What's the hardest part of working remotely for you?
Seph
49 replies
I know that a lot of people love working remotely, but I ask those who are struggling: why is that? What are things that are hard (time management, motivation, bad internet etc)?
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Nachiket Patel@patelnachiket
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I feel distracted, less-focused and low on motivation while I work remotely.
Face-to-face interaction, instant communication and socializing keeps me working all day in office.
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I've been working remotely for a while so I've figured out a lot of the time management and concentration concerns and have created an office setup that works great for me.
The hardest part recently has been replacing the camaraderie of an office and finding ways to connect with my team and get to know people. Particularly this past year, it's be very difficult to stay in touch and socialize to the level that I prefer.
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@masonhipp good for you, I'm still experimenting how to manage my time and be fairly productive, it takes time but overall, I like remote too.
Our retrospective meetings have become a lot worse. Team is not engaged, not getting a lot of value out of them.
As a member of a big customer service team, working remotely was quite challenging for me. I could not express the same level of empathy and politeness that I usually would during face-to-face interactions with the customers. However, things got far better when we switched to the Proprofs Help Desk (https://www.proprofsdesk.com/). We can connect with customers over multiple channels and offer personalized support from any part of the world.
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My daughter causes a lot of distraction ;)
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@weronika_andrzejewska Hey I'm building an app to help deal with distractions - any chance you'd be keen to try it? My website is fastasarocket.com
@weronika_andrzejewska I'm with you on that one. The kids are distracting. Having more than 1 helps as they can play work with each other. The noise level sometimes is just crazy. Also: How loud should a fight be, before you get up and check what is going on?
sometimes i keep working until midnight.
so the hardest part for me is to stop working when i am excited about something :-)
when i travel and work remotely, the hardest part is to find new friends and keep them.
Keeping to some kind of acceptable schedule. Does the day start at 6am when I get up or 10am after a long breakfast? Do I stop at 5pm or work til 6 or 8 or do I take a 4 hour lunch break. I just don't know. How many tea breaks is too many? This is actually quite a problem for me.
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@richardesigns I can relate.
Especially not knowing when to stop (sometimes too early, sometimes too late).
@richardesigns Would it be useful to put your tasks on your calendar? So, for example, you decide that you want to focus on your tasks from 12pm to 6pm, and all your tasks get sequenced within that time, you can just look at what's on your calendar and follow it. Same for your team.
@jozshuszi apparently there is this magical office somewhere in one of those progressive places like Sweden where the desks are hoisted up and out of reach by a pulley system at precisely 5pm. I like this idea!
@nyootron maybe ! The problem described here in my reply is more about the fact I get too much done in a day and simply don't know when to stop. If my calendar said 'stop now' I would ignore it. There is little 'at home' to give you that cue to change contexts, especially in Lockdown when there is naff-all to do socially I think, well, I'd rather add value to my project than I would watch netflicks.
Do you use your calendar in this way? Super intesting. :-)
@richardesigns We actually built our product to do this for teams. You can check it out -> Nirvana.Work
Marc Andreessen uses his calendar like this though -> https://a16z.com/2020/09/07/on-p...
time management)
Not feeling the team work atmosphere. And my cat, asking for hugs, by the way.
Video Meetings, in which everyone's camera is off.
Communication through slack, it consumes lot of time, rather then voice message.
keypup.io
I often struggle with my internet. I feel confortable with my home office settlement but I live in the countryside and sometimes the internet is really slow. So I end up working longer to finish my tasks.
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I've been working remotely for over ten years, so I'm pretty adapted to it by now (and I sort of forget what going into an office is like!) Work/life balance is probably the trickiest nut to square, especially if you enjoy your work and/or work with people who tend to be around later in (your) day. I find it helps to take a long break in the afternoon and play some squash or go for a hike.
My dog is a serious barrier to productivity, as well as my kitchen actually
@haley_johnson1 two puppies might be a nightmare :D How do you cope with them?
@aleksandra_vovchenko Haha the first month was ROUGH but once they were potty trained it became a lot easier. The one bonus of getting two pups is that they constantly play and entertain each other! But the cuteness makes it so hard to focus some days 😂
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I end up working longer. There's no delineation to tell me when work ends like leaving the office.
I've definitely struggled to stay motivated when working from home. Daily scrums through zoom every morning (with everyone's cameras on) have definitely helped me stay more on track. It also helps to occasionally leave the house to take a quick walk, just to lighten up your mood a bit!
I love almost everything about working from home, but I really miss face to face interactions! Even just 2-3 days per week would be enough to revitalize my energy.
Gleek
Mostly it is concentration. For some reason I feel more productive at the office.
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@n_shikh Makes sense - an office can be a less cluttered space to work with less distractions and there's something to be said about the way other people influence you when they are hard at work. I'm curious if my app could help you improve your concentration at home? My website is fastasarocket.com
People with low commitment to company goals before the pandemic are now close to zero commitment. Working for a huge company is not really engaging this way, but at least I have time for my sideprojects :)
