Don’t Worry About the Cat and More Tips on Working from Home

Southpaw Insights has always been a remote team, and we’re happy to share some of our favorite tips for working effectively from home.

Get physical: Now that we’re all virtually connected – which is great – I also really appreciate the value of going old school. We still do phone calls at times, and I love to print out surveys and edit them with this thing called “a pen”. – Jessica Broome, Head Southpaw

Separation of work and home: When I worked in an office, I always ate lunch at my desk. But when working at home, I make a special effort to leave my phone and computer aside at lunchtime, and enjoy my lunch without work-related distractions. – Jordan Barringer, Research Manager

Bring your calm to work: I’m a longtime meditator, so whenever a “problem” or pressured situation arises, I take the time to step back from my laptop and spend a few minutes settling my mind – a few nice deep breaths – before jumping in to respond to the situation. It works every time. – Julia Strohm, Research Manager

Establish communication guidelines for your team: Our team members have all agreed to the same “communication hierarchy:” Email is important, a text is urgent, and an unplanned phone call is an emergency. And each week (same day, same time!) we all join together on a Zoom meeting to catch up on our projects and what’s going on in our personal lives. It helps maintain our sense of community and mutual support. – Raeka Delong, Research Director

Stick to a schedule: When working at home, it’s so easy to get distracted by “home-life” activities, so I block out time every day when I am fully dedicated to doing focused work, responding to emails, and making work-related calls. And, I give myself a firm end time when I put my work aside for the day. – Sidney Clewe, Data Visualization Specialist

Be prepared for some work bloopers: When life and work meld together, weird stuff is going to happen. Don’t let it faze you when someone falls off their chair in the middle of a Zoom call or pops up to feed their cat! – Kathy Florin, Operations Manager

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Jessica

Founder of Southpaw Insights