What hold you back from working wherever you want?

I’ve been planing this for a long time. Gathering information and developing the skills necessary to become a good remote worker. Finally, I did it! (I think) I’m a software developer, so you can imagine that it is not difficult for me, it is true. The technology is there to provide mobility and performance. However, we have the human factor, that is unpredictable. We have our fears, other people fears (spouse, boss, parents), we have organization cultural barriers and every kind of excuse we can invent.

There are some points that I consider important to manage in order to have a good experience working remotely:

Discipline

Be consistent

Set the time you will work. When we work from home we tend to procrastinate more. You know… The TV is there, nobody is looking to us, etc. Setting a time to work is effective. Another trick is wear shoes and clothes as if you are at an office. It can be a psychological trigger to switch to work mode.

Create a system

A system that works for me is the Pomodoro Technique. You basically set a 25 minutes timebox “protected” from any interruption so that you can measure your performance on different tasks. There are many free apps for mobile or desktop that you can use to assist you. Seach for Pomodoro Technique

Tools

Here are some useful tools to assist you on the road.

Trello

It works like a board with post-it where you can change its position according to the status os a task. It’s really easy to understand and adapt to your reality. It is also shareable with you teammates.

Github / Bitbucket

This part is especially directed to software developers, even though it can be also applicable to writers, attorneys, and anybody who work essentially with plain text. You can store binary and more complex files in a source repository, but you will loose the ability to compare versions, which is in my opinion, the great benefit of this tool.

Schedule apps. (Calendly, ScheduleOnce, etc)

Have you ever faced this situation? You agree with someone to have a meeting this week and you exchange more 23 emails just to set the time.

With these tools, your share your available time and let the other person chose the best option. Of course, it requires a lot of organization and commitment to the timetable.

In this link, you can find a lot of information about them: https://zapier.com/blog/best-meeting-scheduler-apps/

Mindset

Be advised that it is not for everyone. Working remotely is a bit stressful and it adds a lot of uncertainty. Not to mention the loneliness.

This article is an ongoing work that I will add more information along the way.