This is the second in a series of posts from our team sharing what life is like working for an agency which operates a remote location-agnostic model. I am Silke Rossmann, a partner and head of practice at Tyto, and this is my location-agnostic life.
For those who might not know yet: Location agnostic working is an approach to working that means employees can choose where their day to day office is. For some people, the idea of working from home is highly desirable. For others who potentially prefer a livelier work environment or who don’t have suitable home office space, this might not be the best option. The alternative for these employees is for them to work from a convenient co-working space.
In this series, we want to highlight the freedom our model enables and how we navigate any challenges it presents.
What’s your morning routine?
Truth is, I don’t really have one as my routine totally depends on what my day is looking like. I try to go for a run every second morning so on these days I get up at around 7 am. When I am travelling (which in normal times I do quite a bit) my alarm bell often rings way earlier. On days without travel and without sports I might sneak in an extra 30 minutes in bed in the morning. Once up and ready, I make myself a nice Latte, muesli with fresh fruit and some bottles of sparkling mint water so I make sure I hydrate during the day.
How do you organise your day?
Usually, I use the early morning hours to review anything that has come in overnight, mainly from our US-based clients. I then prepare an old-fashioned analogue to-do list for the day and update the one for the week. Then around 10 am, calls are usually starting. Because we do have quite a few US-based clients, we also have calls in the later afternoons / early evenings. On these days I make sure to plan a good lunch break into my day so I can go out for a long walk, get some life-admin done or sometimes just enjoy a book and some sunshine on my beautiful balcony.
When are you the most productive?
Usually right in the morning and then again early afternoon after I have been outside to get some fresh air.
What is your favourite workplace?
I have two. The first one is my office in my apartment. It’s a separate room equipped with everything I need to be productive such as a second screen that I got really used to. To me, it’s important to have a space where I can just shut the door and either concentrate inside or relax outside without being reminded of work all the time. In my office, I have a large bookshelf on one side and a beautiful view on the other side. Both help me to concentrate and to stay calm when times get a bit more stressful.
My second favourite place is the balcony. Luckily, my Wifi is equally strong outside so I can enjoy fresh air and sunshine while working. Not every task is meant to be done outside but things like reviewing content or having meetings are just perfect for spending some time in my outdoor office.
What’s your favourite thing about working remotely?
There are three things which are most important for me: The first one definitely is the flexibility to work from wherever I have that’s good enough. This allows me to actually create my work life around my private life rather than vice versa. The second one is that, for me, working from home often calms me down. Do you know these situations when someone is complaining about something in an office environment and all of a sudden atmosphere is getting rather tense and you let yourself be affected by it? That doesn’t happen when you work from home.
Another important aspect is recruiting because I don’t have to look for talent in one particular city only. I can just look across Europe and select someone solely because that person is the absolute best choice for the job, not because he or she is located in Berlin or Munich.
What do you miss?
Naturally, I miss just sitting in the same room with my colleagues. However, I think we found a very good balance within our team. When we call each other it’s always via video, we try to meet in person regularly (whenever circumstances allow of course) and we also have coffee meeting diarized to make sure there are times to just chat about anything really.
What’s your secret weapon?
My office view! I am lucky enough to live atop a small hill which means that, especially on clear days, I can look incredibly far. Sometimes, when I have to think about something, I just look out the window for a while and ideas start flowing.