The Student Remote Worker Survival Checklist  

The Student Remote Worker Survival Checklist  

This is a guest blog from Passion.io.

Working from home!? That’ll never work for me, how can I concentrate with so many distractions around me?

If you feel like this you’re not alone. The past few months have seen a huge shift in the way people are working (I’m sure we don’t need to tell you why) and the ‘new normal’ you keep hearing on the news isn’t going anywhere soon.

So, to help you out in these strange and uncertain times (How many times have you heard that phrase) we’ve created this Remote Worker Survival Guide checklist to keep you focused and let you know what to expect when you’re working from the kitchen table. 

Who is Passion.io

We’re a tech company that has built an app creation platform for coaches, tutors, and trainers who want to take their skills online.

We’ve been a remote company since 2016. We love remote working and think, in many ways, it’s the future of work. Sharing our tips, tricks, and strategies for creating successful remote teams is something we love doing. We’ve found we’re more productive when we’re at home and if we can share that productivity with others we’re all for it.

The Survival Checklist

To make the checklist easy to digest we’ve separated it into two categories; mindset & digital tools.   

Mindset

It can be easy, when working from home, to convince yourself you’re being really productive. When in reality you’re eating ice cream on the sofa, watching Netflix, and your work laptop is sitting disregarded on your lap.

To avoid this scenario you need to check you’re in a work mindset.  

Prioritise

When you’re working remotely time management and self organisation are the keys to success. Make sure you are ordering your daily tasks in a list and stay focused on the tasks you give yourself. Strict prioritisation will keep you focused and accountable for your own work.

Discipline

Getting up late, staying in your dressing gown, watching too many Tik Toks. These are all symptoms of a lack of discipline and can lead to a very unproductive remote worker.

Be honest with yourself about your working habits and set up a routine that can remove your negative impulses. If you’re not a morning person start slightly later in the day but make sure you’re fully committing to work when you do.

A clean workspace

Having empty bottles of wine strewn around your kitchen and half-eaten takeaways is bad vibes. Mess in general isn’t good for creating a productive work environment. Get rid of the clutter before starting work to ensure a zen calm whilst replying to emails.

Digital Tools

Once you’ve got the right mindset for a day of remote working you’ll need to master the tools that make doing your job possible.

Video Conferencing platform

Mastering the use of video conferencing platforms is essential for remote workers. Not only is it nice to see your colleagues (In most cases anyway), but video conferencing lets whole teams get on a call together. 

It’s very difficult to stay focused on an audio-only call. When you can’t see your colleague you’ll often find yourself talking over other people. Your meeting can quickly become clunky and unproductive.

Oh, and holding a phone to your ear for an hour is no one’s idea of fun. 

Slack

Simply, Slack is like Whatsapp for work. It’s the most popular way remote companies communicate and the platform comes with a host of features that make communicating with your team easy.

Make sure you’ve familiarised yourself with the platform before accepting any remote role. There’s a very high chance you’ll be using it. 

Project Management Tools

Working on a project with team members can be challenging at the best of times. When you throw remote working into the mix it can be impossible. Luckily, there are loads of digital tools in the market that take the pain out of collaboration.     

Asana, Trello, & Monday.com are all viable options you could use to collaborate with colleagues. Your chosen company will likely use one of the above. Whatever they use, spend some time learning the platform so you can be a savvy remote worker from the get-go when you join the company.   

Google Drive

Google Drive is the best cloud-based word processor that allows you to collaboratively work on documents together with your team. It also has spreadsheets, powerpoints, and a host of other functions that let you create professional documents. You can access your documents anytime, anywhere. It’s free to use, so get familiar with it now to ensure success when you’re working from home.

Conclusion

The checklist above is a run down you can use to make sure you’re setting yourself up for success in a remote working role. Use it as a guide, refresher or checklist whether you’re taking your first steps into a remote working role or you’re a seasoned pro looking to brush up on the basics.