Tips for Transitioning into a Remote Worker

When people ask me what I do and I answer, “I work remotely as an account manager for a marketing agency based in Houston, Texas,” I get either two responses:

Response 1: “Wow! You are so lucky! Does this mean you work from home in your pajamas?”

Response 2: “Wow! I could never do that! I wouldn’t get anything done.”

The truth is, not everyone is cut out for the work-from-home life. However, more and more people want the option to. A study by American Community Survey found 80% to 90% of the US workforce says they would like to telework at least part time.

Not only is it good for employers (think lower overhead costs, more options for hiring the best in the industry), it’s good for employees.

As I enter my fourth year of remote working, I can admit I have transitioned into a productive full-time remote worker with some trial and error on my end. Here are my seven takeaways for those beginning the transitioning process to a remote worker.

1. Create an Inspiring Workspace

During my first 6 months as a remote worker, I would move around my home, room-to-room. Some days, I would sit at the kitchen table, other days I would brainstorm campaign ideas from the living room. Finally, I decided to dedicate a space to where I would work each day.

I setup an office environment complete with desk and ergonomic chair to help create a sense of normalcy. Create your workspace as a source of inspiration. My desk today looks as it would if I had an office at a traditional office, complete with a lamp for mood lighting, pictures of my nephews and my travels.

2. Coordinate With Your Family, Roommates

I once was working at a Starbucks and overheard a couple of remote workers talking about the challenges of working from home. They both agreed it was the interruption of family members. I nodded to myself in agreeance.

If you are a current remote worker, you’ll understand this. Not everyone understands the concept of work from home, usually those people will be the ones you are living with. Since you are home, it’s an open door policy of questions and interruptions. While you can master separating work from home life even while working at home, those you live with cannot.

At some point, there will be a conversation that takes place, that you still work normal work hours and during this time, it will be treated like a normal work day.

3. Set a Routine

While many remote working jobs have flexibility in working hours - I stick to a schedule. In the traditional sense I plug-in from 8:30-5pm. Setting a schedule for your work will help you retain the work-life balance.

I have found that working the regular work hours increases my productivity. I treat my schedule like I would if I was going into an office, mindful of when my co-workers are active online, when my clients are working, etc.

As a bonus to work remote, I have found my productivity levels are much higher than at an office environment. Distractions are minimized - no more impromptu meetings, trying to tune out noise from other co-workers.

4. Get Out of Your Home Office

The beauty about remote working? The growth in the number of companies that will cater to this group. Twice a week, a coworker and I will work from a local Regus office. Our company has a contract with Regus, an international provider of co-working space has business centers in over 900 cities and 120 countries. You bet that we’ve relied on this while traveling.

However, I have also utilized local co-share spaces that pop-up in cities, like the Common Spot in Ithaca, New York. It came in a pinch as the AirBnB I booked had spotty WiFi.

5. Travel, if you can

For me, the best opportunity for remote working has been the ability to travel. Rule of thumb if there is strong WiFi, I can work from there. I have spent weekends traveling in between destinations and week days plugging in. I have seen more than half of the United States and even spent 3 months traveling internationally.

While I worried about missing the creativity generated by talking in-person to my co-workers, my creativity now blossoms from seeing new places and talking to new people. Sources of inspiration are found by the uniqueness of cities.

6. Stay in Constant Communication with your Co-Workers

When I started, there was already a steady process in place, which made my transition smooth. There are team meetings at the beginning of each work day. On Fridays, we have company-wide meetings where we catch up on all the week’s activities - personal and professional successes.

With services like Slack, HipChat and Google Hangouts - there is no shortage of ways to communicate with your coworkers. We have Slack channels for work-related topics, water-cooler topics and the chance to talk with individual team members.

When I have a question or need to bounce a new idea, my team members are only one chat message away. We’ll hop on video calls to discuss.

7. Work on Company Culture

Company culture is still as important in a remote working environment as it is in a traditional office space. While there might not be beer tasting Fridays, monthly happy hours, bring your child (or dog) to work days, we still share laughs during our Friday company-wide meetings.

We still do Secret Santa during the holidays, all of us posting our gifts in Slack. And one day, a co-worker mentioned wanting a fleece jacket and a couple weeks later, I was surprised with a new black-fleece.

In 2016, our CEO led a first ever company-wide retreat in Breckenridge, Colorado. We now enjoy annual retreats for team building, company dinners and co-worker bonding.

Do you have any other tips for transitioning to remote work life? Leave them in the comments!