Chapter11: HowtoAvoidBurnoutinaRemoteTeam 124 MercerSmith-Looper,CustomerServiceIntegrations Specialist at Campaign Monitor I keep a hyper-set schedule. To give you a little insight into this, I was the 5- year old that would get mad at my parents when they told me that there was no schedule for the day while we were on vacation. That has kind of—er— persisted through my life, much to the chagrin of my husband and friends. It soundscounterintuitive,buthavingasetschedulemeansthatIsticktoitrather than having the propensity of most other remote workers to not maintain balance between home life and work life. So, I wake up at 8:30, make coffee andbreakfastformyhusband,walkmydog,andthenwork.At12isheveryday, I either nap with mydogortakeawalkandeatdependingifI’mhungry.Ifinish at about 5:30 everyday, unless I have a late call or something, and then do the samething most nights. I always make sure to shut off my computer and not turn it back on until going back to work the next day. I’ve heard statistics somewhere that when you work remotely because there are so few distractions for you (if you’re of a certain personality type, that is, which I would argue you need to be if you’re going to work remotely), you get a ton more work done than you would if you were in an office. I use this as a kind of justification in my crazy brain to keep to this set schedule. My home is mysafe place, and I need to respect and honor it just as I try to do my own sanity by keeping a schedule, and making sure that I don’t get into the habit of burningthatmidnightoil. RachelMuircroft,SoftwareEngineeratBentleySystems I’ve worked remotely from my house now for 7 years and the one thing that I try to do consistently—and sometimes it’s really hard—is keep office hours (between8and6).Ithaskeptmedisciplinedandovertimemycolleagueshave been able to learn what my hours are, too. This is important for me because I like to try and get involved in collaboration projects as much as possible. It pushes the communication both ways more—and it’s also more noticeable whenteammatesstartheadinghomeattheendoftheday. Therearetimesthough,whenworkingonprojectsalonecan’tbeavoidedand whenI’minthat situation, I make sure I get outside at lunchtime, see people,