Remote Work

If you’re like most “fresh” remote workers, chances are the new reality without a commute gives you a warm and fuzzy feeling. But as it usually happens with lit things, there’re some caveats too. In this case, it’s WFH procrastination that spoils all the fun. Whether you’ve fallen in love with remote work or already miss your cubicle, one thing’s certain. Motivating yourself to get work done at home is…

Have you heard the news? Epic Games, the developer of a wildly successful multiplayer game Fortnite, has just announced a massive $1.78 billion funding round. Wondering what it has to do with collaboration software? Well, it turns out, multiplayer video games and collaboration software have much more in common than meets the eye. In fact, it was video games that popularized real-time communication and collaboration long before Google Wave’s debut…

Who would’ve thought the transition to remote work would carry over the nuisance of daily meetings? Well, thanks to VoIP and video conferencing tools, our love-hate relationship with daily (weekly, monthly…) scrums continue. Luckily, quick sync-up meetings are here to save the day. In a now-famous email to Tesla employees, Elon Musk shared his formula for effective meetings. According to Musk, they should be small, short, and scarce. Teams should…

Last year at our Y Combinator demo day presentation, we set out on a journey to make Taskade a breath of fresh air in the team collaboration space. We created a remote-first productivity tool that would enable teams to collaborate in real-time without friction. We wanted to build a remote-first productivity tool, for ourselves and other distributed teams like us, in one unified workspace. Fast-forward to today, our priorities haven’t…

Terry Crews doesn’t check his email before hitting the gym, but it’s a safe bet that everyone else does. Over the course of almost 50 years (!), email has become a staple in our professional lives. Now that the modern workplace pivots to remote, it’s about time we challenged the status quo: Does @mailto belong in remote workflows? 🤔 If you’re like most knowledge workers, chances are you have a…

Do you think you can juggle multiple tasks and not flop any of them? Well, let’s just say that the myth of multitasking was busted a long time ago. But don’t worry, you can still bet on *remote* cross-functional teams that are up for the task (or two). 🏋️ Regardless if you are a freelancer or work as part of a remote team, some tasks and projects are just too…

Written communication is going through a renaissance of sorts. With the rise of remote work, the ability to express thoughts in a clear and organized manner is in high demand. But while asynchronous communication these days is mostly about chat, emails and texts, there’s another writing skill you should master—how to write a memo. Memos (memorandums for short) aren’t only a domain of high-profile CEOs. They’re a great, universal tool…

Remember the 1992 Glengarry Glen Ross scene where Alec Baldwin’s character schools the sales team on the principles of Always Be Closing (ABC)? That’s some A-level mentoring right there. Wouldn’t it be cool if fully distributed teams could get a *similar* learning experience through remote mentoring sessions? 🤝 What’s Remote Mentoring? 📘 Mentoring: employee training system under which a senior or more experienced individual (the mentor) is assigned to act…

Team conflicts happen, whether it’s a simple difference of opinion, misalignment, or a squabble over project details, disagreements happen in all types of organizations. But dealing with team conflicts remotely… that’s a whole new type of challenge. 😱 Discord in a remote workplace is tricky to spot, and a heck of a challenge to deescalate, once it goes past a certain point. After all, remote employees (and managers) can’t just…

The recent Spotify x Joe Rogan deal made one thing clear: Spotify is going for gold of the podcasting industry. While the company’s chain of acquisitions is part of a well-thought-out business model, the Swedish music streaming service didn’t start as the most orderly bunch. Back in 2012, Spotify sported an experimental and highly volatile organizational approach that came to be known as the “Spotify model.” In today’s article, we’re…

Have you come here looking for knowledge? 🧠 That’s perfect timing as we’re just about to take a closer look at another interesting system for collecting and organizing information. A brainchild of German sociologist Niklas Luhmann, the Zettelkasten method can make you (and your team) smarter, more productive, and effective at work. While the Zettelkasten was originally created to support Luhmann’s scientific research, we decided to look at it from…

As more companies are extending their remote work policies, we thought it might be a good time to revisit the concept of work from home (WFH) and see where it stands today.  While the growing popularity of flexible, off-site work arrangements is a positive thing (even if it’s by necessity), the concept of a fully remote workplace is still intimidating to many. If you’re new to remote work or just…