3 communication tips in a time of remote work and covid19

Good communication can be challenging in the best of times, the #covid19outbreak has brought that challenge up several notches.

The past few weeks has been a sometimes painful education in good communication for myself and my team at Supahands, so here are 3 tips for maintaining good and strong communication across your team while #workingfromhome

Channel your communications

Reduce noise, one wouldn't believe the amount of noise that can be conjured up across your communication channels ranging from chat, email and project management tools. My strategy has been to channel types of communication into the right platform, reports into emails, need to answer now into calls, chats for small updates etc.

Call someone

Pick up the phone. Nuance can be difficult to deliver via chat/email, just call people and settle the discussion, write a summary email or group chat message later. Do this instead of ping-ponging over chat/email.

Office hours

Clear starts and stops, we are all trying to maximise our productivity and deliver value in these trying times. It can be difficult to determine when exactly the day starts/ends when you spend 24 hours in sweat pants staring at your cat, but it is important to communicate to your counterparts and team members your working hours. Google calendar has this handy feature that let's you set office hours, I am sure this feature is also available in other platforms like Outlook or Groupwise.

The freebie

I mentioned that I had 3 tips, but here's a freebie 4th tip. To keep all the tasks and todos straight in my head, I write a summary email to myself at the end of the day, the great thing about these emails is that if you need to do a daily update email to your boss, you can just send this email. I keep it simple in the email, wins, losses, could have done betters, and finally next steps.

I hope the tips have been helpful and useful to you, we are lucky that we are still working and holding down a job in these trying times, stay safe out there!

**Edited for clarity**