Tales of a remote worker. Tips from experience.

1. Remote working effectively
Tales of a remote-worker
by @liopic

2. Avoid the beach myth
● Google for “remote working” shows unrealistic cases
● It’s not holidays, it’s working!
● And usually you will work more (psychological push)

3. Who am I?
● Julio Martinez, @liopic
○ Web developer since 2001
● Remote worker during 2009-2014
○ Barcelona, Seoul & México DF
● Since 2015 working at Ulabox
○ Barcelona office

4. Typical cases of remote worker
● Freelancer
○ Find your own customers/money
● Pure remote company
○ Rare case, but becoming popular
● Normal company with some remote workers
○ Difficult to balance; friction among workers
○ Don’t just move processes to videoconference!

5. Self-discipline
● It’s the most difficult skill to achieve!
● Know yourself
○ When, how, where do I work better?
○ Make working routines easy to follow
○ Learn to switch on, but also to switch off!
● You will need to track your working time
○ An easy way to “control” yourself

6. Track your time
● Use a time tracking program
○ Linux, Hamster: easy and simple
○ Linux, Task Coach: allows sub-tasks
○ Web/app, Rescue Time: overview time
● Avoid procrastination
○ Firefox plug-in: Leechblock
○ Or just edit /etc/hosts

7. Track your time accurately
● Stop the clock when you are not focused
○ And when you go to the toilet
● Discovering your pattern:
○ I keep focus during 1~1.5 hours
○ I work focused around 5 hours per day
○ One day per week will not be productive
● Then plan your days and avoid regrets

8. Report to your boss or customer
● Use git commits
○ Or if your boss is not tech: send weekly summary
○ Or mail action in post-commit hook
● Work for objectives, instead of time
○ Jira, trac, redmine, basecamp, trello...
● But if your customer buys 10-hours pack
○ Task Coach and Hamster can make reports

9. Enhance communication
● Don’t move all office processes to on-line
● But embrace conversations
○ Slack, Hipchat, even Skype chat
● Show your face
○ Meet the team (company retreats)
○ Skype, appear.in (via webRTC)
○ sqwiggle, pukateam (“presence” 10 sec picture)

10. Choose your working place
● Home
○ Set an office (ideally a separated room)
○ Family should understand you are working
● Cofffeeshop
○ Limited time, but sometimes it’s quiet
○ Bring your earphones
● Coworking space
○ Good for networking

11. Travelling? Nomad style is complex!
● Your are your own travel agency
○ Prepare destination: hotel, workplace, flight
tickets, visa, insurance, SIM card, etc
● It’s only 4 weekends of tourism per month
● Lots of resources online
○ Places: nomadlist.com, workfrom.co
○ Jobs: remoteok.io,
gist.github.com/liopic/0ca50a6f5ae625f041a1

12. Summing up
● Pros
○ Work from anywhere
○ Free schedule
○ Avoid distraction from coworkers
● Cons
○ Loneliness
○ Lack of tech chat with coworkers