5 Must-Know Tips to Ace Working Remotely

Employees who are new to the work-from-home lifestyle may currently be dealing with some challenging aspects of the transition. Meanwhile, there are probably many company leaders who are unsure as to whether having their staff work remotely will help or hurt their business. Having a distributed working model define our business operations means that all of our employees work from home, and we interact with our clients virtually.  

With that said, our remote work experience has been a journey that has taught us many things regarding efficiency, efficacy, and productivity. Listed below are a few tips to make your work from home experience a positive one. 

2. Ensure that you have the same equipment. Once you have chosen a place at which to work while at home, focus on acquiring equipment that is consistent with the equipment you’re used to working with while in your company’s office. Obtaining equipment that you typically use can help you maintain the same workflow while working remotely. For example, if you usually use multiple monitors while working, we recommend continuing to do so rather than switching to only using your laptop while working from home. By avoiding this adjustment, you reduce the risk of negatively impacting your productivity and disrupting your work process.  

3. Invest in new tools. Outside of the tools you normally use for work, we also recommend investing in tools that will enhance your work from home experience. One tool we suggest purchasing is a functional and reliable camera to ensure that you can meet with your team properly via video chat. Doing so will keep you connected to your team in a more intimate way and can help maintain that “in-office feel” while you work from home. We also suggest forgoing the earbuds in favor of a headset that blocks out excess noise and allows you to mute yourself on calls and in meetings easily. A quality headset can even help you maintain focus while working.  

4. Keep the same routine. Adjusting to a virtual work environment can throw a wrench into your usual routine. However, we recommend continuing the routine you had in place before you began working from home to the best of your availability. While you no longer have to commute to the office, we recommend still engaging in activities that preceded your workday. These activities might include going to the gym in the morning or changing out of your pajamas and into your work clothes. Maintaining these habits can help you mentally shift into work mode while at home and immediately get you focused on your task list for the day. 

5. You may form deeper connections with your coworkers. When starting to work remotely, one of the major concerns people have has been whether they’ll be able to maintain the same working relationships they had in a traditional office setting. The simple answer to that is “yes.” Not only will you be able to maintain these relationships by employing the right software and technology, in our experience, it’s also possible to form deeper connections with your colleagues. Your working relationships are more likely to deepen because, while you will most likely still keep your same meeting schedule, you can also seek assistance from your coworkers. This intentionality regarding communication is a shift from simply seeing a colleague and talking to them in passing and can even lead to more collaboration. Also, social courtesies that promote active listening and facilitate discussion, such as direct eye contact and waiting for someone to finish speaking before you start, are practiced more in a virtual setting and likely to foster stronger connections among your team. 

Working remotely can be a very positive experience, even when it starts as a requirement rather than a request. As you shift from a traditional work environment to operating in a virtual office setting, employing the tips listed here can help you adjust to the change. This advice can also help you stay both focused and productive in your new work environment. 

Adam Hale is a partner and COO of Summit CPA Group where he leverages 15+ years of  experience in the public accounting sector to coach both his team and other accounting firms in modern best practices and the strategic delivery of Virtual CFO services.

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