Discussion on: If you are working remotely, how do you keep yourself accountable, productive and efficient without external supervision?

At the end of the day, I like to leave a small note for a task to get started on the next morning. It should something I can do within 30 minutes or so, and fairly concrete - so, instead of "fix the thing", it might just be the first step in that, i.e. "Figure out the issue on line 25 of myThing.js".

If I have a simple task, it helps me warm up, chill out, and get grounded before dealing with client stuff.

I also tend to work late if there is a particular problem I'm in the middle of - it's hard to pull away when you think you're almost there. Getting in the habit of making this "next morning" note also helps me to cut myself off at a decent hour - I can rest easier knowing that I'm going to figure it all out the next day 😅

Before I started doing this, I would spend my first hour handling client emails. But, I've noticed that this is the part of the job that can stress me out, and, if there's something I don't want to deal with in my inbox, I will procrastinate for a while before doing anything.