Collaborative tools are in, and neglecting your need to navigate them is OUT.

With life following the pandemic, many of our working traditions are changing.

Flexible and remote work are taking center stage 🙌🏿.

With this being the reality, we’re laying down some ground rules to ensure that you’re using these new collaborative tools in a way that makes the most of them 🎉.

This time, we’re particularly discussing the rules of navigating apps such as:

@pitchha, @asana,@figma, @slackhq and @notionha

A new world order calls for a new set of instructions to go with it.

Don’t get left behind — get into how best to make the most of online collaboration's with your team.

1. Filing Systems Should Be Comprehensive 😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫

Some ****chores are essential for the orderly working of things — this is one of them.

An organised and efficient filing system helps everyone in the team access everything easily.

This is critical in ensuring a streamlined workflow.

1. Name Your Files Appropriately 🏷🏷🏷

Why make life harder than it needs to be? 🤷🏿‍♀️

Ensure that you're naming your files and documents in a way that makes sense for the whole team 🧑‍🤝‍🧑🧑‍🤝‍🧑🧑‍🤝‍🧑.

One way you can do that is through including version numbers and your initials are a great way to keep track of who worked on it and when.

Eg. New Comma Proposal_V5_NN.pptx

Keeping organised means keeping on top of these things 🧹🧹🧹.

1. Respect Each Other's Working Hours 🤝🤝

No one and I mean NO ONE likes having their private team interrupted with something work related 🚫🚫🚫.

Always respect peoples personal time — it goes a long way in ensuring a healthy work-personal life balance and respecting boundaries.

It’s not normal for people to be on call 📞  24/7, so please be considerate of that.

Unless it's an absolute emergency, if your colleague's day ends at 6PM, it ends at 6PM ‼️

1. Make Use Of The Assign And Comment Features 📱📱📱

Assigning and delegating roles has long been an important use which prevents colleagues from butting heads and arguing 👊🏽 — take advantage of it!

It's always an ideal situation when everyone knows what their specific task 🗂 is in a project.

Make use of all the assignments and "@" tools to help establish that and keep everyone at bay.

1. Collaborative Tools Still Require Great Communication 🧏🏿🧏🏾🧏🏽

Collaborative tools are only as helpful as you make them 🙆🏾‍♀️.

It's still essential for the team to set a great foundation for effective communication.

These tools 🛠 have the potential to be a great means for working together should you make the most of them in this way.

For example, on many of these applications you can see when a co-worker is online 📳 and reach out if they’re on the clock, and you need their eyes for something — in this way they can communicate their availability and have it respected.

Or, you could pin 📌  the tasks you’re currently working on on your online workspace so that your team knows what areas you can collaborate on.

Consider the ways that you can use these tools to facilitate your communication with your team to add ease to your workday😁.

https://www.notion.so

1. Decide Who Is Sharing Screen Before A Presentation 🎤🎤🎤

Collaborative workspaces can add ease to deciding the small details with a team that could be forgotten in a lengthy email.

Something as seemingly petty as deciding who’s sharing their screen before a presentation could be swiftly delegated through an instant workspace message.

It's a subtle arrangement, but having that communicated beforehand smoothens the flow when preparing to present to a client.

1. Ensure Your Notes Are Clearly Written 📝📝

Working as a team means ensuring that everything — all the knowledge, details, dates etc — are grasped by everyone in said team.

As silly as it sounds, ensuring that your notes are clearly written is part of that.

It's easy to get carried away writing notes quickly in a way that you will understand, but remember not everyone will have the context you do in every situation ‼️.

Perhaps read over it a couple of times 📚, ask team members if they can make sense of it and only use abbreviations that are common knowledge.

As a creative, you’ll come to find that working as part of a team is one thing, but working as part of a team online is a whole different dynamic.

But it doesn’t have to be hard.

Really and truly online collaborative tools are there to enhance your experience of working with others and as you pick up tricks and tips here and there you’ll find that there is a swiftness that will come of it ✅.

The world 🌎 looks different to what it did 20 odd years ago, and with it so does the workplace. Don’t be the person playing catch up!

Get up to date and up to speed so that you can concentrate all of your energy on your wonderful craft.

You’ve got this genius! ✨

For more hard-hitting tips and posts tailored specifically for our creative geniuses be sure to head over to the New Comma page on Instagram @new.comma 🫶🏿🫶🏾🫶🏽

If you’ve come this far but have yet to sign up to New Comma what are you doing?🤯

Get into it and sign up over on the New Comma site to become the latest newcomer at New Comma

(See what we did there!😉😉😉)