amyfransz

As a remote worker myself, I can definitely resonate with the dark sides of working remotely as described in this article. The lifestyle is mostly portrayed as living the dream, however the lack of social interaction and finding a proper work-life balance where you also set time aside for friends, exercise, or meditation for example, is pretty difficult. That's actually what gave me the idea to bring together a community of remote workers to work, live, and travel the world together where the hassle of accommodation, flights, work spaces, gym passes, and social activities are taken care of so remote workers can enjoy the remote lifestyle to the fullest. If anyone's interested you can find more info here http://www.theremotetrip.com

Yeah working with people in different timezones definitely comes with even more challenges. I've been working with a 13-hour time difference with my co-founder on our startup called "The Remote Trip" for three months now (I'm working from Thailand while she's working from Costa Rica). The best tool we've used so far has definitely been Trello, it's so easy to keep track of each others work activities and to ask/answer any questions (that's a benefit from working with such a time difference: you leave a question late at night and its answered the next morning!). Next to that, we use Skype for elaborate weekly calls and Google Drive as it is so useful for working in docs simultaneously (plus I love the autosave function). We now also have two additional team members, one from the USA and one from Germany, and although time differences are a challenge - with the right tools and a commitment to written communication it's definitely manageable. We've written an overview of all the tools we find helpful when working remotely in this blog post: http://www.theremotetrip.com/2016/10/21/7-tools-will-boost-r...

Does anybody else have any other tool that they would really recommend for a remote team?

I've been working remotely since the beginning of this year and was having the same questions, so I approached some experienced remote workers about the challenges that they face and how they overcome them. For me the “loneliness” aspect of a remote lifestyle (lacking colleagues etc) was a bit of a concern which led me to create a startup based around that very concept! I wrote down the learning points that I picked up from these experienced remote workers here:

http://www.theremotetrip.com/2016/11/02/challenges-every-rem...

Other articles that might help you: 1. 7 Tools that will boost a remote workers' productivity on the road every day: http://www.theremotetrip.com/2016/10/21/7-tools-will-boost-r... 2. How to negotiate a remote work agreement with your employer: http://www.theremotetrip.com/2016/10/12/how-to-negotiate-a-r...

Hope it helps.

Hey, my friend and I run a remote company called 'The Remote Trip' and we were dealing with the same productivity challenges while she was working from Costa Rica and I from Thailand. We found 7 tools that helped us boost our productivity as a remote worker and shared them on our blog, check it out if you're interested:

http://www.theremotetrip.com/2016/10/21/7-tools-will-boost-r...

Hey, I took the leap from my corporate job earlier this year...it can be genuinely easier than you think! (disclaimer: I run ´The Remote trip´ - see profile for link), I´m currently putting together a 'remote worker' starter kit to help people make the transition like I did, it may help you out if you're interested.