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If you’ve ever worked a traditional 9-5 desk job and longed for more flexibility, you know the t...
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Great Post!
I've been using some tools for personal purposes such as Asana to track all the task for different projects, the flexibility we have there to manage item's status and assignees is just awesome.
Good tips.
I worked remotely for almost 10 years. First 6, traveling 3 weeks/month. Last 4, almost exclusively from the home office.
I would say, very important to have a couple of conversations with yourself. Are you truly "self motivated"? Will you get up and get after it every day? Can you set your own deadlines? Are you lingering over your morning caffeinated beverage before heading to your desk, or slurping it down as you review yesterday's work?
Secondly, are you comfortable with spending days at a time in your office, by yourself, with contact through only phone, email, or IM? This actually is a serious question. The reason you're drawn to social media during work time may be because you don't have that over-the-cube-wall chitchat with your mates. You won't have those lunches at the local cafe, nor those over-the-shoulder confabs about why something isn't working. You'll miss the human contact. A surprising (to me) number of very good workers do not handle well being "on their own" all the time.
After I'd been working from home for a few years, I noticed that every time I got on a call with one of my cow-orkers, I would chatter on and on until I recognized that they were struggling to get off the call without being rude. That was my clue to the impact of working alone in my office, day in/day out, week in/week out. And that's although I'm exceptionally introverted; even when working in the cube farm, I'm known to go all day without speaking to anyone else.
"Out of sight, but not out of mind." Your mates may see you checking in/out code, answering emails, and so forth -- but your manager probably won't. Nothing makes managers more nervous than not having line-of-sight on an employee. Very important to insure that management gets word of your deeds, even if you have to utter those words yourself. A periodic check-in call, a 1-on-1 to review what you've been doing, may be a good idea.
And, remember that in the office, if you spend 15 minutes bloviating in the break room, people see you, know where you are and what you're doing. Someone asks, "Where's Mike?" Someone else will answer, "He's in the break room." But, when working remotely, that same 15 minutes spent in your kitchen chatting with your spouse, you're invisible to everyone. Nobody knows where you are.
I've been a consultant now for 15 years. A lot of guys who were much smarter and much more knowledgeable than myself have been left behind in that time. To quote "Dirty" Harry Callahan, "A man's got to know his limitations." If you find yourself singing, "Hello, Walls" after working remotely for a while, pay attention and take the hint. OTOH, if you're tapping your feet to "I'm So Glad," then buy yourself a beverage. After working hours.
Thank you!
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