do list for tomorrow or straightening up your work area. This will help you to start the evening on a positive note while improving your work progress.
4. Do work in one or two designated spaces. Maybe it’s a local coffee shop or a special “office” room/desk. And leave work there. Try not to do it as much in the kitchen or your living room. It’s better to separate work from your day-to-day life because we make mental associations constantly. If we associate work with a specific space, we can also disassociate it from home. You may even consider a separate computer for personal use after working hours for that same reason.
5. Work from a co-working space, if you need to separate your home office into a “home” and an “office”.
6. Switch off notifications and close all work-related tabs after you are done with your daily tasks. If you get any messages right before wrapping up, let the person know you’ll be off in a minute and will get back to them tomorrow if that’s ok. Usually, it is. That won’t leave you feeling guilty that you’ve left a person hanging in the unknown.
7. You may want to delete Slack and other work-related apps from your phone altogether. No work until you sit by the laptop and no work after you close it, creating a clear and specific mindset of where and when you work. Say no to FOMO!

Written Communication

Clear and well-written communication is important to convey your messages and to allow the whole team to take part in discussions and decision-making processes. Assume communication to be asynchronous by nature because in a global team everyone works at a different time. Some tools we use for written communication are Slack, Notion and GitLab. We also created a group on WhatsApp but only for emergency situations, usually to call for meetings or contact someone immediately when needed.

Meetings

Aim to have as many meetings as necessary, but as few as possible. Many things can be discussed in writing, but some face-to-face time in a video call is also necessary for a remote setting. We always start a new project with an online meeting for a briefing session. Each team agrees on their own meeting schedule, but once per week seems to be the average frequency.

An important place for getting new information, learning from your team members and getting to know everyone is the weekly company-wide all-hands meeting called [br_general] on our Slack workspace. We expect everyone to participate because it’s a unique team-building opportunity in a remote setting. Wwe aim to achieve a strong team spirit with all our employees.

Wellbeing

There are countless benefits to working remotely, but it also requires paying extra attention to your physical and mental well-being. Since there are no fixed office hours you need strong self-discipline to establish a healthy work-life balance. Make sure to take breaks during the day, exercise, eat healthily and have a life outside of work. Turn off Slack when your day is done or when you have a day off. Consider joining a co-working space to avoid isolation.

Media About Remote Work

Two books were a great inspiration to us when we started our remote path and we would like to suggest them as a worth-reading experience and to offer you more guidance to your work in our team.

• Remote by Jason Fired and DHH (Basecamp)
• A Year Without Pants by Scott Berkun (WordPress)

There are also great TED Talks discussing remote work. There is no urge to watch all of them, but they are worth checking out during your free time to help you to create a more balanced work-life routine.

• Playlist: How to get into a work-from-home mindset
• The Surprising Power of Remote Work by Sam Kern
• Remotely productive: you can work from home by Jay Hayes
• 3 steps to stop remote work burnout by Morra Aarons-Mele

Conclusion

Even if your team is working from the comfort of their houses, burnout and stress are real possibilities. To balance your team’s productivity with their well-being we wrote this article based on our experience. We hope these tips will help you improve your remote work overall performance.

If you already had remote work experiences feel free to share them with us and our team and make recommendations of other media we can include in our list. You can also check our website.