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The Stress of Remote Working

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Re: The Stress of Remote Working

#31

Post by benji-york »

starbuxman wrote: post #11

I work remotely, and it can definitely get lonely. To combat this, I do martial arts. I get my 'social fix' and am good for the day. I don't need constant conversation throughout the day with people I may or may not like ;-) What is most difficult for me, is getting inspiration. I work remotely for myself which is different than those work work remotely for others, and have a boss to report to. So...I'm struggling wi…

It would be great if there were some sort of small group of people that you could call on to help get unstuck; perhaps to have a short video chat with about your problem and brainstorm solutions.

Re: The Stress of Remote Working

#32

Post by bitL »

If you want to succeed working remotely, this helped me:

1. Focus - learn how to 100% focus on your work, filter out any distractions

2. Socialize - find some nice hobbies involving other people with completely different backgrounds for the time you saved by e.g. not commuting

3. Pause - don't overwork yourself; having computer in front of you is enticing to cram more algorithms, experiments etc. into it - just put a firm boundary on the amount of work you do in a given day or you risk long-term overworking issues

I was following this for over 5 years and had the best time of my life working remotely with 0% office time.

Re: The Stress of Remote Working

#33

Post by diegoserranoa »

I've been 100% remote also for the past two years. IMO the most important thing about remote working is communication. I'm still not perfect at it but I try to improve everyday. Even though there are issues you can't avoid (e.g. childhood sickness as OP pointed out), most of the problems can be solved by communicating clearly with your co-workers.

Re: The Stress of Remote Working

#34

Post by diegoserranoa »

bitL wrote: post #32

If you want to succeed working remotely, this helped me: 1. Focus - learn how to 100% focus on your work, filter out any distractions 2. Socialize - find some nice hobbies involving other people with completely different backgrounds for the time you saved by e.g. not commuting 3. Pause - don't overwork yourself; having computer in front of you is enticing to cram more algorithms, experiments etc. into it - just put a…

#1 is key. I've turned off most of my notifications. It's amazing how we live surrounded by so much digital noise.

Re: The Stress of Remote Working

#35

Post by eweise »

I worked remotely a lot when my kids were young. Awesome taking them to the park at lunch, dropping off and picking up from school. Its just not natural to travel for an hour to sit in a box. Plus I was in the best shape having time to go bike riding or running at lunch.

Re: The Stress of Remote Working

#36

Post by settsu »

I'm a remote developer (FTE w/large out of state co.) who happens to be a 40 year old single dad of two elementary school-aged kids living in a one bedroom apartment.

Yet even if I was able to recreate a workplace with my favorite colleagues, ideal collaborations, and the best on-site perks, I would still prefer to be remote most of the time /at this stage in my life/.

Reflecting on this led me to boiling it down to 2 key reasons: 1. I have a natural drive to want to do my best work. After 24 years of working full time (about 20 doing roughly what I do now), I have a good idea of what that takes.

2. Having children changes you fundamentally in so many ways that a meaningful discussion probably isn't possible without considering what that means.

Working remotely isn't perfect (especially during long school breaks...), but it does facilitate most of what I want given the need to trade my time for money.

Re: The Stress of Remote Working

#37

Post by potta_coffee »

megaman22 wrote: post #3

> To summarize, the main problem for me is to feel like a text processing machine, receiving mails, Jira tickets and chat messages as input and writing code as output, without the human interactions needed to make it more meaningful. I do not like becoming a kind of a remote developer black box. This sounds fantastic, where can I get such a gig? There's really nothing better than being given a more-or-less defined ta…

You just described my current gig, and I'm in heaven. It's literally the best thing ever. I hope it never ends, I never want to go back to working in an office.

Re: The Stress of Remote Working

#38

Post by mvexel »

bitL wrote: post #32

If you want to succeed working remotely, this helped me: 1. Focus - learn how to 100% focus on your work, filter out any distractions 2. Socialize - find some nice hobbies involving other people with completely different backgrounds for the time you saved by e.g. not commuting 3. Pause - don't overwork yourself; having computer in front of you is enticing to cram more algorithms, experiments etc. into it - just put a…

95% remote for 5 years now and enjoying it. I agree with all of your points and have some to add:

* Create a really pleasant and tidy work space for yourself. My work life improved considerably when I did: http://ma.rtijn.org/2016/01/03/standing-desk.html

* Be among people. This is part of 2. but worth pointing out. I work at a co-working space 2 days a week, and at cafes some mornings. I don't care that I don't actually interact much with folks there. Being among humans is enough to break the isolation.

* Take care of your body. Don't do any work before you have given yourself time to wake up, shower, get dressed, have breakfast. Set a timer to go for a walk around the block. Have a glass of water on your desk at all times. Eat healthy. These things apply to all desk workers, I just feel it's even more important being remote.

* Start the day checking in with a colleague. Doesn't need to be about a work problem or question. Just see how folks are doing at HQ, anything special going on? Just having a laid back conversation with a colleague before you head into the day helps start me off with a positive, social attitude.

* Build confidence that not being always-on is okay as long as you deliver. Work on trying not to read too much into the phrasing of chats / emails.

* Insist on good practice in meetings. It's very easy to ignore someone not in the room. If you can, have them project your video on a screen so you're "there". Remind people to speak up and to point a camera at whiteboards etc.

I'm probably forgetting a bunch of things. Good topic for a blog post that focuses less on the drawbacks and more on recipes to make remote work a joy. Any links folks can recommend?

Re: The Stress of Remote Working

#39

Post by blackflame7000 »

diegoserranoa wrote: post #34
bitL wrote: post #32

If you want to succeed working remotely, this helped me: 1. Focus - learn how to 100% focus on your work, filter out any distractions 2. Socialize - find some nice hobbies involving other people with completely different backgrounds for the time you saved by e.g. not commuting 3. Pause - don't overwork yourself; having computer in front of you is enticing to cram more algorithms, experiments etc. into it - just put a…

#1 is key. I've turned off most of my notifications. It's amazing how we live surrounded by so much digital noise.

For me, #3 was key because when you start deviating from the 9-5 it's easy to work a few hours later into the night to finish up the task before all the working memory is lost to sleep. This inevitably causes adverse sleeping patterns which can cause all sorts of malaise

Re: The Stress of Remote Working

#40

Post by Clubber »

spdionis wrote: post #27
Clubber wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The person writing the spec should actually be able to think it through a few times before needing a developer in the room. If the spec writer can't think through a spec by themselves for at least 95% of it, they aren't qualified to be submitting tickets, IMO. The most efficient way to communicate specs is through a document, so I have something to reference. I'm not going to remember everything said in a meeting unl…

You have never written a spec have you? Not only is the 5% important, as every "only 5% left" tends to be, you are completely ignoring possible developer questions.

I've read my take of shit ones. Most of the time, the writer hasn't bothered to think about it past the initial idea and needs the developer to help them understand what they want. That's not the developer's job.
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