fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
Kuwait Entrepreneurs Know Thy Environment
By: Mohamed Hersi
Tags: Kuwait, Life Hacking, Entrepreneurship, Sun Tzu

We live in the Covid age, market demand collapsed, businesses fell down, what when wrong? It might not be your fault, or might be your fault, who on earth knows?

Calamities are by default part of the business nature. My uncle uses to say to be me; when I was young, I use to ask him about his workshop: one day it’s a honey (Aasal) one day its onion (Basal). So as a business owner, you should always plan for the worse.

Besides planning for the worse scenarios, there is another essential element most of the startups here in Kuwait overlook: Know your environment.

The factor goes very deep in the strategical teachings, precisely to Sun Tzu. Recognizing the environment you’re competing in always gives you a competitive advantage. Most of the coffee shops and cupcakes startups literally overvalued this tenet. Everything sounds good when initiating the project, attracting your customers through your marketing tools, so vibrant, not very long until your plans collide with the harsh environment. No matter how hard you tried to control it, you simply can’t. Your ROI starts decreasing, and in a moment of a sudden, you realize that you are no more reaching the break-even point.

It all started when you decide to compete in a market where Starbucks -for instance- alone has more than 100 branches. What was your strategy? Are you going to a differentiation strategy (specialty) or a low-cost strategy? You can’t implement both for your project, which can indicate confusion on a managerial level. Such an immature strategy planning is the cause of grief later on, as Miyamoto Musashi noted long ago.
If You Want To Create A Great Life, Learn These Skills Quickly
By: Chirag Garg
Tags: Personal Growth, Skills, Life Hacking

Are you completely satisfied with whatever you have? Do you think rich people are? Do you think acquiring objects, fame, comforts will ever make you a fulfilled human being? I don’t think so. If that was true there would have been no mental health counselors for the successful ones.

Money alone won’t fix our problems. We need to manage many other areas of our lives consciously. When it comes to the outside alone, other than the money we also need close relationships, friendships, purpose, quality, etc. Lockdown pushed us to take our inner wellbeing a little more seriously. Usually, under the noise of the outside world, our inner voice used to die off. However, these days for a lot of us, it is up, loud, and overly active. Hopefully, we can use this time a little more productively by enhancing ourselves and developing new skills. I am sure that we can get through this gracefully.

Here is the list of a few things that I feel are important when it comes to mastering our inner and outer wellbeing:
Get up Faster? Five Tips That Will Help You
By: Bryan Dijkhuizen
Tags: Self Improvement, Life Hacking, Life, Self, Psychology

Get up Faster? Five Tips That Will Help You

Now that it is so cold outside in the morning, it is extra lovely to stay in your bed a little longer. Bryan Dijkhuizen Follow Dec 10, 2020 · 3 min read

Photo by bruce mars on Unsplash

Tap that snooze button one more time and again … Eventually, you get out of bed too late, and you have to hurry. Another bad start to your day. These tips will help you get up faster in the morning.

1. Sleep with curtains open

We all want blackout curtains to keep the bedroom dark. But that makes it harder to wake up in the morning. It’s best to wake up with natural light!

You have unique lamps for this that you can set so that the light comes on gradually in your bedroom, to wake up as naturally as possible.
The Sun Of Your Time
By: Nanda Jurela
Tags: Values, Life Hacking, Intrinsic Motivation, Time Management, Life Lessons

When you fully accept that everything is as it is and will offer more of the same and everyone is as they are and will offer more of the same, you can locate where love is and what you care about deeply. What you care about and where you experience love is where you are in input mode and where you train your gifts.

That space can make you immune to the cycle of agitation that is thrown at you from the outside. By long and deep looking, you can predict that cycle of agitation. You can even use the mantra of “more of the same, more of the same”; so “do I say yes, do I say no” to it?

Self-discovery is the habit of choosing what you care about over and again, until it becomes your priority — the sun of your time.

27 August 2017

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Painting by Laura Lacambra Schubert. Find her @ https://www.lsstudios.com/

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Also shared on my blog:
Pomodoro or not to Pomodoro?
By: Hector Vidal
Tags: Focus, Productivity, Techniques, Life Hacking

Do you believe working to 25-minute mini-deadlines could be the secret to fixing your productivity problems? 📚

The answer for us is “yes”, according to a decades-old time-management technique called “Pomodoro” that’s now back again.

The beauty of the technique is in its simplicity. To stick to this time management technique, you only have to follow this tip:

The Pomodoro Technique dictates that you work on a task for 25 minutes, take a short break away from your desk, then sit back down and repeat until your to-do list is complete. In theory, the short bursts of activity punctuated with regular breaks enable greater focus on the task in hand, blocking out the increased number of distractions we’re faced with every day 🧐

Have you tried the Pomodoro Technique? Share your top productivity tips in this post 💭

https://thenextweb.com/growth-quarters/2020/11/27/what-the-hell-is-the-pomodoro-technique-and-why-is-it-good-for-productivity/
The Remote Working Dream Is Dead
By: Amy Cubbon
Tags: Freelancing, Humor, Work, Life Lessons, Remote Work

Look, I’ve come out relatively unscathed.

I’ve managed to catch a few lunch dates, and I’ve certainly lived the majority of the year in my pyjamas. And, I don’t have kids — although I do have a husband and two cats who love to interrupt when I’m on a phone call.

So, how can I complain?

Well, there’s still a few universal annoyances that have likely caught all of us ‘remote working dreamers’ out — no matter what our living situation.

The dreaded Zoom call

There’s no denying that Zoom is a lifesaving invention. In times where we can’t hold in-person meetings but need that extra connection, Zoom fixes that issue right up. We can screen share and see all those lovely, friendly faces and facial expressions — although the majority of the time we’re actually staring at our own face.

But when video calls are ‘popped’ in our schedule when it can be dealt with by way of a one-line email or quick phone call, that’s when the problems kick in. Zoom anxiety and fatigue is a real thing, and it’s become a real negative aspect of working from home.

Boundaries. What boundaries?

Remember when we generally used to work from 9am — 5pm, Monday — Friday? Nope, neither do I. Because all of a sudden, since everyone began working from home — regardless of whether you’re an employee or a freelancer — everyone has forgotten that they have a life outside of work.

When I sign off at the end of my working day (because I’ve actually managed to instil some serious boundaries now) I take a big sigh and smile at my empty inbox that I’ve spent all day clearing. I login at 9am the next morning to what seems like thirty thousand emails across various different email accounts as all of my clients have decided to spend the night before working.

Soul destroyed.

Where’s my pool float?

Instagram, especially right now, promotes lies.

My idea had been to spend parts of the year lying on a pool lounger in a tropical country, sipping cocktails, and tapping away on my laptop. Because that’s what all the digital nomads do, right?

We won’t address whether I could afford to do this or whether this was a realistic image when I first decided to go freelance, but regardless, the vision that was sold to me has not transpired.
Don’t ignore the side effects of remote work. Take action.
By: Susie Hall
Tags: Leadership, Design Leadership, Aquentinsideout, Remote Work

Near the end of this summer, while everyone was interested in finding the “New Normal,” our Chicago InsideOut Design Leader Community had the brilliant idea of exploring the dark side of remote work. Much has happened since then–and the New Normal remains a mystery–but their insights are too good not to share.

At this point, design teams are getting used to a virtual world, and most are interested in a future that includes a remote component and flexible work arrangements. No one seems to agree on exactly what that looks like, but as long as asynchronous schedules are around, the unintended consequences of remote work are here to stay. So let’s take a look at some of the challenges of leading a virtual team and some possible solutions to overcome them.
How to Stay Super Organized as a Digital Nomad
By: Jack Krier
Tags: Freelancing, Work, Startups, Travel, Remote Work

Full-time traveling is an exhilarating lifestyle but also a constant balancing act.

Our entrepreneurial spirit wrestles with our inner adventurer. Travel hiccups make it hard to establish a productive routine. And most importantly, we need to find ways to secure our output in any type of location, workspace, and cultural setting.

That’s where organizational hacks come into play.

A little over two years ago, I committed to digital nomadism. Lots of trials and tribulations later, I managed to build a lifestyle pivoting around freedom and adventure. I can now work from anywhere and spend most of the year in warm Asian or Latin American locations.

However, to make the lifestyle work, you need to be super organized. Because full-time travel adds another layer of complications to your personal and professional life, you need rock-solid systems.

There are many ways to thrive as a remote worker. Some like to work in coffee shops. Others create a work oasis in their Airbnb. And many seek instant connections with fellow nomads in their base.

At any rate, planning, automation, and experience are paramount.

On this basis, here is a guide on how to stay super organized as a digital nomad.
Ryca: 원격업무를 위한 새로운 커뮤니케이션 방식
Tags: Remote Work, Ryca

Learn more. Medium is an open platform where 170 million readers come to find insightful and dynamic thinking. Here, expert and undiscovered voices alike dive into the heart of any topic and bring new ideas to the surface. Learn more

Make Medium yours. Follow the writers, publications, and topics that matter to you, and you’ll see them on your homepage and in your inbox. Explore
The top 7 benefits of working remotely
By: Milena Dimitrova
Tags: Benefits, Remote Working, Work, Work Life Balance, Remote Work

Working remotely can be someone’s dream, and another’s nightmare. I personally think it is much better working from home. Now more than ever, people are working remotely. So, why should you also consider it?

Check out the following 7 reasons why you should begin your remote journey.

1. Save money

You get to save money. You save money on public transport or gas, on your lunch, on those three coffees per day, and so on. You also save on going out with colleagues for drinks after work. You also save on new office attires.

2. No need to get ready

Getting your hair done and figuring out what to wear today can literally wear you out. Ladies, you can forget about all that makeup, and a simple updo will do. Probably you will end up working in pajamas, anyway. You don’t need to look your best unless you have a Zoom meeting that day.

3. Save commute time

Commute can be exhausting and time-consuming. Either you take public transport or your car. If you take public transport, it probably takes away longer to get to work. If you take your car, you will most likely end up in traffic. So by working remotely, you save time and a headache.

4. Get chores done

While working from home, you can get some chores done. You will have time to do your laundry in the meantime. How about breakfast and coffee while you work? Yes, please! You get to cook your lunch at home and dinner will be ready earlier. You will be more efficient and get more things done in a day.

Photo by Tatiana Syrikova from Pexels

5. Spend time with family

Oh, yes! You get to spend more time with your loved ones. If you have a young kid at home, you get to take care of them and save on babysitter money. Having more time with your family is a great way to connect and be happier. In general, at home, your stress levels are lower than at work.

6. Sleep in

This is one of the best benefits. You get about one to two more hours of sleep! How awesome! You get to wake up maybe just some 30 minutes before work. Get dressed in your everyday clothes, brush your teeth, make that coffee and breakfast. Then you are off to your couch to work.

7. Comfort

There is nothing like the comfort of your home. You feel comfy and relaxed. During lunch, you can take a nap instead. You get to feel cozy, warm under your blanket, and can get other things done in the meantime. You also get to choose either your bed or your couch as your office.
How Remote Work Can Power Your Vacation Home Sale
By: Geoffrey Green
Tags: Home Buying, Remote Working, Home Buyers, Vacation Home, Remote Work

This year, the opportunity to work remotely has increased the demand for vacation homes. Gay Cororaton, Senior Economist and Director of Housing and Commercial Research at the National Association of Realtors (NAR), notes:

“Working from home is a positive factor in demand for vacation homes.”

Buyers are taking advantage of the fact that working from home might be someplace other than their primary residence — at the beach, in the mountains, or somewhere in between. NAR explains:

“Sales in vacation-home counties increased 48% on average year over year in the third quarter; overall, 81% of vacation-home counties saw a year-over-year sales increase.”

If you’ve been thinking about selling your vacation home, putting it on the market now while demand is high might be your best move. Here are two reasons why.

1. Vacation Homes Are Selling Quickly

These homes are not staying in the market for very long. NAR also notes:

“ In September, 68% of vacation homes sold in less than a month. Historically, about 30% sell that quickly…It’s a pretty amazing uptick compared to past years.”

2. Home Prices Are Rising

With an increase in demand, prices go up. NAR continues:

“In the third quarter, prices in vacation-home counties rose by about 32% year over year. Seventy-nine percent of these counties experienced year-over-year price gains. NAR defines a vacation-home county as one in which seasonal housing accounts for at least 20% of stock.”

If your vacation home is sitting idle, maybe not attracting as many renters as you usually see, or if you simply want to sell it so you can trade up or take it off your worry list, now may be the time. Demand is high, so you’re in the ideal spot to get a stronger return on your investment today.

Bottom Line

Demand is on the rise, so let’s discuss your next steps when it comes to selling your vacation home.

Contact our agents today and see our full list of available properties!
Stop Waiting and Scale Your Business with Fiverr
By: Jacob Fenuccio
Tags: Ecommerce, Virtual Assistant, Fiverr, Business, Remote Work

1. My Experience Starting on Fiverr

I waited a while before using Fiverr…my mistake. Boy am I glad I got started though.

Image Source: Nikita Kachanovsky (via Unsplash)

My initial reaction to most things is to try doing them myself and/or for free. Not a bad approach sometimes. As a small business owner I often default to the free, never mind the most frugal choice, but lately I’ve learned this isn’t always the best path.

I always knew about Fiverr and I had heard about them from their early days. I never took advantage of their fantastic tool though.

I’ve had it on my to-do list to utilize Fiverr and I’ve even had Fiverr downloaded, just lingering on my phone waiting to be tapped into, but I waited…my mistake.

Fortunately, one of my latest projects/endeavors led me into leveraging Fiverr.

I had just finished building a prototype of LottoPlays — live lotto data, dashboards, & top tickets for people who buy scratch-offs. The prototype worked but the model was too slow. I needed to make a more robust product so that I could launch it for sale to customers. I had ideas of what was needed but they weren’t my expertise. I knew it needed some more nuanced web-scraping and a better data flow paradigm. I figured I’d need Python or Flutter to get the job done. It was either I learned them and hopefully built it right -OR- I start to reach out.

I tried reaching out to some tech teams I knew but very quickly it became too many people, too much overhead, too many opinions, and not enough time/focus on what I truly needed to get the project going. I got frustrated because I knew I really only needed one savvy person. I decided to take a try at Fiverr.

No exaggeration…in under one hour I had my account made and an in-depth conversation about LottoPlays going with a top Python expert from Vietnam. I had my concerns… “Would he provide what I actually need?” “Will he steal my idea?” etc. None of my concerns were a problem. They were all in my head and silly in hindsight. After messaging with each other beforehand and sending screenshots through Fiverr’s user-friendly chat tool, we started with data for Florida. He did the job in one night! $60…one night! It would have taken me a week at best to figure out what he did and it likely wouldn’t have been made as well. It was worth the time savings alone!

Utilizing Fiverr, I focused on the parts I was good at (the math/calculations) and my virtual freelancer focused on the more robust web-scraping and data repository made with Python and a VPS (virtual private server). The whole experience was enlightening. Suddenly our biggest bottleneck was solved nearly instantaneously. Momentum picked up, to-do lists were drastically shortened and focused, and I felt much better because my days got more productive instead of slogging along trying to do everything myself.

We quickly moved on to other states and haven’t looked back since! I got started with a bare bones Fiverr account but now there are offers for 20% off your 1st order up to $100! I wish I had this discount to start.
Windows Virtual Desktop intro
By: Daniel Cohen-Dumani
Tags: Windows Virtual Desktop, Digital Transformation, Remote Work

Windows Virtual Desktop creates best-in-class productivity across various devices and platforms. In this video, learn what these features can do for you and how they are important in an ever-changing work environment.

To talk more about this topic, schedule a meeting with me here.
There Are Only Two Kind of Writers In the World
By: Vishnu S Virtues
Tags: Marketing, Productivity, Creativity, Writing, Remote Work

The two kinds of writers

For a long time, I didn’t think of myself as a writer. I thought that I was an occasional writer and hobbyist writer. I took writing less seriously and only did it when I felt like it. I wrote occasionally and inconsistently. I wrote when I had something to say. I wrote when I was inspired.

These days, writing is my job and I show up for my writing like a professional writer. I have general times of the day that I’m at my desk writing, the morning and evening hours. You will find me writing sometime between 6–10 am and from about 8 pm to midnight. I’m not writing 8 hours a day, mind you, but I am trying to get my 1000 words in. There’s a lot of procrastination and non-writing time in those hours but that’s the time that I’ve dedicated to hitting my word count.

This brings me to two kinds of writers in the world. There are writers who write occasionally and dabble in writing. They write out of passion and because they like writing. They do it whenever they feel like writing.

Then, there are writers who want to make writing a vocation. They write with consistency and discipline. They take to the practice of writing like they take to a job. They’re not only writing because of passion but they are writing with the desire to succeed as a writer. They are focused on becoming the most productive and prolific writer they can be. They want to make writing their full-time work.
5 Things Great Remote Leaders Don’t Do
By: Erik Kruger
Tags: Leadership Coaching, Leadership, Team Building, Remote Work

1. Don’t Spy On Their People

Going remote meant that leaders experienced the true meaning of trusting their teams.

The question I have been asked the most over the past few months has been, “Now that I can’t see my people, how do I know they are doing what they are supposed to be doing?” Unfortunately, many leaders responded to this situation by finding ways to monitor and surveil their team. This means screenshots of what people are working on, strict time clocking sheets, and even gps tracking.

Great leaders focus on building trust instead.

2. Don’t Get Stuck In Old Ways Of Doing Things

A religious devotion to how things have always been done is the shortest point between an organization and irrelevance.

More than ever leaders must be fluid across multiple domains. This means experimenting with different products and services, different leadership styles, and even to have a more experimental approach to their own personal and professional development. Rigidity in any domain might signal the start of the end.

Great leaders allow for experimentation.

3. Don’t Make People Feel Left Out

Remote work can either bring us together or push us apart.

Unfortunately it’s easy for remote work to create an environment where only the most assertive and outgoing of individuals shine through. This happens when we don’t actively include people in the conversation during a meeting. Or when some of our people have access to inferior technology and cannot participate with a good connection and adequate equipment.

Great leaders find ways to create unity in their teams.

4. Don’t Abscond Their Leadership Responsibilities

When the air is filled with uncertainty we need our leaders to shine bright.

For many leaders the pressure over the past few months became too much. This meant that they were looking for ways to outsource their leadership to their teams. Under the guise of shared responsibility they absconded their own.

Of course, shared responsibility is a good thing. But not if it means that as a leader you are stepping back and not providing the direction and support that your team needs from you.

You still have make the tough decisions.

5. Don’t Obsess Over What People Do With Their Time

At the heart of much of the frustration that leaders have experienced over the past few months is the fact that at the office you could see people clock in and clock out. This somehow being code for ‘people are getting things done’.

Now, without their physical presence, leaders have no idea what people are up to. And this petrifies many of them.

The irony is that research has shown that people have actually been working longer hours than before — probably due to the blurred lines between work and recreation at home.

Great leaders obsess not about time but about supporting their people to achieve a desire output.
(Mac) 마이크에서 슬로우모션이 걸린듯한 소리가 난다고 해요.
Tags: Remote Work, Ryca

Learn more. Medium is an open platform where 170 million readers come to find insightful and dynamic thinking. Here, expert and undiscovered voices alike dive into the heart of any topic and bring new ideas to the surface. Learn more

Make Medium yours. Follow the writers, publications, and topics that matter to you, and you’ll see them on your homepage and in your inbox. Explore
Leveraging Your Microsoft Assets in this Remote Access World
By: Daniel Cohen-Dumani
Tags: Digital Transformation, Microsoft 365, Remote Work

More of the workforce is working remotely than ever before. Organizations are adapting and implementing new remote access solutions to keep employees, volunteers, and beneficiaries secure and compliant. Now is the time to evaluate the Microsoft tools you already have at your fingertips and leverage the built-in remote work security features and capabilities. Learn more in this article from National Law Review.

To talk more about this topic, schedule a meeting with me here.
6 Things You Need to Give Up to Become a Successful Digital Nomad
By: Jack Krier
Tags: Remote Work, Travel, Life Lessons, Startups, Lifestyle

Your idea of “home”

When I first became a digital nomad, I thought that Luxembourg-City — the place where I grew up — would always be my “home.”

I believed that no matter how long I would wander around South America, island-hop in the Philippines, or road-trip the US, my hometown would always provide the same familiar atmosphere that defines the concept of “home.”

After a year on the road, however, I realized that things would never be the same.

Once you commit to full-time travel, you say farewell to the conventional idea of “feeling home.”

Of course, your friends will still be your friends, and your family won’t disappear, but your lifestyle will be radically different. The routines, places, and mentalities that once characterized your homely feel will no longer transmit coziness.

Because you’ve become accustomed to adventure, regular novelty, and constant discoveries, you’ll see your former home in a different light. It will always be the place where you grew up, but it won’t be your real home. The road will be.

In that same vein, people will see you differently. Your friends will move on with their lives, and the ones who live more traditional lifestyles won’t grasp your thirst for adventure.

I have a suburban house, a nice car, two kids, and a garden where I can invite people over for barbecues. Why would I travel full-time and jeopardize my current comfort?

These are the things you hear when coming back “home.” And there is nothing wrong with that. People have different views, and we ought to accept everyone’s life choices.

However, your friends’ lifestyles and the tediousness of previous hometown rituals — like going for a beer to the same bar every week — won’t make you feel at home. They will make you feel like an outsider because they don’t form your idea of “home” anymore.

You could argue that finding a new home somewhere else is possible. And while you could permanently move to a foreign location, fully integrate into the local society, and build a new sense of home, it would mean giving up your digital nomad lifestyle.

Consequently, there is very little middle ground. As a digital nomad, the conventional idea of “home” will vanish in favor of a different approach: feeling at ease on the road.
How to Work Remotely: Proven Tips To Manage
By: Aleksandar Basara
Tags: Work, Remote Work

Working in your favorite PJs, without any office politics, without committing a time slot to someone, taking breaks when you want — this may sound like a dream, but it’s just about working remotely. But there are not always butterflies and rainbows in remote working. Since there’s no one looking over your shoulder and you don’t have reliable resources, remote working can be challenging at times. Here we are with some proven tips to help you manage work and stay productive while working remotely.

Photo by Helena Lopes on Unsplash

Set a Schedule That Works for You

When it comes to office culture, punctuality is a primary focus for any company. Now that you are working remotely, you don’t have an obligation to punch in your sign-in or sign-out times. And this gives you the freedom to devise a schedule that can work for you. Maybe you like jumping out of bed at 7 in the morning or perhaps you are a night owl. Working remotely gives you the freedom to set a schedule that suits you. No matter where you are, following a plan helps you maintain high productivity.

Productivity Going Down? Change the Scenery

We know it’s “work from home”, but that doesn’t make it necessary to work just from home. Unlike most remote working tips that suggest setting up a definite work desk at your home, we recommend switching your workplaces. Maybe you have a free wi-fi spot in the city where you can grab a cappuccino and work with a new vibe.

Of course, you should set up a personal workspace at home. Instead of hindering your productivity by sitting at the same place every day, try exploring places to change the scenery, and boost productivity.

Prepare a Weekly To-Do List Before Starting

Staying on top of your work is essential to enjoy all the remote working perks. However, people fail to catch up with the workload without improper planning. If you have social and personal obligations, planning your work is imperative for a stress-free week. If you want to keep the work-life balance even while working remotely, prepare a weekly plan of all the tasks, and schedule all the meetings.

Robust Communication

Even after such significant technical progress in communication, it is still the biggest challenge that remote workers have is communication. Whether you have to collaborate with your team or you have to host a client meeting, the absence of a reliable communication channel can hinder your working schedule, create confusion, may result in unnecessary tasks, and more. We recommend opting for the most trusted communication provider of your area. Make sure they have instant support in case you face any issues in the internet or communication whatsoever.

Conclusion

Working remotely is fun until improperly managed. While sometimes you know how to deal with a problem, other times you may fail to address specific issues. If you want to continue working smoothly from your home, keep the above points in mind and get the best out of your remote working opportunities.
Remote working during pandemic benefits employers and employees alike.
By: Andrew Theodor
Tags: Technology, Health, Remote Work, Covid 19, Lifestyle

As the COVID-19 outbreak nears its first birthday, we find ourselves in a constant process of adaptation and change. The world as it currently is, doesn’t quite work the way we’re used to. Rules and safety measures alter the way we live our everyday lives, making it difficult to carry out even the simplest of tasks, but there are changes that made our life better.

In order to protect their employees, many companies switched to remote working (or telecommuting). Telecommuters can work from their homes, avoiding daily commutes, rushed breakfasts or cramped desks. This wouldn’t have been possible 15 years ago, but with the constant evolution of video-calling and cloud-based platforms, many tasks can now be accomplished without being physically present to a workplace.

The pandemic has forced some companies to accept the possibility of remote working, and it was for the better. Different studies show remote working triggered an increase in productivity, as well as in the general happiness of employees. And it makes sense if you think about it:

There is reduced work-related stress, it gives the flexibility to choose the working hours, it allows for more family time and it gives the comfort of your own personal workspace. It even encourages a healthy lifestyle, reducing the amount of fast-food eaten, as now it gives the chance, and time, for one to prepare its own meals.

In the US, The yearly cost to rent office space, per employee, can vary from 4,000$ to 14,000$.

There are also benefits for companies. Every employee needs a desk, good internet connection, a computer connected to a power grid, AC for the hot days, a clean workspace and rent. Not having to pay for these, businesses can make some hefty saves.

The pandemic is a grim situation, but it gives us the opportunity to adapt and make our lives more efficient, even after the crisis is over.
Is remote work killing collaboration?
Tags: Collaboration, Remote Working, Tech, Innovation, Remote Work

We used to overhear spontaneous conversations, loop each other in, and have ad hoc engagements that led to creative leaps. We can’t do that over Zoom. I haven’t talked to anyone in marketing in months. I feel disconnected; I don’t know what’s going on over there. We just aren’t collaborating as much as we used to. We can’t be as innovative if we only meet on a schedule.

If you are you trying to manage your company culture and processes under the paradigms that worked for an office and it’s not working, that’s not surprising. There is no more watercooler, or coffee machine. There is no more open office plan where you can overhear a conversation between colleagues and jump in uninvited.

Remote forces us to be intentional in our collisions and collaborations. I see too many teams bemoan the loss of the old patterns, because the remote version of those patterns either doesn’t exist or isn’t producing the outcomes they did while in an office. Of course they don’t — the entire context around communication has changed.

Rather than focusing on how to manage towards the desired outcomes, teams try to replicate the inputs — with predictable results.

If our use of technology and corporate infrastructure is changing, shouldn’t our approach to management evolve as well?

Where I work, we’ve reevaluated our entire approach to work as we shifted to fully (and permanently) remote. We created cross functional positions deliberately to drive more conversations and shared work across groups. We’ve brought standups to everyone and made them public, and managers and leaders drop in across the company. We push as many conversations as possible to public Slack channels, avoid email, and standardize short 1:1s among any pairs that regularly interact, or whose work intersects. It takes intentional and thoughtful management work, and we don’t have it all 100% right, but it’s working. We’re more productive, more collaborative, and more collegial than before. It’s eliminated the physical domination of some types from conversations, brought more voices into conversations more easily, and made content more powerful than presence. We can manage meetings better than ever.

Remote-first companies have their challenges. Collaboration and innovation needn’t be one of them.
Microsoft security & compliance adoption guide
By: Daniel Cohen-Dumani
Tags: Security And Compliance, Microsoft 365, Remote Work

With remote work as the new normal, organizations must rely on employees and volunteers who are working outside traditional organization borders. This guide will help you implement the Security and Compliance capabilities of Microsoft 365 for your organization that can help you identify and manage potential risks while keeping staff connected and productive.

Download the full guide below.
Journey of a Quality Analyst (Part IV)
Tags: Technology, Pipeline, Quality Analysis, Infrastructure Management, Remote Work

Credit : Photo by Serpstat from Pexels

This is the last article of the series, mainly focusing on infrastructure.

Many projects focus on getting on board with cloud infrastructure. Here, based on your expertise, you can contribute in certain ways and collaborate with infrastructure engineers / SREs (Site Reliability Engineers) better if they are present on the team.

Knowledge of server side performance, user load, geographical distribution of the users comes in handy while making decisions.

I had some takeaways from this experience. They are as follows :
These 8 Things Have Changed the Definition of a “Writer” As We Know It
By: Sude Hammal
Tags: Freelancing, Culture, Writing, Society, Remote Work

These 8 Things Have Changed the Definition of a “Writer” As We Know It

Photo by Bonnie Kittle on Unsplash

What comes up to your mind when you hear the word writer? A few decades ago, one would firstly say, a person who has published his own books, or journalists who have their own columns and write for papers and magazines would be another definition. But the most common assumption would be the prior one.

An image of a writer, especially a well-known, prestigious one, could potentially be pictured as a white man over his 40s that smokes, survives with the bottle of whiskey on his table, and scattered notes and papers all over his typewriter.

When we think of a conventional writer, an image of a penniless writer or conversely, a writer who has gotten rich over their work, comes up to mind. There is actually no in between. After all, writers are artists. And being successful in the creative world is a risky business; you either lose all or win all.

Are today's writers all artists? Not necessarily. There are actually more writers with non-artistic aims over their work than artist ones. Are today's writers either exceptionally rich or counting their pennies? Actually, there are more writers hanging in between.

In the present day, the prestige of being a writer lessened compared to its golden ages; but instead, has molded into countless alternative job opportunities.

Thanks to the internet and the online world we are living in right now, the definition of a writer has changed radically and made it possible for a wide number of people to turn their attention to this different side of writing, the online world of writers.
Remote
By: Bohdan Maznychenko
Tags: Remote, Remote Working, Distant Work, Remote Work, Remote Team

Typical remote workflow: a computer, phone, a coffee and… the full focus. Photo by @goran_ivos

For lots of people working remotely is unbearable. But, unfortunately for them, COVID-19 pandemic made the world change forever and irreversibly. Most innovation leaders realized the fact: distant work is cost-effective, safe and efficient. They were able to convert “a problem” into “a capability”.

People used to spend tons of time and money on transportation, food and coffee/drinks. With videoconferencing and chat tools now anyone can share their ideas even while being in the park, lying on the beach or just simply — at home, with no need to be physically present.

It’s also cost-effective for employers. There is no need to maintain workplaces if employees work remotely, as well as electricity, water and other bills are cheaper

Communication tools are now everything: the life, the work, the leasure.

Because offices are not some kind of “special places”. This is how people used to work until 1990-s, when the first personal computers became quite affordable for the vast majority of people (at least in the US) and the World Wide Web emerged as a new entity (FAX was a real thing back then)

Nowadays, 30 years after we have everything to stop going to offices: fast smartphones, laptops, tablets, lots of free videoconferencing and chat applications.

During the pandemic, most people easily abandoned their habits of going into the coffee shops to get beloved lattes, flat whites and cappuccinos and instead got espresso machines to fuel up each morning with no risk involved. For example, in England sales of coffee machines increased by whopping 412% after the second lockdown was announced.

Basically, the same happened with work during 2019–2020: it was easier to transfer the “machine” to home, rather than adding unneeded risks. So this is how distant work emerged.

Still, it requires some effort for the newcomers. These three points are the must:

To be/come organized;

To be/come a time-manager;

To maintain work/life balance;

Most economy sectors can convert their work into remote mode at no additional cost. IT, Creative Industries, Content Production — all of these do not require people to be stuffed in offices.

Google, Microsoft and Apple are leading the new digital revolution right now. They all make me believe — the future will be awesome.
Reaching The Balance of Working Remotely & In The Office
By: Jaclyn Morse
Tags: Working Remote Challenges, Business, Leadership, Remote Work

Long before the pandemic hit, the debate of the merits of working remotely versus being in the office was an ongoing saga in our company. Me being from the millennial generation, and my business partner and father being of the boomer generation, we found it difficult to see eye to eye. In many ways, our experiences are so different from each other. I grew up with the computer. As a preteen and teenager, a large portion of my interactions with my friends was online. Compared to those of the boomer generation, who were adults when interacting on the computer with others became a regular occurrence.

As an IT organization, we had the capabilities of working remotely far before most small businesses of our size. At the same time, being in the service industry, many of the roles in our company cannot be performed remotely. This resulted in many (sometimes heated) discussions on the merits of leading a team remotely and what the “right” balance looked like. I was open to more extended periods of working remotely while my father felt the need to be present in the office every day.

What emerged from our constant back and forth over the years was what we call “Office Day.” Once a month, our entire team would be present in the office at the same time. We would have smaller team meetings throughout the day, and we all enjoyed breakfast and lunch together, which the company provided to the team. I would work remotely three weeks out of the month and be in the office for the entire week that coincided with Office Day. We seemed to have reached that “right” balance for about

a year, and then COVID-19 entered the scene.

What I have learned from being forced into a longer stretch than normal of remote work and being robbed of our “Office Days” was just how important they are. While a lot can be accomplished remotely, there is an intangible energy created from being together in person. This energy is vital for team cohesion and happiness. Not only that, but not everyone is “made” for remote work.

Some find coming to the office every day energizing, not draining. Every person has a different ideal mix of working in the office or working remotely, depending on their lifestyle, personality, and gifts. And I believe that the more diverse a group of people, the better the ideas are that emerge from their collaboration.

What I see coming out of all of this for the future is flexible work environments becoming the norm. Depending on how often an employee frequents the office will dictate their setup, those working a certain number of days in the office will have dedicated desks, and others will book shared workspaces. Perhaps more companies will enter into partnerships to share office real estate (given the number of team members that work remotely) and the office will turn into mostly a collaboration space. As we expand upon our technology offerings, we are holding this idea in mind. I see the transformation of how we work as a society coming and am looking forward to it — and I believe we will all be better off.
5 ways to lead effective meetings with your remote team
By: Daniel Cohen-Dumani
Tags: Digital Transformation, Virtual Meetings, Remote Work

In a world where remote work is more and more common, virtual meetings have become the norm. But technical problems, audio delays, and lack of personal interaction can dampen spirits and halt innovation. How can leaders better connect with their teams across a digital distance? Check out these five tips from Entrepreneur.

To talk more about this topic, schedule a meeting with me here.
Post&Podcast#15 · Cómo mantener a tu equipo motivado aunque trabaje en remoto
Tags: Spanish, Digitalización, Teletrabajo, Trabajo A Distancia, Remote Work

Learn more. Medium is an open platform where 170 million readers come to find insightful and dynamic thinking. Here, expert and undiscovered voices alike dive into the heart of any topic and bring new ideas to the surface. Learn more

Make Medium yours. Follow the writers, publications, and topics that matter to you, and you’ll see them on your homepage and in your inbox. Explore
Slik organiserer du hjemmekontoret
Tags: Home Office, Storage, Remote Work, Organising

Learn more. Medium is an open platform where 170 million readers come to find insightful and dynamic thinking. Here, expert and undiscovered voices alike dive into the heart of any topic and bring new ideas to the surface. Learn more

Make Medium yours. Follow the writers, publications, and topics that matter to you, and you’ll see them on your homepage and in your inbox. Explore
The value of workshops in a WFH environment
By: Christian Jensen
Tags: User Experience, Teamwork, Design, Design Thinking, Remote Work

Why workshops are even more valuable when working from home

Whether you’re working remotely by choice or forced by a global pandemic, I’d argue that workshops are even more valuable than when you’re co-located with your colleagues or clients on a daily basis.

While an in-person workshop is arguably the ideal in a situation like this, going remote might be your only option due to geographical limitations or a strict pandemic-induced WFH policy. Either way, the arguments listed below apply to workshops of all kinds.

Efficiency

For many people, not having an actual office can hurt their productivity. The home or local café comes with a long list of distractions that we don’t have in an office and simply isn’t associated with work for most people.

In an environment like this, the efficiency achieved with a good workshop seems even more valuable.

In a workshop, it’s much more difficult for your participants to get distracted by their surroundings because they need to be fully present in the exercises. You’ll all experience a higher level of energy and momentum, and actually get some s*** done. It may even extend beyond the workshop.

From Giphy

Ownership

In a WFH environment, where it’s easy to feel distanced from what colleagues and managers are deciding and working on, establishing a shared sense of ownership is worth some effort. A 1-hour workshop where key stakeholders get their say and make their impact on the project is great bang for your buck.

Alignment

I love the written format, whether we’re talking async communication on Slack, project briefs, or design feedback. However, there’s no denying that misunderstandings are more prevalent in written communication vs. spoken.

What’s more, you may actually think that you and your colleagues are perfectly aligned on the prioritization or the goal of a project, while in reality, your perspectives are completely different.

A video call may be enough in most cases, but a workshop can also be a great venue for everyone to share perspectives, concerns, ideas, and to make sure you’re all aligned before a misunderstanding derails your project.

Team spirit

Working from home doesn’t have to mean working on your own. Yet, that’s often the easiest to default to. Aside from a daily standup and a weekly check-in, perhaps you’re mostly working by yourself?

Collaboration and team spirit come much more naturally when you’re co-located with your colleagues, whereas you have to be a little more deliberate about it when working from home. Workshops are a great tool for this!

From Giphy

Excitement

Depending on your daily tasks and how excited you are about them, you may come to find WFH a little boring and demotivating. This is especially true for more extroverted people who thrive on other people’s energy.

A workshop is a great way to change up your regular work routine and add some excitement to the WFH situation. You can even add an ice-breaker or energizer, or schedule breaks for small talk or other fun exercises.
Throwing Light
By: Aqua Blaze
Tags: Zoom Meetings, Humor, Deadpan, Literally, Remote Work

Learn more. Medium is an open platform where 170 million readers come to find insightful and dynamic thinking. Here, expert and undiscovered voices alike dive into the heart of any topic and bring new ideas to the surface. Learn more

Make Medium yours. Follow the writers, publications, and topics that matter to you, and you’ll see them on your homepage and in your inbox. Explore
On the go
By: Daniel Cohen-Dumani
Tags: Microsoft Surface, Digital Transformation, Remote Work

Workplace expectations and the way we work continue to evolve. Over half of the global workforce will be mobile by 2022, and that same percent of leaders said outdated technology hampers their ability to compete for talent. Mobility is a deciding factor for workers — is your team equipped with modern, mobile IT and technology? Today’s employees need hardware and software that work together to help them work remotely and with greater mobility. To learn more about how Microsoft supports modern ways of working, have a look at this infographic.

To talk more about this topic, schedule a meeting with me here.