How To Remote

A collection of practical tips for working from home. All contributions are welcome, learn more on how to do so here.

Home Office

Designate a room as office. This helps keeping home and work seperated.
Let your colleagues know when you are online, and make sure to be available via a chat program or email.
Keep a routine. Start at the same time, have a lunch break and stop at the end of the day.
Maintain regular hours.
Don't forget to log your time if you have to.

Assume every meeting is a remote meeting.
Send meeting details well ahead of time.
Try to avoid calling in as a group under one account, groups are harder to hear and talk amongst themselves
Speak English at all times if there is more than one language.
Invest in proper audio
- When hosting a group; teleconference microphones like Jabra Speak.
- For callers sitting alone; use a proper headphone with mic
- Mute when not speaking
Use a tool such as zoom.us, whereby, jit.si, Discord or hangouts
- That has a web version that requires no installation.
- If possible has dial-in.
- Recording option.
No offline tools are used, everything is online.
- Stickies & Whiteboard? Use Miro.com / awwapp.com
- Notes? Share a Google Doc.
Appoint a note-taker and post notes for others to read afterwards.
For more than 2 callers; appoint a moderator that involves people dialling in by asking them to speak and checks chat/slack channels if someone is mentioning a connection issue.
Stable internet connections are important
- Make sure everyone has at least 1.5Mbps up AND down, test with fast.com.
- Slow connection? Dial in.
- Disable video when possible, have one person share their screen.
Always send a summary with actions to take via mail as a followup

As mentioned before; stick to a routine. This is one of the most important advices.
When possible, go for a daily walk or jog to get some fresh air
Take breaks away from the work station so once in a while
With a full kitchen and pantry just steps away its tempting to snack a lot, go for healthy options
Socialise with colleagues. Try to set up regular catchups to talk off-topic with your colleagues or attend online meetups.
Take sick days when you're ill.
Before starting to work, follow all the preparations as if you were going to the office (cleaning, breakfast, clothes, make-up, ...).
Ventilate the rooms before starting work, during the lunch break and at the end of the working day.
If you want to take advantage of the remote for small home keeping activities (washing machine, cleaning, dustbins, other..) take advantage of the mid-morning / afternoon breaks... avoid interrupting work activities.
Give value to extra work activities by reserving the right space/time for them and abandoning laziness :)