How To Make Remote Working Work
By Tegan Paterson Remote working is increasingly becoming an option for office-based workers these days. The focus is becoming less about where and when the work takes place, and more about the outcomes. Workplace flexibility is in fact the number one thing tech professionals share with our Recruiters as being on top of their ‘dream job’ attribute list when seeking to change roles. After spending over a decade being office-bound, joining a remote-first working environment at Middleton Executive has been very rewarding and empowering, but not without its challenges. A self-managed approach to work requires discipline, self-motivation and exceptional time management. For the past year I have fine-tuned my approach and after some trial and error, I think I’ve nailed it and am reaping the rewards. I offer my top 4 tips to make remote working work… Planning, planning, planning! Did I say planning? At the end of every day, I put together a list of my top priorities for the following day. I like to start my day knowing exactly what I’m doing while it’s fresh in mind, and put absolutely everything in my calendar – even times I go for a walk or do yoga. I schedule thinking/reflecting time at the start and end of each day, and I also put aside dedicated times to respond to emails and administration tasks. This
The Life And Times Of A Product Entrepreneur
I recently attended a Product Anonymous networking event hosted by A Cloud Guru: The Life and Times of an Entrepreneur, featuring special guest speakers, Grant Hatamosa from Zen Ecosystems, Shannon Gilleland from Form-I-Baby and Carl Rigoni from SixSix. The event was geared toward coming together as a product management community and supporting each other through our individual journeys; whether it be as an entrepreneur, a product engineer or anyone with a slight interest in product management. Right up my alley! Kicking off with the presenters each sharing a lightbulb moment, we heard tales of how passion drove them each to become an entrepreneur, and what this means for them on a day to day basis. Whilst each story was unique, there were some common and complementary perspectives from these entrepreneurs so I thought I’d share with my product community some key takeaways… What makes a Product Manager ‘great’? Often referred to as the mini-CEO, this person wears many hats. They have a good grasp on all the skills and attributes that make up the role, and have the ability to deliver on those being all those things eg. support, engineer, designer, etc. They are rounded enough to be able to influence all the disciplines that go into the product from inception all the way through to the market launch and
The pursuit of happiness: 3 tips for reducing stress
After spending over a decade in the corporate world, I like many people out there was just, well … stressed. A lot. Most of the time. Okay, nearly all the time. Consequently, it all came to a head at one point and I felt as though things were spiralling out of control. I thought there had to be more to life than this. I didn’t want to just manage, I wanted to feel joy in every aspect of my life, and I wanted to stop believing stress is normal. Now I look back on that time as a bit of a wellbeing wake-up call. Finding a new normal It occurred to me that living every day for the weekend isn’t really living life to the fullest, is it? There had to be a better way! With this in mind, I sought out to find a wholistic, practical, and natural way I could integrate some healing and mindfulness into my life, after some research (an obsession of mine) I discovered Kinesiology – a modern natural therapy, combining the wisdom of eastern and western traditions to identify imbalances in the body’s structural, chemical, emotional state to establish the body’s priority healing needs. I was hooked and began studying toward becoming a Kinesiology Practitioner. My newfound interest, became a hobby and ultimately a
Everyone benefits from a diverse and inclusive workplace
When you imagine a diverse and inclusive workplace, what springs to mind? Is it teams that are represented by equal numbers of men and women, women in senior leadership roles, and people from varying ethnicities, physical abilities and age groups?
