Remote Working Readiness
It’s 8 am, your alarm is shouting and trying to wake you up for the fifth time. You are fighting but the alarm has an ally, an SMS notification: “Warning !!! Coronavirus: If you came from abroad, adhere to the mandatory 14-day quarantine! Failure to comply will result in a fine of EUR 1659.” The fourth day of quarantine has begun.
I assume that many of you would say “I work from home most of the time”. Yes, we all can agree that home office and remote working, in general, is absolutely common in IT, and especially for those who work on international projects. I personally work on a project for an American client, so what has changed for me? Well, even though I have the possibility to work from my bed all year long, I use this benefit as little as possible. Really, I hate the home office and the whole corona situation puts me in a very uncomfortable position. As a young, childless developer, I miss being surrounded by my ableneo family and sharing everyday work struggles. Also, for me, teamwork means psychological and emotional support in stressful situations.
It’s only been a week or so that we started working on full-time home office mode, but I’ve learned some things. Your one small rented room is now your home, work and quarantine shelter at the same time, especially when you are a young and childless developer. You end up developing a routine, causing decreased productivity and demotivation. So let’s create a new Jira ticket — LIFE-2544 — Separate work from personal life.
If your government hasn’t enforced home quarantine for every citizen, you should be prepared and make sure that:
- You have a good internet connection. Many of us are used to good internet connections. This changes in such crucial times as now when everyone works in bed in their pyjamas. ISPs have big loads. VPNs could cause problems. By the way, do you know that feeling when your internet provider replaces your old Wi-Fi router with a new super modern and super fast one? I don’t since our new one has a super modern design and every time I turn on my work VPN it tries to unplug itself from electricity.
- Your Bluetooth is off. Check if your Bluetooth connection is off especially in case you live in a smart home so your audio system is not connected to other devices.
- You use a great communication channel. Although this advice is primarily addressed to employers, I must point out that I admire every developer from Microsoft, Skype, Slack or any other communication channel that has been designed mainly for companies. Stay strong in these tough Coronavirus times (note: A major part of my admiration, of course, belongs to the medical doctors).
Here is also some valuable advice from my colleagues:
- Prepare your workspace. It’s time to tidy up your desk. Go to the kitchen or dining room during lunch, afterward come back to your desk so you can fully concentrate on your work.
- Try the Pomodoro technique. The Pomodoro Method is a time management philosophy that aims to provide the user with maximum focus and creative freshness [1]. For example, You work for 25 minutes, then take a break for five minutes. Repeat. Don’t hesitate to let us know if you have any experience with this method.
- Turn “do not disturb” on. Just one non-important notification is enough to disturb your concentration and your perfect pre-planned workflow is gone.
Unfortunately, Coronavirus still has a head start but as IT developers we are in an amazing position that every single part of our job, with very few exceptions, can be done remotely. But it’s also a great test for our work discipline and ethics. So let’s hope we can shortly come back to our offices, and don’t leave your home without a mask.
Remote Working Readiness was originally published in ableneo Technology on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.