Call it pandemic or endemic, remote work is not going to go away in hurry! Remote work may look like an interesting proposition as no one is breathing fire on your neck and you get flexibility at work. But it is not that it does not have its own problems as you are not physically present in the office environment. For example, you may not get friendly reminders about your work or you may not get a chance to substantiate your contribution.

Here are some key ideas that should help you to stay productive and shine in the remote work environment:

  1. Go Agile: Follow Scrum or Agile method where you work on 15 days sprints. A sprint plan is made and approved by the manager at the beginning of a sprint. The sprint plan could be just for you or a team. The priorities are also set in the sprint plan. A sprint plan ensures that one has enough work at hand and will never be short of work even when your manager is not physically around. You also could use your time wisely when you have a bunch of different kinds of tasks.
  2. Adopt a robust Personal work management system: GTD is an excellent methodology to manage productivity at the personal level. A sprint plan would have set the goals, but each goal involves doing several tasks at the personal level and those tasks must be managed and tracked well. GTD ensures that the tasks are written down in a system and there is no reliance on memory or occasional nudges from superiors. This is very critical as there is no one who can oversee you when working remotely.
  3. Communicate deliberately: You will have regular video calls and email communication for work tracking, anyway. Additionally, you should share daily written updates about progress made in a day. This ensures that you and your manager are on the same page. It also keeps you on your toes to meet the daily targets and eventually the sprint plan. Additionally, one should provide weekly and monthly reports which should ensure that management has very clear visibility on progress and your time utilization.

This approach guarantees you stress-free productivity and builds the confidence of stakeholders in you.

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(Featured image: Photo by Ivan Samkov from Pexels)