What Does My Remote Working Day Look Like?

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. I also subscribe to Remotive.io, a weekly newsletter with free tips and resources on remote working, productivity and communications by Rodolphe Dutel of Buffer.

Why Remote Working

The main reason why I like the idea of working remotely 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 and at any time.

When I’m not restricted to a desk or working hours, I feel that I am more productive and creative. For example, I started writing this post at my friends’ place in London while they were still asleep.

Hence, I would always 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 practice coding.

Also, I can schedule my day in a way that maximises my productivity and happiness. When my productivity is low, I can go for my triathlon training or spend time with family and friends to recharge myself.

It’s not just about working alone. The concept of remote working has changed my perspective of how work could be done as a team. Most importantly, I do not need to be physically with my teammates 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 every day is exactly the same as this day.

At the end of the post, I would share a comprehensive list of tools and resources for getting things done while working remotely and for finding remote jobs.

A Day Of Remote Working

I documented one of my remote working days a while back and the following is 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 cafe latte and started to write a draft for a blog post.

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 as she is in the Financial Services field now and I’m studying Accounting and Finance. It was nice catching up with her after having not met her for some time :)

1st Lunch — I cooked my meals the night before and packed them with me. Yes, this is student life haha.

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.

3:15pm: After re-energising myself, I worked on the draft for Issue 2 of my side project, Be Nice Weekly Newsletter on customer service/support/experience.

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.

2nd Lunch — Yes, it is the same food as lunch. It’s not a déjà vu haha.

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 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 post 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 with Calm app! Then bed time! Zzzz

I 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.

Tools and Resources

You made it through my day of remote working! High 5!

As promised, here’s the comprehensive list of tools and resources for remote workers.

Tools to Get Things Done
Tools for Collaboration
Resources
Online Communities
Remote Job Boards

Tools to Get Things Done

To-Do Apps

Having a to-do list is usually the first step to getting things done. Andrew from Zapier has done an awesome job reviewing 40 of the most popular to-do apps. You can probably find one on the list that suits you.

Workfrom

If you aren’t productive at home, use Workfrom to find yourself a conducive environment to work in.

AdBlock

AdBlock blocks out the annoying ads so that you can minimise any distractions while you are working or researching.

News Feed Eradicator for Facebook

This extension removes your Facebook newsfeed so that you will not waste time scrolling through Facebook (and it gives you an inspirational quote!).

Focus@Will

Coffitivity

Use music to help you focus and boost your creativity.

Pocket

Feedly

Organise articles and blogs you want to read by saving them to your Pocket or adding them to your Feedly so that you do not get distracted while you are working.

Evernote

With Evernote, you can take and view notes on your laptop or on your smartphone when you are on the go.

Audible

No time to sit down and read a book? Let Audible read audio books to you.

Buffer

Use Buffer, a social media management tool, to schedule your social media posts and save yourself time on social media.

Tools for Collaboration

Google Docs

Hackpad

With Google Docs and Hackpad, you can collaborate with your teammates in real-time or asynchronously.

Trello

Asana

Manage your team projects with Trello or Asana. You can use them as your personal project management tool too.

Slack

HipChat

Forget about email! Use Slack or HipChat to communicate within your team through your laptop or smartphone.

Sqwiggle

Skype

Google Hangouts

Some times, it’s easier to discuss when you are meeting your teammates face-to-face. Some times, it’s simply nicer to be looking at someone than text on your screen. Use Sqwiggle or Skype or Google Hangouts for that.

Every Time Zone

World Time Buddy

Working remotely often requires us to work across timezones. Having Every Time Zone or World Time Buddy saves you the trouble of calculating the hours.

iDoneThis

When working remotely, output is more important than the hours you are present in the “office”. Using iDoneThis, you can update your team about what you have done for the day. You can use it to track your daily output too.

CloudApp

As a remote team, your teammates cannot pop over to your desk and see what’s on your screen. Use CloudApp to save screenshots to the cloud and share them with your team.

Resources

Remotive

Remotive is a weekly newsletter of tips for productive remote workers by Rodolphe of Buffer. It covers remote working, productivity, remote teamwork, and remote jobs.

Nomad List

Nomad List, created by Pieter Levels, finds you the best places to live and work remotely as a digital nomad or remote startup according to a list of metrics like cost of living and internet speed.

Wide Teams

Wide Team is a blog and podcast on remote software development teams. It covers all aspects of remote collaboration, including how to get started, interviews with active practitioners, tool reviews, and much more.

Online Communities

Here are 7 online communities for remote workers and digital nomads.

Chats

#nomads

#nomads is a digital nomad slack community with almost 3000 digital nomads. It has channels for cities around the world so that you can connect with those near you. It’s probably the most active digital nomad chat out there.

Millennial Nomads

Millennial Nomads, started by Nathaniel Eliason, is a slack chat community of college students and recent grads working together to achieve total location independence.

#remotive on Twitter

#remotive is a new ongoing Twitter chat that I’ve started recently. There’s no fixed format at the moment. Come and chat with other remote workers and digital nomads on Twitter with the hashtag.

Forums

Nomad Forum

Nomad Forum is a question and answer site for digital nomads and remote workers to exchange information on working remotely from different places around the world.