2016 has brought many changes. One of these is my remote position for Particular Software. This post will cover some of aspects of my working remotely and won’t cover me working for Particular per se.
Transport
I work fully remotely. I don’t need to travel for 40 minutes to 1 hour in one direction just to enter the office. This means that I have up to 2 hours more every workday, which gives me 10 hours per week. Additionally I’m not affected by unusual traffic, any snowfall, etc. Skipping the need of moving to the office actually makes your live much more predictable. And when it’s predictable it’s much easier to plan it.
Schedule
Even if you have 2 hours more you need a schedule. I’ve heard so many stories about remotes getting lazy and finally underperforming in official and private life. As I don’t actually have to move to get to the office, I’ve replaced that time spent in transportation with some positive activities in the morning
- I drop off our daughter to the kindergarten – it lets me go out for 10 minutes
- Regular exercises – it’s again about timing and being predictable. No excuses that there was a traffic jam and I can’t make it today
- Sometimes watching some SF/horror movie – I’ve done it once so far (it’s 6th week of being remote), and I don’t want to make it a rule
This brings me to 9:15AM, when I usually start.
Office
I have a separate room to work, write blog posts etc. This works like an anchor, I know where I work and where I spend time with my family. Again, I find this strict rule very helpful. Maybe I could go with a more liberated approach, but as the current works perfectly I won’t change it.
Another aspect of having a separate office is that you can actually use term ‘office’ in your home and have some boundaries set. Next advantage is that if any other family member has some work to do, he/she can use that room and still, having a label ‘office’ can help just to work without interruptions.
Lunch break
This point is a bit more related to the company. If your remote company has strict rules about working hours this life-hack might not work that well. Anyway, the point I want to make is that sometimes I use my lunch break to do something else. Like visit a post office or deal with taxes. The majority of people cannot do it in the noon, so one can easily leverage this fact to do it much faster (shorter queues).
Life changer
Working remotely, not to mention working for Particular Software, is a life changer. I think that after a months I won’t be able to go back. On the other hand, why would I even consider going back at all? 🙂
Happy remoting!