Remote Working Best Practices
General Best Practices
- Whatever communication platform you use and there are many! - make sure your whole team (or client) knows it, and stick to it. Using multiple platforms gets confusing, and is just unmanageable.
- Make sure your notifications are on! - aim to reply preferably in a couple of hours, or if it needs to be later than End Of Day (EOD) send a receipt note (or a thumbs-up emoji?).
- Use message platforms for quick communications - emails for longer topics. Starting a running/shared document (like google docs) is a good way to avoid long email chains and work asynchronously.
- Quick and short messages on a Friday are an easy way to communicate with your team (or client) what you are working on, where you're at with the work.
- If in doubt, over-communicate, more is less, more or less. The clearer you can be the less confusion along the way.
- Use the “information handshake” - add context wherever possible, like examples or meta situations.
- Consider: “Yes sure I can do that” vs “Yes I’ll get all THIS done by EOD”
- Create a comfortable work environment - a good table and chair.
- If you are having trouble with productivity, try the Pomodoro technique.
Platforms
- Chat tool/service
- Group chats are useful for brief conversations between a consistent set of people. The conversation will be private to that set of people and if you add someone to a group chat the history will not be copied. Group chats can have history on or off.
- Chat Rooms are persistent topic-based discussions, people can come and go and the topic will stay there. All chat rooms have history on.
- If your team is working on various projects, you can create a room/project.
- Slack
- Slack is great for managing remote teams - you can create channels for different topics and reply in threads to avoid confusion. Cons - you need to pay to access all the features.
- Find Slack’s best practices here.
- Google Calendar
- Make sure all events are modifiable
- If there is a running doc (recommended) include it in the event description
- Add agenda topics ahead of the meeting to guide the conversation
- Keep your calendar up to date - and include DNS time for deep work
- Google Hangouts/whereby/Skype etc.
- Arrive on time
- Put camera on mute when you’re not talking and make sure you’re somewhere quiet with strong wifi
- Use the chat for key links or ideas/conversation aides
Wellness
- Don’t work from bed and make sure you dress appropriately for work - psychologically it will help.
- Keep to your working hours - turn off notifications and truly stay offline to avoid burnout.
- Put lunch/exercise time in your calendar so others know you’ll be away from your keyboard (AFK-Away From Keyboard).
- Aim to do some exercise every day.
- Nike and others have free apps with workouts of varying levels which you can do at home. Jogging is also quite meditative.
- Keep your eye out for remote events - socialising doesn’t always have to happen in person!
Stuart De Ville is the director of a small (not so small) indie game studio Zap Pop Pow, as well as creative director to Compliance Rocks, on top of being a co-organiser of Game Dev Lunch London! He is a career creative and never stops working, no matter how many projects he has, he's always looking for the next one. He's also a stay at home father to a bouncy 20-month-old boy, he's forgotten what sleep is, and he enjoys talking in the third person.
Resources
- Remotive: Guide to Working Remotely (for employees, managers and leaders)
- HBR: How to Communicate Effectively If Your Team is Remote
- Doist: 5 Habits for Crafting the Perfect Remote Work Day
- FYI: 11 Best Practices for Working Remotely
- CMX: Online Events