5 Rules for Remote Working

Time to barricade yourself at home. Self-quarantine. Zombie-apocalypse-style. Well, if the media hype is to be believed. But you’ve got wi-fi and Amazon will still deliver so you’ll still get your work done.

We ditched our office and went remote about eighteen months ago. Maybe our tips can help you survive self-imposed homeworking.

1. Video conference. You’ll be distracted by the state of your hair in the morning but soon enough you’ll get blasé about being on screen. At Nisus we have a daily stand-up via Microsoft Teams. It’s essential to update each other on what you’re working on, share any issues and complain about the weather together. Do insist everyone gets the best speed package available. Then embrace the fact that you only have to get dressed from the waist up.

2.    Set boundaries. Yes, you have flexibility and autonomy over your time. But the most common problem with working from home is that you don’t have a barrier between personal and professional. Your working hours bleed into your personal time. So be clear about your working day and know when to start and stop. Ideally a separate workspace – even if it’s a just a dedicated desk for rather than a separate study – allows you to mentally clock in and out to know the difference.

3.    Get out. Wearing your anti-virus suit and breathing apparatus, obviously. But get outdoors, take in some air and get some exercise at the same time. You need breaks. I think at Nisus we all make sure we take a walk. Maybe it’s for school pick-up or a lunchtime stroll. I generally break up my day by going out and working from a local coffee shop for an hour because the change of scenery stops me going stale. At least half of the team are obsessed with our steps on Fitbit so that’s one way of tracking whether you’re doing it right.

4.    Make calls. You’ll get more done because of the lack of distractions. But you’ll also risk feeling a bit, well, lonely to be honest. I understand that having a dog or cat to talk to helps. Especially if it talks back. But otherwise, pause before you bash out your twentieth email of the day and ask yourself should this be a phone call? Would it be more effective to discuss the content rather than type it and might it just cheer you up to chat for a bit? Increasingly I find it a pleasant surprise to receive a call rather than yet another email.

5.    Pick up the perks. The dirty secret of home working is you get your laundry done mid-week. No more is your weekend clogged by household chores! And who needs an actual Pomodoro timer for time management when you set a load of washing or the dishwasher programme?! Domestic bliss awaits when your laundry is fit in between those high-pressure contract negotiations and a five-year strategy review. Nobody talks about this because it sounds unprofessional, and it is, but it’s also a perk of working from home.

They’re my techniques. What are your hacks? You might just help save us all from COVID-19.