Want a window into what other people around the world are doing to stay safe and sane in the face of remote work?
It feels like we have no shortage of tips for working from home floating around at the moment, whether it’s how to maximise your productivity, when to take your breaks or the best ways to curb cabin fever.
It’s true that a lot of the advice pieces out there share the same – or at least similar – points, but here’s something a little different that’s worth checking out: a crowdsourced remote work survival kit.
This tool has been developed to do exactly what its name implies, which includes helping people and organisations with remote working while we all tread uncertain and unknown waters.
The kit was created remotely by more than 100 volunteers from all around the world, who collaborated on its content through WhatsApp, Google Docs, Office 365 and WordPress to get it up and running in a matter of days.
The project features an editable document and people from various industries are adding their suggestions for different tools and tips for remote working. At the time of writing this article, it was already 70 pages long.
According to the website, the team behind the project is currently committing 100 hours at a time to each release, through which they’ll make new web updates and downloadable content available.
At the moment, the kit has six categories: culture and behaviour, staying productive, managing teams remotely, technology, looking after yourself and family life.
It also features a dedicated tips and tricks section. Here, you can read about teaching via a virtual classroom and why you shouldn’t punish yourself when things don’t work out perfectly while working from home (such as this infamous moment from BBC News).
You can also browse the site’s sector guides. It has two so far – one dedicated to teaching and another to the design industry, including illustration and UX.
Among the sea of working-from-home best-practice stories, this kit may or may not contain anything new to add to your remote-working arsenal. But having a resource with lots of contributors from different countries and in different working situations should at least make for an interesting read, and maybe some much-needed camaraderie.
