Tips & Tricks for Remote Tech Writers

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While remote work (also known as WFH, or work from home) has existed in corporate America for decades, the COVID pandemic brought the topic of a dispersed workforce front and center. In the process, both companies and employees learned if they actually liked it. Although controversial (CEOs such as JPMorgan's Jamie Dimon, IBM's Arvind Krishna, Martha Stewart, and Tesla's Elon Musk have vocally opposed it), remote work offers a variety of pros and cons.

This is a good point for me to admit my bias. I believe that many remote work use cases provide more pros than cons. At least for me and a few million others (your mileage may vary). For knowledge workers like IT professionals and technical writers, I think it's a great option that offers practicality. It can increase productivity and lower expenses for both employers and staffers.

Remote Work: My Personal Observations

I have personally successfully executed many remote technical writing and documentation projects, some for Fortune 200 enterprises and others for considerably smaller clients. One large advantage: Organizations that embrace remote work can hire from anywhere in the country, not just locally. This improves recruiting effectiveness in a major way, making life easier for the human resources department.

One of my clients required its local staff to visit the office every Tuesday. Because the company didn't need to provide a permanent space for each employee in the central office, it was able to save big bucks on commercial real estate. But the thing I noticed most was that their employees seemed happier and more content than their peers who commute. Was that because they didn't have to endure a stress-filled stop-and-go drive to work every day? Perhaps.

Remote Work: Tips & Tricks

A variety of strategies can help remote IT works and technical writers. Often, employees or companies that declare remote work a bad thing have failed to properly prepare themselves for such a job arrangement—both in terms of mindset and equipment.

To adequately execute your technical writing projects remotely, you need more than a webcam. The success of remote work hinges on a client or employer with a corporate culture that fosters it. Regardless of any inherent theoretical advantages of remote work, you're screwed if your boss and the C suite don't buy in.

One of my recent clients, a credit union, became a fully remote company following the pandemic. A significant percentage of the organization's employees were located thousands of miles from its San Francisco headquarters. Even local staff were required to visit the office only one day each week. Video meetings and reliance on cloud-based collaborative platforms (in this case, MS Teams) was a big part of their adoption of a remote work culture.

Avoid Distractions: The notion that some people are just naturally not suited for remote work is true. For a few, the ready temptation of television, the fridge, the gameroom, or the pool or hottub is just too much. I've known a few people during my career who actually preferred to leave their home and commute to an office or work site. They desired the distinct separation of home life and work life.

Avoiding distractions is obviously an exercise in discipline and rigor. Just as a Marine cadet must possess and display tremendous amounts of self-discipline, remote workers have to devise strategies to reduce distractions and stick to them.

For some, particularly those in metro areas, this involves a number of strategies. These include noise cancelling headphones to block out the din of street traffic, commercial airliners, or noisy neighbors. Young children can also be a serious distraction (if you're adopting remote work to save money on child care, you probably won't experience success). Working within eye shot of a window that provides a clear view of frenetic activity outside, such as a busy street, is another common distraction.

Basements are great for home offices. They are quieter, lack large windows, and typically involve fewer distractions. Get yourself a dorm fridge and a comfy ergo chair and begin cranking out those enterprise technical documents! Bonus: You can remain productive during a tornado.

Invest in a Standing Desk: Beginning at well under $1,000, standing desks offer remote workers flexibility and productivity improvements.

Standing desks aren't merely cool toys, allowing a quick but dramatic change of your work. They're also healthier than sitting all day. Research has shown that standing is better (if you have an Apple Watch and use the Fitness app, you already know this). Most office workers are in a seated position for what experts say is way too long every day. A variety of standing and sitting is much better.

The two best standing desk companies in the United States, in my humble opinion, are Uplift Desk and Vari (both, coincidentally, from the great state of Texas). Those on a budget should check out Wayfair; a friend recently purchased an entry-level desk, ergo chair, and two monitor mounts for under $500.

Pro Tip: Video conferencing via webcam can be quickly fine tuned by adjusting the height of a standing desk. I love this part about them, because it saved me from having to purchase an adjustable stand for my webcam. Now I just move the entire desk up or down to satisfy my needs.

Get Dual Monitors: I know, that sounds like a tech bro statement. But dude, you gotta get yourself a dual monitor setup, man. Seriously, though, I have never enjoyed a better increase in productivity than when at a workstation with two monitors.

The size of the monitors is less important than having two. A dual setup allows IT pros and tech writers to do important things like document comparisons and to shuffle apps and browser tabs between displays, compartmentalizing content.

If you perceive that migrating to two monitors is too expensive, you haven't checked the prices lately. I recently upgraded my workstation with two beautiful Samsung 28" 4K monitors for under $300 each. Add a deluxe dual-arm monitor stand for $130 and the total tab is well under a grand. In my opinion, this is a small price to pay if you spend 40-60 hours per week at your workstation.

Purchase LED Lamps: Remote work is infamous for featuring plenty of video meetings. Regardless of the service, improving your lighting game is a great way to increase your professionalism and self-confidence.

Whether you get a ring light (sometimes called a donut) or other form factor, workstation LED lamps are available from a large number of vendors and in a wide range of prices and feature sets.

Technically, two separate lights positioned at the left and right side of the desk better eliminates shadows than single-source lighting. That said, great results can be achieved with an inexpensive donut LED light.

My personal choice was Lume Cube's Edge Light 2.0 2-Pack. Each unit features a stunning 112 individual LEDs to provide even, professional lighting and is fully brightness and color adjustable. In addition, this lamp includes USB-C and USB-A charging ports, a slick feature that helps me minimize desk clutter and avoid running out of ports on my USB hub.

Indulge in a Few Creature Comforts: If the idea of an premium office chair like a Herman Miller or a top shelf desktop fan such as a Dyson gets you excited about spending time in your home office, jump on it. This is a serious—and often overlooked—consideration when planning or upgrading a home office workstation.

Personally, my indulgence was a headphone amp and premium cans. While not cheap, I utilize the amp and headphones almost daily. These devices make me want to spend time at my workstation, a fact that increases my productivity and personal satisfaction with my job.

Other homer office elements that may help you get your head in the right space include art and sculptures, decorative plants, dimmable lighting, a foot rest, motion boards (for use with a standing desk when elevated), and audiophile speakers. A beverage fridge or battery-powered heated coffee mug may reduce unwanted trips to the kitchen and improve productivity, particularly for those working on strict deadlines or who suffer mobility challenges.

Pro Tip: Don't Waste Money on a 4K Webcam

Don't waste money on a 4K webcam. That said, laptop users should upgrade to an external USB webcam. Most laptops, even top-end models, feature a 720p webcam that's junk in low light conditions and suffers a number of other deficiencies.

Unless you're creating videos for YouTube that must be 4K, there's no need to invest in a 4K webcam. Why? Most video conferencing platforms don't currently support 4K video. Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom all allow a maximum video resolution of 1080p at 30 fps (frames per second).

After I learned this, I saved a few bucks by investing in a Logitech 1080p webcam. Right now, there just isn't a compelling business case to embrace 4K for daily remote worker meetings (the reliability of video conferencing is flakey enough as it is). A much better investment is one or more LED lamps that will improve any video meeting.

Good Luck

While highly controversial, remote work is a good fit for many IT professionals. But be warned: You'll probably be unhappy if you (or your employer) doesn't invest in some basic equipment, including a standing desk, LED light, a nice external webcam, an ergo chair, and whatever creature comforts motivate you to begin tapping on your keyboard.

Perhaps the most critical thing for remote knowledge workers, however, is the avoidance of distractions. It's important to remember that remote work isn't for everyone. Without the right attitude, environment, equipment, and management support, even the most positive use case is doomed to failure.

But that's just my opinion. Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

— Curt Robbins, Senior Technical Writer

P.S.: I'm currently taking on new clients. I enjoy helping companies with their documentation and communications strategy and implementation. Contact me to learn about my reasonable rates and fast turnaround.