Lessons Learned from Remote Work

In June 2017, I quit my job as a technology coach after working as an educator fourteen 14 years. After a few months off, with some off and on as a freelancer, I found a new job doing remote work.

I’ve worked providing support for customers of an IT company for the past 21 months. All of my co-workers are remote, working in locations all over the world. I live in Prague, and the other people in my team live in Cape Town, Portugal, Spain, the UK, Romania, We all keep different hours for our work day. With 24/7 scheduling, we also work on different days, amassing 40 hours of work per week.

I love working from home. After years of going into a school to work every day, I do not miss that routine.

How it Works

In my company, we’re all engaged in remote work. For other people in my role, we schedule our weekly availability two weeks out (with a bit less flexibility for weekend work). Within that availability, we are scheduled for five or six out of eight hours each day, to either be working in chat or email. With the remaining hours, we do our non-customer facing work, meet with colleagues and team leads, read and respond to internal communication, research issues, socialize and help each other. I have regularly scheduled team meetings each week, and a meeting with my team lead as well. I participate in other focus groups sometimes; with those, we may also schedule meetings regularly.

Lesson 1: Establish a Routine

While I do not miss the routine of travelling to and from work each day, I’ve learned the importance of a regular schedule. Initially, I varied my availability each week, sometimes working from 7:00-15:00, others from 9:00-17:00. I’d also break up my days, blocking 8 hours of availability in 3-4 hour chunks anywhere between 6:00 and 22:00. This was useful when I was taking intensive Czech classes, as I could attend classes from 9:00 – 13:00. But there was too much stress for me with the unpredictable schedule. Even in remote work, I work best with a regular routine. Consider if that’s the case for you as well.

Scheduling Mistakes

I was constantly checking my calendar, worried that I would miss a scheduled chat or email shift. It was also easy to work too much, staying on the computer hours past my scheduled time, letting the end of the work day seep into my personal life. I had company email and Slack on my phone and checked them all the time. I found it hard to disconnect, and was ignoring some other areas of my life, or staying up later than I wanted to to accomplish my other tasks.

Finding a Schedule that Works

After careful reflection, I realized that I work best with a more regular schedule. I still vary my schedule occasionally to account for appointments, but I like keeping regular work hours. Working 8:00-16:00/17:00 means that I keep the same hours as friends who work in offices, and I’m available to meet with them after work. It allows me to schedule my workouts well in advance, I’m also less likely to make mistakes double-booking activities.. Personally, I like routine, and following that preference in my work schedule is best for me. I start working when I saw I will and disconnect within an hour of my scheduled time.

Some of my colleagues do not like to start work before 10:00. Others like to start at 6:00. One advantage of flexible remote work, is that we can each establish a routine that works best for us. While some colleagues enjoy working in the evening, I do not; I’m more irritable and less creative. Ideally, in a remote environment, each of us gets to establish a routine and schedule what works best with our particular circadian rhythm.

Set Up Your Workspace

For months, I worked at my kitchen table, but I wanted to be able to stand and move while working. I got an adjustable desk, an external monitor and other peripherals, and an ergonomic chair. It’s important to decide where you’re going to work. Find a place where you can focus on your work for the hours that you plan to work. If you’re lucky, you already have an office to yourself in your home. Or maybe you’re incredibly productive at the kitchen table. It doesn’t matter where you work, as long as you have the physical and mental space that you need. If possible, buy the items that will help you have the work life that you want, even if you’re doing remote work from home.

Lesson 2: Set Boundaries

I like to live my life fully, and don’t think that work and personal life are completely disconnected. My ability to act with integrity in each sphere affects the overall quality of my life. Despite that, I think it’s important to have clear boundaries between work and personal life.

I value quality time; it’s my top love language. If I expect other people to make time for me free from distractions, I think it important to do the same for them and for myself. I find it useful to focus on work when at work, and on friends and family when not at work.

The first step in establishing this boundary was to take my work email off my personal phone. This means that I don’t check it out of boredom or habit. I check it with intention, when I am ready and have time to work. I still have Slack on my phone but I’ve turned off notifications. This means that I open it when I want to use it, not because of a ping, avoiding interruptions. One of my habits when spending time with people I care about is to put my phone away, focusing on them and the conversation. My intention is to give them my full attention.

The same thing works in the other direction. For most of the day, my phone is on silent. I rarely check my personal email. When I’m working, I keep the tools of my work open. I do not like to have pings or even vibrations go off and interrupt me. If you have children or other dependents, you may need to keep your ringer on, but you can probably turn off the notifications for many of your apps. Think about your work and personal life, and set boundaries to establish the life that you want.

Lesson 3: Build Connections

I’m an introvert (INTJ if you subscribe to Mayer’s Briggs). I’m self-sufficient, assertive when it comes to my work, shy when it comes to my personal life. I have always made 1 or 2 very close friends everywhere I’ve worked, people I could bounce ideas off of, who I could be honest with and enjoy the same, and people I socialize with. I find that a bit more difficult to do in a remote work environment. You can’t go for lunch with colleagues, or make plans after work. Well you can in a different way, but it requires intention.

We have yearly retreats in teams, and company-wide. This allows the opportunity to get to know potential friends face to face. Now, there are several people that I keep in touch with outside of work, on Telegram. I also use Zoom for chatting with them. The thing is that it requires effort, intention. Friendship takes work offline, and even more so with remote work. Some people don’t believe in having friends at work, but I subscribe to the idea that humans are social creatures who thrive on connection. If you share that value, you can build personal relationships with people remotely. Send a DM, schedule a video call, find an interest outside of work to talk about. Friendship requires vulnerability, and it can be intimidating to reveal vulnerability at work. I find that having a personal connection with some colleagues, having people in the same environment who I feel comfortable with and trust adds value to my life.

Lesson 4: Track and Communicate

Some days, I don’t know what I’ve accomplished. Working remotely means that I am responsible for keeping myself on track. Well, I always felt that responsibility, but when you’re in an office environment, people know when you’re in the office. Of course, that doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re working, but we are in the habit of using the metric of time at work as one of the indicators of conscientiousness and accomplishment.

I find it useful to keep track of the work that I do each day. I refer to these lists during biyearly performance reviews. But even more important than that, they help me track my progress and see opportunities to celebrate as well as areas to focus on for improvement. This is not specific to remote work; it’s impossible to plan for progress without information for reflection. Keeping track of my accomplishments also provide ideas to discuss with my team lead for support or growth opportunities. And, heaven forbid, if someone asks me to justify the way I spend my time, I can.

What do you want to keep note of each day and how will you track this information? Is the information just for you, or do you need to share it with anyone?

Lesson 5: Move and Take Breaks

After the first few months of working remotely, from home, I started noticing more aches and pains in my body. Coincidentally, I also had an injury around the same time that kept me out of the gym. As my weight increased along with physical discomfort, I realized the importance of making a change.

There’s been so much research recently on the dangers of sitting. Recent research also talks about the dangers of standing. It seems that as humans, we were designed to move. When I’m working at home, I have a cup of tea and a water bottle beside me. No one visits and I don’t visit anyone. I don’t go to the water cooler. I can sit for hours on end. The only way I get any movement (except a few steps to the washroom) in is if I’m intentional about it.

I struggle to take breaks during the day. Most mornings, I mange to get out in the sun in the morning for at least 30 minutes every day to get vitamin D and regulate my circadian rhythm. (This may not be possible at the moment depending on where you live.) I would like to take a 5-10 minute break each time I switch tasks. When I manage to take a break, I do a few physical movements or one Zumba song (from YouTube). When I’m working at my desk, I may also stand and do some exercises such as squats or lunges while working. On a good day, I’ll get 7000 steps between my morning walk and my movement breaks. On my best days, I’ll get those steps, and manage at least a 30 minutes workout. There are lots of free resources for exercise; I most often use YouTube.

Even if you have a regular workout practice, it’s important to also move during the work day. If you have a Fitbit, Apple watch or other such device, it can remind you to act alive. I recommend scheduling breaks or connecting breaks to other activities, such as task switching, to work in movement throughout the day.

Bonus: Find What Works For YOU

I love working from home. I wake up, do a short workout or go for a walk, have a shower and get to work. Breakfast gets fit in at some point, along with other meals, depending on when I’m hungry. Some friends have a desk at an office space. Others enjoy working in cafes. I’m a proponent of trying out different possibilities to find the one that works for you.

Where to Work

Sometimes I work in my kitchen, sometimes on the coach, other times in my home office. I know some of you will be aghast that I don’t always work in the same place, at my desk. You’re welcome to your judgements but this works for me. I’m focused, I’m productive. But I also live alone, so I don’t have distractions from others at home. When I have visitors, I may work at my desk more, but it really depends on the other person and their habits.

I’ve tried working at an office space. I didn’t enjoy it because I didn’t have any relationship with the people there. It was so quiet that I might have as well been working at home. Perhaps I would build some connections if I went more regularly, but I don’t feel inspired to. In any case, that’s not an option during social distancing.

When I’m not social distancing, I work from a cafe for several hours 2-3 times a week. I typically wear noise cancelling headphones at least part of the time, but enjoy the change of atmosphere, and watching other people. I tend to go to the same 3-4 cafes because they have good snacks, they’re welcoming of me working there for a few hours, and the internet is great. But as a backup, I have a great data plan so I can use my phone as a hotspot if needed.

Finding what works for you means figuring out the location and schedule, amongst other things. I found it helpful to start with those first.

Exercising Flexibility

It took me a while to figure out what works for me. When something feels off, I experiment to get back into a good equilibrium. What works for me is to go through a cycle of of constancy before reevaluating and readjusting to something that works better for me at that particular moment. Depending on what else is going on in my life, with family, and in the world, I adjust the way that I work, when I work. To me, flexibility is a core tenet of remote work.

Whether you’re doing remote work by choice, or because it’s thrust on you during this novel corona virus pandemic, take some time to create an environment for success. If you are living with other people, remember to give yourself and others a lot of grace. Change is hard, and if you’re sharing space with someone differently than you’re used too, watch out for that enemy, expectation. Don’t take things personally if someone else behaves differently than you would or than you’d like them too. Either communicate your expectation clearly, with kindness, or manage your own expectations and deal with you own stuff,

There are many companies that have been routinely hiring people for remote work. For more tips, see Automattic, Basecamp, Wildbit.