The 5 rezemo hacks for efficient teamwork in the home office

The current situation surrounding the COVID-19 issue is currently turning all of our lives upside down. Contact bans, restrictions on the bare essentials and working from home. This is what everyday life looks like for many of you at the moment - and also for our team. We at rezemo want to do our part to contain the virus and are currently avoiding the commute to work if possible. But how do you make the time at home as productive and varied as possible? We have often thought about this in the past few days and discussed it in our team. We have therefore collected our best hacks for productive teamwork in the home office for you to give you an insight into our current everyday life behind the scenes.

1. Create a productivity oasis

Even though there is always an open and stimulating atmosphere in our team, this is not comparable to the current situation, in which the spatial boundaries between work and leisure time are suddenly blurred. That is why our product developer Olli finds it most important to set a clear start to the working day, even when working from home. So he gets out of bed, has breakfast and goes for a run. A refreshing shower later, Olli is sitting at his desk, ready for his first task. He has deliberately sat in the separate study, because a spatial separation of the work and leisure worlds can also help concentration. In the style of the loci or memory palace theory, we link knowledge and processes with the places where we learn and apply them. Separating work and leisure areas also helps to avoid unusual distractions and to be able to concentrate better on work.

“After a break, it helps me to sit back at my desk so that my mind can focus on work again and I can concentrate.”

2. Plan your day

Especially when the structure of the office workplace is lacking, it helps to invest the first 5-10 minutes of the working day to roughly plan the day and give it a structure. Our marketing expert Carolin asks herself a few important questions every morning before she dives into the working day:

• What are the results I want to achieve today?
• How long do I need for each task? (Allow a buffer)
• Which tasks require my special concentration? (Plan a deep work phase)
• What interfaces do I have with whom on my team today?
• When can I take breaks?

“Just by investing 5-10 minutes every morning, I get an overview of what needs to be done and save myself valuable time in coordinating tasks.”

3. Create routines

People are creatures of habit. By switching from the office to working from home, certain structures and habits that were dictated by everyday working life are no longer present, such as the daily commute to work, listening to music on the train and, in our case, above all, the regular coffee breaks in the rezemo team . In order to be able to make working hours productive, it also helps to incorporate certain routines into everyday home office life at home. Our founder Stefan makes sure to always get up at the same time, have breakfast and sit down at his desk on time. A coffee party with the team is also possible, because they are in the same situation.

“A short walk after dinner helps me to clear my head and, given the lovely weather I've had over the last few days, to recharge my batteries for the afternoon."

4. Deep Work Phases

“Good working days are those on which I make great progress in my tasks, have finished things or have thought of a good concept and sketched it out for myself.”

... says Julian, one of the founders of rezemo. To achieve exactly that, deep work phases are important. As the name suggests, "I choose an important task that requires a high level of concentration or my full mental capacity and work on it - and only on it - for 60 minutes," says Julian. It is important to devote yourself only to this task, to sit in a separate room, to block the deep work phase in the calendar and to let the team know that you will not be available during this time. A similar method is the Pomodoro technique, in which deep work phases alternate with short breaks every 25 minutes. The aim here is to find a method that suits you and to integrate it into your working day.

5. Take breaks and maintain social contacts

After a successful deep work phase, it is important to relax the body and mind - only then can you return to concentration. To do this, you can consciously leave your workplace in order to maintain the connection between the workplace and work. Go out onto the balcony for a bit, get some fresh air or arrange a virtual coffee party with your colleagues so that you can then return to your workplace fully concentrated. Because the motto applies especially when working from home:

“It’s the result that counts, not the time I spend at work”

Our rezemo Coffee Edition 5 is perfect for a short virtual coffee break with your colleagues.