My experience working remotely for a year
If you live in a country that imposed a quarantine due to COVID-19, chances are good that you got a taste of remote work. In my case, something was tainting the experience. Constant reminders of plans to go back to the office took away the joy of working from home and left me full of worries. By itself, the pandemic induced a lot of anxiety, and these reminders didn’t help provide the stability I needed to enjoy the present moment.
Displeased with my situation, I ended up joining the great resignation, and ever since, I have been working truly remotely—an experience that is only getting better as time goes by. However, not everything has been a walk in the park, since working remotely comes with its own set of challenges. In this article, I want to describe my experience after a year, and why I believe remote work should be the way to go for many people.
I joined Brainly (a Polish EdTech company) remotely from Spain in September 2021. I could instantly feel the difference between a company that like many, temporarily transitioned into work from home for the pandemic, and one that embraced remote work even before it was forced upon them. I had the most amazing onboarding experience that I have ever seen—and it happened remotely.
Who said work couldn’t be fun?
I kid you not, I recently learned that the word “work” is closely related to torture. Thankfully, I have never been tortured at work—and don’t get me wrong, I love what I do for a living—but the conventional idea of knowledge work implies an office, and like for many, working from an office was rarely the source of my happiness. Waking up early to avoid traffic and being physically constrained for 9 hours didn't align with my needs as a human being or a creative mind.
By contrast, while working remotely at Brainly, we had many team-building activities (optional and during work hours) where we had fun and got to know each other. Soon enough, I noticed that there was something painful about it. My back? Socializing as an introvert? No, my facial muscles. I was starting my days with laughter and a big smile on my face. I was able to develop trust and stronger relationships at work even before meeting my colleagues in real life. It also improved my mood and made me look forward to opening my laptop every morning.
As usual these days, the company sent me plenty of cool merch as part of the onboarding experience. However, there was a special bag that I could get for free if I answered correctly a few questions about Brainly (quite fitting for an EdTech company, right?). This required doing some research, and it wasn’t easy, but I like a challenge. The result was that I learned more about the company than I would have done in any other way—and more importantly, I was engaged and had fun along the way. And in case you’re wondering, yes, I got the bag!
You’re not alone
I was overly warned that remote work could feel lonely, and that was definitely the case for many people during the pandemic. Keep in mind, younger adults were suffering from loneliness long before all this happened (even at the office). Because of the Covid outbreak, some of these people were forced to work from home, making their loneliness even worse. I think this fact is key to understanding the surge of remote work naysayers and their takes on this debate.
I’m not trying to deny the distressing feelings of people who felt alone working from home, but to me, suggesting that working from an office should be the antidote to modern loneliness sounds tragic and dystopian. Besides, some people still confuse remote work with working from home during a quarantine, which is not the same.
Another important distinction we need to make is that solitude doesn’t equal loneliness. Short-term solitude provides immense benefits such as gaining clarity and perspective, which are essential to be proactive rather than reactive. Too much solitude could indeed lead to loneliness, but with the number of meetings and other social interactions necessary in any IT-related job, I find that moments of solitude are key to stay productive.
“We don’t know much about solitude these days, nor do we want to. A crowded world thinks that aloneness is always loneliness, and that to seek it is perversion”
One thing is for sure: if you spend your 8 working hours alone at home, you shouldn’t spend the rest of the day in the same fashion. You need to go for a walk, work out, spend time in nature, and meet with friends and family to stay physically and mentally healthy.
When working remotely, it’s easy to feel like you would bother people by reaching out for anything other than work-related topics. However, it is essential to stay in touch with your colleagues. In an office space, I would be forced to maintain shallow conversations by the water-cooler, but as an introvert, I’d rather have deeper conversations. I love that in a remote setting I can choose whom to communicate with, and talk about meaningful or fun topics. At the beginning, it was difficult to avoid feeling like I was bothering people, but now it’s usual for us to schedule meetings for casual conversations or to catch up with our lives.
Health, creativity and productivity
Remote has many benefits (saving money on transportation and rent, spending more time with loved ones, actual work-life balance…) but if I had to choose the one thing that I love the most, it would be the peace of mind of having a company that trusts me. Being able to go out and take a walk around the block if I’m stuck with a task without feeling guilty is priceless. In my experience, this would be unimaginable in a conventional office, where people would think you’re escaping your responsibilities or being lazy if you spend more than 10 minutes away from your computer.
Leaving health benefits aside, there is plenty of evidence suggesting that walking boosts creative thinking (Stanford, Harvard, and others). Many of history’s geniuses, including Steve Jobs, were famous for taking long walks and even walking meetings. In hindsight, it seems obvious that good ideas cannot come out while glued to a screen, but in practice, we have a long track record of irrationally challenging this fact.
“Every day I walk myself into a state of well-being and walk away from every illness; I have walked myself into my best thoughts, and I know of no thought so burdensome that one cannot walk away from it.”
Being able to focus all my energies on work and taking breaks to walk when necessary has been an absolute breakthrough for me. I’m more inspired and I’m able to think more clearly, which has noticeably increased my productivity. My colleagues and managers have expressed how satisfied they are with the work that I do—and that’s the ultimate reassurance to prove that for people like me, challenging the status quo results in healthier, happier, and more creative employees.
It’s dangerous to go alone, take this
As I anticipated in the beginning, remote work comes with its own set of challenges, and I’d love to take this opportunity to share what has worked for me, so you can overcome them too.
Invest in yourself: If you plan to work remotely for a long time, invest in a comfortable desk setup, and keep it decluttered. I use IKEA’s Markus chair without arm rests for better ergonomics, and a manual standing desk so I can switch between sitting and standing positions (I wish I had invested a bit more in a motorized desk instead).
Keep track of time: If you enjoy the benefit of a flexible schedule, it’s important to keep track of time so you don’t end up overworking to exhaustion. Don’t confuse this with being too rigid, since a flexible schedule requires you to be flexible too, especially if you work with people in different time zones. Just make sure you don’t work longer hours for too long.
You need a certain level of discipline: Otherwise, you’re going to struggle with work-life balance. Personally, I work best without supervision, but I know some people don’t. For those, this may be challenging, but even if you struggle, the next tips will help you.
Watch out for distractions: Your couch may be comfortable—perhaps too comfortable—for working from it. Your brain will link it with leisure time. If you have a TV in front of it, it will only make things worse. Run away from temptations and create your dedicated space for work. In my case, I moved to an apartment with an extra room that I use as a studio.
Use over-ear noise canceling headphones: Nothing allows me focus more than a good pair of active noise canceling headphones. They help tuning out any external sound, which eliminates any noise distraction, making it easier to concentrate on whatever I’m doing.
Try Endel: Endel is a cross-platform app that uses artificial intelligence to create personalized soundscapes based on the time of the day, weather, location, heart rate, and other factors. What I love about Endel is that it’s backed by neuroscience and they are transparent about how it works. You can learn more about the science behind Endel and download the app on their website.
Use Focus modes (iOS only): If you are an iPhone user, use Focus modes for tuning out non-work-related notifications. My work Focus mode only allows work-related apps and my family to notify me while I’m working. No social apps or games. I also use a custom lock screen and home screen wallpaper with work-related apps so I don’t even feel tempted to lose my focus.
Install OneSec (iOS only, Android in beta): Built around the iOS native Shortcuts app, OneSec is an app that forces you to take deep breaths whenever you attempt to open social media apps. It also suggests you healthy alternatives or closing the app if you’ve drifted your attention for too long on social media. By introducing this little friction, you have an opportunity to be more mindful of your time and do more meaningful activities instead (such as writing this article in my case). I use OneSec all the time, not just during work—and it has helped cut down my social media consumption by half.
In case you haven’t noticed, I love when technology is used to solve the very same problems created by technology—which is the biggest threat to productivity while working remotely in my experience.
Remote is staying for good
While offices will not cease to exist anytime soon, remote work has consolidated as a strong option that keeps gaining believers. Events like the urgent climate crisis reaffirm how unsustainable it is to have millions of people moving back and forth from their houses to an office everyday across the globe.
Remote work is helping filling abandoned villages back with life, some countries are willing to pay remote workers to move to their villages, and others are even offering residency to digital nomad immigrants. Remote work takes care of the planet by helping reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions (therefore improving air quality), using less paper and plastic, among other benefits for the environment. Some companies have been able to verify how their carbon footprint is reduced in a remote setting, and since there is no planet B, taking these benefits seriously will help us fight the climate change.
We all have different needs, and there are no one-size-fits-all solutions that work for all of us. Although everyone can go with the option that best suits their needs, companies that embrace remote work will benefit from attracting very talented employees regardless of their location—an important competitive advantage nowadays.
