Organizations around the world have enabled people to work remotely as part of a global effort to #flattenthecurve (and also plank it) with social/physical distancing. Nearly half of North Americans are working from home (many aren’t working at all). For many folks, especially extroverts like me, working from home can be isolating, boring and very challenging. By maintaining focus and harnessing our productive potential we can adapt to these novel work life circumstances. Here are 99 ways to make remote work awesome.
Focus deeply
Whether you’re working at home with kids, amidst personalized distractions (e.g. video games, sandwich makers, LEGO), and possibly without pants, it’s easy to lose focus. Deep work expert Cal Newport emphasizes that we begin each day with a fixed amount of willpower that we can only recharge by sleeping – by focusing deeply on specific tasks and scheduling accordingly you will be more productive.
Stay silent
Leadership guru Robin Sharma highlights the power of “quiet rituals” as the kind of habits that can build “epic success”. Susan Cain has some incredible insights about how being quiet and deeply listening to the world around us raises our awareness, improves ideas and empowers friends and colleagues. Working remotely, possibly by yourself, allows you the opportunity to blend silence with discipline and really listen to the world around you (even if it’s at your makeshift dining-room-table-office).
Achieve infinite productivity
One of my favourite things about work is that it’s a social experience. Connecting with teammates in the kitchen or elevator and working through problems or brainstorming ideas is genuinely one of the most delightful aspects of every job I’ve ever had. At times, I don’t produce as much value as I could because of these “side conversations”, so working from home presents an opportunity to eliminate distractions, focus on what needs to be delivered, and produce basically around the clock.
Limit all connections
While it’s been tough for my wife and kids to manage their needs within my scheduled parenting and partner time (two blocks of 45 minutes per day that they choose), it has been easy to stop meeting with my colleagues. Once a day I send an email about the goals my staff need to achieve and what I will complete and then I check in at the end of the day – if needed I will call certain employees for clarification on what did or didn’t get done.
Make a war room
War rooms – basically personalized spaces for peak productivity during challenging times – have served leaders for generations. You should create a remote workspace that functions exactly as you need it to, even if this means displacing a child or parking a car in the street because you took over the garage.
Work-isolate
Focus exclusively on work. Take the principles of social/physical distancing and apply them to how you perform – sever connections with all but the colleagues most critical to helping you deliver work ahead of schedule and of the highest quality.
Perform like you’re in a bunker
Okay, be this point you’ve probably figured out that this is a well-intentioned and hopefully well-executed April Fools joke. Nobody should try to achieve self-isolated infinite productivity from a work bunker. Maybe the president with no WIFI signal.
Anyway…
Be human and work with joy
Over the past three weeks of this 100% remote work experiment I have noticed that my highly extroverted and very collaborative team is starting to struggle. We excel when we have opportunities to connect in the flow of work and we are social and have fun solving problems together. The science is clear that working with joy drives engagement and enhances productivity because humans are, among other things, social creatures. If work is about creating value for society (which it is) then it’s clear that people create more value when they are working with joy.
During these unprecedented times it’s important for people, especially those who manage others, to lead with humanity. Start with being vulnerable and share how this experience is making you feel. Emphasize and demonstrate trust, which will help to build a new kind of psychological safety for teammates who might be uncomfortable with working differently and straight-up scared about, you know, a global pandemic. From taking breaks to asking for help, these tactics will enhance peoples’ cognitive capacity. Whatever humanity means to you – kindness, grief, love, boldness, honesty, innovation, resilience – model it and talk about it. Now is the time for the best humans to emerge and/or continue to strive as leaders, so thanks for being one.