Introduction:

Hey, I'm Katie D. Scheuer, Learning Experience Lead at Workplaceless. I'm a former career coach turned learning designer. I've spent my career helping adults develop new skills to achieve their personal and professional goals.

In 2019 I joined Workplaceless, a remote work training company, where I teach teams, leaders, and companies how to thrive in hybrid, flexible and remote environments.

Current Gig?

I am the Learning Experience Lead at Workplaceless.

Current Location?

I've been digital nomading for over two years now. After living in Philadelphia from 2012-2019, my partner and I spent a summer in Asia, six months in Portugal, and road-tripped across the US. Right now, I'm on the East Coast visiting family for the summer, and we're deciding where to head next!

Where can we follow you on the Internet?

LinkedIn

Describe how you work in 10 words or less?

Deep work + exuberant sync brainstorming by phone + async collaboration.

Tell us a little bit about your background & how did you get started with remote work?

I was a career coach for the first decade of my career, primarily supporting graduate students. I especially loved working with international students and was inspired by their travels and personal and professional growth. Career coaching, for me, was everything. I had deep, intense conversations all day long with my students and colleagues. I loved it. But it didn’t offer the freedom, autonomy, and growth I needed.

Five years ago today, I decided to change my life. Back then, I knew something big was on the horizon; I started prepping myself by taking small risks: paragliding, solo travel, hiking on sheer cliffs. Once I increased my comfort with risk in my life, I got my partner on board to go abroad, and we set a date and planned to head to Vietnam in May 2019. We quit our jobs and rented out our house. I was offered a short contract with a small, remote eLearning company starting the first day of our travels when I arrived in Hanoi. (I negotiated the offer on a layover!) Once I started this gig, I learned about remote project management tools and was hooked on remote work.

We were wrapping up our trip in Asia, getting ready to head to Portugal, when I saw Workplaceless had a facilitator position open. I had learned about the company earlier that year while completing informational interviews, so I was thrilled to see an opening and applied right away. I started my job the same week we moved to Porto.

What job responsibilities do you have?

Around half of my time is spent building workshop and ecourse content and delivering live facilitations to our wonderful clients. Since we’re a small business, part of my role involves operations -- building processes and hiring team members as we grow our business. I also support our marketing team by writing content and work closely with our sales and client experience teams.

Take us through your typical weekday?

The first thing I do is check Slack, write into our daily standup channel about my priorities for the day, and check my colleague’s posts to see if they have any blockers (usually personal difficulties that keep us from getting work done).

I then look at my calendar for the day, which I obsessively time block and color code. Some days I have 3-4 hours blocked for deep work, like writing or building courses, and other times I have more sync time, like if I’m facilitating a workshop for clients.

Our organization is primarily async-first in our work practices, but I have 1-2 meetings most days. My favorite day is Thursdays because I have a standing “walkie-talkie” with my colleague, where we chat on the phone and walk. After years of spending non-stop one-on-one time talking to students, I miss the sync time.

But once you switch to remote async-first work, you can’t go back! I adore freedom and flexibility.

DailyRemote Tip: Follow a laid-out work-from-home schedule to increase productivity and efficiency during remote work.

What’s your workspace setup like?

It depends where I am - I’ve never had an office as a remote worker! Definitely not a role model here. Typically my partner sets up in the bedroom, and I’m in the living room on the sofa for creative work. When I have meetings, we’ll swap to facilitate for clients, or I’ll sometimes take meetings in the kitchen.

But we’ve been living out of Airbnbs for some time, so we have to keep it flexible. I’m super careful about ergonomics and always keep my laptop raised to eye level, and I use headphones to make sure background noise isn’t distracting.

I spend a lot of time rearranging lighting and repositioning my laptop depending on the task I’m working on, so the benefit is I’m constantly moving. But I do get jealous of my colleagues’ standing desks and have considered getting a portable one!

What apps, gadgets, or tools can’t you live without?

On a workday, I use Slack and ClickUp. When I’m not working, I am a millennial who loves TikTok, and I use Instagram to document my travels for friends.

How do you keep track of what you need to prioritize?

Time blocking and color-coding my calendar!

How do you recharge or take a break?

I like to take walks, bike rides, go hiking. For vacations, I really love to visit cities that have great food or locations with beautiful scenery.

What do you like to do in your free time?

I volunteer for an amazing organization called Crisis Text Line. They offer incredible support to individuals in crisis 24/7, and their training for Volunteer Crisis Counselors is top-notch. I actually learned about this through a blog post by my colleagues! It’s ideal for remote workers who want to give back in a direct service volunteer role.

Advice for someone who is looking to switch to a remote job?

Find an organization that supports remote-first work practices and encourages asynchronous and flexible work. Ask challenging questions about the realities of working remotely for that company. All remote work roles are not made equal.

Any courses or material people can refer to when they are looking for a remote job?

Visit Workplaceless, of course! Workplaceless is a training company that optimizes remote team productivity and bolsters distributed employee engagement, via remote work onboarding programs, virtual leadership training, certifications, and challenge-specific workshops.

Want to work remotely like Katie? Facing issues searching for a remote job and don't know where to look? DailyRemote is a remote job board and have the latest jobs posted in various categories to help you. Finally, join like-minded people in our LinkedIn and Facebook community.