The remote paradigm shift has made many of the “old ways” of office culture obsolete. Whether you’re a work-from-home freelancer, distributed team member, or a business owner, it’s time to build completely new remote habits and get things done in 2021. The good news is you don’t need ambitious goals or a spectacular 180 to become “the best you can be.” Instead, you should implement tiny, incremental changes that’ll put…
Continue ReadingCollaborative note-taking has a solid track record in the academic world. It helps students distribute workload, patch up revision materials, and mix in different points of view. Now, with a bit of tinkering, you can also turn it into a remote team superpower! In today’s article, we revisit Niklas Luhmann’s Zettelkasten and discuss three popular note-taking techniques. We’ll also show you how you can combine the two ingredients to create…
Continue ReadingChecklists have saved lives, helped teams succeed, and… sent people into space (more on that in a bit). But did you know that they can also make your distributed team self-reliant and more productive? (checklist template inside!) A checklist—simple list of steps/tasks arranged in sequential order—is one of the most powerful organization tools in our personal and professional lives. In this article, we explore the origins of checklists and the…
Continue ReadingThe Japanese term Tsundoku (積ん読)—piling up unread reading materials—is undergoing a renaissance of sorts. Ever since cloud storage became readily available and dirt cheap, we’ve been spiraling down the rabbit hole of digital hoarding. Keeping pristine digital hygiene isn’t easy. But it gets even more complicated when companies switch to remote work. Without a solid data management plan, distributed organizations can quickly lose their way in a deluge of information….
Continue ReadingHow often do you touch base with your distributed team? If the answer is “whenever it’s necessary,” then you’re missing out on a number of interesting benefits of organic internal communication. Find out how you can leverage the power of dialogue to make your team more self-sufficient, tight-knit, and productive. Here are some questions we’re biting into in this article: 💡 Before you begin… This is another installment in our…
Continue ReadingShuffling papers, peeking into folders, digging through inboxes… Sounds familiar? If your remote team has a knack for disorganization, we have a solution. With a collaborative, single source of truth (SSOT) they won’t miss a thing, ever again. In 2019, Citrix and The Economist ran a collaborative survey “The Experience of Work.” Among the 1,145 business executives, 47% said that ease of access to business information is the key driver…
Continue ReadingDo 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…
Continue ReadingHave 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…
Continue ReadingHow many times have you sent an email that caused a stir in your distributed team? Maybe you used the wrong emoji, misspelled a word or didn’t articulate your thoughts correctly. 🤷🏻♂️ These minor hiccups are some of the reasons people misunderstand each other in written communication. Find your email particularly hilarious? Crafted a witty chat comeback? Think twice before hitting “send” because your co-workers may have a different idea…
Continue ReadingWhen it comes to project management, there are two questions that continue to occupy the greatest PM minds around: “Is it possible to build a fully remote Scrum team?”, and if so “can it be as effective as its co-located counterparts?” In this article, we attempt to answer these questions and (*spoiler alert*) provide actionable tips that’ll help you and your team rock remote Scrum with class. 🕺 ☝️ A…
Continue ReadingBreaking news, product releases, company updates, galloping deadlines, personal commitments… welcome to the age of information overload. If you wish you had a second brain to cope with all that, we have some good news. You can actually build one! 🥳 No, we don’t mean another pinkish jelly to play tag with your “biological brain”. We’ll show you how to create a robust, collaborative knowledge-management system that’ll help you and…
Continue ReadingBuilding productive team habits takes time and effort. Anything you can do to increase engagement and reduce repetition will significantly increase your team’s effectiveness when getting work done. That’s where the digital IKEA effect comes into play. When your team interacts with a new tool or workflow on a more direct level, they’ll inherently find it more valuable. The secret is for your team to get hands-on experience early in…
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Build Effective Remote Teams With Atomic Habits 
Collaborative Note-Taking: Helping Remote Teams Stay Organized 
The Power of Checklists in Distributed Teams 
The Curse of Tsundoku (積ん読): How to Beat Digital Hoarding in Remote Teams 
How to Boost Internal Communication in a Distributed Team 
A Single Source of Truth: Why Your Remote Team Needs One 
Multitasking for Remote Cross-Functional Teams (Updated for 2024) 
The Zettelkasten Method for Distributed Teams 
How to Overcome Poor Communication in a Distributed Team? 
Remote Scrum Teams: Agile Across Time Zones 
Building a Second Brain For Your Team 
How the Digital IKEA Effect Builds Sticky Team Habits