Summary : Remote – Jason Fried and David Hansson

put some triggers in place which encourage you to make the switch from doing other stuff to doing work.
Triggers which work for remote workers include:
Changing into workplace clothes.
Dividing the day up into chunks of time where you catch up on what’s happening, collaborate and do serious creative work requiring clear thinking.
Having a dedicated home office – and when you’re in the office you are working.

you’ve got to make sure remote workers have access to the information they need and the equipment they require to get the job done.

have one-on-one sessions where you catch up with them and give them some feedback more often than that. At 37 Signals, the managers try to have twenty- to thirty-minute one-on-ones with remote workers every couple of months.

Be careful not to treat remote workers like second-class citizens. If you do that, it’s going to be hard to get people to accept remote work assignments or see that as a viable career path. You have to ensure you create and maintain a meritocracy where great work is recognized whether done in the office or remotely.

6. Results as yardstick
Another benefit of remote workers is results are the only metric that matters. Instead of judging someone’s job performance by the hour they arrived and when they left the office, the only thing you can evaluate is the quantity and quality of the work they produce.

5. Weekly check-ins
When you and your coworkers are sitting in the same office, you create momentum to get the important stuff done. Exchanges with others build that momentum. To create that kind of forward motion when everyone works remotely, you can and should have a weekly get together by videoconference. This is an opportunity for everyone to report on what they’re doing so you have more cohesion.

“If you’re an owner or manager, letting local people work remotely is a great first step toward seeing if remote will work for you. It’s low risk, it’s no big deal, and if worst comes to worst, people can start working at the office again.”
– Jason Fried and David Hansson

4. Virtual water coolers
While it’s true remote workers get interrupted less and therefore generate more work, you still need a place where workers can hang out and swap ideas. That’s where a virtual water cooler can come into it’s own. This is nothing more than an online chat room where remote workers can check in at any time and interact with other employees.
“At 37 Signals, we use a chat program we created called Campfire. The idea is to have a single, permanent chat room where everyone hangs out all day to shoot the breeze, post funny pictures, and generally goof around. Yes, it can be used to answer questions about work, but its primary function is to provide social cohesiveness.”

3. 24/7 availability
One of the keys to making remote work productive is to enable everyone in the organization to be able to access all the files and information they need 24/7.

2. Use videoconferencing
“Seeing is believing” is true for most people and for most companies. When you get people working remotely, they don’t have to work blindfolded