Remote work roundup: Our favorite reads about working from home

Remote work: let’s talk about it. Maybe you’re transitioning to remote work to keep you and your team healthy, or maybe you’re one of the 98% of employees who report wanting to work from home at least some of the time. But no matter where your team is located, you can work together effortlessly with the right tools and mutual trust. To that end, here’s a roundup of our favorite reads about remote work—with tips, tricks, and advice on how to collaborate with your remote team.

The remote worker’s guide to working with a team

The Asana wavelength blog is our one-stop-shop for thought leadership about all things teamwork. In this article, Asana engineer Isaac Wolkerstorfer offers some tips on how to work with a team when you’re remote. Though Asana headquarters are in San Francisco, Isaac works out of Berlin, so he uses Asana to communicate with teams across time-zones and distance.

Tip: Make sure you establish a routine to help yourself stay focused. For example, try adopting a part of someone else’s daily structure, like a roommate or partner’s morning ritual.

There are challenges specific to individuals, roles, and projects, but with the right attitude and few adjustments, you can effectively work with a team from anywhere in the world.”

InVision streamlines marketing communication with Asana

InVision’s team of 80+ employees is 100% remote. Streamlining remote communication and increasing visibility is key for a distributed team, and InVision uses Asana to make sure team members can easily find all the context they need to complete their work. Instead of fielding questions and doing work about work, campaign managers can now focus on doing work that moves their team forward—no matter where they’re located.

Tip: Be proactive about making sure your tasks have assignees, due dates, and status (ex: In progress, Review, Approved, etc). That way, everyone has a clear view on the work that’s being done and easy access to the context they need to succeed.

By standardizing and optimizing their common workflows into 20+ campaign templates in Asana, the [InVision] team has reduced the time spent creating project plans by 66%.”

Asana tips: 5 ways to work from anywhere

For employees getting started with remote work, we’ve highlighted a few tips to make Asana work for you. Trust, visibility, and collaboration are key to effectively working remotely. Here are 5 ways you can use Asana to keep your remote team in the loop and working smoothly.

Tip: Don’t be afraid to use Asana a bit differently as a remote worker. Take advantage of the visibility and collaboration features like status updates, custom fields, and the away indicator to clearly communicate what you’re working on, how it’s going, and when you’re unavailable.

Asana was specifically built to be a collaboration tool, so your team can gain clarity and visibility into each other’s’ work. Think of it as a central source of truth that everyone can tap into, no matter where they’re working from. ”

Make School’s 100% remote engineering team uses Asana to make sure nothing slips through the cracks

Make School is building a “college designed for the 21st century” where students only pay tuition if they get a job. Their engineering team tracks the details, guidelines, and requirements necessary to make this happen, but they’re distributed across the US, Brazil, and Canada. The engineering team not only needs to communicate internally; they also need to keep cross-functional stakeholders, external faculty, and admissions teams in the loop. With Asana, stakeholders can seamlessly gain visibility into the processes, progress, and completion status of any project—without interrupting the engineering team.

Tip: Add followers to projects or tasks to keep them in the loop. They’ll be notified when a task is added, completed, or changed. That way, everyone stays informed, effortlessly.

[Asana] caught all the to-do’s, requirements, and discussions, and gave the team a new ability to integrate their engineering work with teams across the company. ”

How Asana uses Asana for remote work

We interviewed remote Asanas around the globe to get a better sense of how Asana helps their day-to-day routines. Read about their favorite tips and hidden Asana gems that help them thrive while working remotely.

Tip: Dependencies, due date times, 1:1 projects, and more!

Asana provides that… single source of truth where project alignment and communication can happen all under the same platform. ”

Adventure Travel Trade Association’s 100% remote team runs asynchronous projects on Asana

In this case study, we take a look at how Adventure Travel Trade Association’s 100% remote team of 50 employees communicates globally with Asana. Because the whole team uses Asana as their source of truth, teammates in different time zones can get the answers they need without having to wait for their coworkers to get online.

Tip: Use custom fields to filter information within projects, so employees can focus on relevant tasks and get work done.

With four new team members focused on climate in three different locations, having a central place for project work and conversations is invaluable. ”

Working from home? Here’s how to stay on task

In this article, writer Jessie Wood talks about setting a routine and maintaining structure in order to be an effective remote worker. Jessie talks about finding a schedule that works for you, and taking advantage of the natural flexibility of remote work.

Tip: If you can, organize your schedule so you’re working when you’re most productive. Take short breaks when you’re feeling a lull, so you can come back to your work feeling re-energized.

The challenges I encounter as a remote worker can be solved with one thing: structure. Structure in my day, in my approach to tasks, and in my communications with my clients and teammates. ”

[Your remote work best practices here]

There is no one-size-fits-all workflow for remote work. But, whether you’re working from home once a week, temporarily, or thinking of remote work full time, we hope these articles give you and your team some ideas on how to get started and stay connected.

Learn more about how Asana can help your team work remotely, and sign up for free today.