Best Practices for Successfully Working Remotely

These days, it isn’t always necessary to commute to work every day. More and more people are working from home, or from any location where they can have access to the Internet. Last year 43% of Americans spent some time working remotely — a stat likely to increase steadily as younger generations enter the workforce. In fact, studies show nearly 40% of today’s employees work offsite on a regular basis. Working remotely offers a lot of benefits and freedoms, and there are many jobs that can easily be done from home. Plenty of companies are now offering work-from-home positions, and Orshel is one of the company, which offer remote working with industry best work policies. But, working remotely also has its drawbacks, because it can be too easy to slack off and not get things done. Here are some tips that will help you to be a productive and successful remote worker.

  1. Get Dressed

Successful remote workers get dressed before they begin working. When you sit around in pajamas with blankets and pillows, it is all too easy to end up getting lazy and not getting anything done because you are too comfy. Plus, if you have to meet with your team or clients, you will be all dressed and ready to go, even if you are only given a moment’s notice. It will also help to boost your self-esteem when you look good, even if you are the only person to see it.

  1. Set a Schedule

One of the great things about being a remote worker is that you can set a schedule that works for you. If you are morning person, you can start your day early. If you are more of a night owl, you can begin working at midnight. Just remember, once you set a schedule, you need to stick with it in order to get your work done. Create a schedule that will allow you to get the most done with as few interruptions as possible. Don’t forget to include appointments, meetings, and allow some time for unexpected interruptions. That way, you won’t become frazzled when the unexpected happens. It is a good idea to use an employee timesheet template to help keep track of your schedule, projects, hours or work, earnings, etc. In Orshel most of the remote workers have preferred to work morning 9 to Evening 6.

  1. Strictly Follow the Process

As an Agile product development company Orshel follows Scrum methodology to manage the development process. Every company, which offer remote working, follows some strict process similar to Scrum. As part of our process we have planning and review meetings in each 10 days. Also we have 15 min daily scrum meetings every day before employees get into the work.

  1. Group & Schedule Your Meetings

If you are required to have meetings with your team, clients, etc., make sure that you try to schedule everything to take place back-to-back, within the same time block. That way, you don’t have to stop and start what you are doing to go from one meeting to another. You can get them done all at once, and get back to work without having to worry about further interruptions. If you have other appointments, you can schedule them in the same manner so you can get things done faster and be more productive.

  1. Create a Dedicated Workspace

When you set up a space that is specifically for your work and nothing else, it is a lot easier to get your work done because you don’t have a lot of distractions. Find a room in your home that is not used for other purposes or a anyone or room which have very less access from other members of the family, and turn that into your office. Of course, you always have the freedom to switch it up once in a while, and create a new and different workspace to keep you from becoming bored and ending up being easily distracted, and then you won’t be nearly as productive.

  1. Become Proficient with Email

As a remote worker, you are going to be using your email more than ever, so it is time to become an expert at it. First of all, be very precise in your wording, as it is easy to take things the wrong way in email communications. Keep all emails documented, and make sure that you take the time to read and answer all of your business emails. Use your email to share everything with your team, from face-to-face conversations to online conversations, and more. Take advantage of this important tool, and set up distribution lists to make sure that the emails you send always get to the right parties.

  1. Use the Right Tools

Your workspace should include all of the tools you will need to get your work done. As a remote worker, there are specific tools you are going to need, including a headset, a laptop or other mobile device, video conferencing (in Orshel we use Zoho meeting and Zoom), meeting tools (Live Meeting is a popular option for many remote workers), a microphone (external and noise-cancelling, not the laptop internal microphone, which is low quality),  Orshel Task Tracker  and HR applications. Not only do you need to use the right tools, you also need to make sure that you know how to use them properly, in order to get the most out of them.

  1. Switch Up Your Workplace

Because you work remotely, you are not tied down to any one specific location. You might be surprised at how much more productive you can be if you move to a different location once in a while. Instead of sitting inside, move to your yard, or to a local public place where you feel calm and comfort. It is going to help to re-energize you, and you won’t be bored by looking at the same surroundings all the time. Working remotely is about freedom, after all, and as long as you have an Internet connection, you have the freedom to work from just about anywhere in the world.

9.Be Social

When you are a remote worker, it can be really easy to start becoming more and more of a loner. You need to make sure that in addition to scheduling your work time, that you also schedule time to get out and be social with others. You don’t want to become that person who never leaves their home and becomes the neighborhood “hermit”. If you are introverted, it is even easier to slip into hermit mode, so you need to make sure that you are at least getting out to chill with a best friend, family member, co-worker, etc. Take opportunities to get out into the world and away from your home once in a while. It’s good for your mind and body.

  1. Meet Face To Face

Lastly, never forget the strongest communication tool we have is face-to-face contact. There’s nothing better than putting a face to a name — no matter how much easier it is to text, email, or chat about what we need. I know of at least one company that has established “unplugged” days where people are required to speak in person rather than via technology whenever possible. You’d be surprised how many people who worked in the same building ended up meeting one another for the first time. In Orshel employees have the leverage to organize ad hock meetups based on the business need, and Orshel management arrange periodic meetups of all our remote workers.

At Workfront, we work as a distributed team, meaning most of our team members work remotely in locations ranging from Dubai, Qatar, London, Bahrain and more. As a startup, Orshel picked up some things along the way that have helped us improve our processes, create a great company culture and consistently do good work.

Orshel look for people who get excited about the idea of working from anywhere and can see how work is going to evolve in the future. When looking for remote staff, we look for expert talent who are capable of self directing and people who are great communicators. Micromanagement is impossible in a distributed work environment so we need people who are capable of thinking about the big picture and self-managing to some extent. Communication is also really important. If you don’t communicate well at a distributed company, you don’t exist. And as a client services business, we try to find people who are not only good written communicators, but also  are good on the phone and in person.

If you are confident and you would like to work with Orshel please submit your resume in our job portal.


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