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So You’re New to Remote Work

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By I Done This Support

COVID-19 quarantines and self-isolation have put millions of workers at home for the first time, trying to get remote work done while managing home life.

It’s easy to struggle with communication and productivity when you’re trying to work from home. If you don’t have a dedicated office space in your home, you’re either being interrupted by roommates/family or getting distracted by all your toys and media.

Plus, we tend to associate rooms with certain activities: the living room for leisure, the bedroom for sleeping, the dining room for eating and entertaining. When you start bringing work into those spaces, you can disrupt your usual patterns and make it difficult to “get in the zone.”

We have a huge list of remote work tools and guides that can help you be productive, collaborate with colleagues, and even manage an entire remote team located anywhere in the world.

The Basic Remote Work Tools

The following guides can help you with general-purpose remote work tools, from how to use Zoom and Slack for communication to tips and tricks for Google Drive and Google Calendar that you might not be aware of.

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The Ultimate Remote Tool StacK for 2020

This up-to-date guide covers internal communications tools, HR programs, and customer success tools.

You’re going to have to embrace video chat to stay connected—remember, 93% of communication is non-verbal.

The 8 Must-have Remote Work tools

This guide will take you throughbasic collaboration tools like Trello, progress trackers like I Done This, and text collaboration services like Hackpad.

20 Vetted Tools and Tips for Managing Time Zone Differences

Time zone conflicts are a pitfall that even seasoned work-from-home companies fall into daily.

Tools like Boomerang, TimeTemperature, and ScheduleOnce can help you keep track of team member time zones for scheduling, teleconferencing, and timely collaboration.

How To Avoid the Traps Of Communication With a Remote Team

Communication is the lynchpin of remote work and remote business—how can you keep a team on the same page if they can’t share their thoughts?

This guide provides strategies for avoiding remote team communication silos, murky onboarding processes, and confusing or contradictory documentation.

Productivity Tips to Help You Stay Busy at Home

Working at home can be tricky: Where does the work day end and at-home relaxation begin?

Some people struggle with productivity and motivation when working remotely, but these guides can help you get out of your pajamas and into a truly productive state of mind.

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The 10 Things You Learn After One Month of Remote Work

Blake Thorne shares his experience working as part of a remote team for four months.

If you’re feeling frustrated by remote work and need someone to commiserate with, or you’re just looking for a light at the end of the tunnel, this post will take you through the ups and downs of a month working from home.

How Distractions At Work Take Up More Time Than You Think

Distractions might be abundant in your household, which can grind work progress to a halt. Did you know it takes 23 minutes to regain focus after a distraction and return to your previous levels of concentration?

This guide takes you through the entire process of distraction: what it is, how it’s measured, and how to stay focused and maintain momentum.

Does Working in Pajamas Affect Productivity?

Isn’t mothballing the suit or the high heels the best part of working from home? Of course it is! But slumming around in pajamas may actually grind your productivity to a halt.

There’s some psychology behind the claim that “clothes make the man (or woman),” and this guide will let you know how to both dress comfortably and not feel like you’re on vacation when you need to get work done.

7 Teamwork Ted Talks To Inspire your Remote team

At some point, working from home is going to get to you—maybe it’s loss of energy, decreased productivity, technology troubles, or just the stress of constantly being “on call.”

When you need a little pep, these TED talks can inspire you to both accept your feelings and to get moving again. The speakers cover everything from introvert troubles to creativity and collaboration.

Guides to Help You Manage a Remote Team

Are you a manager or other leader who’s worried about what this sudden exodus from the office will do to you, your team, and your company?

These guides will help you motivate your team, maximize your communication efforts, and reinforce your corporate culture even across long distances.

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Managing a Remote Team—A Leader’s 7-Step To-Do List

Managing a remote team comes with unique challenges—far and above those of a typical employee. How are employees submitting their expenses remotely? How is there progress being tracked? How are they being paid? How do sick and vacation days work?

This 7-step guide for leaders takes you through the entire remote work managing process, including remote hiring, remote onboarding, work output and team bonding.

What I Learned From Managing an International Remote Team

This is a first-hand account from Nils Vinje of Glide Consulting on how he successfully manages his global remote teams.

Nils is a successful consultant and podcaster; in this guide, he offers advice on how to eliminate superfluous meetings, how text meetings might be more useful, and how to ensure work gets finished with confirmations and receipts.

How to Manage the Distinct Personalities of your Remote Team

What gets lost the fastest in a remote work situation? The personal touch. You’re not seeing your coworkers every day, sharing space, talking about the big game, or engaging in the small talk that keeps us connected.

This guide breaks down the typical remote team into personality templates (“The Show Host,” “The Escape Artist,”) and gives you the tools to make sure everyone is doing their best work and still connecting with you, your culture, and one another.

Stay Motivated, Stay in Touch

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This remote work situation may last a while—there’s no knowing how governments and corporations will react to this unprecedented virus and its effects on the economy.

It’s easy to lose motivation in these trying times, so don’t try to go it alone. The tips and tools in these guides can help any remote worker stay on target and, hopefully, keep themselves from going a little nutty in isolation.

One of the ways to stay sane is to track your daily progress with I Done This. You’ll know exactly what you’ve accomplished, and you can use that progress to reward yourself throughout the day!

P.S. If you liked this article, you should subscribe to our newsletter. We’ll email you a daily blog post with actionable and unconventional advice on how to work better.

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