Making progress remotely
Since the internet seems to be giving unsolicited work from home advice, I couldn't be left out. "Is remote work the future?" is a question that gets asked a lot in tech magazines. I've felt for a while that remote work is now, it’s not some future state. Even if you have a physical office, people need to travel, they need to pick up their kids, they need to wait for a plumber. The COVID-19 crisis has made it abundantly clear that remote work is now.
I've worked remotely in the technology industry since 2009. I was a part of a remote agency for 3+ yrs, have worked at Mixpanel remotely for 2+ yrs, and run a fully remote product team for Cleverstack.
In that time, I've learned a couple tips and tricks for working remotely. Most—if not all—of this is anecdotal. It's what works for me, but I hope that maybe one or two of these ideas could help you in your day to day life if you're newly remote. Here are a couple of the tactics:
Audio environment
Video calls aren't everything
Document as much as possible
Schedule and boundaries
Audio Environment for fun/less-stress, productivity
Social animals naturally make noise when things are good. It's been studied that human’s slow and gentle humming was actually developed to "maintain contact with the group... to watch out for predators... and to relax" [1]. We humans signal danger by being quiet.
This means silence can be super stressful. In order to drown outside noise, and to remove the silence, I use a one-two combo of a white noise app + an abstract album on repeat.
Turn on white noise at about 50% volume, and make your own mix of sounds
Turn on an abstract album you can put on repeat (for me it's Wild by Tourist)
Elpy is a great app to great your own white noise: Elpy
I listen to Wild by Tourist on repeat, I've listened to it thousands and thousands of times. Wild by Tourist
Video calls aren't everything
It's tempting to do a video call for everything in a remote environment. "Spend more time on Zoom" is a common request you'll hear remotely.
One idea specifically that comes up is spending time on a group video chat where everyone just hangs out, maybe chats, and just works on camera. It may just be my personal preference but this feels more like weird voyeurism than it does a social gathering. After trying this at multiple companies—including the fully remote agency—I haven't seen a ton of benefit to it.
Another request that might pop up is constant ad hoc meetings on video. These are great, if you're in. But you need to set strong boundaries when you're not. It can be tempting to "jump on a call", all. the. time. Don't. Schedule a call for the next day, set an agenda, and it will be more productive. Or you'll just realize you don't need it by the time you do all of that.
Document as much as possible
When you're in an office environment, you have the benefit of "passing by", of subtly knowing what's going on by looking at folks in the office. You have passing conversations, and quick verbal communication that you don't have in a remote environment.
This is kind of a "secret killer", because none of this information is written down; the info is contained in people's brains, lost conversations, and those hallways. Remotely, it's more important than every to document e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g. You're going to get really good at it, it's going to be great. You have a challenge of using only your words to give someone proper context, outline the needs, and deliver your thoughts and/or solutions in written word. Do it as much as possible: more docs = better.
Schedule
This is so important. DO NOT roll out of bed on to your keyboard. Get up, and have some sort of routine outside of your work. This could be: reading, exercising, journaling, whatever you like. But have something that gets your brain and your body going that is not your full-time work.
Take a lunch break. This stuff sounds so simple but it's so important. When 12 o'clock rolls around (or whenever), take your laptop, and ever so gently, slam it shut. Also, eat in a place separate from your workspace. This will help separate your health from work life. If you're intermittent fasting or whatever then go do something else during that time.
This came up in the video call thing, but schedule calls. If you do lots of ad hoc calls throughout the day, you'll get to the end and think "what the hell have I done?". Schedule morning time, schedule lunch, schedule interactions and calls, and schedule your "work work" if you have it as well.
It's also fun to schedule "fun" stuff. Working from home can get lonely. Schedule calls with coworkers to just catch up, to stay connected with friends, or play games remotely.
In addition to setting boundaries with schedules, you also need to set boundaries for messaging apps like Slack. Remotely, everyone expects you to be available all the time. This may be part of your job, so be responsible; but if you're a "maker", sometimes you need to communicate that you need focused time outside of Slack. I've found success with setting my status, and posting quickly in Slack "going underground focus time for one hour to do XYZ".
Just a couple quick, probably obvious things for remote work. But they are so so important. This is like when people tell you to "eat well and exercise". Try some of this, and hopefully a couple of the ideas work for you.
Cheers, and godspeed.
[1] http://www.josephjordania.com/files/57-Times-to-fight-and-times-to-relax-Kadmos.pdf