It's important to start with caring for yourself, as everything else will break down if it's not built on top of a strong foundation. If you are crouching in your bed with your laptop in your lap, you are likely to encounter neck and spinal pain issues in short order. Step one is investing some time and money into in an ergonomic home office set up.
The chart below shows an ideal ergonomic work set up.
If you have a table and chair, sit at it. If you have a laptop, you should have:
There are other accoutrements that will enhance your life, but these are the bare minimum.
For a list of the gear we recommend, see:
It's important to be mindful and to exercise your body so that you stay sane and healthy. For more on that, see the article from our blog, Self Care in the Age of Solitude.
As a remote first shop, it's important that we are highly responsive to our clients during work hours to create a sense of tele-presence. For this communication, it's important to choose the right medium for communication. Engineers should strive to be in a stable, quiet environment, with access to all communication styles during times when they are working. Be verbal about when you are leaving your computer, and post normal working hours so others know during which hours they can reasonably expect a response.
As an organization we place the value of our interpersonal relationships above work output. We see ourselves more as a family or a little town, not as one other's babysitters or scorekeepers.