How to Keep Your Remote Team Focused and Positive in 2021

Now that we’ve finally said our goodbyes to 2020 and greeted 2021 in all of its potential glory, we still have some remnants of the previous year to deal with and hopefully overcome. For example, all entrepreneurs and business leading ladies today working with remote teams want to find creative and effective ways to boost productivity while staying engaged and happy. It’s a noble goal to empower your teams to make the most of their work hours even when they work from home, as all of us should strive to build our work-life balance even more than before.

Staying focused and positive while working remotely is a great part of that effort to enhance productivity. It’s challenging to deal with so many distractions at home, especially for working moms with youngsters running around. With or without kids in the equation, remote work has its unique turmoils. To help your remote teams stay positive and use their mental focus as best as possible, we’ve listed a few of the most powerful tips to use to your advantage!

Structure your team interactions

Time-wasters are not just wreaking havoc on your schedule, but they’re also impacting your employees’ mindset and positivity. If they’re forced to spend hours in a meeting that seems pointless and could have instead been an email, you’re contributing to their negativity. So, make sure that your business-related talks and meetings are structured and organized.

Create a clear, time-bound agenda of issues and tasks that need to be discussed in each Monday conference call. Send a follow-up email to make sure everyone knows their responsibilities. Above all, if you can, avoid lengthy meetings with too many participants when you can replace them with simple emails or use a range of chat tools to communicate your daily needs and concerns! 

Use tools to track time and tasks

What better way to improve your time management skills and overall organization than to track and learn from your own patterns? You can explore a variety of tools that serve to track time and attendance in your organization and then use the data to spot patterns, potential productivity issues, and collaboration problems. 

This is a great way to collect unbiased information and then implement solutions to make your work processes more efficient. When you eliminate and automate low-value tasks and help your teams make the most of each moment of their workdays, you can help them build a more positive mindset and feel productive and valued in the process.

Leverage project management software

Project management tools such as Trello have been around for a while, but their value has become all the greater ever since the pandemic forced more companies to switch to remote work. Brilliant and simple, these PM tools help you get a closer look at your employees’ work habits and to help them allocate tasks more effectively.

You can spot when someone has too much on their plate and help them delegate to someone who is idle. Paired with tracking your attendance and time, tracking projects and tasks can help you improve productivity, elevate focus among your employees, and make their work significantly simpler and more streamlined – which is more than enough to help them stay positive!

Make time for digital happy hour

Zoom calls aren’t restricted to business-only topics. In fact, since there are no more watercooler conversations and spontaneous get-togethers every Friday afternoon, you could help your teams stay connected with virtual happy hours every now and then!

For instance, you can organize a game night, order food and watch a movie online together, or trivia nights. Talk with your employees to see what they’re in the mood for, when they have time to set aside that one hour, and then you can plan out a virtual event for your entire gang. 

Encourage employee health and wellness

Remote work, coincidentally, is not always about remote work. If your team members sleep poorly, have zero time on their agenda to work out or eat properly, and you see that they feel miserable because of all the pandemic-related issues – they will hardly be able to focus during their work hours. By making sure their off-work time is filled with health and self-care, you also ensure that their focus and satisfaction are greater during the hours they do work. 

Even if they cannot use their benefits such as their gym membership right now, you can encourage them by investing in app-based workouts and nutrition tips. Help them build a healthy mindset, a healthy lifestyle, and they’ll be better equipped to enjoy their remote work hours, too. 

Remote work is indeed riddled with challenges – but so is office-based work, and there are no legitimate excuses to allow your teams to be unhappy. Consider this a great opportunity to expand your leadership skills and empower your employees to rely on the right tools, leverage their team relationships, and invest in themselves as much as they do in their tasks. Help them overcome their daily obstacles, and you’ll be looking at a year filled with focus, productivity, and greater satisfaction among your workers.