What No One Considers When Dreaming of Working Remotely

It has been a dream of mine to work from home for a while, even before learning that it was a possibility to work this way as a programmer. During that time of dreaming about working remotely, a remote position only seemed to bring ONLY good things. I'm not going to lie, working from home is the absolute best. But there are things one has to consider before working remotely so that you're prepared to face its challenges.

Staying healthy

Before knowing that I would be working from home, I had already decided that I wanted to dedicate more of my free time to exercising. I had gone to the gym in the past year but I didn't make it a regular occurrence, because my previous job wore me out physically. After switching jobs, I started going to the gym as well, but not regularly, and one month and a half later, I gained 15 pounds. This was a definite eye opener for me because I hadn't weighed as much as I did for a long time, so I'm going to make going to the gym a priority from now on.

Organizing your time

One of the benefits of being a remote worker, is that you can save yourself so much time from commuting. I have to admit, in the last couple of years, my commute time wasn't that long, but I know about the struggles of a lengthy commute. Regardless, being able to chop even 30 minutes from commute is a great benefit that will allow you to spend that time doing something you love. However, this might seem simple, but doing it right can actually be difficult if you're not organized.

As a remote worker, your time constraints are lifted to a certain extent, and you can use your time however you wish, even if that means doing the fun stuff before getting any work done. If you're going to maximize your free time, you're going to have to reserve a big chunk of your time to work. During my first month and a half, I've worked anywhere from 2 to 7 hours a day, but I've never really done so in big chunks. I've done half an hour 1 and 2 hour chunks with too many distraction breaks in between.

I would much rather get work done in larger chunks of time, say 4 to 6 hours of work, and then have the rest of my free time for anything else I want to do. It goes without saying that breaks within those chunks of work time are necessary, you just want to take your breaks in whole chunks as well instead of in intermittent moments of distraction.

Don't work too hard

Another of the benefits of remote work is being able to take better care of yourself. This includes the physical, mental and emotional aspects of your health. In order to do this, you must also set aside time to recover from work time and just do something you enjoy. I'm especially having a bit of trouble with this one because I have another part-time job that takes time away from resting. But its necessary to get that rest time on your schedule because it will affect your mental health and your productivity in a big way.

Got out and socialize

Since you're going to be home all day working, it's important to go outside, meet with friends and family and do outdoor activities that can help you stay healthy in more than one way. This probably goes without saying but, working remotely can really take a toll on your mental health if you don't go out and socialize every once in a while, and that's really not what anybody would like to be going through while working from home.

Separate your living space from your work space.

This might be something that some people can handle differently, and I sure thought that it wouldn't be a problem, but I can't stress this enough, separate your work space from the rest of your home. Maintain that designated work area clean and organized so that you can work peacefully and without added pressure, working is stressful enough and any added stress will just affect you in ways that could be avoided.

Remote work is still work

I think that we wrong ourselves in idealizing remote work into perfection. Don't get me wrong, working from home is still a dream, but it doesn't mean it's perfect or that it lacks of its own obstacles. It helps eliminate some of the stressfulness of day to day work life, but you still have work to do and if you can do it effectively and in an orderly fashion, you will gain all of the benefits that come with working from home.