Top 4 tips to create a remote working environment

Working remotely from home can be a very productive alternative to working in an office. 

Some advantages include: reduction in commute times, saving on expenses (gas, car insurance), and hassle of leasing expensive commercial real estate in the center of the city. 

Remote work has become the norm for many industries. 

Our company runs remotely too.

It’s a shift that's likely to continue as more companies look to take on workers remotely, or as technology improves. 

Effective remote work creates a productive work environment. 

Here are some ways to create a productive remote work environment

1.Establish clear communication channels

The main problem of working remotely is the lack of communication. Lack of communication results in misunderstandings and delays. Wouldn’t it be nice if your work computers were linked to our brains? So whenever your co-worker has an update, you’ll instantly know and get the full rundown of what is going on in the company.

But until telepathy becomes a reality - we have to manage with traditional tools. 

In a remote or hybrid working environment, you must have a very good communication system set up. Whether you choose to use email, Skype, Google Hangouts or Slack - make sure that you are constantly in contact with your co-workers. It should be like a well oiled machine - if one cog breaks down, it will affect the whole team.

2.Ensure redundant and fast connectivity 

Intermittent and slow internet connections put an end to productivity. Having an internet connection go down is one of the worst experiences you can have when working from home.

If you work from home, or for a company that requires you to work remotely, your access to the internet is vital. If you have a freelance business, an outage could mean losing out on potential new business – it’s definitely not an ideal situation! To avoid this and enjoy more peace of mind about your internet connection stability, I recommend using a dedicated internet connection.

And if your budget allows - get a second internet connection from a different provider for redundancy. Or at the very least set up your home office to use your mobile data in case of emergencies.

3.Invest in internet security 

The best thing about the internet is its ability to connect with almost everyone. That also means, for bad actors out there, anytime they have a chance to get your information, they will go for it.

Data loss is one of the biggest issues in the digital age. Even if you don’t have a lot of valuable info, all it takes is one mistake for your identity to be stolen, which can greatly affect the rest of your life.

As information flows freely across the internet, protecting it gives you an added layer of security. It helps safeguard you against identity crime, financial theft and data loss.

So install tools like anti-virus and firewalls to prevent unauthorized access to your systems. Also update your operating systems and wifi router’s firmware on a regular basis.

4.Use a common project management tool

In projects with multiple tasks or sub-projects, we often find it difficult to keep track of all the different tasks and sub-tasks. 

The effect is that some tasks can be forgotten, others aren't completed on time. This makes it almost impossible to work remotely since there is no way for you to keep in-the-loop about what needs to be done and by whom. And then everyone keeps blaming each other for a lack of progress. 

A cloud-enabled solution that keeps everyone in the loop at all times - even when people are away from their desks.

One of the main challenges for us was finding a flexible project management tool which can allow us to customize the workflow according to our needs. 

We looked at many tools like JIRA, Trello, Asana etc.

At the end we picked ClickUp.  

Clickup helps in many ways: tracking time, creating agendas, organizing materials and files, managing tasks, collaborating on a project, communicating effectively and so on.

The key ingredients for creating an effective remote work environment include taking proper advantage of telework software available for free or cheap, encouraging your team members to participate actively in professional development programs available through your company, setting consistent rules for working hours and location, and fostering an atmosphere in which work can be pursued without disrupting personal commitments.

Want to go remote? Let us help you.

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