My thoughts around how to embrace remote working and Covid-19

Is it right for you?

Depending on what industry you work in there may be a time where you could have an opportunity to work from home, that sounds great to some people but you’ve first got to ask yourself the question – is remote working right for me? Lots of people love the work they do and part of that is how they go about doing it. The fact that you travel to an office, speak with team members face to face is half the reason people choose to stay where they are – the question I’d like to ask is – if that was all stripped away would you still enjoy what you do?

Remote working is a mindset

Your alarm clock goes off, you start your day and go out to work knowing your destination and the time you need to be there, straight away you have tasks to complete. You’re in the zone and feel comfortable with that – a structured routine is in place and you adhere to it. Remote working is the same, you just need to change your mindset. Get a new routine, a clean office space, dress as if you’re gong to work, get a play list lined up on Spotify, strong coffee is key and create your own task list that’s achievable – this is your day now, embrace it!

Communication

Whether you work within a team or directly with a client – communication is by far the most important practice. It’s good to keep checking in as you would if you were physically in the office, so you can keep up the same mentality of idea generation, impulsive conversation and social connection.

My advice is to let the other party know that you are engaged as a service or as a collaborative team member. This is especially important at the start of any remote project where the end client isn’t fully educated about how it will work. The key thing is to develop a relationship, develop trust and educate your process and working practices.

Mental and physical health

It’s important that you also have a structured routine in place for your physical health. People can loose themselves in their work without distraction, which can be a good and bad thing. It’s great you are able to focus, but do you have the ability to STOP? My advice is you need to be strict about your health as well as your work, go for a walk or a run, breathe in the fresh air and get away from your desk. It’s dangerous to be sat down all day and then not move around much in the evenings. Get out for at least half an hour and exercise your physical and mental health – it’s part of the success of being able to work remotely.

Ways of working

If the right systems are in place, and the right people are on board, managers should have no more issues with a remote workforce than they would with a local one. There are lots of tools out there that brings us closer together such as Slack, Google Meet, Skype, Zoom and platforms like Trello and Jira means we have everything available to delver work wherever we live – location shouldn’t be a barrier to access talent.

I’ve recently had the chance to work with Richard on a responsive web design brief. Even though we collaborated remotely I found the communication and feedback to be very effective, but most importantly I discovered someone who has mastered a creative process that was necessary to excel a brilliant standard.

Conclusion

I’ve been freelance now for about 10 years and things have changed rapidly over that period, remote working being one of them. The recent pandemic of COVID-19 I think will change the post outlook across many businesses in the way they operate. We have had to adjust to uncertain times and this is an education for change – and in many respects, long overdue.

My prediction is that this forced experiment that’s upon us will diversify the mindset of a lot more businesses in the future and leave the question – why our world wasn’t working more freely in this way before now?