Hey there! Welcome to “the future” of work and learning! A future where you meet new people, collaborate, discover, grow, and impact the world through digital spaces, such as this one 🙂 Many of us have experienced more and more the digitization of common affairs involved in work and study, generating content for people to read or watch, creating interactive experiences to learn through, creating collaboration tools to gather people around common goals, … more and more we see this transformation happening and with the global pandemic we have seen what was once an option become a necessity for many.

I myself have been working remotely for the past two years with Atlassian, leading teams of engineers, hiring new Atlassians, and discovering ways to connect people and work in as balanced a way as possible. Before this, I was lucky to have experienced partial remoteness, where for 2 years I worked half the time from wherever I chose to 🚀 These experiences, though very different in context and time, have shown me there are a couple of important things to always keep in mind when working or studying remotely, the key pointers being:

• 🎳 Be clear about what you plan to do with others
• 💪 Be aware of your use of time
• 👷‍♂️ Be the architect of your space
• 🎭 Acknowledge the benefits and limitations of remoteness

Not necessarily in this order of importance as that will depend on your personal strengths and personal situations. But overall, there are a few things here that relate to all remote workers I’ve collaborated with and coached so far.

🎳 What you plan to do

This to me is possibly the most important piece of the remote puzzle. When working or studying remotely we tend to miss the social drive that keeps us going or helps us shift gears to focus on what is most important to do next. Typical situations might range from having a study mate poke you to remind you it’s time to go to a lab session or having your colleague pull you over to an important meeting that you’d forgotten about. When remote, having a plan for AT LEAST the day ahead is very important.

You’ll not only have a sense of what your goal for the day is, but also will have asked yourself some important questions to keep you going on the right path:

• What is the most important thing in my plan for today?
• What are others expecting from me?
• What commitments do I have to uphold? And can I keep them or do I have to inform others that we need to reset expectations?

Pro-tip: Once you have this plan clear to you, share it! You’ll have others’ approval of it or they’ll call out gaps in your thinking or remind you of something you might have forgotten 🧠 Also, your teammates and managers will love you for it! ❤️

💪 Awareness of your use of time

Time can fly when you are remote! You might be in the zone, with no distractions, and fully immersed in something. Other days, time might feel like it’s dragging its feet and every minute feels like an hour. Neither are particularly healthy situations. 🙂

As part of your plan to understand what you need to do, plan out when you are going to do it. Though this might sound like a silly task, don’t underestimate the value of it. The goal is not to put on a calendar a 9 to 5 block with an hour in the middle to eat. Rather, think about when you are most productive to do particular things and block those times out.

To give you an example, I write best first thing in the morning and generally get to typing at 7-am and only do it 3 days a week to ensure I have several days of morning relaxation and games with my kids. My sports session needs to happen when my wife is back from her office (she is not remote 😜) or during my working hours. To ensure it is a repeatable routine, I made a deal with my wife and set it twice a week after work. During working hours I then overlap particular projects I have to work on with the meetings I have set up with the members of those projects, to make our catch-ups both social and productive.

Pro-tip: Really think about where you are going to be, with who, your likely energy levels, … to choose when you are best placed to do something. You might very well not get it perfect, so don’t dwell tooooo much on it. But giving it a little extra thought will do you wonders!

👷‍♂️ Architect of your space

You might be very limited in what you can do with where you perform your work or study. I’ve seen people working from their kitchens, terrace, children’s bed, on the floor, on top of boxes, … Regardless, there are always a few things you can do to make your life better.

My top tip is to acknowledge your human need for food and water and always start your day with a bottle of water and something quick to eat, such as fruit or nuts or any quick healthy snack, right next to you. It will give you a good source of fuel and introduce natural breaks into your time.

Ensure you have good light. You are going to be looking at a screen for many hours, be it reading, watching videos, creating content, or talking with others over video conference. Take care of your eyes.

Take some time to think about how you sit or stand. Your spinal cord will thank you, today and when you are older. There are plenty of guides around ergonomics out there. Here is one example among many. As always, if in doubt, Google and Youtube are your friends. 🙂

🎭 Benefits and limitations of remoteness

To leave you with a final thought, take this as a certainty: remote is here to stay. It’s a new paradigm we need to adjust to and one where many of our commonsense understandings don’t hold true. It comes with great things, like the freedom of geolocation and time management, and with challenges, like geolocation and time management 😃 If you feel like you struggle with it, don’t be silent. Talk to others about your pains and how you can use your strengths and friends to best overcome them. You might look around your room and only see yourself, but you are far from being alone. 🤘