A Peek Into My Remote Working Day
Since last year, I’ve been exposed to the concept of remote working. As I read more about it, I became more interested and started living my life in that way.
Most of the exposure came from reading Buffer’s Open blog. Now I subscribe to Remotive.io, a weekly newsletter for Productive Remote Workers by Rodolphe Dutel.
I like the idea of working remotely because I like being able to do my work anywhere, as long as I have my laptop and wifi connection. I feel that I am more productive and creative when I’m not restricted to a desk or working hours. For example, I am writing this at my friends’ place in London while they are still asleep ☺
Hence, I would always try to bring my laptop with me whenever I travel; unless I intend not to work. I brought it with me during my 18-day trip to Copenhagen, London, Stamford and Brugge last December so that I could learn to code.
The concept of remote working has changed my perspective of how work could be done. Most importantly, I do not need to be physically with my team mates for work to be done.
I thought that it would be interesting to share how a day of remote working is like for me so I decided to write this blog post. It might not be like a typical day of a remote worker as I’m working for myself and not with a team. Also, not everyday is exactly the same as this day.
Be warned, there are a lot of photos!
A Day Of Remote Working
I documented my day yesterday and the following are what I did throughout the day ☺
7:11am: I started the day by taking a train from Coventry to London. During the hour ride, I was reading Buzzing Communities, recommended by Nicole Miller of Buffer, and also took a quick nap.
8:40am: As I had no meetings scheduled for the day, I went to a Starbucks near the train station to set up my camp. I got a cup of soy milk caffe latte and started to write my blog post draft.
11:55am: I felt that my productivity was falling so I packed up and left. I went to get lunch for a friend before heading over to her place.
1:00pm: Over lunch, I had a lovely chat my friend about accounting and auditing because she is in the Financial Services field now and I’m studying Accounting and Finance. It was nice catching up with her too after having not met her for some time☺
2:14pm: I called my girlfriend who is back in Singapore using FaceTime. We have developed the practice of calling each other almost daily around this time — my lunch time and her pre-bed time ☺
2:50pm: I had my lunch coma so I decided to take a power nap.
(Yes, I thought about it. I concluded that it is not possible to take photo of myself when I’m napping 😜)
3:15pm: After a good recharge, I started to work on the draft for Issue 2 of my side project, BeNice Newsletter. (I have sent it out today and you can check it out here! ☺)
5:02pm: It sounds crazy but I normally have about 5 meals a day. So I had my second lunch / pre-dinner while scrolling through TweetDeck and reading articles.
5:34pm: I went to the gym since I missed my morning workout to catch the train. It is convenient that there’s free access to the gym for the residents.
7:47pm: After a good workout session, I came back for dinner while listening to Tim Ferriss’s interview with Arnold Schwarzenegger.
8:20pm: I refined my blog draft and published it onto Medium. I also reposted it onto my personal blog ☺
9:17pm: I have a pre-sleep routine which I usually start around this time. I would email my girlfriend about my day after she has gone to bed (another practice of ours for our long distance relationship) and update my iDoneThis calendar for the day.
10:40pm: Last thing for the day — meditation! And bed time! Zzzz ☺
What I really like about remote working is the flexibility with location and time. As long as I have my laptop and wifi connection, I can do my work almost anywhere conducive.
Also, I can schedule my day in a way that maximises my productivity and happiness. I can have my training sessions during the day or spend time with family and friends when my work productivity is low to recharge myself.
Hope this has given you an insight to how a day of remote working could be like! Again, this is only from my perspective and it would be different from other remote workers.
If you enjoyed this article, you would make my day if you could hit the “Recommend” button below. Thank you! ☺
(This is my 5th blog post of my 30in30 challenge — 30 blog posts in 30 days. Through this challenge, I hope to feel comfortable and more confident with writing and become better at writing.
This post would be reposted on my personal blog, www.AlfredLua.com.)
