Many developers have been tossed into remote work due to the pandemic. While it's quite a lot different than what remote work is like without an epidemic, it's great that technology allows developers to work while staying safe.
I've been working remotely in some capacity for over seven years. A couple of things I try to do to help remote work go as smoothly as possible:
- Communicate A LOT but in the right medium e.g. Don't send a giant feature proposal over your messaging client. My rule of thumb here, if it's something that needs to be referenced later, it goes into something less timeline based (JIRA / Confluence / Docs / whatever)
- Eliminate distractions If you have a personality where you get side-tracked easily, put your phone in another room. Use tools to help you block sites that you waste time on, etc.
- Write down your daily goals and execute on them Some people do this by creating personal calendar invites for their tasks, TODO lists, or writing things down in notebooks. I do a combination of TODO lists + calendar items for tasks. It's okay if things need to change but writing down your goals is an excellent way to be mindful that you're changing your goals intentionally, instead of drifting into what you focus on.
- If possible, keep your work equipment in another room I totally get it's not possible for everyone, but I find it helpful to have a space where I use my work equipment and mostly use it only in that space. This helps me keep some boundaries between when I'm working and not.
- Get outside (if possible) I like to both take walks and otherwise exercise. I notice on the days I do this I'm both more productive, and generally feel better.
I'd love to hear your tips in the comments or on the following Twitter thread. Be sure to check out the thread for more:
My TLDR Remote work tips (may eventually write a post). Would love to learn what strategies you use too!
#remotework #WorkFromHome
Thread 👇14:30 PM - 07 Mar 2020
Top comments (5)
One of the nice things about having replaced my cheapo wifi gear, last year, with Ubiquiti kit is that, when the weather cooperates, I can take my laptop(s) outside to work from the back deck. While a nice change of pace from working from the couch, the portable speakers don't provide nearly the sound-quality that the main A/V system does.
Yeah, while there's a lot of talk regarding social distancing, we need to get outside and do some work distancing, too.
Amazing! I like to plan my day ahead of time to have a clear goal of what I should do that day. This is helping me not to get lost in unnecessary work and I'll be able to get things done. Task management software has been a game-changer for me during remote working. Wrike and Quire are great ones!
How to keep motivation work from Home?
That's a very good and challenging question for sure :D I've found personally, I just need to "do the work" and motivation follows. For me, this looks like setting up a pomodoro timer, turning off distractions, and working towards the goals I have in place. I've often found that working in one or two pomodoro's can set the trajectory for my daily motivation (i.e. I don't need to continue with the pomodoro timer after the first couple of rounds usually).
This article by James Clear is a pretty good read on motivation also!