For most organisations, remote work simply involves taking their offices online -along with the bad habits that permeated them. This is where problems start.
Daily in-person meetings were replaced by back-to-back Zoom calls, which inevitably caused Zoom fatigue. And instead of physical distractions, team members have to constantly deal with online notifications via Slack or Teams.
As a result, people are still working longer hours with less work-life balance. So, how do we resolve this?
Changing the Way We Do Remote Work
First things first. Remote work is not the problem. It’s the way we do it.
Research shows that an alarming 70% of digital transformation efforts fail. This is mostly because a lot of companies have the wrong idea about remote work.
Instead of treating it as a means to an end, they consider it the end in itself.
Hence, rather than incorporating the latest trends, digital tools, and software into their systems, they continue to observe traditional face-to-face policies.
Fortunately, changing the way we do remote work is possible.
Implementing Better Systems to Influence How We Work
Compared to the traditional face-to-face setting, remote work is easier. Especially if you know how to make remote work work.
For instance, the following online tools and software can help you implement better systems to help you and your teams work better:
Task Boards
Having a task board gives everyone a clear view of what each member is working on – and how much progress has been made.
This is extremely helpful in preventing people from the cycle of hyperresponsiveness brought about by constant email notifications and instant messages.
Since task boards allow users to leave comments and ask questions directly, you can reduce daily emails and messages.
More importantly, it normalises asynchronous responses.
Office Hours and Scheduling Tools
As pointed out earlier, endless meetings can result in stress and overfatigue.
In fact, data shows that aside from employees, a whopping 71% of senior executives also consider meetings unproductive and inefficient.
Enter office hours and scheduling tools.
This concept refers to a period of time that people usually carve out for meetings. And take note, it shouldn’t be more than 30 minutes.
For example, if you and your team consider yourselves early birds, it’s best to block out your AMs for virtual meetings.
And of course, don’t forget to make the discussion short, straight, and direct.
Shared Documents
Google Docs is another helpful tool that allows people to collaborate asynchronously.
Team members can work on the same document without worrying about saving multiple versions.
They can edit, comment, and/or suggest their inputs through the in-document annotation features of these collaborative document editing services.
Moreover, using shared documents as one of the materials during real-time Zoom calls ensures that all the input from different team members are recorded.
Instant Messaging Plugins
Installing plugins is another way to promote asynchronous work in a remote setting.
For instance, having a Must-Read plugin effectively slows down notifications and random message alerts which can leave us in a cycle of viewing and responding to cat GIFs and memes.
This helps us focus on important tasks and more importantly, allows us to prevent information overload.
In the age of digital workplaces, leaders must lead by example. This may entail declining unnecessary meeting requests and not responding to every message in real-time.
Remote work should promote a healthy work-life balance, and this starts by ensuring that remote work should be (mostly) asynchronous.
Need help utilising these online tools? You’ve come to the right place!
Remote Staff has been assisting Australian SMEs and entrepreneurs like you with the help of talented remote workers from the Philippines for the last 15 years and counting. We also provide guidance for working with remote workers and constant support to ensure that the working relationship runs as smoothly as possible.
Call us today or schedule a call back and let’s get started.
Serena has been working remotely and writing content for the better part of the last decade. To date, she's written for Pepper.ph and Mabuhay Magazine, among others, and has churned out more than a thousand articles on everything from The Basics of Stock Market Investing to How to Make Milk Tea-Flavored Taho at home. Hermits, aspiring hermits, and non-hermits with interesting project propositions may email her at serena.estrella10@gmail.com.
