Remote working challenges. Optimising work-life balance, wellbeing and focus when working remotely. Tips include creating separate workspaces, setting routines like getting dressed for work, exercising, using pomodoro techniques to focus, staying connected with colleagues, and unwinding from work at the end of the day. The webinar covers maintaining productivity and mental health when working from home.

1. Shifting to remote work.
Optimising work-life balance, wellbeing and focus.
In addition to these slides, you can watch the
YouTube recording of the webinar here.
Author:
Tribe Global : the Human Transformation Architects
March 2020 Copyright © 2020. All rights reserved.

2. Welcome!
Please mute your microphones and
ask questions in the chat window.

3. We help humans with change.
We are Human Transformation Architects, working at the intersection of people, culture, change
and innovation. We have developed a Human Accelerator Program and a modern toolkit of
interventions for building high-performing teams, adapted from the most innovative high-growth
companies in Israel, Silicon Valley, Germany and the UK, and backed by the latest scientific
research.
Some of our clients:
About us:
Tribe Global - Level 6, 200 Ann Street - Brisbane QLD 4000
Peta Ellis (Culture) +61420374733 Aaron Birkby (Performance) +61412176613
hello@tribeglobal.com.au

4. About Peta Ellis
Peta is a Human Transformation Architect, ecosystem builder & leader, innovation
strategist, public speaker, and diversity evangelist.
As an entrepreneur, Peta founded 4 companies before 30, and has a 20 year
background in communications, PR, marketing and media relations. She is currently
an Entrepreneur In Residence at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT).
As a startup community leader and CEO of River City Labs, Peta grew the
organisation over 550%, leading it through an acquisition by the Australian
Computer Society in 2018. Post acquisition she led the expansion of RCL into 3 hubs
across 3 states making it the largest innovation hub network supporting high growth
technology companies in Australia.
She is a member of the Queensland Startup Working Group and has led the Startup
Catalyst Female Founders Mission to London. She was awarded the 2017 Startup
Community Leader of the Year by Techboard.
As an innovation strategist, Peta has worked with hundreds of high-growth
technology companies and has worked with corporates such as Bank of Queensland,
CUA, and Suncorp.
As a facilitator Peta has delivered 20+ hackathons around Australia, and has
delivered hundreds of keynotes, workshops, and panel events to several thousand
participants at events around Australia.

5. About Aaron Birkby
Aaron is a Human Transformation Architect, startup founder, innovation strategist,
executive coach, and public speaker.
As an entrepreneur, Aaron has founded and exited several technology businesses,
businesses, for which he was named the Australian Entrepreneur Of The Year by the
Pearcey Foundation in 2016. He is currently an Entrepreneur In Residence at the
Queensland University of Technology (QUT).
As a startup community leader, Aaron has founded a startup hub on the Gold
Coast, served as an Entrepreneur In Residence and designed multiple accelerator
programs, as well as organising and leading 17 international missions to Silicon
Valley, Boulder, Seattle, London, Berlin and Israel. He’s a member of the
Queensland Startup Working Group and previously served as a board member of
StartupAUS.
As an innovation strategist, Aaron has worked with hundreds of high-growth
technology companies, and consults to multinational giants like Google, YouTube &
Novartis on innovation, culture and performance.
As an executive coach, Aaron coaches professional Australian athletes, investors
and scale-up founders.
As a facilitator Aaron has delivered 60+ hackathons around Australia, and has
delivered hundreds of keynotes, workshops, and panel events to several thousand
participants at events around the world.

6. Remote working
challenges
As organisations around the world shift to working remotely,
many individuals will be working from home for the first time.
This will throw out existing routines and habits, and can
create new pressures for them, their families, and their
teams.
Poor remote working practices and habits can lead to feelings
of isolation, burnout and overload, and can blur the lines
between work and home. It can impact our physical health
and fitness, and can reduce focus and productivity. It can
lead to greater anxiety and can negatively impact our work
and personal relationships.
This document contains just a few of the techniques
individuals can use in order to maintain their mental and
physical wellbeing, and to create boundaries over their use of
time and space, while working remotely or from a home.
88% of remote workers struggle with
inconsistent working practices and
miscommunication
The Institute of Leadership & Management

7. Topics for today
The human side of remote working and self isolation:
Spaces, routines, self-care, children, and teams.

8. As comfortable as it might be, working from your
bed or kitchen table isn’t optimal.
As much as possible you should separate your
workspace from your home-space.
Physical separation of your spaces, and using each
space for one purpose, helps your mind transition
between work and home modes, and prevents the
stress or thoughts of one context invading the other.
Studies show that good physical boundaries around
your work zone helps you maintain focus and clarity
of thought.
It also helps signal to other household members
when you are working.
Spaces & zones.

9. Working in isolation requires you to be more
self-motivate and self-directed.
To help achieve this you should set your to-do
list of the top key tasks and priorities for each
day.
Review your calendar and set realistic plans
for what you can achieve.
Set your intention
for the day.

10. Don’t fall into the temptation of sleeping in. Wakeup at
your normal time and add new morning activities that
energise you.
Design your new ideal morning routine, perhaps including
exercise, meditation, yoga, time in nature, listening to
podcasts or reading.
Get yourself completely ready for the day before you
start to do any work.
Don’t sleep in.
Use your morning for you.

11. Wearing your normal work clothes helps trigger
your mind to enter into “work mode”.
Numerous studies have shown that your choice of
clothing can be used to engineer your mood and
your mindset, and can even affect your
confidence, problem solving and creative
thinking.
Sorry, but your pajamas just won’t get you into
the right headspace.
Get dressed for work.

12. Exercise
Using your body to engineer your mood
It’s easy to let household standards lapse when
you are working from home. But research shows
that making your bed is more likely to make you
more organised elsewhere in your house. Plus it
puts you into a state of momentum for “getting it
done” making you more productive.
Make your bed.

13. Yes, even if you are working from home, creating
a commute to work can trick your brain into
switching into “work mode”.
Consider going for a walk around the block, or via
a local café for a takeaway coffee, as your virtual
commute, to transition yourself ready to start
work.
Your workday officially starts as soon as you walk
back in the door.
Commute to work.

14. Working from home often results in less physical
movement as we only need to move shorter
distances for food or bathroom visits.
Consider periods of standing while working and
also go for a walk outside in the sun and fresh air,
particularly around that early-afternoon energy
low. There are also plenty of apps and YouTube
videos with home workouts, such as here.
Studies show that exercise isn’t just good for the
body, it’s good for the brain.
Don’t forget to move.

15. One of the challenges of working from home can
be the constant distraction of other household
members, kids, chores, and temptations.
One technique to overcome this is to use a
pomodoro – schedule a short intensive period of
work without any distraction (say 25 to 50
minutes) followed by a short break (say 5 to 15
minutes).
Staying focused with pomodoro
sprints.

16. Whenever something comes up in the
home while you are busy with work, instead
of immediately jumping to do it, simply
“park it” for later.
Create a “parking lot” list either in a
notebook, on a small whiteboard, or Post-it
notes on the wall. Then add any tasks or
conversations that you need to complete
later, allowing you to stay focused on the
task at hand.
Park it.

17. A third space is any space that isn’t your work or
home. It could be a café, a park, the beach, or
even your car, bicycle or motorbike.
If you can’t venture out, a third space could also
involve simply putting headphones on and
listening to music on your deck.
You can use a third space to transition between
your modes of action, or as a space to de-stress
and unwind, or for difficult conversations.
Read: The Third Space by Dr Adam Fraser
Use a third space.

18. Working from home during a lockdown can prevent you
from leaving the house, leading to cabin fever and
overwhelm from constantly being surrounded by others
and the same space
You can find a virtual escape through music. Create
‘persona playlists’ of songs to put you into particular
moods or modes of action.
Studies have shown that curated music can help you to
focus, to be more creative, and to transition between
work mode and home mode.
Focus@Will is one app that has scientifically-
engineered music playlists to maximise productivity,
creativity & focus.
Listen to music.

19. Remote work can be isolating and often reduces your opportunities for
conversation. Make sure you stay in regular touch with your tribe through
daily morning “standup” calls, and online collaboration tools like Slack,
Facebook Workspace, Trello, Asana, and more.
You need to build in social time with colleagues. Create a virtual “water cooler
conversations” channel in your digital platforms for you to share banter and
have social conversations with your team.
Stay connected as a tribe.
88% of remote workers are affected by miscommunication. 19% are
affected by loneliness.

20. • Zoom.us is a great tool for remote video calls.
• Give people more advance notice of meetings and calls so
they can organise themselves.
• Ideally activate your webcam for the additional body
language communication.
• Be dressed for an unexpected call.
• Indicate your availability with “office hours” or online status
flags in social platforms
• Replace your screen background with an image to add
privacy.
• Use a headset with decent microphone and consider the
privacy of information shared.
Tips for remote video calls.

21. It’s going to go wrong,
and that’s ok.

22. A ‘download’ is simply a form of
conversation used when you want to
purge your thoughts from the day by
sharing them with another person.
Consider calling a work colleague, a team-
mate, friends or your partner to download
about your day and purge the mind of any
unclosed loops of thought from your
work.
Download.

23. At the end of each day record a short little video of
yourself talking about how you are feeling.
Consider forming a small group of close friends to
share your end of day reflections with.
Watching each other’s reflection videos is a great
replacement to watching the news, and maintains
quality relationships and human connection during
periods of isolation.
Self reflection.

24. Working remotely often means you spend a lot
more time on devices and screens, with more
notifications.
It’s important to unplug from technology and
prevent distracting notifications so that you can
mentally switch off and be more present with
yourself, your family, and other household
members.
At the end of your work each day we
recommend turning off devices or putting them
away in a cupboard or drawer.
Unplug.
22% of remote workers struggle with disconnecting
after hours

25. When you finish work for the day it’s important to
have a routine to transition back into your home
mode.
Pack away your workspace and ideally close and
even lock the door to it. Out of sight is out of
mind.
Then consider ‘commuting home’ by walking
around the block.
Have a shower, take your work clothes off and
switch into more relaxed home wear.
Avoid going back to do more work later.
End your day right.

26. Sunday is prep day.
Prepare and plan for the week ahead:
● Review your calendar for the week
● Create a meal plan or schedule
● Pre-cook meals for busy days ahead
● Plan activities for your kids
Research shows that good prep results in healthier
eating habits, less stress and anxiety, reduces
decision fatigue, and improves mental headspace for
creative and critical thinking.

27.  Set expectations
 Create boundaries
 Plan age relevant activities
 Pomodoros for kids
 Prepare lunches
 Online play dates and convos
 Don’t be too rigid
Juggling kids &
work.

28. click the image for the link

31. Like to learn more?
Continue your upskilling as a remote worker.

32. We are setting up a Slack community for
remote workers to share tips and
techniques with one another.
Join the online remote working Slack
community here.
Learn from others.

33. Online webinar same time next
Wednesday on identifying your skill set,
adapting to changes in circumstance, and
ideating additional income streams.
What could you do? How can you offer
your services?
You can find out more about our
upcoming webinars here.
Alternative income
streams.

34. Do you know
how to adult?
We have an online program to teach you the
habits and routines used by the most
successful individuals around the world to
better manage and sustain themselves
www.peakpersona.com

35. Download the checklist here.

36. Role & Soul.
We provide our behavioural psychometric profiling and training of teams to raise their awareness
of self and of each other, upskilling them to adapt their behaviour and communication for more
effective team performance and people management.
Some of our clients:
TEAM PROFILING, COMMUNICATION & ALIGNMENTWORKSHOP
Find out more about the workshop here.

37. Questions?
Ask your questions in the chat window.

38. Contact us
Level 6, 200 Ann Street
Brisbane QLD 4000
hello@tribeglobal.com.au
@peakpersona @thetribebuilder
Peta Ellis (Head of Culture) +61420374733
Aaron (Head of Performance) +61412176613