I’ve been working from home for over 4 years, since around the time that the Fortune 100 company I worked for split itself in two. I’ve been mentored in the move to a home office, and want to share some of the great tips I’ve received over the years. This should be a series of posts, but this will be a first post with some overview.

Even before I moved to a home office, I had a lot of experience working with distributed teams, some quite remote. Whether in Bengaluru or San Diego, there were lots of opportunities to learn what worked and what didn’t in my teams.

So here is a short list of topics not necessarily in order of importance, but that I have found helpful.

• Have a dedicated work space, preferably a room with a door
• Do an ergonomic setup
• Get as many monitors as you can use
• Get a good camera for video chat, use a headset
• Use video conferencing whenever possible
• Take lots of notes and write things down where you and others can find them again
• Be accessible
• Share more than you would normally be comfortable with. Openness in your work and in what challenges you face.
• Have some amount of formality – not every day should be pajama day
• Make time to be social with your team, in watercooler chats or in person if possible
• Control distractions