As a 100%-remote company, Hennessey Digital is staffed by the best digital marketers around. We’re experts in our respective fields, and we’ve also become experts at working from home. We recently polled the team for their best tips for working remotely, and we’re excited to share them to help other remote teams.
Create a routine for self-accountability
“Schedule time in your calendar for YOU. We all schedule meetings, lunch, etc, but rarely do we schedule time for ourselves. Make it official – even if it’s 5 min to just breathe!” -Kait Willis, CRO Data Analyst
“For me, it’s making a routine I follow… I just do what I did when I had to work at an office. The bonus is having a dog, he needs to go out every 1.5 hours to 2 hours and gets me to get up and walk a little at least.” -Anthony Fournier, Paid Search Specialist
“I always shower, get dressed, and eat something before I start my work day. In that way, my morning routine is exactly the same as it was before I started working from home. I don’t like working in my pajamas, and the morning routine sort of acts as my ‘commute’ when I transition from home time to the work day.” –Scott Shrum, President & COO
Leverage technology
“I swear by Google tasks to keep reminders for myself and updates on where my clients are at!” –Angela Gennovario, Associate Account Manager
“If you can’t manage two separate devices, I highly recommend utilizing Google Chrome Profiles. I have one profile for my @hennessey.com address and another for my personal @gmail.com address. This allows me to keep unique bookmarks for work separate from my personal bookmarks.” –Greg Herrmann, Senior Manager of Learning & Development
“Biggest tip I can give is: more monitors, less tabs. At least two monitors will help give you more space to work on, but I know a lot of us have a ton of tabs open all at once. I used to fear closing tabs because I’d forget or lose a page. I found closing out all my tabs any time I’m done greatly increased my organization skills. That’s just me though.” -James Cant, Local SEO Specialist
“I would say make sure that you ‘schedule’ 5 or so minutes on team meetings for smalltalk. Since we don’t have in-person meetings, the connection with team members can get lost. This way, you’re still keeping in touch with work friends and have a personal connection with people!” –Amy Heigel, Marketing & Communications Manager
“If possible, keep all your work on a separate non-personal computer.” –Brandon Caballero, Director of Analytics & CRO
Optimize your physical space
“The lighting in my office is challenging, so I keep a few items, like lip gloss and blush at my fingertips so I don’t look washed out on Zoom. It helps me feel (and appear) more put together, even though I am not spending 30 minutes on makeup and hair.” –Jill Wenk, Senior Director of People Success
“It’s also important for me to create a space I want to work in! I still have a long way to go on decorating this office, but every piece of art, every pretty rock I have near my desk makes it that much more pleasant to spend time in the office.”-Jasper Prince, Graphic Designer
“1. Keep healthy snacks in sight. I’m less likely to raid the pantry for junk food if I know there’s a better choice. 2. If you have clingy pets, don’t fight it. Redirect it. I put a cat bed next to my computer so Dusty can keep an eye on me without getting in my way. Interactive toys are also a great way to encourage the pets to entertain themselves.” – Mary Martinez, Content Editor
Promote a clear work/life distinction
“I highly recommend making a habit of doing something to help distinguish between work time and relaxing time after-hours, especially if you’re like me and you generally prefer staying at home. For me, I have string lights around the house that only are on during the weekend. I also like to get changed and start dinner right at 5pm when my work day ends. This helps me cleanly separate from work and leave my work anxieties for the next day.” –Jasper Prince, Graphic Designer
“I like to ‘commute’ to work so whenever the weather permits I take a 10-15 minute walk before I start working. Excited that the weather is getting nicer and I can finally start doing this again!” –Blin Kazazi, Chief Technology Officer
“At the end of each work day, I almost always go for a 2-3 mile walk. I started doing that instead of going to the gym when the pandemic started, and I found that it kind of served as my ‘evening commute,’ helping me transition from the work day back to home mode.” –Scott Shrum, President & COO
Remote work and company culture
Remote company culture is a tricky thing. Without a physical presence or an office everyone goes into, it can be difficult to create a sense of camaraderie among remote team members. Our founder and CEO Jason Hennessey wrote about this very thing for Entrepreneur last year!
We’ve found that having purpose-driven activities and consistent, clear communication move us in the right direction towards our Vivid Vision while maintaining the culture we want for Hennessey Digital.
Activities like RAK Week give us the opportunity to help each other and our communities. We meet up in person at legal conferences and events and at leadership team retreats in our hub cities.
What are your best tips for working remotely? Tweet us at @HennesseyDgtl and give us your ideas.
(And the featured photo for this post is what VP of SEO Steve Guberman thinks Local SEO Specialist James Cant is running Windows on as this third monitor. Good-natured jokes and gags are a great way to strengthen your remote team’s work culture—and specifically called out in our 127 Code of Honor!)