Being office-present keeps you effective. Firms lean on that. It explains why companies are down to invest a fortune on building creative office with other benefit packages. There's nothing wrong about that. I'm just saying there are others ways to keep people excited without costing too much operation cost.
The Dwarves lives with some principles. First, we feel no need to manage your chairs. We have better things to do with our time. Meetings are for decision making. Ideas and planning should be conducted personally.
That brings us to the spring of 2020, aka, the Covid-19 outbreak. While many firms out there busting their ass on remotely operation management, Covid-19 didn't change us much. We stay on track with what we've adopted since day one: Virtual meeting, Basecamp, and G-suites.
So here are some points that keeps us sane in remote working:
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Self-preparation. Once, a Dwarves got freaked out because he was about to attend a meeting which he just only remembered about 10 minutes in advance. I've never seen someone with that fast typing skill my whole life. Still, the meeting went well. But sure, no one wants that kind of mini-crisis.
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Time. Flexible working time has its downside. Begin a workday at any time and anywhere you wish sounds perfect until the day went by, and you are left with no shit done. Time can be tricky. Manage your own.
Pomodoro is a time-management technique that allows us to focus on 25 minutes straight, then take a short break (for 5 or 10') for coffee or small talks. After the 4th time, award ourselves with a long break to recover.
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Work environment. Whether it is your house, a co-working space, or the office, make it yours. I launched a mini-campaign few weeks ago called "Snapshot of your Home Desk", started by posting a picture of my table with an opened laptop, a cup of coffee, a note book and an unfinished bag of snack. The post received many replies from other teammates. Needless to say, it was exciting.
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Do your job. Don't bother people with mundane tasks. Make sure you've tried all solutions before coming to them for advice.
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Document. Working remotely means face-to-face discourse and body language are limited. That's when the documents dive in. Note down things and note it detailedly.
