It's already day 2 and it seems we're already getting better at sharing what happens beyond the mechanical and often automatic behaviors we exhibit at work.
For starters, I decided to share a little of my inner turmoil regarding productivity. Didn't feel very productive yesterday, but you'll read everything once you get to my section.
Morale is good, people are actually doing things instead of wasting time, so read on, and find out what others are doing.
Morale: 🙆♂️🥳Firing on all cylinders!!!
Today I fared much better than yesterday. My biggest achievement was that I managed to get into a state of flow working on an issue uninterrupted. This was such a big relief! Hey, remote work is not so bad after all. Actually, I made two-three small changes that were quite successful:
- I worked from a desk (biggest game-changer).
- I set up time for breaks and time for working.
- I brewed coffee manually, with a french press. It took 15 minutes and cleared my mind.
Morale: 🙆♂️🥳Firing on all cylinders!!!
Had a productive remote meeting in the morning with the team. Built a few components for ongoing projects and created tasks for another one.
Lunch in the garden.
My WIP still lives on a branch, but I'll get there ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Morale: 🙆♂️🥳Firing on all cylinders!!!
OK: – I feel good, it was a productive day – Most of my to-dos were done.
Not OK: – some external distractions (neighbor, phone, cat, my girlfriend constantly speaking) – some things not working (but manageable, for the first day) – skipped lunch, barely moved
Robert actually wrote a whole article: Work from home thoughts – Day 1
Morale: 🤷♂️🥱Meh...
Started fired up, got rid of some small issues quickly, but as the day passed by and I kept working on the same bug caused by the wonderful combination of Wordpress + Safari (which I'm starting to think more and more it's the new IE) my motivation went down the drain as I wasn't able to finish with it.
TIL: If you're in Bucharest, never order coffee along with your lunch otherwise there are very high chances (due to bad packaging) that your lunch will meet the floor when it's delivered!
Morale: 🙆♂️🥳Firing on all cylinders!!!
I am perplexed that recruiters on LinkedIn are still asking for relocation!!!
How is this even possible?
I had my best time doing a lot of work but also catching up with personal life. House is much more tidy now, no more commute, and it is a much more relaxed environment.
Definitely would consider to work like this permanently at some point in the future.
One note aside, I miss a bit the ping pong games at the office...
Morale: 🙆♂️🥳Firing on all cylinders!!!
Besides setting a couple of goals you want to accomplish in a day, as I mentioned yesterday, another important thing about working remote are breaks.
Take a break every hour or working session and disconnect from work.
Same thing applies to when your day is off, make sure you disconnect from work and don't fall into the trap of blending work and personal life too much and neglect your rest time/personal life.
Morale: 🙆♂️🥳Firing on all cylinders!!!
Don't feel like I've accomplished much, since I had to go out and buy a printer for the daughter so she could print her school assignments, and a host of other stuff.
Good news is that I learned HP does a far better job at mobile apps and setup for their printers — compared to EPSON 😅
Did a bit of house cleaning — the lack of order and the "dirt" was making me anxious.
Also realized I'm losing focus on some key aspects so I'll be jumping into RescueTime soon, to see where I'm wasting time — I need to regain control over my schedule.
Exercised for 10 minutes — feels soo good. Every damn time! Would've loved a bit of swimming and sauna 🙃!
Unsolicited advice
I've said it countless times, that one of the best things you can do, to observe how you react to specific situations, is to self-document parts of your activity.
I call it keeping an OPLOG. The idea of OPLOG came from when I was working extensively with MongoDB and had to dig through into its operations log.
Any form of journaling can help you trace what you did in a specific day, why you did it, and how you did it. I use journaling to remember install and configuration steps, key points in discussions as well as feelings and behaviors.
It is known that journaling is frequently used as an aid to therapy, but sometimes, it can be therapeutic in and of itself.
Don't dismiss it!
If you're interested in the way I journal, I've been using the bullet journal technique for the past 4 years.
P.S.
P.P.S — SUBMIT YOURS!
If you read the article and would like to submit your entry, you can do using this link, or the embedded form, below: