Working From Home is Hard. Here is What is Working For Me

I’m writing this from my new makeshift office on my kitchen counter; coffee and hand sanitizer near by of course. It’s been about 21 days since we asked the Lipa Later team to begin working from home as per government guidelines and regulations;  fortunately enough, we are still getting plenty of work done. Our teams health and well being is always our top most priority so making the decision to work from home was a no brainer. 

With that being said, I’ve never really been the biggest fan of fully distributed teams. I’ve never quite understood how teams are able to thrive without the culture and comradery that is born out of being in the same physical space. Fans of distributed teams say that we are getting a glimpse of their glorious commute and office free lifestyle and that we are witnessing first hand a forced ‘distributed work revolution’. 

Don’t get me wrong: Working from home is a good option for new parents, people with disabilities and others who aren’t well served by a traditional office setup and I’m sympathetic to the millions of teachers, restaurant workers and other professionals for whom working from home has never been a viable option.

While my views on the pros and cons on working from home continue to lean more towards the cons side, I have also taken this as an opportunity to think through and begin to implement a long overdue culture of work flexibility. I started by identifying what are some of the best practices that work for me and below are a few of them:

1.    Develop a Routine and Stick to it:- Having a simple routine that gets you in the right mind set to be productive is critical to getting things done. Waking up whenever you want and/or doing random ad hoc activities everyday will keep you in an unfocused state of mind and have you playing catch up with your work instead of being on top of things. 

2.    Jump on your Zoom or Hangouts Calls BEFORE TIME:- The most frustrating thing I’ve found with meetings online while WFH is the constant ‘hellos’ and ‘can you hear me?’. Studies say that a bad internet connection can cost you up to 15 minutes for every 60 minutes call. Jumping on the call early and confirming that your connection is stable and that you have everything set for your meeting will amplify your efficiency. 

3.    Daily Check Ins– This is critical; having daily check ins and aligning on important PPPs(Plans, Problems and Progress) your team is making enhances the team spirit and cohesion. While working from home creates ‘distance’ these check ins really bring the team closer together and significantly improves the communication all across the board; probably even better than it would have been if you were locked up in the office.

4.    Trust the team-This is arguably one of the most important virtues of any team. It’s even more important when you are not physically together and can not visually confirm that ‘things are getting done’. We need to deeply and genuinely believe that everyone in the team is working as hard as they can and are all carrying their weight. I’ve come to learn that if you can’t believe and feel that way about your team, the issue is probably a lot deeper than just not working from the same space. 

I’m still getting a hang of dealing and working with a distributed team and this list of what I’ve found working is in no way exhaustive but I hope it helps other founders going through the same steep learning curve that I’m going through during this turbulent period.