I've been working since 2009 full remote. I've changed jobs twice, I've moved from one country to another one while being full remote. Here are some thoughts, tips and tricks to make your life easier if you end up working remotely.
During this time I have lived in four places, and worked differently in these places I'll start be describing each of them and how I managed to work, what was good, bad and ugly.
My apartment - I had a room with a desk, but I was living alone. I could organize my workspace the way I wanted without impeding on other people potentially living with me.
As I started working remote, setting limits and boundaries was hard. Not working was easy but made my guilt go high, so I would end catching up. I remember one Friday not working and then guilt making me work for the whole weekend.
In order to manage my new way of life, I created a schedule. At 7, I would get up, by 7:30 I would have breakfast and so on. Issue was stopping in the evening. I was working for Mozilla messaging and most of my colleagues would be west coast based, meaning that evening sometimes meant meetings. But having a straight schedule did help me a lot when I was leaving alone. Although I did have an office space, I might have worked from elsewhere, like the couch. The schedule meant eating at fixed hours and getting some exercise.
What I was missing at that time was human interactions, as there was not much video conferencing services and where I could engage human in different ways than writing. I ended up applying to another 'regular - in office' work. That didn't work out because on my third trip to the office for an interview, I realized that two hours of transit per day was way too much. But I really needed some human interaction. I finally did find some friends to have what was missing. I got to the nearest office a few times and that's where I had a lot of social interactions with my colleagues. Not only just work related subject, like on IRC. For some, I would be a PITA because nobody would work, as I was engaging many people in small chats and was loud when speaking.
In the second phase, I ended up living with someone, in that apartment. Having a room with a desk helped a lot to separate work from daily life. It also helped the other person living with me that understand when I was working and when I needed not to be disturbed. My need for social interaction was also fixed with someone living with me. Of course, it created other issues as to set work boundaries for examples. I was going to the swimming pool every Friday, and I would bike on a daily basis. This helps clean the head and change from work, family work.
Then we moved to a smaller condominium, no more workroom. I went to work into a coworking space, the time to get fiber at home.
That new home was small, 3 rooms. As much as I had enjoyed the coworking experience as my kid came to the world, it was easier for my family If I stayed home. I could help my wife. So I started working from the couch, from the bed and sometime on the big one's desk. I got a sort of social life hanging out with other geeks, and being present in a war gaming club helped for the "social" interactions I needed.
Next and final move. I now work either from the dining room's table, the couch or my desk. The desk is unfortunately in the bedroom, but I do have one. It's just not always practical. I've added a few things to my social life, running on an election did help to make connections.
So I've moved countries and changed jobs twice while staying remote. I did choose a full remote job versus a non-full one for a smaller compensation, because being full remote is so practical.
My tips and tricks to last and enjoy being remote :
- set limits on where to work
- set limits on timeframe of work (eg I never work past 19:00)
- set limits with family members - so they know what the boundaries are
- Kids they'll come when you have a meeting - let them come and at some point they'll stop coming
- let your spouse know you are working so she doesn't come around and ask for stuff while you don't have time
- Exercise if you can't. I know I have not for a while and going back to it, felt like gaining 5 years. These days I either walk, bike for at least one hour, but sometimes it's hard.
- Socialize locally, get involved in local life, this will make you forget that you work alone.
- You might want to consider the co-working option, this makes it easy to separate private life from work life. But then you lose some of the flexibility from working from home as you need to go and come back, you are probably further away from e kid's school etc. That was not an option for me.
- Use the work tools be them IRC, Matrix, Jiitsii to have work relationships.
- Be present at company meetings and all hands, socialize and follow what the company does so you don't feel lost alone.
- If you have co-workers nearby make sure to say hello and try to meet with them.
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