Rising culture of remote work — a literature review

Is anyone interested in applying for a business-related course at the university? Then, be prepared to read and write a lot.

I finished on Sunday 3157 words assignment and in-depth research on remote work during COVID-19. Doing so when working from home sounds ideal. I can relate to the situation, and the topic is quite interesting to research.

But when it comes to practice, it gets tricky unless you like to spend the whole day in front of a computer screen. Writing up a literature review is a time-consuming process. Research takes 70% of the time spent on the assignment.

Here are my research tips and findings on the topic. It might be helpful for your future assignment, or you are just curious to find out what researchers say about WFH.

First of all, academic sources are not only in the library. Researching the topic in the most up-to-date literature is essential, especially when examining recent events. Avoid ten-year-old articles or older unless you want to highlight the research’s evolution around your topic.

Draw a mind map – picture your findings into argument ideas and themes; remember to keep references. I had to go through many links in my search history a couple of times as I forgot to write down the reliable source.

Pick only a few themes which were repetitive in literature by many authors. Then, critically analyse, describe and synthesise different perspectives from the chosen topic.

Keep clear structure – headings, subheadings and paragraphs; write in the third person and avoid giving opinions. Each paragraph should start with a short intro to the argument, introduce perspectives from different authors, finish with a brief conclusion (critical writing style) and connect with the next paragraph. The new idea should be kept in a new paragraph. Do not make recommendations unless the assignment brief requires it. In this type of assignment, you’re to review the existing literature. Ultimately, make a concise and clear conclusion with the key findings.

The most interesting what I found researching remote work is that it doesn’t negatively affect employee productivity. Moreover, remote workers are to spend more time working, which they would typically spend on commuting. What affects productivity is the stress and uncertainty caused by the pandemic and isolation.

Regarding productivity, when I was doing research, my partner sent me a link to a resourceful article in which I learned about Brain.fm. This music impacts your behaviour, and it does a real magic trick. When I put on my noise-cancelling headphones and played Deep Work to focus for 90 mins, I focused on my assignment 100%. It creates an environment where you can zone out and get stuff done. Chapeau bas, this app has helped me finish the assignment way in advance.

Thanks for visiting,

Bye for a week!