New to Remote Work? Helpful Resources and Online Courses

If you don’t have much experience working remotely, making that change suddenly is jarring. Your routines, habits, and workflows are disrupted significantly. However, there’s good news. People with lots of remote work experience have shared their knowledge to help others learn the necessary skills. Here are some great resources to check out instead of trying to re-invent the remote work wheel.

Staying Productive at Home

If you’re finding there’s a learning curve for staying productive while working from home, you’re not alone. Most people will feel that way at some point. Here are some great resources to help:

Two superb video-based courses on productivity are available for free right now.

1. Best Practices for Working Remotely, courtesy of the e-learning platform Udemy.
2. Time Management: Working from Home, created by celebrated author Dave Crenshaw.

If you’d rather read than watch videos, check out these 21 tips for working from home with kids, shared by the 100% remote company Buffer. Also, at PGi, we’ve compiled a broader list of 21 remote work tips with the help of experienced telecommuters at our own company.

Unplanned Remote Leadership and Management

Gitlab, another fully remote company, has produced some of the best remote leadership resources. Here is a fantastic 17-minute interview with the CEO, Sid Sijbrandij. In that interview, you’ll get the core principles of remote management that enable Gitlab to operate with 160+ employees in 160+ different locations.

For reading material, Harvard Business Review published a thorough and practical guide to managing your team after going remote on short notice. Co-written by three management experts, the article explains how to implement leading remote management practices (e.g., daily check-ins, rules of engagement, face-to-face supervision, and team-building). We also loved this great guide from Gallup.

Mastering Video Meetings

LinkedIn has shared free courses on executive presence on screen and leading virtual meetings.

On the My Meeting Help knowledge base, we’ve released a comprehensive, COVID-specific guide to virtual meeting best practices. Whether you’re running a 1:1 video conference or hosting a webcast with 10,000 participants, this guide will help you hold the most efficient possible meetings. There’s also advice to help you avoid technological issues, such as congested phone and internet networks.

If you’re looking for a free, scalable, all-in-one tool for remote communication and collaboration, you can use GlobalMeet for free.