Written by the founders of 37 Signals, a US software company, they’ve been using remote staff for years and so had a good amount of experience-based insights to share on the topic.

Generally I found the book focused more on people and companies considering or starting home-working, rather than those already doing it. That said, there are some very good points and tips in there.

Another positive is that the book is broken into 8 chapters, and each one into very short lessons. There are a total of 72 lessons, and each is only a few pages long (in the audio book lesson are 1-4 minutes only). Other books these guys have written are in a similarly digestible format.

Here are a few specific highlights that I found:

• Some nice statistics and records on the growth of home working.
• They recommend overlap in timezone for about 4hrs, so opportunity to speak and collaborate is not too narrow and days go by without progress.
• Interesting insights like office-bound people state they’re “most productive” out of hours – getting in extra early or staying late. When people get together sustained focus drops.
• Measure performance based on work quality vs time-at-desk. This said, I would add to actually measure time too – because homeworkers regularly put in very long days (and sometimes weekends) to produce the best work – but that’s unsustainable, unhealthy and will end in burnout.
• Benefits of homeworking includes health, well-being, hobbies, family and friendships. Also benefits to the environment and personal finance.
• Using cafes (or co-working spaces) and supporting hobbies to resolve challenges including isolation, overwork, health and home distractions.
• “Great remote workers and just great workers”. It’s not a silver bullet to change an attitude or productivity.
• Advice on working with customers/clients from a remote location.
• Advice on hiring remote staff.
• A few communication tips (via writing) when in person nuance is eliminated.
• Recommended technology tools and resources, although a little outdated now.

So overall I liked the book, and on this topic it’s one of the better resources out there. I’ll endeavor to review more going forwards and compare.