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Whether you're a telecommuting veteran, or in the early stages of approaching your management with a telecommute proposal, you know that working away from the center of the action has its challenges.
My co-worker Cynthia works from her rural Eastern Washington community. In a recent e-mail exchange, she shared tips and tools about telecommuting and working remotely that were so good that I thought I'd pass them on to you.
According to Cynthia, you are the primary resource in your remote work arrangement, so start with what you know and prefer and shape your own working experience:
Write down your working style, schedule, and habits in 3 – 5 sentences. If you can be clear with yourself, you’ll set up a routine in your home or office space to support those preferences. Communicate your preferences with your manager, and as appropriate with coworkers, to develop an understanding about how your remote setup can or must work. Keep track of priorities in your day-to-day work by using the tools that work for you – Outlook tasks, OneNote list or notes, e-mail drafts, or paper -- and ensure that you’re visible to all project stakeholders by responding to priority requests first. Postpone or delay lower priority projects/tasks as needed – just don’t forget to track any “additional” work you do in a status or summary report for your manager. Know your distractions – and act to resolve them. If something consistently draws your attention or energy away from work during working hours, sit down and figure out how to resolve the conflict, and then take action. You’ll be more focused at work and more relaxed at home. No routine is perfect so make changes as you need to and communicate anything that affects your work hours to your manager. Talk to coworkers about your experiences, positive and negative, and make an effort to connect by mail, phone, or instant messaging if you’re feeling pressured or in need of support. Your team and manager are still available to you, even though you may be further away. Take the initiative to stay informed and connected, using all of the Office tools at your disposal. You can stay connected simply by using the tools available from your keyboard and your phone pad.
Write down your working style, schedule, and habits in 3 – 5 sentences. If you can be clear with yourself, you’ll set up a routine in your home or office space to support those preferences.
Communicate your preferences with your manager, and as appropriate with coworkers, to develop an understanding about how your remote setup can or must work.
Keep track of priorities in your day-to-day work by using the tools that work for you – Outlook tasks, OneNote list or notes, e-mail drafts, or paper -- and ensure that you’re visible to all project stakeholders by responding to priority requests first.
Postpone or delay lower priority projects/tasks as needed – just don’t forget to track any “additional” work you do in a status or summary report for your manager.
Know your distractions – and act to resolve them. If something consistently draws your attention or energy away from work during working hours, sit down and figure out how to resolve the conflict, and then take action. You’ll be more focused at work and more relaxed at home. No routine is perfect so make changes as you need to and communicate anything that affects your work hours to your manager.
Talk to coworkers about your experiences, positive and negative, and make an effort to connect by mail, phone, or instant messaging if you’re feeling pressured or in need of support. Your team and manager are still available to you, even though you may be further away.
Take the initiative to stay informed and connected, using all of the Office tools at your disposal. You can stay connected simply by using the tools available from your keyboard and your phone pad.
Unfortunately, when I consider a remote work arrangement, “Know your distractions” stumps me every time. There are so many! When you work from home, what distracts you and how do you handle it?
-- Leslie
Comments: (3) Collapse
Hey Leslie - I think the biggest distraction is other people at home - you need to define your workspace and educate others that you are working while in that space - don't let them interrupt you at will! When I am sitting at the computer, quietly working, it looks for all the world to my husband as if I'm not doing anything. I am constantly reminding him to stop interrupting me. He simply cannot tell from looking at me that I may be in the midst of a three-way Communicator conversation about some urgent issue. --Nancy
yeah, i think that i've concluded with three children that, when they're home, my best work defense is an offense. lock the office door! leslie
Great post, these tips are very useful and an interesting topic to discuss. In my opinion in order to manage employees working remotely effectively, you will need the right online tools and resources that will help you run your business smoothly. Did you know that one factor that most remote teams fail; it is because of lack of communication. Skype is a good tool for communication that can help you manage team easily with chat and video call for a cheap price. I also find these tools that can help you manage remote employees. Using these tools it can help you improve productivity, team communication, collaboration and project management. Here is the blog that you might want to check before managing remote employees; www.timedoctor.com/.../compare-screen-monitoring-software
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