Remote work often means getting stuck in back-to-back virtual meetings instead of back-to-back face-to-face meetings. Or instead of physical interruptions, we get more interruptions via Slack or Teams.
This is time-consuming, and time is our most valuable resource at work and in our private lives! Therefore it is important to promote and embrace a better way of working remotely by becoming a more asynchronous workforce.
The development of remote work has led so far that some governments are considering introducing the “right to disconnect” from work-related electronics. This can’t be and won’t be the solution for excessive workloads and rising stress. To get ahead of this, we need to learn how to work most effectively, whenever it suits us and our role best.
Autonomy and flexibility can help us get ahead of our workload and find our personalized preferences for when, where, and how we want to work. This has its limits, but if we communicate transparently and have some support systems in place, we can move away from hyper-responsiveness and real-time communication towards greater asynchronous communication and collaboration—the type that truly gives people the freedom to make work-life choices.