Working from anywhere is a dream that many of us have had. But being successful at it can be tough. I’ve worked on remote teams full-time for about 5 years and in that time I’ve figured out ways to ensure I’m both productive and sane.
Attitude
A big part of successfully working remotely is your attitude. Yeah it’s great that you can ‘work’ from anywhere with a decent internet connection, have a super flexible schedule, not shower, whatever you find appealing about the idea. But to last more than a few days without your boss starting to ask questions or your loved ones starting to worry you need to have the right attitude. You still have to work, meet deadlines, prove you’re valuable to the person giving you money. For me my attitude was to treat every working day as if I were going into an office and interacting with colleagues. I keep myself on a routine, that means getting up at a normal work time, getting to my ‘office’ at a regular time, and avoiding distractions.
When you work remotely, your typically working from home, or a place you’re calling home for a short period of time. And at home there are a ton of distractions, the dishes, laundry, tv, neighbors, you get the point. You have to block your access to these distractions. That means work from a place where you can’t watch your neighbors or turn on the tv. Treat your remote ‘office’ like you would a normal drive to work, office.
Distractions also come in the form of regular and necessary (sometimes) communication like IM or email. Turn off these distractions by disabling the notifications, putting yourself as busy, whatever you need to do to get your tasks completed. Because this is primary way to communicate as a remote worker you need to be careful to not ignore important requests while not being inundated every minute with something that will most definitely take you off task.
Remember there are a lot of advantages to working remotely, I’m currently sitting in a Caribbean villa overlooking some of the bluest water in the middle of the winter. I’m here because I want to be and my work allows me to be. Enjoy where you are, you’re there for a reason. You’re either living or visiting somewhere while still working, remember why you’re there and enjoy everything that surrounds you. That could mean getting some work done early in the morning so that you can catch first chair after a big snowstorm in the middle of the week. Or working a little later into the evening because you got out before dawn to catch a great surf session. Enjoy it!
Tools
To be successful working remotely you need tools. There are the obvious things like a laptop and decent internet, but think about the things you take for granted in an office environment. You won’t necessarily have these things in your remote office. Things like a whiteboard for illustrating your ideas with your teammates. Or asking your colleague a quick question about a new project. These tasks need to be somehow accomplished through using technology.
Don’t cheap out, it will cost you a lot more in the end.
Here are a few tools that I really like:
For regular communication, IM platform Slack
For screen-sharing, conferencing, Sreenhero
For video and audio conferences, WebEx
When you need to be connected but don’t want to lug around a computer, I carry an iPad with a bluetooth keyboard. Apple iPad
I like to create wire-frames and layout samples on the iPad, but when I want to share the concepts with colleagues I like to use Astropad. Astropad turns your iPad into a graphics tablet, it brings John Madden drawing capabilities to your screen-sharing meeting.
I really like having multiple monitors, but traveling can make that almost impossible. I like to use Duet Display to turn my iPad into a second monitor, a great portable solution.
With roles like Web Development that allow for location agnostic working conditions and ever expanding internet connectivity, working remotely is no longer a novelty idea, it’s become more prevalent and culturally accepted, with the right approach it’s a great way to avoid the commute and live where you want.