Working remotely from home isn't for everyone, but it’s something that most of us have had to do in the last year. The pandemic has changed the concerns that we’ve had about working from home and businesses who have previously refused to allow people to work from home have had no choice. This has changed the landscape of business massively and yet some people are still trying to make remote work work for them. We may be a year on, but the public health concerns over COVID haven't gone away, so you have to do everything that you can to ensure that remote work works for you and it’s as successful as possible.

Remote working shouldn't be stressful and if it is, you’re doing it wrong. You can discuss file sharing software with your management team to make working collaboratively easy even from a distance. The good news is that you can make remote working easier and it doesn't take much to make that happen. You can stay focused and keep your team working productively when they are working remotely, and we’ve got some of the best tips that you can make remote work better for your whole office.

1. Pick one way to communicate and stick to it! It’s so hard to work remotely while managing text messages, online chat bots, telephone calls and file sharing websites. You need to choose one platform for communication for your team and that’s it so that you can all be on the same page. Messaging platforms are great for day to day conversations but you need a space that will minimize confusion. That’s why you should only choose one!

2. Check in with your team regularly. One of the biggest benefits of being at home is that you can focus on checking in with your staff on a one to one basis. The biggest downfall that you could have in the office is being distracted but when you work remotely, you also communicate remotely. You can check in with people one to one regularly and you can ensure that everything is going smoothly - all from the comfort of your home.

3. Manage your schedule. Creating a schedule for working and talking to people from your office is important. When you break down everything into a schedule, you can manage your time in chunks and you can ensure that you get everything done when you plan to do it.

4. Delegate. Even working from home, you can avoid the bottleneck of work by delegating out to your team everything that you need. You can set up a shared calendar and ensure that you give your team remote access, allowing people to input their own time off and meetings. You can use plenty of platforms to share files and more and you can ensure that your whole team uses the same one. 

5. Keeping your meetings small. Remote working allows you to keep your team meetings smaller and if there are any virtual meetings required, you can make it possible for any member of the team to be there. You can then let everyone know of the meetings by sending one message to a group. You can still keep your meetings small, however, and ensure that you only bring in the people who need to be involved at any one time. 

6. You can agree on agendas. Before you start any meetings when you’re remote working, agree on the agenda of the meeting before you have everyone attend. This can help you to narrow down whether you need to be sitting in a meeting in the first place, and you can then ask all participants to contribute to the meeting in a way that is valuable. You also have time to prepare for these meetings when you know the agenda in advance.

7. Share your documents between teams. Remote working can be harder when you can’t walk across the office to ask questions on a shared project. However, when you work online with your team, you can still discuss your work and share your documents between teams. This will allow you to get the responses that you need and get the answers to your projects, too. You can collaborate better and work together, too.

8. Improve your working environment. If you want to get a lot done during the day, it’s critical to improve your working environment in any way you can. Abstract seascape paintings, better lighting, a more comfortable chair – it can all make a difference. Setting up your office space for work can help you get more done and give you peace of mind. It’s so much better than the kitchen table.

Remote working isn't supposed to be hard, though it does take some getting used to when you’re not used to it. However, with the right planning, you can ensure that this is something that works better for you. Working remotely is not always easy but you can make it easier with the tips we’ve gone over!