Busy is the new cool. Somewhere along the line, it became a badge of honor to have as many responsibilities as possible. Stories of CEOs waking up at 4 am, working 80-hour weeks, and glorifying their struggle to succeed are everywhere. But for many, this culture can lead to burnout and unhappiness.

The pressure to take on too much responsibility at work has never been greater. Employees across industries often face the overwhelming task of juggling multiple roles and trying to keep everything running smoothly. When the weight of ‘too many responsibilities’ becomes too much to bear, the effects can spill over into both personal and professional life, resulting in stress, anxiety, and reduced productivity.

The burden of too many responsibilities can lead to sleepless nights, high levels of stress, and general unhappiness. If you feel overwhelmed by your workload and find yourself constantly rushing from one task to the next, you’re not alone. It’s not uncommon for employees to feel like they have to do it all. Fortunately, there are practical ways to manage your workload and regain control of your time. If you’re ready to refocus and cut back on unnecessary work, in this article we list some strategies to help you find balance and enjoy more of your life outside of work.

Spot the warning signs before it’s too late

Before you can start tackling an overwhelming workload, you need to recognize when it’s starting to get the better of you. Burnout doesn’t always show up with flashing red lights. Often, it creeps in gradually – missed lunches, working late more often than not, and feeling like you’re never really “off.”

You might notice that you’re more irritable than usual, or that your concentration isn’t what it used to be. Maybe tasks that once felt simple now seem impossible to complete, or you catch yourself staring blankly at your screen, unsure of what to do next. These little signs are your brain’s way of waving a red flag.

Pay attention to changes in your mood, energy levels, or sleep patterns. If the thought of another Monday fills you with dread – not because you dislike your job, but because you’re just tired – that’s a warning sign. If you’re snapping at coworkers or forgetting basic things, it might be time to stop and take a breath.

The earlier you spot these signs, the easier it is to reset before things spiral out of control. Awareness is your first step toward doing something about it.

Once you know what burnout looks like, the next step is to take control of your time, and that starts with deciding what really matters.

Make a list of priorities

If you feel overwhelmed, sometimes it’s not that you have too many tasks. It’s more a case of spending too much time on the wrong things. I’m sure you’ve found yourself spending half your day answering emails, only to have no time left for business development tasks as the end of the working day approaches. It’s a common problem when you take on too much responsibility without clear boundaries, leading to overwhelm and burnout.

To get around this, make a list of your tasks and sort them by priority — things that must be done, medium priority and optional. Try using a prioritisation matrix to rate each task based on urgency and importance. This will help you see clearly what needs your immediate attention and what can be put aside. Once you’ve got everything down on paper, you’ll probably find that the least important tasks are taking up most of your time. This is when you need to refocus and let go of the unimportant in favour of the important. You may also find that by refusing to take on certain burdens, such as minor administrative tasks, you can increase your productivity on core objectives.

PS. You can sort your priority lists in your project management tool of choice, such as Trello.

Automate as much as you can

One of the wonders of modern technology is that many tasks can be automated, so you don’t waste time on them yourself. Something as simple as going to Google Calendar and making an entry for a meeting can take just a few minutes, but it can be turned into seconds with a tool such as Calendly. Imagine how much of your time can be saved every year by automating tedious tasks such as this one.

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For example, for one of the Facebook pages I run, I simply sit down and create all of my posts at once and then schedule them for the weeks ahead. You can do even more by using tools such as MeetEdgar to schedule posts on several social media platforms at once.

Finally, there are excellent tools such as IFTT and Zapier. If you’ve ever wanted to automate something, there’s a big chance one of these can make it happen. For example, you can set up Zapier so that your new subscribers are added to a specific mailing list, then added to a pre-determined Google sheet and then a new Trello card created with the subscribers’ email and name. With a little bit of tinkering, you can automate anything you can think of.

Delegate tasks to others

Sometimes, the best cure for having too many responsibilities is to take something off your plate and put it on someone else’s. While it can be incredibly difficult to let go of a task that you feel is important, the amount of free time you can gain from delegation can be quite impressive.

Founders and CEOs often have an issue with delegation because they get stuck in an infinite loop. First, they think they’re the only ones who can take care of a task and no one else can handle it. Second, even if they did find someone to delegate it to, the amount of time spent teaching this task would be too much for it to make sense.

In fact, delegation can free up significant portions of your time. You can simply offload some of your responsibilities to your colleagues if they have the time. Alternatively, you can outsource the task to someone, such as an intern or a fresh college graduate.

Using an outsourcing calculator can even help you determine the financial benefits of delegating certain tasks.

One thing that’s become quite popular lately is hiring virtual assistants. These workers can help you out with more repetitive, administrative tasks such as responding to emails, booking meetings, entering data, and much more. If it can be taught, a virtual assistant can do it for you.

Let your boss delegate and prioritize

You’ve probably been there. Your boss comes up and assigns the daily/weekly/quarterly tasks and you happily oblige to take on another task in your already busy schedule. You know you probably can’t handle it and that something will have to suffer, either in poor quality of work or missed deadlines. However, you decide to go ahead and take it on.

Instead of taking on another task you probably can’t handle, ask your boss/manager to decide on the priority. If they want this task done, something has to be dropped or moved to the bottom of the priority list. By engaging in this discussion, you can clarify your current workload and ensure that all tasks are addressed in the most efficient order. This proactive approach will help your manager understand the scope of your responsibilities and ensure that you’re not overwhelmed with too many responsibilities at work.

You’ll be able to protect yourself if you can’t do it all, and you’ll know what the most important task is at any given time. However, for this approach to work, you need to be aware of your current tasks and have a clear idea of how much time they usually take. You could even suggest to your manager that they consider adjusting deadlines or shifting some tasks to others who have the bandwidth. This will allow for better team collaboration and ensure that high-priority projects are handled effectively.

If you find yourself consistently taking on too much responsibility, it’s important to have an open dialogue with your manager. Politely expressing that you’re feeling the weight of multiple tasks can help your manager understand your workload better. It’s about finding a balance that allows you to perform well without the stress of an unmanageable workload. Turning down extra tasks when necessary isn’t about avoiding work; it’s about ensuring that what you do take on is done well and within a realistic time frame.

Slow down and take a breather

Even the best of us need some downtime to relax and unwind. When you’re at work and things don’t seem to be going too well, you may be tempted to push harder to get the job done, when in fact, you just need to take some rest and refresh yourself before moving forward.

Taking on too much responsibility can lead to burnout if you don’t allow yourself to take proper breaks. It’s important to recognize that a quick mental reset can boost your performance and morale.

After a while, you may seem busy, but you’ll stop being productive because you’ll lose your focus. Trying to juggle too many responsibilities at the same time can cloud your judgment and impair your decision-making, so the quality of your work will suffer. If you find yourself skipping lunch or staying late just to catch up, it’s time to rethink your approach to work. Learning to say no when necessary isn’t a sign of weakness; it’s an act of self-preservation and focus.

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You can take breaks every hour or so, at least 5 minutes in length. You’ll find out that by forcing yourself to take regular breaks, you’ll actually become more productive and feel better to avoid tension headaches. If you really want to control your schedule, you can try out the Pomodoro technique. It implies that for every 25 minutes of focused work, you get to take a 5-minute break. There are many Pomodoro timers out there you can try out, such as Toggl or PomoDone.

Instead of staying late to complete tasks, focus on optimizing your workflow during working hours by incorporating structured breaks. You’ll find that managing your energy is just as important as managing your tasks. By refusing to overwork yourself, you can actually get more done during regular working hours, leading to a healthier and more productive approach to work.

Don’t do overtime

If you can’t squeeze all your obligations into an 8-hour workday, you’ll probably end up working overtime. You’ll probably see it as being diligent and dedicated to your work. In reality, your manager will probably think that the reason you’re staying after hours is that you can’t manage your time. To better manage your workday you can use the screen time calculator.

The health effects of working long hours are particularly worrying. Sleep deprivation, stress, and exhaustion can lead to cognitive impairments such as poor concentration and slower decision-making. These problems can make your work less efficient, leading to even more overtime. Research from the World Health Organization (WHO) shows that long working hours are linked to heart disease and stroke, adding a serious health risk to the equation.

Even a 40-hour work week is too much. We’re wired to think that 40 hours weekly and 8 hours per day is how much we should work, but this tradition is almost 200 years old. Thanks to different lifestyles, the automation of work processes, and the fact that more women are in the workforce than when this rule was created, the situation should be very different. In reality, our work weeks should be at least a couple of hours shorter, similar to what Sweden has been trying out with the six-hour workday.

Some forward-thinking companies have already started moving away from overtime culture. They are adopting policies that prioritize work-life balance and encourage employees to avoid staying late at the office. In places like New Zealand, companies are testing out a four-day workweek to improve both productivity and well-being, and early results have been promising.

But what if it’s not just you who’s overloaded?

While you may be doing your best to set boundaries and avoid overtime, that doesn’t mean everyone around you is managing as well. Burnout can quietly spread across a team if no one’s looking out for each other. Sometimes, the best way to create a healthier workplace isn’t just to take care of yourself – it’s to support a teammate who’s clearly struggling.

Start by checking in. It doesn’t have to be anything formal. A simple “Hey, how’s everything going this week?” can open the door to a bigger conversation. If someone’s clearly stressed or working late every night, offer to help where you can. Maybe there’s a report you could split or a task you’ve done before that wouldn’t take you much extra time.

Also, don’t underestimate the power of encouraging them to speak up. Sometimes, people carry the weight in silence because they don’t want to seem weak or incapable. Remind them that it’s okay to ask for help – and that no one benefits when someone burns out.

If you’re in a position to escalate the issue or suggest redistributing some of the work, do it. Teams work best when they actually act like teams – not when everyone’s trying to be a hero.

Conclusion

Although being busy is good, it should not be praised and worn as a badge of honor. You’ll be more productive and happier by cutting down on your responsibilities, and your employers will be more satisfied with your performance. Remember – work smarter, not harder.

Taking on too many responsibilities at work can lead to burnout, reduced productivity, and stress. It’s important to recognize when you’re overwhelmed and to say no when necessary to avoid taking on too much. Learn to prioritize, delegate, and say no to unnecessary burdens to protect your well-being and quality of work.

Delegating tasks to others, whether colleagues or external help, can significantly reduce your workload and improve efficiency. Successful leaders often cite delegation as a key to their success. Also, don’t underestimate the power of breaks – regular rest is essential for maintaining focus and avoiding burnout.

So the next time you’re feeling overwhelmed, reassess your tasks, prioritize and take control of your workload. By working smarter, not harder, you can achieve more without sacrificing your health or happiness.

Cross-functional collaboration is vital for the success of a remote team. Unfortunately, according to a study published in the Harvard Business Review 75% of the time, a cross-functional team is dysfunctional.

Yet, OWL Labs claimed that in 2019, individual contributors in the United States were 20% more likely than average to work remotely full-time.

The rise of remote work has ushered in a new era of team dynamics where geographical distance is no longer a limitation in access to top talent. America is particularly fast-tracking through the curve in remote working. With that in mind, finding ways to improve cross-functional collaboration between the disciplines on your team becomes increasingly important as online workers’ demand and accessibility continue to increase. The ability to collaborate well across departments is now key to ensuring that virtual teams are not only productive but also innovative and adaptable.

Ultimately, strong cross-functional collaboration in remote teams leads to better problem-solving, faster decision-making, and a more cohesive working environment that can have a significant impact on the bottom line.

Importance of cross-functional collaboration

A cross-functional team is a group of team members from various departments that combine diverse skill sets to work on a project or pursue a shared objective.

Being in a cross-functional team has many advantages, but it also has drawbacks for any organization.

A cross-functional team may feature individuals who each bring conflicting work methods and working approaches to the table.

Cross-functional collaboration promotes efficiency within the company, lowers expenses, and fosters adaptability and innovative problem-solving. Most importantly, it keeps everyone focused on the long-term objectives of the business.

Project managers and team leaders must establish ground principles for the group, lay out a precise procedure for making decisions, and promote open communication and flexibility to overcome these obstacles.

However, it’s essentially important and advantageous if executed properly.

A cross-functional team collaboration can help team members achieve the following:

• Teamwork makes the dream work
• Team members are more productive
• Team members learn from each other
• Diverse ideas and skill sets are brought to the table
• Employees can build better leadership skills

Tips on improving cross-functional collaboration

The reality is that an effective cross-functional team necessitates trust.

Building a trusting relationship with someone when you labor in the same space together is challenging enough.

When teams from various departments are working together, this challenge gets progressively harder.

We’ve compiled a list of 5 easy steps that have helped us create a genuinely collaborative environment to give you ideas on how you can improve cross-team collaboration in your company.

Clear task-handling guidelines

Clear guidelines on how to handle project tasks are vital for organizing a cross-discipline team and enabling them to collaborate effectively.

Simple organizational steps such as color-coding tasks in your team app based on ownership, or the skill sets required, and assigning sub-tasks to individual team members, help everyone know which tasks they need to focus on.

Additionally, you should also have a system in place that everyone follows for noting the priority and deadline of each task. This helps the team to work together on the most important tasks to ensure progress isn’t held up.

Similarly, get everyone on your team into the habit of updating tasks with the latest progress and marking tasks as in progress when they get started on them. This helps encourage a more proactive approach to cross-functional collaboration by keeping team members updated on what their colleagues are working on.

Chanty provides each team member with personalized feeds for their messages and tasks, making it easy to prioritize each individual’s workload while keeping them updated on other tasks that might need their skills.

Making sure everyone starts their day with clear tasks and priorities, and an awareness of their colleagues’ progress, enables them to work and collaborate more efficiently. Jumping between tasks can cost as much as 40% of your team’s daily productivity, so clear prioritization can have significant benefits.

Expand your communication methods

Your team can’t collaborate if they can’t communicate effectively. 30% of projects fail due to poor communication. There are a variety of methods remote teams can use to keep in touch. These include:

Team chat apps
Business messaging apps are crucial for the day-to-day discussions and updates that keep a project running smoothly. In addition to private and group messaging functions, team chat apps offer a range of tools and integrations that help you manage tasks and schedule work.

These features can help your team members take the initiative in organizing collaborative work by creating tasks themselves and inviting colleagues to them. For example, Chanty lets users turn any message into a task, making discussions and feedback flow seamlessly into collaborative tasks.

VoIP and video calling
VoIP and video calls can take up too much time as a daily communication channel, however in critical discussions and personal meetings these can enable team members to communicate with more clarity and understand each other better through intonation and facial expressions.

The ability to take screen recordings and share a screen over video calls is a vital collaborative tool, enabling team members to demonstrate features, changes and feedback visually to the rest of the team.

When you are talking and seeing the colleague you are communicating with, it is easier to get your point across. 87% of remote workers feel more connected to their team thanks to video conferencing.

Text messaging
Texting is very useful for sending out critical alerts, updates, and reminders to your team. In a study by West Virginia State University, participants were 4 times as likely to prefer receiving important updates and notices via text.

By scheduling important messages and integrating an SMS app with your other productivity tools, you can ensure team members never miss an important message. To avoid disrupting employees’ private time in a remote team, make sure to use a texting app that automatically takes time zones into account when scheduling messages.

Each communication channel offers unique benefits, so make sure you use each to its strengths.

Create a culture of knowledge sharing

A key component to successful cross-functional working is unobstructed knowledge throughout teams. Having members from each team contribute insight and expertise keeps the departments intertwined and avoids information becoming walled up within itself. This not only enables the information to be more shared, but also creates the team a more effective problem-solver and innovator. Each member brings something unique to the table, and the more that is shared around, the higher the collaborative decision-making.

One of the best ways to facilitate this is by setting up spaces for knowledge sharing. Experiment with establishing channels where people can share valuable articles, tips, or good project experiences. These could be as simple as a Slack channel for best practices or even something more formalized such as a knowledge base accessible to everyone. The idea is to make it easy for people to share and find what they need.

Incentivizing the practice will also increase participation. Recognition and rewarding people who contribute valuable information, either through shout-outs at team meetings or through a more formal reward system, enforces the notion that knowledge sharing is an important aspect of the team culture. When people understand that their contributions are valued, they’re more likely to continue sharing, and therefore it becomes an organic and sustainable aspect of team dynamics.

By building a culture where everyone shares knowledge, you build a better, more robust team that can bounce back from adversity faster and better.

Create teamwork opportunities for cross-functional collaboration

Improving cross-functional collaboration in a remote team requires proactively scheduling meetings and discussions between the different disciplines in your team. In addition to opening group discussions in your chat app to solve specific problems or work on tasks, give weekly updates on project progress.

Encourage team members to do the same, updating the team with their milestones and roadblocks. This makes it easier for employees to see where a colleague needs help and step in before the project falls behind schedule. A brief weekly check-in meeting with your team helps your team stay motivated in addition to avoiding delays.

An off-topic chat channel is also important in a remote team. It enables employees to build relationships with each other, which can impact their willingness to share ideas and feedback. Isolation can be a major communication challenge for remote workers, so encouraging friendly conversation is also important for maintaining a healthy and productive team.

Reward achieved milestones and goals within each project

Rewarding goals and milestones helps foster team spirit by giving the team opportunities to notice and congratulate each other’s work and achievements.

Everyone enjoys getting recognition for their efforts, and in addition to the boost to morale and productivity, this also helps team members see how their work fits into the bigger picture.

Furthermore, individuals will have more confidence to provide their input in group discussions, enabling the team to benefit more from their skills and perspectives. While you can’t always put every suggestion into practice, making it clear you value everyone’s input will lead to team members sharing their ideas more often.

Teams that communicate effectively are 4.5 times as likely to retain their best employees.

Encourage cross-department pairing or mentorship

Pairing team members from various departments is a good method to build a more unified and powerful team. When people of various functions meet and interact with one another, they have a firsthand understanding of the role, problem, and priority of one another. Such interaction not only generates mutual respect but also encourages better communication between departments.

Pairing or mentoring allows employees to leave their usual area of activity and get a broader idea of how the business operates. For example, a marketing individual is able to better understand the technical details of the business through being paired with a developer, and a finance staff member is able to understand more about what customers require through being paired with a sales person. These interactions create a more holistic view of the firm, encouraging workers to think beyond their own functions and collaborate better.

Mentorship initiatives are especially money well spent for establishing long-term relationships between departments. They provide a structured means through which workers can learn from each other, challenge things, and share pointers. Not only can a successful mentor advance the career of his or her mentee, but he or she also helps get his or her mentee oriented with the big picture of the company. This can lead to improved coordination between teams and improved cooperation.

Through buddy pairing or mentorship, the employees will be more at ease requesting help, sharing ideas, and stepping in where others require help. Such a collaboration creates a closer team relationship and eventually delivers better project outcomes.

Scheduling in a remote team

Remote teams give you access to talent across the globe, but you also need to consider time zones. In a small team, having a 10-hour time difference between team members could be a major productivity killer if their work needs lots of feedback or input from other team members.

Wherever your team members are located, try to coordinate at least a few hours of crossover between team members’ working hours. Otherwise, team members could be waiting until their next work day to get a reply to each of their messages.

On a cross-functional task or project, that can make even simple tasks take far longer than they should.

In a global team, holding meetings or group discussions can mean that someone has to get up early or attend the meeting late in the evening. To some extent, this is a necessary sacrifice, but don’t expect your workers in distant time zones to make that sacrifice every time.

This can leave them feeling treated unfairly or a less valuable team member, making them less willing to share ideas and collaborate.

Remote working technology potentially gives you 24/7 access to your team, but it might not be a good idea to use it this way. If your team members feel expected to be online and available to reply at any time, they could find it difficult to relax and recharge.

85% of remote workers chose remote work to have greater flexibility with their time, so avoid encroaching into your team’s offline time outside critical situations. According to a 2019 Buffer survey, unplugging after work is the biggest challenge for remote workers.

Why you should implement cross-functional collaboration

There are plenty of ways to keep a remote team focused and working together on a project. Improving cross-functional collaboration involves providing the tools to communicate effectively in every situation, setting clear expectations and responsibilities, and building an environment that encourages and supports open communication and discussion by recognizing and rewarding achievements.

When used correctly, cross-functional collaboration can significantly increase both productivity and innovation. It combines diverse expertise from multiple departments into cross-functional teams to creatively solve a given problem or project. Innovative ideas would be unlikely to come from a team made up of people from just one functional area. Collaboration makes participants work together for a common interest, which motivates individual employees with a heightened desire to participate in whatever is put forward.

With a global team, you can avoid potential efficiency problems by scheduling your team’s time so they can communicate and making sure everyone feels treated fairly to avoid demotivation. The cross-functional collaboration will also make the team more adaptable and flexible. Exactly for these reasons, cross-functional teams, with their wider access to people’s expertise and knowledge base, have the potential to respond to many different challenges and changes and adjust strategies as they are more resilient in times of change.

Besides, working across functions improves knowledge sharing and encourages continuous learning. When team members from different functions work together, they often get exposure to areas they would not normally be exposed to, thus widening their horizons about the business and developing their professional skills. This does not only benefit the individuals but also the team as a whole, making them more versatile and skilled.

Most importantly, successful cross-functional teams foster closer, less fragmented relationships within an organization, which can lead to a more inclusive and collaborative culture. Cross-departmental collaboration will also boost team morale; people get excited when they can work as part of a diverse mix, where many different kinds of people bring different kinds of strengths to their work.

Final note

Improving cross-functional collaboration between remote teams is the way to ensure productivity, innovation, and team spirit. You can keep your team aligned and motivated by establishing crystal-clear guidelines on each task, extending channels of communication, and holding regular check-ins. Recognizing achievement while respecting time zones further solidifies collaboration, building an effective, cohesive remote team. Armed with the right toolset and methodology, cross-functional collaboration could be your panacea for getting your remote team working at full capacity.

Ready to take your remote team collaboration to the next level? Try these tips today and your team will thrive, no matter where they are.

According to Global Workplace Analytics, the number of people who work from home has grown by more than 173% since 2005. There are now over five million remote employees in the U.S.

The emergence of the coronavirus pandemic prompted stay-at-home orders, and work-related tasks have become challenging for those who struggle with managing remote teams. 

Some employees find it hard to create a work-life balance now that they work from home. For some, productivity has dropped simply because they can’t get motivated in the morning. These considerations are important because your workforce’s performance will impact your company’s overall success.

While the “office feeling” can cause employees to perform better as there’s little room for distractions, the current environment means there’s a need to learn how to manage a remote team for outstanding results.

The challenges of managing remote teams

As common as remote working is nowadays, team managers still face challenges when managing remote teams.

Several companies didn’t have work-from-home plans on their agenda until the global pandemic caused them to adapt to these new ways of managing their employees. 

Here are some of the challenges of managing remote teams: 

• Poor communication
• Ignorance of company culture 
• No progress tracking
• Lack of trust 
• Scheduling difficulties
• Low productivity
• Less work energy
• No live get-togethers

You can solve these problems with the right remote working management practices. 

Below, we’ll describe the best practices on how to manage a remote team.

How to manage a remote team

1. Set expectations
2. Build communication channels
3. Schedule daily check-ins
4. Provide team access to the same collaboration tools
5. Provide resources
6. Encourage social interactions
7. Show flexibility and empathy
8. Be a leader instead of just a boss
9. Advocate for mental health days
10. Organize regular career catch-ups
11. Take breaks
12. Label business information for easy prioritization
13. Track company progress
14. Celebrate success

There are thousands of managers and team leaders who have suddenly found themselves managing remote teams. 

Adapting to this new work style can be scary, especially if there isn’t enough time to prepare for the change. However, if you know how to manage remote teams the right way, you’ll get the best results from your remote workers.

Here are our fourteen best actionable tips for effectively managing remote teams:

1. Set clear expectations 

Learning how to manage a remote team starts with setting boundaries and work rules your employees should adhere to as they work from home. 

Let your team know what you expect from them. These expectations can be in the form of:

• Company culture
• Working procedures
• Project guidelines
• Style guides
• Communication rules
• Relationship building

Just as in a traditional office workspace, managers are expected to keep workers up-to-date on staffing changes and policies. Although it’s essential to see how well team members meet expectations, don’t oversee their actions too closely, as that can breed distrust. Some automatic time tracking apps like Traqq allow for ethical monitoring – captured screenshots and videos are intentionally blurred, so personal and sensitive information cannot be seen.

Another effective practice of managing remote teams is modeling work activities around your employees’ working hours. Keep in mind, team updates may vary based on time zones and preferred work hours, so set expectations for team members in regards to communication. This helps ensure a smooth workflow across different time zones and prevents delays caused by misaligned schedules.

2. Build communication channels

We can’t overemphasize the importance of communication between managers and remote staff when learning how to manage a remote team. 

Create a reliable communication channel for managing remote teams. This will be where you alert your remote workers of important items such as:

• Changes
• New resources 
• Schedules 
• Deadlines 
• Challenges 
• Principles

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Perhaps most importantly, consider which communication tool is suited to your company’s needs. For example, should you do video chats, phone calls, voice messages, or simply texts? 

While managing remote teams, ensure you find that delicate balance between continually pinging employees and delegating workflow by setting up automation. This ensures a streamlined communication process without overwhelming your team members.

The following tips will help you build effective communication channels for managing remote teams successfully:

• Consider your company’s culture
• Use communication channels with good reviews
• Experiment with different channels 
• Evaluate your delivery methods, such as video calls, e-mails, or texts

3. Schedule daily check-ins

Scheduling daily check-ins may seem like overkill, but it is vital to ensure workforce performance. In addition, it improves time management while managing remote teams.

When you schedule check-ins, you give yourself a break from constant overseeing, allow your team to be more accountable, and reduce unattended projects. You can use scheduling software to simplify this task.

Your check-ins don’t necessarily have to be daily — schedule check-ins based on what works best for your team, pending projects, and work hours. Be flexible in your approach, considering how your team adapts to remote work and how often they need updates.

Automate notifications to be sent through emails or instant messaging apps like Skype to each member on the specific days they’re expected to check-in.

4. Give the team access to the same collaboration tools

Collaboration tools are essential for managing remote teams — they help team members communicate, manage tasks, and stay aligned across time zones and work styles.

To keep things running smoothly, make sure everyone is working within the same ecosystem. Whether it’s for messaging, task tracking, or file sharing, tools like Chanty, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Trello, and Asana offer flexible ways to support collaboration and reduce confusion across your team.

The key here isn’t just about choosing one tool over another — it’s about creating consistency. Don’t have one employee using a completely different platform than their teammate who’s doing the same work. Aligning your tools keeps communication clear, reduces duplication, and saves your team from wasting time juggling different systems.

And once the tools are in place, support your team with the know-how to use them. A little onboarding, a quick walkthrough, or a shared best-practices doc can go a long way in making these tools actually work for your team — not against them.

5. Provide resources

As a business owner or manager looking to learn how to manage a remote team, ensure you provide resources to help your team grow and handle tasks more efficiently. 

Some of the essential resources for managing remote teams include:

• Books and e-books
• Blog posts and articles
• Courses
• Templates
• Webinars
• Tools and software

With several businesses online, equipping your employees with these resources will set them up for success and increase productivity. Investing in their professional development shows that you value their growth, which in turn boosts morale and performance.

6. Encourage social interaction

Regardless of the physical distance between your employees, social interaction is an effective method to manage a remote team.

You can hold virtual parties, online hangouts, joint brainstorming video conferencing, and welcome sessions to build positive intrapersonal and interpersonal workplace relationships. 

Managing remote teams includes creating time for your remote workers to connect and cooperate among themselves. This helps make teamwork effortless and productive, as they build relationships and look out for each other. Fostering this sense of community is crucial for combating isolation and keeping team spirits high.

7. Show flexibility and empathy

You should understand that your team members don’t all have the same working environment. Some may have spouses and children, and others may not. 

Some have standard home offices, and others might work from anywhere — their yard, bedroom, or favorite coffee shop.

Keeping this in mind will help you be more flexible and empathetic in managing remote teams.

If your team members are sick or have a life crisis, you should understand their circumstances. It shows that you’re human and care about them.

Due to business shifting to remote working from the typical office workspace, managers should acknowledge stress, distractions, and rate of adaptability. Then, exercise flexibility in task supervision while managing remote teams. Understanding these individual needs will help you offer the support your team members need to thrive.

8. Be a leader instead of just a boss

The best team managers know how vital it is to coach and mentor their employees rather than just manage them. They know how to lead by example.

While it’s essential to set down rules and uphold discipline, your team members should find you approachable too.

Set yourself as a leader rather than just a boss. Leaders carry their followers every step instead of sending their followers to the forefront without setting the pace. 

Here’s what you should do as a leader:

• Embody your company’s values
• Show integrity
• Ask for team members’ opinions
• Respect your remote workers
• Show your employees that you value their efforts
• Be flexible and empathetic
• Organize seminars to improve team knowledge
• Hold open-ended conversations with your team
• Request employee feedback and adjust accordingly

9. Advocate for mental health days 

The World Health Organization (WHO) found that poor productivity due to anxiety and depression cost the world $1 trillion every year. However, it also found that for every $1 invested in mental health, there’s $4 worth of improvement in health and productivity.

As a team manager, the mental health of your employees should be of utmost concern, especially since they will deliver better results when they have sound health and feel supported.

Our levels of tolerance and adaptability vary, and you should consider these factors when managing remote teams. 

While some workers might find it easy to adapt to remote working, project guidelines, and company regulations, some may need more time to get accustomed to how you handle working from home.

Team members who need more time to adjust to the remote environment might deal with mental health concerns if they continue to work under pressure. 

Some of your employees might be going through a challenging life crisis and become torn between attending to their challenges and keeping their jobs. This could take a mental toll on them if not quickly and adequately addressed.

How to manage a remote team in this regard is to advocate for mental health days — workdays you set aside to help improve your employees’ psychological wellbeing. 

The following are ways you can support your remote team members’ mental health:

• Offer mental health employee benefits
• Encourage open communication and team building
• Have a psychotherapist you can refer employees to
• Use project management tools to simplify tasks
• Share self-care resources
• Socialize virtually
• Send mental health and job stress surveys
• Encourage breaks
• Plan in-person team meetings to catch up (when it’s safe to do so)
• Advocate physical fitness
• Encourage work-life balance
• Be flexible and approachable
• Reward employees’ work

10. Organize regular career catch-ups 

Set up one-on-one weekly or monthly meetings with each virtual team member you manage. Jumping on Zoom calls with your employees for career talks is a great way to manage remote teams.

Set up virtual hangouts to chat about how your team members cope with remote work and project management. Discuss how previous projects went, the blockers they faced, how they found solutions, and how challenging or exciting their tasks have been in general. 

This virtual face-to-face assessment could be the perfect time to ask for project management feedback and suggestions on how to move forward. 

Regular career catch-ups are a results-driven way to manage a remote team as you’re able to build employees’ trust and connect with them on a personal level. Your remote workers, in turn, will be able to share their personal goals and objectives for your brand.

11. Take breaks 

As someone tasked with managing remote teams, you probably understand the need for breaks as working long hours can be stressful. 

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), one out of four employees complains that work is the number one stress factor they deal with.

Some of your team members may not complain about this, but stress will reflect on their work performance.

Encourage your employees to take breaks now and then so they can relax and feel refreshed. Taking breaks is one of the simplest ways to keep mental health in check.

Provide breaks to build a happier working environment and encourage successful performance while managing remote teams.

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Breaks will help your team members:

• Prevent burn-out 
• Improve creativity 
• Maintain a healthy work-life balance

12. Label business information for easy prioritization

You’ll be more successful at managing remote teams if you keep things organized. Task management will be easier, and productivity a lot better.

In your project workflow, label tasks based on their priority so your team knows the level of importance and urgency. Label official information and emails for easy prioritization. 

Here are some of the labels you can create for your workflow and tasks:

• FYI/Informational
• Important
• Planning
• Decision 
• Review/Feedback
• Urgent

Labels serve as necessary guidelines for effectively managing remote teams. They also ensure timeliness, accuracy, and quickness.

13. Track company progress

Before you can effectively track your company’s progress, you must first evaluate workers’ performance, which begins with properly managing remote teams. 

To evaluate your company’s performance to know if you’re successfully managing your remote workers:

• Evaluate your business goals and achievements
• Analyze key performance indicators (KPIs)
• Review customer feedback
• Check your search engine optimization (SEO) rankings
• Check the rate of repeat purchases
• View your financial statements
• Compare with competition
• Identify your strengths and weaknesses
• Develop improvement strategies

Your job as the manager ensures that there is no lapse and that work is progressive while managing remote teams. 

Remote employees’ performance affects your overall business process management. But don’t be too harsh when you identify problems and make corrections.

14. Reward success

When you achieve certain milestones, find a way to celebrate and reward these successes.

Celebrating your successes — both big and small — is a great way to encourage your remote workers. Not only that, but you’ll motivate them to do their best. More so, it gives your team the satisfaction that their efforts get desired results.

There are several ways you can celebrate your company’s success with your remote team for more productive results. You can:

• Host virtual parties
• Reward team members
• Give gifts
• Provide work vacations

Don’t postpone celebrations until you have achieved your big, long-term goals. If your employees strive to deliver good results and don’t get to celebrate the impact their efforts create, they might feel discouraged about their performance.

As a manager who knows how to manage a remote team, always remember to celebrate both individual and collective successes.

Final thoughts:14 tips for successfully managing remote teams

Learning how to manage a remote team shouldn’t be as difficult as it might seem. 

While many challenges might come up while managing team members in different cities or countries, managing remote teams is a breeze with the right actions and tools.

Follow our list of practical tips for managing remote employees and enhancing your business’s performance and productivity.

How do you manage your remote team? Feel free to share your best practices in the comments below.