My Learnings While Working Remotely

I’ve been extremely lucky to have landed many remote roles in my career. Even pre-pandemic, I was a remote-enthusiast and now I’m thrilled to see more companies adopting these policies.

Through my years of working remotely, I’ve had some interesting learnings and challenges that come along the way, all which helped me to grow as a remote worker.

Here are just a few:

Remote work is NOT a holiday.

I think the assumption is that because you get to work from home with a flexible schedule, it’s as if you are on holiday. Unfortunately, this is far from the truth. Even though there are a lot of advantages to a more flexible schedule, you are still not on vacation. At the end of the day, work is work, no matter where you do it from.

It’s also for this reason, I had to learn how to take proper vacations. Because I was working remotely, I thought that it was ok to just work all the time since I had complete flexibility (Wrong!)

Even though I am not in an office, I learned that I still need time to take breaks in order to refresh and refuel the mind/body.

Setting Up Work Routines and Rituals Help

Another thing that I had to learn was to create rituals and routines. This was especially useful for me in order to separate work and play for my mind.

For example, one ritual that I do is work in an office rather than on a couch or in my bed. Another ritual that I do is intentionally put my work computer away when the day is done. I learned that this ritual helps my brain to recognize that work is done and it’s okay to play now.

Lastly, I also like the routine of going to a cowork space, as it helps my brain to make a distinction between work and home (not to mention that I meet awesome people at these spaces!)

It’s important to use remote tools right

Like all new powerful apps/tools that are in the market, it’s really important that you use the app with best practices in mind. This is especially helpful when you are working remotely.

For example, Slack can be both productive and non-productive, depending how you use it.

For this reason, I don’t like to set notifications on the app and I do my best when I am in focus mode, not to use the app. (Though, I am human and I fail many times!)

That way, I have both a balance of collaboration time with my co-workers and time which I can focus on getting work done.

Set Boundaries for Focused Work

I have learned that it is best to schedule time in the day for “deep” or “focused” work.

Sometimes, it’s not enough to put the tasks on my list, but I do need to set up specific times in the day where I focus on deep work.

For example, I like to create blocks on my calendar that are for focused work like writing, so my coworkers know that I won’t be checking Slack frequently. When this happens, there is a little icon on my Slack that lets my coworkers know that I am in “focused” mode.

I have learned that I feel more fulfilled and happy with my work when I have a part of the day where I can get things done and move tasks forward.

So those are some of my favorite learnings for remote work. What do you think? What would you add or takeaway from this list?