WFH Daily

With only a couple of days to go until Christmas, we’ve got one last favourite episode to re-gift you. As we move in and out of tiered restrictions and face an uncertain year ahead, the urge to get a change of scenery and escape grows stronger. Estonia has a system for moving your business and even yourself to the country and enjoying all the benefits of being in the EU, as well as exploring the country and getting that change of scenery. In this episode, Harry talks to Ott Vatter, the MD of these programmes, about how we can take advantage of them and what it actually means to get the visa or the e-residency.

We’ve still got a couple more episodes from the vaults to keep you going until Christmas. First released in October, Harry and Alex discuss imposter syndrome. We’ve all felt it at some point in our professional lives, but how has lockdown and remote working and the madness that is 2020 affected the imposters among us?

It’s the fifth day of Christmas. And although we haven't got any jewellery for you, we do have another of our favourite episodes. First broadcast in sunny September, Harry talks to Dr. Emil Goliath, who specialises in personal health and fitness, about how to stay active and pain-free when working from home.

In our second visit from the ghost of podcast past, Harry and Alex discuss how to keep up the healthy eating habits while working remotely. First broadcast in July, they talk about some techniques to help you outsmart the fridge and beat the cravings.

Join us as we revisit some of our favourite episodes from this year. Harry spoke with Steve Folland, Producer and podcaster extraordinaire, back in June about procrastination, balancing work and home life, and what the future of the office might be.

The office Christmas party season is upon us. But with many workplaces still closed, offices have either had to forgo the yuletide celebrations or move the festivities online. Join Alex, Harry and Ryan as they discuss some interactive Christmas party substitutes to avoid the awkwardness of the Crimbo-Zoom get-together.

A recent Forbes article revealed that four out of five employees find it difficult to switch off from work in the evenings. It also found that the same number would leave their current job for one that takes better care of their mental health. Join Alex, Harry and Ryan as they discuss more findings and take a look at some ways to help care of your mental health while working remotely.

We all get distracted from time to time. Sometimes the tasks we're working on are too dull or too big and before we know it, we've procrastinated away an entire afternoon on Twitter or YouTube. Join Alex, Harry and Ryan as they discuss the things that distract them and how to get your productivity back on track.

We’re back with the second part of our conversation with Lucy Minton from Kitt. This time we’re talking about the office of the future - how big will they be? Will everyone be returning to them? And will they be different from the ones we recently left?

Recorded in the initial weeks of the UK’s second lockdown - Alex, Isobel and Ryan discuss their thoughts on the new restrictions and a couple of ways to make working from home in the gloomy winter months a bit more bearable.

Unwanted distractions, unsuitable workspaces and isolation. These are the top three things that Alex, Isobel and Ryan find most annoying about working from home. Join them as they share their gripes and grievances in this very special, cathartic episode.

Some of the largest financial firms in the UK have started to incorporate VR as a way to reintroduce the feeling of human interaction among their home-working employees and combat "Zoom-fatigue". As well as replacing in-person interaction, other benefits that the firms are reporting are higher information retention from VR seminars and reduced costs related to training staff. We discuss our thoughts on VR in the workplace and have a chat about whether we see a future for the technology in our own company.

The office is not going to disappear from working life, nor should it. Today we’re talking to Lucy Minton, COO of Kitt - a company that designs offices. We talk a lot about the death of the office and what the future of remote work will look like, so this conversation is especially interesting to us - and Lucy stands up for the office, which isn’t dead yet...

We’ve talked a lot about separating work and personal life when working from home, and in this episode Harry, Alex, and Ryan talk about the ways you can create more space between the virtual office and the dining room table.

An article from BBC Worklife recently questioned whether remote workers can grow into their new roles as well as their office-based counterparts. Finding it harder to connect with co-workers, weakening interpersonal skills and being inundated with new technologies are just a few of the challenges facing new remote employees. We discuss these and more with our very own new hire.

Microsoft have conducted a big survey into remote working and its effects on the workplace. In this episode Harry, Ryan, and Alex discuss the findings of the study and ask, is dressing more casually really the best thing about working from home?

More time spent in the house means more time spent cooking, using the PC, and running the heating. What can we do to keep the bills down whilst making the most of our homes? And should our employers chip in? In this episode Harry and Ryan discuss the best ways to keep the electric bill down whilst working remotely.

2020 has seen so many jobs go remote unexpectedly, and Louise Leonard’s role is no different. She is an operations delivery coordinator at The Telegraph newspaper. So how on earth do you go about designing and re-touching photos for a physical newspaper when you can’t get into the building? Listen in to find out, and hear some primo WFH tips.

Hybrid is the future it seems - everyone spending a bit of time in the office and a bit of time at home. This usually means 2/3 days in the office and the rest working from the study or kitchen. But what if we took that idea and zoomed out? Kissflow have done just that and are getting ready to spend one week per month in the office - and Abhishek Paul thinks it will make a huge difference.

Lockdown is back and we’ve only got a few precious reasons to be out of the house - never mind the country. But one travel group thinks they have the right idea. Does it make sense to go on holiday right now - even if you do have a good reason to be soaking up the sun?

Slack has released a new survey that tells us all sorts of new things about how people are working from home, and how they feel about it. They call it the remote employee experience index, and it has loads of really interesting things to tell us...

We’re going back into lockdown for a month as of tomorrow here in the UK, and it’s the same in other countries across the world. We talked to Clare Lovick about her experience and the experience of her colleagues during the lockdown earlier in the year, and what tips she has for you if this is your first time going remote.

Juggling education and sharing equally in household chores: two sources of headaches for any family in lockdown. In this episode Alex talks to Dr Michelle Dickinson about getting kids excited and involved in learning when they’re in the house, and what lockdown has done to highlight gender inequalities in housework and childcare.

How do I get started on that project I really want to complete? What does it actually take to build momentum and keep it? And what should I put on my to-do list? Productivity seems to be the name of the game at the moment, but the gurus and experts sometimes miss the most important parts. If you want to get going and keep going, then this is the one for you, check it out!

Productivity and productivity hacks are everywhere, but very few make as big of a statement as Nir Eyal’s book, which tells us to do away with the to-do list! Certain hosts/ producers of this show are very attached to their to-do lists, so why should we give them up? Take a listen and find out.

Going remote and still making people feel included can be really difficult, never mind when you're scattered all over the world! In this episode Alex talks to Dr Michelle Dickinson about her company Nanogirl Labs and how she tries to make people feel included and able to share in failure as well as success.

When you don't have regular access to the office, it makes you think about what purpose it really serves. In this episode Harry and Alex talk about the four main things that offices are really great at, and if any of them can really be replaced with remote alternatives.

Being a remote worker or running a remote company is a situation that many of us have found ourselves in this year. But what does that look like outside of the UK/ US? In this episode Harry talks to Abhishek Paul from project/ process management platform Kissflow. They discuss the remote work culture in India, how Kissflow handled the transition from in-office to home working, and how it affected the culture of the company.

Are your days blending together? Ours certainly are. In this episode Harry and Alex talk about the importance of keeping the weekend safe from work, how we can do that, and what has worked for them. Saturday and Sunday are more than just social constructs, they may be key to our health and sanity…

The internet is awash with ‘productivity gurus’, but what we really want are simple practical tools and ways of thinking that will help us shift the work we need to shift, without losing our marbles in the process. In this episode Harry talks to Trevor Lohrbeer, who gives us some great tips on how to make the work day work for you.

Would these schemes get you back into the office? In this episode we discuss different incentives from companies that are trying to get their employees back into the office - whether it be for meetings, or the full 9-5. Free taxis, childcare, or desk-booking, could be the thing that gets people to make the jump back into in-person working…

In this episode Harry is talking again to Christine Ro about the future of remote work. This time it’s all about the best parts and potential pitfalls of the hybrid remote work system. Spending part of our time at home and part of our time in the office may be the future, but should we be excited or worried?

As we move in and out of lockdown and face an uncertain year ahead, the urge to get a change of scenery and escape grows stronger. Estonia has a system for moving your business and even yourself to the country, and enjoying all the benefits of being in the EU, as well as exploring the country and getting that change of scenery. In this episode Harry talks to Ott Vatter, the MD of these programmes, about how we can take advantage of them and what it actually means to get the visa or the e-residency.

Remote working is often talked about as a great leveller - we’re all stuck at home just the same as each other, and we’ve got to make the whole thing work. But remote work means vastly different things to different people. Some can’t do their job remotely, whilst others face huge hurdles in even showing up to the weekly team catch-up on Zoom.

It’s becoming more and more clear that the offices we return to won't be the same ones we left pre-pandemic. In this episode Harry talks to Christine Ro about what she’s learned as a writer covering the future of remote work. What is the hybrid model? Who’s using it? How will it affect us? Take a listen and find out!

Imposter syndrome is a well-known phenomenon nowadays, and we’ve all felt it at some point in our professional lives. How has lockdown and remote working and the madness that is 2020 affected the imposters among us?

We obviously know that staying secure whilst online is important, but what specific techniques can we use to guard our data? And what are the tools that will actually help us do that? In this episode, Harry is talking again to Jahmel Harris of Digital Interruption about protecting yourself and your company whilst working remotely.

How can an introvert make friends and put themselves out there when stranded away from the office, often in countries where you don’t even speak the language? In this episode Harry talks again to Elly Earls, a writer and digital nomad, about her personal and work life, and how the two are balanced.

It’s been a tough year for most, and it’s definitely been a year where we learn more about ourselves. In this episode Harry and Alex talk about the things they’ve discovered whilst working in this high-pressure time we all find ourselves in. Maybe you’ve experienced them too?

It’s not just the freelance and the gap-year students who are working abroad these days. In this episode we talk again to Elly Earls about her experiences as a digital nomad, and the surprising range of people she’s met around the world who are working remotely abroad. Full-time, part-time, or traditionally office-based? People from all backgrounds have made it work for them.

We will go back to the office at some point in the near future, if we haven’t begun doing so already. But it’s clear that things will never quite be the same again. What will this new balance of in-person and remote work work look like? Have a listen and find out!

We’ve all heard of ‘Zoom-Bombing’ and we all know not to click on those emails promising you free yachts. But what do we do now that security (usually handled by an IT guy or gal in the office) needs to be in our homes? Harry talks to Jahmel Edwards about Email, video chatting, and the cloud in this extremely informative interview.

Working abroad and changing countries every few months can seem an exhausting prospect, but now some countries are asking for foriegn workers to stay for up to a year with new visas. We discuss these programs and ask, why wouldn’t you?

Staying active and pain-free when working from home can be tricky. It’s a life that lends itself to sitting about all day and not getting out much. In this episode Harry talks to Dr Emil Goliath, who specialises in personal health and fitness.

Is it realistic to talk about going from a 9-5 in the office - to working on the beach in some tropical country? In this episode Harry talks to Elly Earls, a writer who did just that. The pair talk about the transition from the office to a ‘digital nomad’ lifestyle, and how you actually go from one to the other.

The fridge is talking to you again. “Come and have a look at this cake”, it whispers. What simple things can we do to improve our diets when working from home? In this episode Dr Emil gives us some guidance and some recipes for snacks and meals that we can all use when working from home.

We’re back with Kyle and Daniel from the Lower Street team, and this time we’re talking about making your own schedule, the value of sticking to it, and how Daniel keeps his thoughts in one place using Evernote.

Working from home brings its own unique challenges when it comes to our physical and mental health. In this episode we talk to Dr Emil Goliath about what actionable steps we can take to manage stress, and what do actually mean when we talk about staying healthy?

Kyle and Daniel work on the Lowerstreet team, and are based in the Philippines and the US - thousands of miles away from Harry who lives in the UK. In this episode the trio talk about their WFH experiences and how they juggle babies, pets, and work.

What does a good WFH setup look like, how do you share the space with others in your house, and is it possible to keep work and personal life separate when you're doing everything under one roof? Harry talks to Michael Bird from HPE again in this episode to find out.

Getting work done and, more importantly, preserving your sanity whilst working from home is really important. In this episode Harry talks to Frankie Tortora about her experience working from home with kids, what helps keep her productive, and how to keep yourself motivated and accountable outside of the office.