Remote working hacks from veteran remote workers

Having been working as a remote team for over a decade, we’ve picked up a few tips and tricks along the way. Here’s our best remote working hacks fresh off our Slack team chat to help you stay motivated and productive while working from home.

1. Split up your day into small segments, whether hourly or 2-hour blocks, and set a task or project to work on for each block. You’ll always need to be flexible but it will give you a good start on time management.

2. Switch on your webcam for video calls. It will force you to look presentable and dress for work mode.

3. Free your feet, they will appreciate not wearing shoes and socks for extended periods of time and will give you the type of zen only yoga masters know.

4. Create a separate space just for work, whether a desk or part of a room, and do not go back to this home office after shutting down your computer for the day.

5. You’re going to need to invest in a good chair. Checkout eBay or google refurbished office chairs as you can find director’s office quality for lowly desk officer prices.

6. Switch things up from home office to coffee shop or other space during your week to have a change of scenery and see other humans in the flesh.

7. Create a work profile in your browser where you will be logged into your employee e-mail and have access only to the tools you use at work.

8. Take phone calls while on the move, place home workout equipment near your workspace if possible, stick a mini basketball hoop on the wall, anything to get you away from the screen and moving.

9. Try having a virtual lunch with colleagues. If you’re anything like us it will turn into Masterchef with the homemade offerings each colleague can conjure up. Great for team bonding and breaking monotony of eating alone.

10. If you have a family at home, share your work schedule with your partner. Clearly communicating your availability day-to-day will help to establish boundaries.

11. Playlists, playlists, playlists. You’re going to need plenty of them and good streaming sites or apps. Current favourites are lofi hip hop radio and Cal-TV. Mixcloud in general is great for discovering good playlists.