I Love Working Remotely

For that past 5 years or so I've had the luxury of working from my home office( or from anywhere I want to be exact). This freedom has made me realize a lot of things about life, work and the pursuit of happiness in my time alive. The biggest realization of my career is that I love working remotely.

Why Remote Work?

It's obvious, isn't it? I'm often judged hard because I work from home. My friends and family always act somewhat jealous but also fearful that if they did the same they would never get anything done. They assume I never leave the house or get out much when in reality I'm out more than they are since I'm not tied to a set schedule I didn't instill.

To my friend's and family's surprise, I educated them often on why I work from home and actually how much more productive I am than if I were stuck in an office somewhere. Having the freedom to make my own working schedule for starters requires great planning and being able to customize it is everything.

Yes, working remotely is a big commitment but I've learned after many years of working offsite that it's much more suitable for me and probably is for you too.

No longer do I need to stress about workplace drama, rockstar egos, commuting to and from work, buying gasoline, packing/buying lunch and other meals that might come up, the list goes on.

What are you waiting for?

Would you work remotely if you could? These days more businesses are offering the chance at doing so. From my perspective, I'd be all over a job that allowed their employees to work remotely. In fact, I did just that. I recently quit a remote job I have for about 3 years. I was a designer and UX lead at an eLearning Software company. It was a great experience and I will say we didn't let distance keep us from communicating.

Even larger businesses you've probably heard of are remote workforces. Apple, Cisco, AT&T, Time, Inc. and much more offer flexible working conditions for specific roles at their companies. Your current employer may even be able to offer remote work options but sadly many are still stuck in the past.

We have the technology

Phone, Email, Skype, Slack, Google Hangouts, ScreenHero, GoTo Meeting, and many more communication applications and solutions allow us to get things done without being in the same room. This technology is available for free in most cases yet many employers feel the need to keep employees locked up in an office building. Having worked remotely for so long I fear the day that I have to go back to an office. It makes me cringe a bit.

Some Downsides

Working offsite means you're alone a lot. I mean a lot. If you're introverted like me this is actually somewhat of a perk. If you live and breath off of human interaction you may rethink working remotely or at least consider working remotely but in a public place. (i.e. A co-working space or cafe).

Asking a question and getting an immediate answer can happen to work remotely but when that face-to-face interaction isn't active sometimes things just don't happen as simple as they should working remotely. In most cases, I've found my own ways to get answers out of people. It comes with the setting.

Scheduling

Rather than the old 9-5 approach, I tend to work in spurts. These are usually blocks of time where I dedicate myself to any given task that needs my attention. I noticed I recently work in 4-hour blocks in a sort of 4 on and 4 off scenario. This means I often work late but It's because I didn't spend all day working. To me, that's an even trade off. Some days I'll switch up my schedule and pull longer shifts whereas other days I might not work at all.

Having a routine is handy. I think humans are creatures of habit. We repeat a lot of the same tasks and activities in a given amount of time. This helps us reassure ourselves that we are accomplishing our own goals as well as making sure we are on course if it impacts others.

Remote Is the future, The Future is now

I think I read somewhere that 1/3 of the workforce in the United States is now of freelance/contracted roles. This doesn't necessarily mean they all work remotely but I'll bet many do. Being a remote worker myself I love being able to switch gears and work on things when I want to work on them. It's the ultimate freedom and until companies stuck in the past realize that employees seek this freedom will true success come to fruition.

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