Today marked the end of my first week working exclusively from home. My normal routine has always included working at home part of the time, but until now I’ve worked mostly in an office.

Here are my takeaways from week 1:

• Physical activity – I like being active and usually work out in a gym. Since I couldn’t do that (thanks, coronavirus), I adjusted by taking up running outside (I hate running). Surprisingly, I enjoyed the fresh air and constantly changing scenery.
• Time – Not having to take time to “get ready” and then commute was refreshing. I had more productive time.
• Social interaction – Not being around people affected me initially, but video calls and meetings provided enough social interaction for me to feel normal.
• Meals – I typically have lunch with friends or colleagues a few times every week. I didn’t care for not being able to. A friend mentioned they had done a virtual lunch via FaceTime. I haven’t tried it, but I may if this becomes the new norm.
• Focus – There are distractions at home, so I have to make more of an effort to focus on work.
• Separation – Traveling from my office to my home has always helped me shift my mindset from work to my personal life. Now, I must create that separation within my home. Having a dedicated home office has been helpful.

During this first week, anyway, working from home all the time hasn’t been as bad as I imagined. I’ve learned what I need in order to feel normal, and I look for alternatives that work in the current environment. I pay attention when people mention what they’re doing to help their teams adjust to working from home (for example, video happy hours and breakroom channels in Slack). I can't control this situation, but I can make the best of it. I plan to learn from this, adjust as necessary and share my experience with others.

As I write this, the coronavirus pandemic is forcing companies to rethink how their employees work. They must embrace the work-from-home option like never before. I managed a mixed team of remote and in-office workers at CCAW, so I thought it might be helpful to share what I learned:

• Right person in the right seat – This is important wherever the seat is located, but it carries extra weight for team members who work from home. Make sure the person you hire is a good fit for the job.
• Experience – Seasoned team members tend to do better in remote roles. They often (but not always) need less hand-holding to work productively.
• Video communication – You can never replace face-to-face conversation, but video tools like Zoom are the next best thing.
• Cadence – Weekly or even daily team stand-ups keep information flowing and help resolve issues quickly.
• One-on-one meetings – Regular meetings with each remote worker are critical. They give the team member a chance to say what they’re thinking (good or bad) and connect personally with their manager. We did our meetings weekly.
• Alignment – Communicating what’s going on with the company is difficult. We published dashboards displaying key performance indicators (KPIs). We then discussed the KPIs during our regular meetings.
• Chat – Tools like Slack that allow you to create rooms or channels are great for communication. People like sending quick messages instead of emails.
• Visibility – Knowing who’s working will help you set expectations for responsiveness by remote team members. Tools like TSheets can help.  

It’s hard to replace the in-office experience, but there are things you can do to make everyone feel welcome and be productive. When done well, remote work raises team morale in a big way.

In a previous post, I shared what I learned from my first company. It taught me a ton, but I never figured out how to transition it from a hustle to something sustainable. That realization, my desire to make my parents proud, and an urge to keep up with my classmates resulted in my happily agreeing to work for EY in Atlanta. To be totally transparent, I also wanted to move to a big city and travel on someone else’s dime. (Side note: I almost accepted a job in San Francisco —until they casually mentioned I’d probably need four roommates.)

Personal finance has been a hobby since adolescence; that was a big part of the reason I majored in finance. The summer after college, I was curious what my financial life would look like with a real job in a big city. I’d never lived outside Louisiana, earned a salary, or had benefits before. I decided to create a budget for my new corporate life in Atlanta. My forecast was crude, but the exercise was helpful. Even though I’d studied finance and read avidly about personal finance, my knowledge gap was HUGE. I decided to fill that gap and get perspective from others. My hope was that I could avoid financial pitfalls.

I decided to try to get my forecast posted on a personal finance blog and ask for feedback from its readers. Getting any response from bloggers was a 50/50 proposition, I figured, and I expected a demand for compensation if they did reply. There was no downside, though. From my previous experience, I had learned the value in simply trying.

I emailed my forecast to a popular personal finance blogger. To my surprise, he agreed to post it and didn’t ask for payment. You can see the post, my forecast (don’t laugh), and the feedback here. The feedback came in quickly and was pretty diverse. There were financial suggestions, as expected, but also advice on how to live life. All these years later, I’m still surprised and thankful that this blogger and so many of his readers were willing to help me out by sharing their experiences and perspectives. Their feedback helped me prepare for life in a new city and transition smoothly to corporate America.

Here are my takeaways from the experience:

• ‍Perspectives – Everyone views life through a unique lens. For a variety of reasons, we don’t all see things the same way. There is value in trying to understand other perspectives (even if you don’t agree with them). Listen with an open mind.‍
• Knowledge gaps – Nobody knows everything. Seek knowledge from credible sources and people. It will help you make good decisions.‍
• Right answer – The right thing to do may be something suggested by someone else. Getting to the right answer is more important than being right. This is from Ray Dalio’s book, and I agree 100%.‍
• Ask for help – People are often willing to help. Think carefully about what you’d like them to do for you. A specific ask will make it easier for them to help, so they’ll be more likely to say yes.