Doing things, but remotely

I spent almost 7 years of my life working from an office. Most of my job was done by just sitting on a chair in front of a desk, monitoring telecommunication towers, radio systems, network status, creating new services for the Installation Team, and of course, speaking with customers via phone. But not everything was just sitting in there – when you work in an office you also have your colleagues to speak to, you have your watercooler, lunch breaks, and that juicy gossip about someone who got into a fight with the boss last afternoon.

Suddenly, all this busy environment is reduced to practically nothing the very moment you’re starting a remote job. More and more people had the chance to experience all this due to the nasty and everlasting pandemic we’re currently living in. I’m sure that the experience can be a little bit overwhelming for newcomers.

• No more commuting.
• No boss breathing behind your shoulder, checking if you’re working or not (this bothered me all the time and somehow felt it was offensive).
• No more watercooler chats and no more engaging with other peers in “real life”.
• No more external sources of motivation – I needed to learn how to find my self-motivation alone.
• Inevitably, for the reason above, you’re more inclined to procrastinate when the workload is low.
• No more schedules imposed by your boss, this time, I was the one setting my own schedule.
• Much more reporting and written communication, sync and async.
• How you’re dressed is not important anymore.
• Flexibility to work anywhere you want.

All those changes above certainly have positive and negative sides. You’re alone now, which is interesting if you have an introverted personality, but it can be a big problem for extroverts who really need to share things with their peers. For the same reason, you need to find a way to motivate yourself – by setting weekly goals, developing your skills and sharing your success, or simply going to take a big ice cream after work. Everything that works for you and only for you is perfect for that. Communication can vary depending on the kind of job you’re performing; in my case, I switched from a company that communicates everything by voice (sometimes even yelling) to a company that (mostly) communicates everything by written messages. Suddenly, Slack was my best friend and P2 my connection with the rest of the company. This was a huge and difficult change for me, especially because I love talking about bullshit interesting things, and I had to express myself by writing.

Congratulations, you’re working remotely now. Either because your job is remote or because you’re forced to work remotely due to the Covid-19 situation, the thing is that you’re at home, in pajamas, your mug of Sesame Street¹Or anything a little bit more contemporary, who knows., and ready to give your everything. Based on my experience, I can think of a few things that may (or may not!) help you get started.

• Pick a room and be alone in there. Trust me, be alone. Family can be very distracting; they might not understand that you’re not at home for vacations and that you’re actually working. Make sure they understand this. If this is impossible to make, look for a coworking/coffee place and try to work there. I know this is very difficult now with Covid-19, but we all hope this situation will improve.
• Set a work schedule and a calendar reminder for every event in your day. From the moment you’re waking up until the moment you’re going to bed, set reminders via a calendar. Schedule everything, even when you’re supposed to have a break, when you’re supposed to have lunch, or are supposed to work out that day. Create the habit from the very beginning; otherwise, your days will be gone faster than you expect, and you will lose track of time easily.
• Get dressed as you want. I’ve read plenty of blogs saying that you should dress the same as if you’re going to the office. Look, if you’re not going to attend calls or meetings, get dressed in the most comfortable way for you. One of the biggest advantages of remote work is that you can finish that super hard project in pajamas, and nobody will judge you for that: embrace that pleasure.
• Take breaks. Get up, walk to the kitchen, make a tea or coffee, walk for 5 minutes in the corridor. Just move from time to time, your muscles and neck will appreciate it.
• Engage as much as you can. If your job allows you to engage minimally with your peers, even if it’s by writing, then write to someone and ask something completely not work-related, they may not reply at that moment but they will do it later. Learn how to conduct a random async conversation about life, kids, your favorite music band, or movie. If they don’t reach out to you, you reach out to them. If you’re working with a team, set a social call with them weekly or bi-weekly of 1 hour where you just talk about random stuff, setting human connections and engaging with your peers is completely necessary to keep the sanity in place and so for building a relationship based on trust which can be useful later to perform at your job in a better way.
• Set weekly goals instead of daily ones. It’s Monday morning and you’re ready to start the week. Take 10 or 15 minutes before starting working to review what needs to be done and how you’re going to plan that. Prioritize your tasks and set a reasonable²Yes, in italic. goal for your whole week. Don’t worry if one day you’re not able to perform as much as you’d like to – you still have more days to accomplish what you need to do (and everybody can have one or two bad days).

This is roughly the quick survival guide that I’m always trying to follow. It works for me, but I’m aware that not all the points can be applied to all kinds of jobs.

Working remotely can seem very easy and fun on the theory, but it has its own challenges as well. However, if you have reticences about applying to that remote job position that it’s grabbing your interest for a while, don’t hesitate and take the chance – you may or may not like it; still, the set of skills you’d get from that experience is something that you wouldn’t be able to obtain from working at the office.