Originally published on my blog
Before I was working with Appetiser App Development, I used to work at an office. It’s your typical 9-6 job with a 1 hour lunch break. Back then, I have no idea what it’s like working remotely full-time.
I’d like to share with you my personal experience on working remotely from a person who used to work at an office. Here's why I think it's wonderful.
5 Benefits
1. Save a LOT of Time
Commute alone is the biggest time waster that you’ve encountered everyday when working for an office job. Not only that, it feels like it takes a lot of your energy. When you arrive at the office, you somehow just let out that big *sigh.
With working remotely, you can substitute the time that you spent commuting for - a fresh bath, cooking a healthy breakfast, and things that you’ve always wanted to do before you start your work if you weren’t in a rush.
Personally, I take my time in the bath so that when I come out I feel refreshed and ready to start my day. What do you like to do before you start your work?
2. Flexibility of Your Time
Just take a moment and ask yourself - within a day, when am I the most productive?
The answer is either you’re a morning bird or a night owl. Have you experienced those times when you’re so productive that you get lost in time? That feeling of satisfaction with the work that you put out and you’re just simply happy because you finished everything that you’ve planned to do for the day.
I’m a morning bird myself so I wake up early and start my day in the morning. I find myself super productive in the morning and I take advantage of that. Same goes for night owls, if you’re productive during the night to dawn, you now have the option to take advantage of that.
You can also do - work in the morning, run some errands in the afternoon, and continue working at night.
With working remotely, you now have control of your own time.
3. Save a LOT of Money
Transportation fees or gas costs money. With commuting out of the way, you no longer have to pay for those. Just imagine how much money you can save.
For food, you can now cook your meals at home which is much cheaper than eating out. You can even do meal preps so you can also save time.
Take a piece of paper and write down all those expenses for a day. Multiply it by 30 days and you can see how much money you can save when working remotely.
With the money that you’ve saved, you can spend it for a goal that you’ve always wanted or you can invest it.
4. Increased Productivity
Did you know that it takes an average of about 25 minutes to return to the original task after an interruption?
That’s how much time is wasted when a co-worker suddenly taps you in the back while you’re focused on your work.
I always find this funny and annoying at the same time - when you’re staring at your monitor and suddenly a person passes by and unconsciously you look at the person who passed by. It’s always distracting when that happens.
Or, this usually happens when your work setup is facing the wall and you feel this “fake” pressure that somebody is looking at what you’re working on and you keep yourself busy because this person might think you’re wasting time.
There are a lot of things going in your head that you just can’t focus on your work or it takes a lot of energy and willpower to do it.
Fortunately, I no longer experience those when I started working remotely. Now that it’s a lot quieter in my head, I can give my full attention and focus on my work.
5. Happier Work Life
This one is something personal to me. When I add all the previous benefits, it led to this one.
I noticed that the work that I put out is much better than before. Most of the time, I’m no longer stressed out. Even when I’m done with work, I still have the energy to focus on my personal goals.
I feel motivated to get up knowing that I’m in control of my time. I feel happier and and satisfied with my work because I gave my full attention and focus. With the money that I’ve saved, I can reward myself more.
Overall, not only did my work life improved but my life in general.
Final Thoughts
I encourage you to give remote working a try and see if it works for you. As with life, if there are upsides, there are some downsides as well. Head over to part two, where we learn how to overcome the 5 common problems when working remotely for the first time.
If you’re looking for a company that does remote working, we do just exactly that at Appetiser App Development. You can check out our openings below.
We’re looking for:
- Senior Mobile & Web Developers (Cebu/Davao/Manila)
- Digital Marketing Channel Specialists x 2 (Manila)
- SEO
- CRM/E-mail
- Content Marketers (Manila)
- Marketing Human Resources (Manila)
- Marketing Assistant (Manila)
- HubSpot & Landing Page Developer: APIs/Integrations (Manila)
- Web Designers: UX/UI (Manila)
- CRO (Manila)
If you're interested, you can send your CV at joinus@appetiser.com.au.
Top comments (6)
Good stuff! :) I'd be more interested in a continuation of this article, which would describe all the cons/challenges while working remotely, since those are not addressed that much generally ;)
Also regarding the cost saving, there's also a flip side. If you work from home your cost of electricity, water and other amenities increases. So in the end it's not all cost savings.
Im all up for remote work myself, just would be interesting to hear about the challenges as well :)
Hi Alex,
Thank you so much for taking the time read.
For cost savings, yes you're right. What I usually do turn off the lights but just use a lamp.
I did made a post regarding the problems that I've encountered in the first few months working remotely. You can find it here: dev.to/arthlimchiu/5-common-proble...
Ah, excellent, thank you!
Good, write up. I have done full-time remote work for a few years. I still like working remotely for some of the reasons you mention. So end up working remotely at least twice a week. Although the biggest problem I faced during my time with full-time remote work was the isolation. And lack of real interactions. At one time, I was so cut off from social event's I would just avoid going out with friends. And fortunately my situation changed and I had to change my work style. I think co-working spaces tackle most of the social interaction problems and isolation issues if you decide to move into full-time remote work but use a co-working space a few days a week off once every few weeks.
Yes, a change of environment from time to time could help you cope up with the isolation.
Good article Arth, I'd like to work remotely when I am capable of doing things just like inside of a corporate office. It's hard to work on a project without proper communication with the team and have a work/life balance. Having to work 9.5 hours and commute for almost 3 hours for 5 days is a hell for me.
The experience is great for me to work with my co-workers, This was never taught in school or during my internship(consider some companies treat interns just to fix a legacy code).