Work remotely

Remote working is becoming a favorite working style of people all over the world, especially with the unpredictable outbreaks of the covid epidemic. Typically in the technology sector, large technology companies such as Facebook, and Google allow more employees to work remotely. The shift to a remote working model represents huge changes in the management of large companies. In keeping with the spirit of working remotely, I also wanted to share some ways that I can work remotely more effectively. Let’s get started.

So what is effective? In my simple mind, Among Peter Drucker’s management philosophies, I like some of his thoughts on effective work is doing two things: Choose the right thing to do and then do it right. This blog will focus on the second work, which is how to do “more” things right remotely.

Proactive thinking

First, we must have a more proactive mindset at work. The number of jobs per day remains the same, but the difference with remote work is that we will not have a direct supervisor. This is both good and bad, the good thing is that we can do our work quietly, without being disturbed by colleagues or drama. The downside is that if we don’t have someone to remind us to get things done, we tend to enjoy doing things other than the task at hand. So, prepare a more proactive mindset in everything I do, proactively text, exchange if there is a problem, proactively report, and proactively all resources to get the job done. Therefore, proactive Thinking is also mentioned in the book, a very important element mentioned in the book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”. Be more proactive!

How I get more proactive

Here are my daily tasks, habits:

• Actively planning work: This can be everyone’s job, whether working remotely or not. Take the initiative to write down a to-do list on a note or paper. Writing down the task helps me remember it easier. Personally, I like to use Obsidian for taking notes because it has a Templater Plugin and a Day Planner to make my own notes every day. Writing it down is also a great way to remember what to do when you don’t have a computer to write on.
• Report what you need to do to the group, this is a way for me to synchronize information with group members. We can use the Kanban board, fill in our work as In progress, and when we finish each task, update its status on the board so other members can know, this makes teamwork go more smoothly.
• Actively participate in working groups: When working from home, there will be times when we feel lonely and lost because there is no one to talk to (I’m a bit introverted, so I don’t feel much lonely 😎). To overcome this state, I can join online workgroups like on website bindr.uk, or join a local co-working space. We can create our own rooms and invite people who match our interests and professions. So having teammates, is no longer lonely, and even more fun than working in the company. Sometimes I find you guys to learn more things I don’t know, very useful.
• Ask questions proactively: Someone find it’s hard to ask questions. But this is also quite important. People always have questions in mind to better understand things. So, let’s create groups to share information, and ask common questions to avoid asking again and again. In addition, we can record answers to make communication more effective, some of you are afraid of typing because it slows down the communication process. Use your favorite voice chat and recorder apps and send voice messages, it’s that simple.
• Stay healthy: This is extremely simple when we stay at home, we can make our own food, go to the gym, and see our loved ones when we feel lonely. Stay mentally and physically healthy wherever you are. I set a notification tool to notify me to stand up and sit down, and relax my eyes on the computer, this makes me less overweight, my eyes work longer and not dry and tired. Previously, my eyes were so dry that I could not open my eyes when driving in the sun. Love your eyes! Preparing some fruits to eat is a way to help your health better.
• Proactively optimize the workplace: This is the favorite of working remotely! I like to put some quotes I like at my workspace, books I often read, and pictures of my idols. This makes me feel full of energy, and feel more meaningful about my own workplace.
• Play your favorite music: Playing music without lyrics helps me work more efficiently, avoiding my right brain from becoming boring. Some of my favorite songs also help me become more creative, and completing complex tasks becomes less tiring.
• Work more than 30 minutes. Some studies show that when we keep the working rhythm for a long time, we will fall into the FLOW state according to the book FLOW by the author Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Enough time of more than 30 minutes will help us to complete tasks less tiring instead of jumping to other tasks after 20 minutes. Some people recommend following the Pomodoro method which is 30 minutes of 5-minute break, but I feel that I am suitable for 60-minute continuous work, because I think the process of programming thinking requires more seamless thinking than other tasks.
• Keep the surroundings and computer environment more quiet: the surroundings are quiet and free from distractions. Turn off communication devices and leave a status message “contact me later after 10:30 AM” and only check communications only during lunch or afternoon breaks.

Habits don’t come a day, to do all of the above, I have to adjust every day, and when the habit is formed, I feel lighter and happier, and at the same time get more tasks done than I ever thought. Form a habit, habits will form you.

Use a simple notification software

When I’m in a state of “full focus” on work, how do I know when to stop? What if I stay in this state and don’t really complete the goal as quickly as possible? That’s when I discovered I needed a little notification app to remind myself of completing, delivering each part of a task. I choose Python because it’s easy to write, easy to understand, and serves the full functionality of a programming language. I decided to write software that runs as a command line because it is very convenient for my work environment, which often uses a command line.

So, I wrote a simple program to help me manage my personal tasks. Because I usually work with the terminal, I like the program to only operate on the terminal, I like to make it simple to be able to manipulate faster than GUI or web applications. In addition, I have to go to the internet less to avoid unnecessary news. This program includes the following main operations:

• Enter the project name and task name for each project. Here could be “build DB User”, “read book XYZ”, etc.
• Record the time to complete the task
• Compare current task time with the average time. This helps you compare your performance. For example, in the past I read a 300-page book in 3 days, now I read the same book in 2 days, so it’s a bit more effective. Of course, the efficiency parameters depend on the complexity of the information, I just need the program to evaluate it at a relative level.
• Show work history and statistics for the week or month.
• Voice notification of the current task to do: I just need to write down my work schedule in Obsidian Note and the program will read that and use the Mimic tool (An open-source tool to help convert text into voice) to read that tasks. This saves me from having to constantly look back at my notes.
• You can refer to the free source code at here.
• So I can be sure what my time is divided into. and adjust it if it doesn’t work for the next working week. You can write your own simple program according to your own working way to optimize working time more.

There are some small additional features like generating history tasks by week, and month to take a review of the month, you can find it in the source code repository.

In my opinion, working remotely does not reduce work productivity, but also helps develop more personal management skills. Economically, it will help reduce people’s travel time, in some countries workers even spend hours commuting to work, also creating more climate pollution due to car fumes, increasing greenhouse effect, and global climate change. And with the population explosion, these problems increase. I think companies should promote and adapt more to remote working culture.

Thanks for reading. Hope you doing good!

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