ARTICLE SUMMARY
Can you imagine how great it would be to wake up, have breakfast without worrying about how much time you'll spend stuck in traffic then going to work at your own home office?
Can you imagine how great it would be to wake up, have breakfast without worrying about how much time you’ll spend stuck in traffic then going to work at your own home office?
What about being able to travel anywhere and work facing the rainforest or a beautiful beach (we don’t advise you actually work at the beach, though, sand is not good for your electronic gadgets).
Well, good news for you – that’s not a distant reality. Remote working is one of the largest growing trends among tech, marketing and many other professionals from different areas of expertise.
Remote Working: How Does it Work?
It’s a big cliche to say so but happy people work better and produce more. That’s because your work conditions influence way more than just your basic productivity – a good work environment makes people more inspired, engaged and prone to innovate.
One of the best alternatives companies all over the world are experimenting with in order to improve work experience is offering flexible work solutions (such as remote working or working from home).
Remote working may bring numerous advantages for both the company and employees, but you must bear in mind that’s not necessarily the best option for all companies and/or job positions.
Is Remote Working a Good Alternative for You?
As we’ve pointed out above, remote working may not be right for everyone. How can you find out whether you’d be good at working remotely or a complete failure? Well, there are a few traits you must have in order to succeed at it.
Discipline:
It can be rather difficult to focus and manage your time when you have to juggle your domestic problems and tasks, go to the grocery store, bathe and take your kid to school, etc.
If you tend to procrastinate your work in order to solve your other problems, remote working may be especially challenging for you.
Personality:
While some people find it easy to work from home (or even traveling all around the world like digital nomads), others find it hard for many reasons.
Some say they can’t focus away from all distractions, others need to be closely supervised by a superior or even just have a specific office environment in order to concentrate. That’s a not a bad thing if you don’t think you’d excel at remote working, it just means your personality is not suited for it.
Motivation:
Waking up early, showering and getting dressed early to get to work may get hard at times. Self-motivated people are much better at remote working than those that depend on external motivation. Some people really need to be closely managed to stay focused and that’s not necessarily a bad thing – it just means that working outside a traditional work environment may not be good for you.
Workplace:
Defining a workplace (far from any distractions such as your Smart TV on Netflix) is essential for remote workers. Sometimes people abuse the liberty remote working gives and end up working from their bed, leaving the TV on while working or even being constantly interrupted by their family/roommates.
While remote working you have to keep in mind (and let other people know) that even though you’re physically at home, you’re actually working and need to concentrate.
I worked remotely from quite a long period of time while the rest of Pipefy‘s team was undergoing the 500 Startups Acceleration Program in San Francisco and I can safely say that letting people know you’ll be working from 9 to 5 (and don’t want to be interrupted) can make all the difference.
Of course, some days I did let myself work from bed in my pj’s but that’s a big no-no. If you really want to succeed at remote working, stick to a work routine – get up, get dressed as if you were going to the office and have your distraction-free work station duly set up.
Time and Resource Planning:
Working remotely (especially if you’re a digital nomad) means you always (and I stress, ALWAYS) plan ahead to have all the resources you’ll need to do your work. Split your tasks between those that require internet access and those that can be done offline.
Find good, work-friendly cafes or even coworking spaces before you travel, that way you won’t need to worry about it once you get there.
Equipment:
You don’t really need a lot to work remotely, a good laptop, some post-it notes, good internet and some source of electricity, and you’re good to go.
Connectivity:
Some tools, such as Slack or Skype make it a lot easier to communicate with your team from your home office (or anywhere else in the world).
Working Hours:
Whether you’re working from home or a digital nomad working from a different country every week, you have to have defined working hours (adapting to the time zone you’re at, of course).
Also, make sure to let your boss (or your customers) know what are you’re working hours and commit to answer all requests within 24hrs.
Are you having a hard time staying motivated while working remotely? Check out this article to learn a few ways you can boost motivation while working away from the office!
Manage Remote Working with Pipefy!
Pipefy’s structure allows you to manage everything you want, from creating separate pipes for each different customer to know what’s next on your to-do list or reporting to your boss.
Instead of constantly dealing with tons of apps, email threads and post-it notes glued all over your notebook, what about organizing all that in a platform that makes it easier to collaborate (with associates and clients), easily keeping track of all project’s steps and exchanging ideas and notes where they need to be, instead of spread all over a generic task board?
On Pipefy you’re able to create as many Pipes (processes) as you wish to and keep track of everything you need to keep track of while on the road, both personal and professional tasks.
