Working Remote

You are surely tired of your commute, every day, waking up way before it’s convenient for you, cramming in public traffic, with people around you, wasting your precious time day after day. I had a 10 minute walk to the last place I worked at before going freelance, and it was nice, the commute before that was 45 minutes each way. But even that, being tied to one place, for 8 hours each day, at a fixed time is nauseating. There is a solution: Remote Working.

As you are aware, many companies today offer the option for you to work remotely full-time. As a freelance consultant, this is probably the most common way to work. Now, by saying remote, I don’t mean only and always working from your home, but working from a place that is not your main office, that can be a lot of places. Some people prefer coffee shops, some like me, really love to work from home, some go to a co-working space, whatever floats your boat.

So here are some benefits that you will see immediately or after some time, and pitfalls that you can meet in your remote working life if you don’t take care of yourself.

Benefits

• Less time commuting == More time spent with your family
• No commuting expenses
• Ability to choose the best time of day when you are most productive
• Less stress and interruptions
• Less meetings
• Your written communication levels rise to the roof
• You learn how to work better

Pitfalls

• Not being able to separate work from private life
• Isolation from other people can affect your mental health in a bad way
• Letting yourself go physically

Jason and David are far better writers than me, so if you want to really learn about remote work, and everything it carries with, go and read great book on this subject Remote: Office Not Required by the guys from Basecamp.