Remote Employees: How to Be More Productive | Friday.app

How To Be Productive as a Remote Employee (Use Friday To Do It!)

Posted by Aisha Samake

Remote work has become more and more popular due to many different reasons such as better technology, more flexible working options, and of course, COVID-19". With Covid-19, working remotely has been a more natural and sought after option for work, and more people are seeing the benefits that it can bring to your workday. 

The switch from working in an office to the comfort of your own home can be jarring due to lack of commute, lack of a proper office, and a clear lack of office colleagues that you can interact with. Even with those changes, working remotely is not an impossible endeavor.

Here is a guide that can help you be successful when working remotely and be productive.

1. Roadmap Your Day With the Friday Planner for Productivity

One of the most essential things you can do to be successful with work, in general, is to have a planner. With a planner, you can keep track of your projects and activities so you can stay organized.

Physical planners are available for this task, but there is also a daily planner from Friday, which can help you power through your workday.

With the daily planner you have access to different features that can steer you in the right direction. Your work meetings, tasks, and work routines are all in one place for easy creation and access.

2. Block Out The Distractions With Focus Time Chrome Extension

The next thing you can implement to be successful is to add a Chrome extension for focus time. By blocking out websites that may distract you from working, you can get more out of your workday. 

When you open a new Chrome tab with the Friday extension, you will be able to see your activities and tasks due for the day. That constant reminder can help you stay on task and inform you of all you need to accomplish.

3. Create a Daily Habit With Individual Routines

Having personal routines can get you in a good habit of checking in on yourself in terms of work progress. 

Friday has a few templates you can use for your own personal routine:

Morning Routine

The Morning Routine is a template where you can plan and manage your day from beginning to end. With this template you are able to track your productiveness. 

Morning Gratitude

Morning Gratitude is another Friday template that helps you reflect on where you are in the moment. Here, you can reflect on what you’re grateful for, and can be a nice break from the constant work.

Bullet Journal

A bullet journal is something that can help you keep track of everything you need to do and what you accomplished. Work journaling is something that can benefit you when you work. When thinking about bullet journals most people think about them being analog. 

There is, however, a benefit of using a digital bullet journal like the one Friday has. By implementing a few key principles of bullet journals, the digital version helps build a good productive habit. The principles include: The Daily Planner, Routines, viewing created workflows, and lastly compiling Insights.

4. Stay Connected With Your Remote Team

The next thing you need to enforce in order to be successful when remote work is regular communication with your remote team. It’s one thing to work successfully as an individual, but it also plays along with how your team will fare in the long run. Communication is vital to being successful when working remotely so things can run more smoothly with less faults. Even when far apart, there are ways to keep up those interactions that make teams run smoothly. 

5. Stay Informed with Team Routines

To keep up with communication, there are routines you and your team can do to stay updated. Alongside the individual templates you can use, Friday also has templates and routines you can use for team updates. 

Daily Standup

Friday’s Daily Standup is a way for you to send daily updates to your team, and a way for you to check up on your team’s tasks in terms of progress. 

Weekly Updates

The Weekly Updates template allows you and your team to share what you hope to accomplish in the following week. With this, you’re starting your week with a plan, and can follow the progress of your team.   

1-1 Meetings

The 1-1 Meetings template in Friday helps you with your synchronous 1-1 Meetings. Because you are working remotely, most of the communication you do with your team will be asynchronous. With this template, you can plan for what you’re going to talk about during your meeting so you can save valuable work time.  

Power-ups

Friday also has interactive add-ons called Power-ups, that allows you to build the team’s relationship. You can send kudos, thanking a teammate for something they’ve accomplished. You can answer fun icebreakers and get-to-know-you questions to share more about yourself. Lastly, you can come up with ideas on how to better improve the company.

6. Improve Your Work Day With Essential Good Work Habits

The next thing you need to do to be successful with remote work is to enforce good work habits. It’s really easy to fall into the trap of making bad work habits. There are ways, however, to combat those habits, so you can be more productive

Here are a few good habits you can incorporate into your daily routine:

  1. Communicate with your teams through collaboration apps and avoid being disconnected. By staying connected, the team works better.
  2. Combat procrastination by spacing out the deadline of your tasks. 
  3. Take breaks throughout the day but don’t overdo it. Also, make sure you include a sustainable lunch.
  4. Use a daily planner like Friday to keep track of your tasks.
  5. Try to stay focused and not be distracted from social media and other websites. Try the Friday Chrome Extension to block those sites.
  6. Go to work with a proper workspace that can help you stay focused and organized. Separate work from home life.
  7. Have a positive mentality! Life is hard and that’s okay. Try to get through each day the best you can. 

7. Improve Your Remote Working With Software Tools

There are different software tools that you can use for remote work. Depending on the different tasks you want to accomplish, there are a variety of tools that you can choose from. Tools like Slack, Trello, and Friday are here to help you connect with your team and stay organized. Here is a more extensive list of recommended remote working tools to check out.

8. Communicate With Your Remote Team With Communication Tools

Alongside tools for remote working, there are also tools that can help teams communicate. Some tools mentioned previously, like Slack and Friday, have multiple features including team communication. There are other software tools like Hypercontext (Formerly Soapbox), Weekdone, and Flock that help with internal communication. For a more extensive list of team communication tools check out 20 Best Team Communication Tools For Remote & In-House Teams.  

9. Keep Things Organized With Friday

Improve organization by connecting your work apps together. You can keep track of all your tasks/activities in one place. With Friday, you are able to connect your applications so things don’t get disorganized.

Here is a list of apps that can integrate with Friday

Conclusion: See a Positive Change in How You Work Remotely

Those are some of the best practices you can do to be successful working remotely. By using these tips into your workday, you will slowly start seeing a positive change in working remotely. You and your team will benefit from better communication, a stronger relationship, increased organization, and more effective and productive work days.

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