We are going through a very delicate moment in our history. Many companies need to reorganize themselves and many people have found themselves working remotely overnight.
We are facing the same issues at Mia‑Platform: day-by-day we are adapting to the situation and adopting Remote Work when necessary.
Here’s the guide to Remote Work that Giulio Roggero, our CTO, wrote for us, taking inspiration from the Agile model. Although the guide is based on our own rhythms and on our company organization, the good practices that you are going to read, are always valid: whether you work remotely or at the office, or during major reorganizations, or in daily life.
Therefore, we hope that you will find this guide useful, that you want to create a similar one for your own company, and that you can put many suggestions into practice right away.
The guide is divided into five sections:
- Time and logistics management: how to organize your routine when you work remotely;
- Communication: etiquette Do’s and Don’ts;
- Tools: which one and why;
- Team rules: tips to help working better;
- When it is mandatory working in Co-presence: when remote work is inefficient.
📝 Although it is possible to work remotely thanks to all the accessible tools, face-to-face communication is the most effective and efficient way to communicate. Never forget it!
Time Management
It is important to create habits even when working remotely, otherwise, you may risk wasting effort, working more than necessary, and finishing before than when you work at the office.
Here are some useful tips:
- Get ready and pretend like you are going into the office;
- Start and finish working at regular times;
- Get started earlier, dive into your to-do list as soon as you wake up, and turn on your laptop at least 15 ‘before the start of the stand-up, so no one wastes time;
- Take the usual 15′ breaks every 2 hours, and the 1 hour lunch break;
- Stay physically active, take a break and get some exercise to disconnect from work;
- Do not eat at your desk;
- While working reduce distractions: eliminate notifications on laptops/smartphone, television, radio that speaks, social networks and newspapers;
- Put the Mia-Platform water bottle next to your laptop and drink it often.
✔️ If you can’t concentrate, use the Pomodoro Technique.
The Pomodoro Technique is a time management method that involves the use of a kitchen timer (typically in the shape of a tomato but any other shape will be fine) to break your workday into chunks, traditionally from 25 minutes each, separated by short breaks. During each chunk, you can enter the Flow phase: stay focused on what you are doing and be really productive, postponing all other activities and interruptions to the next tomatoes.
