Product Habits - Day in the life of a remote worker

Day in the Life of a Remote Worker

My FYI co-founder Marie Prokopets is giving you an inside look into her day as a remote worker. We we built FYI as a remote company from Day 1. Despite having built the infrastructure to facilitate effective remote work for our team, this is still a challenging time. Know you're not alone if you are struggling with remote work—even if you were doing it to some extent before the pandemic. We hope you find something in this read that inspires how you structure your own work schedule, tools, and space. 

Don't Mute, Get a Better Headset

It seems like the entire world is video conferencing for work these days, and if you've been on a call recently, you've probably noticed the tendency people have to put themselves on mute when they aren't talking. But, WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg suggests not muting yourself if you can help it. It creates the effect of speaking to a muted room, and also subtly trains you to focus on waiting for your turn to speak rather than actively listening. Here are his reviews of microphones and headsets you can use to make video conferencing feel like a more natural experience. 

How We Use Notion to Work Together at GoSquared

If you're looking for tools to help make remote work easier and more effective, it's worth taking a look at Notion. It's intended to be an all-in-one workspace designed to help teams write, plan, collaborate, and get organized—all in one place. Here is a detailed look at how one team is using Notion for all of their documentation. If you've been wanting to streamline how you organize your company's documents, this is a good example of how you can do it. 

Why You Should Not Ignore Facebook's Huge Surge in Traffic

Facebook is reporting record usage across its apps—not only from preexisting users spending more time on them, but also new users trying them out for the first time. As marketers start to pull out of the social advertising game, this could be an interesting time for you to try experimenting at a lower cost with less competition and more audience engagement. If you're in a position to double down, now is a good time to do it. Do these three things if you're looking for a place to get started.

The Simple Joy of Learning on the Job

Something this unexpected season of life has reminded me of is the importance of learning. Once we leave formal education and assume full responsibility for lifelong learning, it tends to fall by the wayside. But, learning can bring us incredible joy, which feels much needed right now. Here's the other thing: The current global crisis is a reminder that things can change in an instant, and the simple practice of learning new things reminds us to be flexible and open-minded about what we don't know. It makes it easier to face uncertainty with curiosity rather than fear. What sparks learning joy for you lately? 

Leading Your Company Through a Pandemic

If you're one of the many startups currently struggling with growth and retention as a result of the Coronavirus downturn, this is a must-read. CEO of Reforge Brian Balfour said it best: "This shit is hard...if you are stressing, just know everyone else is, too. Ask for help if you need it." On that note, here are eight specific things you can do right now to lead your company through the pandemic. 

Stop Trying to Be Productive

I can't tell you how many social media posts and stories I've seen about how to be productive in this new normal. But what if you didn't try to be productive? The urge to do more, even during a global crisis, should make us pause and think about why we do what we do in the first place. What if you didn't make it a goal to optimize every minute of your day? How would your day look and feel without that pressure? This read is a reminder that just attending to basic needs is enough right now.