Mastering Remote Work – Strategies for Work-Life Integration

#003: Work Life Integration Episode Transcript

Kelly Noel Zeva: Welcome back to Uplevel University today. We’re going to be talking about mastering remote work strategies for success and work life integration. So, first of all, I just want to mention that work is part of your life. So when I say work life integration, what I really mean is work life and personal life, or outside of work life.

And ideally you have a good balance, right? You want the two to be integrated, you want to have a good flow between all areas of your life, and feel balanced. I’m Kelly Noel Zeva, I’m the community manager at Uplevel Coworking. I have a background in marketing, in holistic healing as a Reiki master, and as a coach.

So that is the experience that I bring to the table as a podcast host as well. I’ve been the community manager for Uplevel Coworking for five months now. And an important topic for us is mastering remote work. We get a lot of remote workers and hybrid remote workers and business owners and entrepreneurs who are working away from their teams or independently and need to have a good flow so they’re not burning themselves out, right?

Why Work-Life Integration Matters

Burnout is real and it’s a problem. Remote work has just increased dramatically since the COVID-19 pandemic started in 2020, and remote work can be isolating. So it’s really important to understand what you need individually to thrive as you’re doing remote work. I’m going to share a little bit about how I do remote work best as well, or just do work best.

As the community manager, I work independently. My supervisor is the owner. He’s on site one to two days a week and we meet once a week and otherwise I’m doing independent projects. So what do I do to stay productive and focused?

Setting Up a Productive Workspace

First thing, though, is setting up a productive workspace. Whether you’re creating a home office or you’re at a coworking space and you’re working remotely still, creating a space where you can be productive and focused is important.

That is not just your desk. What’s on your laptop? What time do you carve out on your calendar?  That is what state is your body in and how are you nourishing your body going into work and just your whole over your entire approach to working. And this is something I wish I had known ten years ago.

And I didn’t and that’s okay. I’ve learned it and it’s also been an interesting journey. So learn from my mistakes so you don’t repeat them, or you can stop if you are making the mistakes I was, that you can get yourself off that train. So, having a dedicated workspace is important, and clutter free is really, really helpful.

One of the things that I’m interested in is feng shui, and you can feng shui your office. There’s actually a Feng Shui Your Workspace for Dummies book that is, Really interesting. It’s short. It’s sweet. And that’s one thing you might consider if you’re interested in clutter free workspaces. If you’ve heard of Marie Kondo, you can Marie Kondo your office.

You can, you know, it’s not just limited to, the concept isn’t limited to your house. You can apply the same strategies to your workspace. So asking yourself, does it bring joy? Is it something I need? Is it something useful? How much of it can be digital and virtual? And can you declutter your Google Workspace folders and things?

Creating an Ergonomic Workspace

When we’re talking about productive, you also want to be comfortable. So having furniture that supports good ergonomics. One of the things that was really challenging as I was starting this position as a community manager is that the device I was provided to do computer work was a Microsoft Surface.

I was not given a monitor. I was not given a keyboard. I was not given a mouse. So I was just working on the surface and I started having really severe wrist pain. To the point where I was having pulsing pain in my wrist and my partner was like, “I told you three weeks ago we needed to get you stuff.”

I made something that was important and not urgent, very urgent by not looking at ergonomics. So you want to make sure that you have a good monitor and tech setup. You know, sometimes if you’re working remotely, you’ll get a tech budget or a work from home budget, which is really great so that you can get these things.

I’m a big fan of Staples. When I go in person, Staples will price match anything that’s online. And I’ve gotten some pretty great deals on mouse pads and keyboards and wireless mouse that way. And then my partner graciously let me use his old monitor.

So definitely setting yourself up that way. Having a good chair. So we have ergonomic chairs here at Uplevel Coworking, and we have desks with pretty good height. You also want to consider wrist height and shoulder height and just all your position so that if you’re sitting for four to eight hours a day, you are comfortable and not putting unnecessary stress on your body. Basically trying to mitigate the stress as much as possible.

Distraction-Free Zone

Free of distractions. That helps make things productive. So when we’re talking about distraction free, you also want to have a space where you can do deep work. So deep work is a concept that was pioneered by Cal Newport. And I spoke with Stephan Spencer about four years ago and he had actually interviewed Cal Newport and so was very into the need for deep work.

Since then, I’ve been learning more about deep work myself. It’s important. Deep work is work that moves your moves things forward. It is highly cognitive work that really requires you monotasking and you, a person can typically maintain up to four hours of deep work per day. To create a space where deep work is possible, try monotasking. If you’re going to get interrupted all the time by dogs, or children, or other pets, or partners, that’s going to prevent you from doing deep work, which is the work that actually makes an impact in your business or at your workplace.

Music for Your Brain

So you want to create a space where you can get into deep work. So some things that I do that have helped. If I’m really passionate about a project, I will naturally create these structures more easily for myself. But if I would rather be working on something else, then I will have to create more intentional structure for myself. I have started using Brain.fm.

Claire Paniccia is the creator and genius behind Conquer Your Content and speaks about how to run a business and create content in a way that works for your brain, and she’s the one who first turned me onto Brain.fm. So she really speaks about how to thrive as a neurodiverse entrepreneur. So if you are someone who has ADHD or a wonky brain, definitely check out Claire and their work.

The point being that Claire was the one who suggested brain. fm. And [Brain.fm has] a special high hyper or high neural stimulation mode for people who have ADHD. This is something that Claire recommended as a resource and it’s great. I like it. If you have listened to binaural beats in the past, or white noise or you know, music, definitely check out Brain.fm.

The Power of (Virtual) Coworking

Another thing that I like to do is coworking. So, yes, there is the physical co working, which in a co working space is somewhat effective because, you know, there are other people in the space.

I know they’re working on work, so I should be working on work, right? But I have an office, and so I am by myself in that office. I’m not out in the Flex Desk area with other people working on stuff. So I’ve found that virtual co working, even if I’m in a co working space, is really helpful for me. For people who have ADHD, this is known as a form of body doubling, and body doubling has been shown to be very supportive for people who have ADHD.

So investing in a solution like that so I’m actually part of a few different co working communities. So I have joined Mai-kee Tsang’s Coworking Cove. And it’s a really great space that is a paid virtual coworking model. In addition to Mai-kee Tsang’s group, there are a couple of co working groups that I’m part of.

So Lizzie Goddard is a multi offer business strategist course creator. And she offers co working for anybody who has purchased any of her programs. So, it’s kind of a paid model, but it’s free co working. So, it’s a great way to nurture her audience, that’s how she’s using it.

Speaking of which, if you’re wanting to bring co working into your business as a way to get closer to your audience I mentioned Claire earlier in this episode, Claire also has a great offer on co working and how to implement co working in your own business. And the other tool, the other group I’m going to name is Caveday.

My Love Affair with Caveday

So Caveday was the first time that I had tried virtual coworking. Caveday, I can’t remember where it was recommended the first time, but it is phenomenal. So the thing I like about Caveday is there are dozens, well dozens is maybe exaggerating a little bit, but there are several opportunities to be in virtual coworking every single day.

So every single day I can join multiple co working sessions. And you pay a monthly subscription. It’s $40 per month if you pay monthly, and $30 per month if you commit to an annual contract and pay upfront. That’s nice if you’re someone who really relies on it, and I was doing some coworking with Mai-kee and Lizzy.

And you know,I love the way Mai-kee facilitates. If you are needing like a really curated intentional space, definitely join the Coworking Cove. It’s great. Mai-kee runs coworking every two weeks and I just needed it more frequently, so I renewed my Caveday subscription.

Caveday facilitates 40 minutes of deep work (1 sprint) and then there’s a break. You can also do a set of 3 sprints, which is great for making huge progress on a big project. And I relied on that so heavily to help me draft draft my novel. I would not have written a novel if it had not been for Cave Day. So that was huge.

And then like I said, I’ve been doing co working again recently and I was like, I need to renew my Cave Day subscription or get started with Cave Day again. I actually set it up with a different email this time. So yeah, so Cave Day is wonderful. You should check it out.

You should check out Mai-kee. You should check out Claire. You should check out Lizzie. All of them. They’re all wonderful. 

Using a Physical Coworking Space

So we talked about desk, we talked about ergonomics, we’ve talked about, talked about digital or like virtual co working, actually using a co working space, right?

Being in a space where other people are working, where it’s quiet, where we don’t allow pets or, you know, it’s, it’s just got more of an office y feel. It’s more casual than I think. like a corporate office. I’ve worked in some corporate places and this has got a more casual feel but it’s still much more formal than working from home.

I don’t wear sweatpants here. I wear typically like black jeans and dress shoes and like a nicer top. So it’s like business casual slash dressy casual. That’s what most people usually wear. So it just also like helps you get in the mindset of like you’re going to a place and I’m doing a thing and I leave my Microsoft Surface here, so that I don’t take work home with me.

And it’s really nice to have that boundary. You know, whereas if I were working from home, I might be working from home during non business hours, and here I can mentally separate. And that’s what a lot of members have said too, is like, they’ll leave work here, or they’ll you know, they’ll just have better boundaries between their life and their personal life and their work.

Networking Events at Uplevel Coworking

It’s also great for professional networking. So, different coworking spaces have different policies and different event calendars and, you know, stuff that they host. We have a pretty active event calendar. You can actually go to our Events page to see upcoming workshops and networking events.

Our Work Week Wind Down is a monthly happy hour that we have and that’s been very popular because people like food and people like beer. Well, Wisconsinites like beer, at least. Many, many Wisconsinites like beer. It’s a great way for people to connect.

One of the things that can be so isolating about working remotely is that you’re all alone. You know, you’re talking with teams virtually. There’s no in person connection. And even if you’re not touching someone, like you’re not hugging them, high fiving them, handshaking with them, they’re, like, we release more oxytocin when we are in person with people, and we also release more oxytocin when we can see people, even if it’s virtually, or there’s connection.

Connection and having fun and being with people, it makes us feel good, and that’s one of the things that can be really challenging about remote work. Being able to have connection also contributes to having a productive workspace.

Communicating Effectively With Your Team

With mastering remote work, right? You also want to make sure that you’re communicating effectively with your teams. That can be really hard when you’re just using things like Slack or Zoom or Google chat. It’s like, okay, how do we know that things are not getting missed? So definitely having a blend. Of communication is really helpful.

You know, if you are part of a larger company, they probably have processes in place that they’ve been testing and iterating for years to facilitate communication among remote teams. So this may be a little less relevant, but know that it’s okay to ask for video, video calls or video meetings if you’re not getting something, if you need more support.

And it’s also okay to request and ask that something be sent over email or Slack if it doesn’t need to be a meeting. This is something my partner has run into is like, he’ll be on meetings that are not necessary for him to be on. And it’s like, okay, he spent 2 hours in what could have been a very thought out email and series of tasks in a project management software.

So project management software is also really helpful depending on how your business is structured. So if you are a business owner and you’re, let’s say you’re a solopreneur, but you’re growing project management software is really essential. So I’ve used Asana in the past. I was the first full time hire for a startup marketing agency.

And during that time we, when I started, we did not have project management software and you know, the team was growing. So we started using Asana. I was part of a more established company, an e learning company, and we used Basecamp. I know Trello is an option that people use since I’ve started in the workforce, you know, more recently there’s monday. com, you know, there’s different tools out there, but find one that works for you to delegate and to manage projects.

Instant Messaging Options for Remote Work

Instant messaging. So if you have Google workspace, Google chat is an option that you can have. I’ve used this with my business projects. It’s, it’s great because then we can link to documents in Google drive more easily, things like that.

So if you Google workspace and everyone has a Gmail account or is part of your Google workspace, so like you know, for us it’s uplevelcoworking. com. So if everyone has an uplevelcoworking. com email address, they can be part of our Google workspace. And we can all have a Google Chat going. Slack is another one that I’ve used that’s very popular.

You could use Discord. You know, there’s, there’s different options out there. So, instant messaging is really helpful for, for certain things, but it’s also really important not to always be on instant messenger and to, Set boundaries around that so you don’t get pulled out of deep work. So maybe identifying when you’re doing your deep work times and when you are doing your shallow work times and replying to instant messages and things like that and being on Slack or Discord would be one of your shallow, shallow task times or shallow work times.

Clear Communication Protocols

Having clear communication protocols and setting expectations with remote teams. Yes. You definitely want to identify what is and is not your policy. So people can be clear with their communication and know what is and isn’t expected. When do you expect them to be available on different platforms?

How. How often, you know, maybe you’re okay with having them having, you know, four hours of deep work time a day, but then they need to be on a sauna or slack or X, Y, Z platform during X, Y, Z hours. So just being really clear on that, especially if you are leading that kind of team and then checking in with team members.

So I think weekly is a good. A good touch base time frame, you may have a daily check in, a stand up meeting. Usually a weekly check in was more common, but if you’re part of a team that’s very like day to day driven and need to stay on top of things that, that might be something you want to do at the beginning of each day is like, this is what I’m working on today and this is what I accomplished yesterday and this is where this project is.

But if you are having daily check ins, try to keep them short so that people can go and do the thing.

Better Work-Life Integration with Coworking

Okay, so we’ve talked about work life balance a bit already, so things can get blurred if you are at home, right? If you are working from home, because you might be doing some personal things, and then you might be doing some work things, and you might have unusual hours.

We’ve actually found just in speaking with our co working members, that they have better work life balance when they come here. So there’s one member in particular that I’m thinking of right now. Who has said that, you know, on the days that she’s working from home, like, she will, you know, work, work, work, work, work, but when she’s here, you know, even though she’s taking her laptop home still she will set better, healthier boundaries for herself.

So it’s really interesting how having a dedicated space helps foster those boundaries. So our members get 24 7 access to the space. So they could be here all hours of the day if they really wanted to. If they had a 2am stroke of genius or they couldn’t sleep and they wanted to come in and record a podcast episode.

But most of them tend to come in around 9 a. m. and most of them tend to leave around 4 or 5 p. m. So they tend to keep working hours that are more consistent with a standard business schedule because they know that’s when coffee will be made for them. That’s when I’ll be on site. That’s when they don’t have to use their keys to get in.

It’s not all or nothing to like, there may be times where you want to have a little bit more flex and flow and that’s okay. And with a coworking space, it’s, you know, with a library, for example, like it’s open or it’s closed. They don’t have special hours for members or anything like that.

One of the benefits of a coworking space is that you can go there outside of regular office hours, just like you would if you had access to a building. So when I was working in person for different positions, one was at an eLearning company, the other was at an engineering firm as a marketing assistant, I could get into the building after hours if I needed to work late on projects, or if I wanted to come in early.

How Isolation Impacts Mental Health

Next thing we’re going to talk about is isolation. I talked a little bit about this already and I talked about creating community and how co working can facilitate that but I’m going to just go back and revisit this because this is a serious issue. So this is something we saw a lot during the pandemic is that isolation contributed to mental health issues.

It contributed to anxiety and depression and so connection and in person connection is really, really important for having good mental health. And mental health is just part of overall wellness. So, you know, when we’re talking about looking at our lives holistically and thinking about wellness first, part of that means engaging with community.

And part of that means working, being in community with others. And that’s one of the things about in person coworking that is very different than virtual coworking. Like I have built relationships with people as a community manager here. And, you know, I probably am closer to people than they are to each other just because, you know, I.

It’s my job to check in with them and connect with them and support them. But, you know, that’s one of the things that I really noticed when I was working as an entrepreneur from home is that the isolation was really hard. You know, I had a VA slash assistant that I worked with and, you know, we connected over Zoom, but it wasn’t the same.

And I had a lot of loneliness and it was really hard. It was harder to stay focused because I wasn’t working with a team. It was harder to stay focused because I wasn’t working in person with people and could see other people working. So, again, that’s going back to the body doubling I was talking about.

When I was working at an office, like, there were people around me who were staying, you know, who were focusing on their work. And that was very helpful for me staying on task. I mentioned how we have events right that helps foster community outside of doing work in the same space. And that’s something that working in an office, working in person, you also get.

When I was working at the engineering firm, you know, we, we had a Christmas, like an annual Christmas party. We had what else? When I was working at the e learning company, we would go out to the bar together. There was a brewery. Like a brew pub that was like really popular and we would just have nights where we would go out and sometimes, you know, sometimes the company would pay, sometimes we would pay individually, whatever it was.

It was just nice to go out with people we were working with and see different sides of them and get to know them outside of you’re my boss or you’re my coworker, you know, celebrating birthdays. That was something that was [00:26:00] big and these are things that help us relate. And help us connect. And that’s not something I always get if I’m working remotely.

The Power of a Coworking Space

That’s really one of the powers of finding a coworking space that’s near you. And, you know, going to an in person coworking space, you know, there’s, yeah, there’s going to be some change in the membership, but you’ve got a community manager who’s there to support you. And it’s. Different than a cafe or a library where it’s just, it’s not designed for that purpose.

It’s not designed for that. You can certainly use it as a space to get work done. It’s not designed for coworking. It’s not designed for working. So another way to thrive and master your remote work is to leverage technology. Oh, my goodness. Leveraging technology. I am a huge fan of Google Workspace. I talked about Google Workspace a little bit earlier.

It is collaborative. It allows you to share documents very easily. It allows you to give different access for editing or suggesting things so that people can make [00:27:00] changes in real time and then it’s saved to the cloud. You don’t have to worry about it. Virtual meetings. I love Zoom. If you have Google Workspace, you can use Google Meet.

I’m a Zoom fan, though I’ve been using Zoom since 2017. Before that we used WebEx. Project management, we talked about Asana, we talked about Basecamp, we talked about Trello. I haven’t tried Monday. com. I have tried the other three. I also know that Airtable and Notion, I believe, have some project management capabilities.

I’ve dabbled in Airtable just a little bit. I have not used Notion. So, if you have used either of those tools, And have any tips for using them that you think would be beneficial in a future episode, please let us know. Please reach out and tell us that. Tips on maximizing productivity and collaboration through technology.

I highly recommend using ChatGPT. And other forms of artificial intelligence. So if you are new to chat, g p t Chat, g p t is a product of open ai. So [00:28:00] Open AI is the name of the company. They’re funded in part by Microsoft. So that’s why if you’ve been on, on binging recently or you’ve gone to Microsoft Edge, you’re like, oh, I can talk with a chatbot and it will like, it will create really awesome search results.

So they partner with OpenAI and use ChatGPT for the Bing assistant. So ChatGPT does not have as much functionality as the Bing assistant because it cannot crawl the web in real time. So Bing is really cool. But you can also go directly into chat GPT. If you’re looking to create content or create outlines for content, if you’re looking to create social media posts or analyze the tone of a document or something like that, there’s a lot you can do with chat GPT.

There are also specific software programs that use chat GPT, but have different interfaces and different templates and different workflows that are customized for certain activities or tasks. So jasper. ai and [00:29:00] copy. ai are two examples that are really tasked with copywriting. Jasper is one that many companies use.

It’s considered probably one of the better ones. You can create blog posts search, search engine optimized blog posts. You can create social media posts. You can create content calendars. You can create marketing emails and things, but you do need to be patient as the AI is learning your tone and It’s not going to be 100 percent of the way there, but even if it gets you 80 percent towards your goal, that’s really helpful.

If you are in marketing or an industry that there’s a lot of people doing what you do, it’s going to be a lot easier to create and generate content than if you’re in an industry that is, you know, like you’re pioneering things because again, you know, AI only. It doesn’t it’s bank is what you feed it or what it’s been fed.

So, if the content doesn’t yet exist, it’s really hard for AI to come up with it. Those are some, some ways that you can, you know, stay focused and productive. We talked about Cave [00:30:00] Day. That’s a form of technology, I would argue. You know, with those Zoom meetings, virtual co working is another. Whether it’s through Cave Day or a different provider, that’s a way to leverage technology for focus and maybe not so much remote collaboration, but it helps you stay on task and be more effective.

And then just continuing to stay updated on technology trends because when you’re working remotely it’s really valuable to be using technology so you so you’re able to connect and communicate and thrive. So this is a bit of a shorter episode, and we talked about mastering remote work and how to thrive in the workplace if you’re a remote worker.

We talked about how to set up a productive workspace and how to communicate effectively. And different tools you might use for, you know, keeping your workspace effective and maintaining communication, [00:31:00] how you might manage work life balance with co working, and how to overcome isolation with co working.

So, co working, you might have different events, social events, networking events that you can attend. And we also then ended briefly with leveraging technology for remote collaboration. So, chat GPT, artificial intelligence, if you haven’t yet explored it, please do so. It is an emerging trend and it is going to change how we work and it is always.

My opinion, it’s always better to be on the cutting edge of trends rather than a late adopter, because then you get to be part of the group that shapes it and part of, you just get to set yourself up for success in this massive shift. It is on par with the information age when the web Became available or the industrial revolution.

This is the shift that this is the level of shifts that we are heading into with AI. It is going to massively change knowledge work as it becomes more and more effective. [00:32:00] I mean, within five years, I think we’re going to see even more dramatic shifts in the labor market. All right. I hope this was valuable.

Please take some of these strategies. Check out these different resources that I named. They’re really great. Oh, and the people I named. So, you know, check out, check out the resources below. And if you are in Dane County, you’re in the greater Madison area, especially if you’re on the east side, check us out.

Please book a tour with us at uplevelcoworking. com slash tour. If you are interested in touring our space and seeing if we could be a good fit for you. And then we also have our ultimate guide to coworking. So you can download that. We’ve got the link below and thank you for tuning in and please subscribe.

Review, share with others, you know, our goal is really just to help remote workers, business owners, entrepreneurs do good work and thrive. And so if this is a value to you, we want to know that. Please also let us know if you have any ideas for [00:33:00] future episodes or questions that you’d like answered because we want this to be engaging and, and really valuable for our listeners.

All right, that’s it for today. Thank you so much, and we’ll see you next time on Uplevel University.