Since our inception at Mission Lab, all of our team members have worked remotely. As of writing this article, we currently have team members in 4 different time zones across the United States. Thankfully, this has allowed us to continue operating our business as normal throughout the Coronavirus pandemic and even has allowed us to step up our efforts to help others.
We know that many are trying to figure out how to work remotely, manage a team, help customers, take care of kids, and make sure that they don’t run out of toilet paper all at the same time. It’s definitely a lot.
In an effort to help, we’ve compiled some tips, tools, and links to resources in an effort to help make working remotely a little less painful.
Here’s some advice from our team members:
“Make sure to go outside and walk around at some point in the day. Also, make it a priority to be a part of the banter in Slack.”
Sam, Development
“The Noisli app is amazingly helpful when the house is noisy and I need to concentrate.”
Landon, Development
“Create a routine and stick to it as much as possible while still giving yourself grace for unplanned breaks.”
Kevin, Growth
“Drink some tea if you’re having a hard time resisting your favorite foods in the pantry a few feet away.”
Victoria, Marketing
“Get dressed! Start your day and get ready like you would if you worked outside the home. Also, if you’re getting distracted try Cold Turkey.
Julie, Project Management
Here are a list of tools we use as an organization:
Slack
We utilize slack for both internal communication as well as communication with our clients. It’s great for making a distributed team feel connected.
Zoom
Every company has meetings, Zoom helps us to have meetings without having to worry about whether or not the technology is going to work correctly.
Monday.com
As a development agency, we have a lot of projects going on for a lot of different clients. Monday.com helps us to keep everything organized for our developers, project managers, and clients.
Toggl
Toggl is our time tracking tool that helps us to know how much time we’ve spent on tasks and projects. It’s the right amount of accountability without being too invasive.
1Password
We use a lot of different services. 1Password allows us to keep everything in one place and easily share access among the team without having to transmit passwords over less secure messaging options like email.
Here are a list of resources that may be helpful to you:
Buffer: Everything We Know About Remote Work
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Buffer has been one of the champions of remote work for a long time. Couple that with their desire to be as transparent as possible and you get an incredibly well put together guide to remote work.
Help Scout: Tips from 100+ Remote Workers & Leaders
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Help Scout is a tool that we use at Mission Lab and also currently has over 100 remote employees working in 75 cities around the world. This guide is an excellent holistic look into remote work.
Baremetrics: How Our Remote Team Stays Focused
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Baremetrics is another company that has championed a remote culture while being fully transparent with their learnings. This remote work productivity guide is helpful for both managers and employees.
Basecamp: Remote by Jason Fried and DHH
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Love them or hate them, Jason Fried and David Heinemeir Hansson from Basecamp have some big opinions on running a remote company. This is a longer form narrative that may be helpful for the road ahead.
Harvard Business Review: 15 Questions About Remote Work Answered
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Harvard Business Review has been a bastion of innovation for decades. In this helpful article, they dive into check-ins, psychological health, and virtual meetings.
Inc: 23 Essential Tips for Working Remotely
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This helpful article from Inc includes 23 tips about working remotely broken down into three categories: self-care, communication, and morale. Tip number one is especially crucial.
Basecamp: How to Motivate Employees? Don’t.
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Claire Lew spends some time discussing a question that is on the mind of every manager overseeing a team of remote workers: productivity, motivation, and accountability. Her suggestions may surprise you.
