I Started Working Remotely, Track My Progress
Today was my first day working remotely. It’s been a goal of mine for a while to live wherever I want, and not be tied to an office. I expected this to happen much later in my career, so it’s a pleasant surprise to say the least.
Update 2017: I've now been working remotely for over 3 years and started a resource for remote teams
I’m now working with YesGraph, a startup based out of SF trying to make referral-based recruiting easier for large companies, and I’ll be doing customer acquisition/growth. I’m really excited to work directly with Ivan Kirigin and the rest of the team. I have plenty to learn.
I also just finished the new 37 Signal’s book ‘Remote‘, and I’m aware of some of the downsides to remote work. It’s not always fun working alone from home, so I’m going to document weekly progress for the next month (maybe even more.) I’m going to be as data-driven as I possibly can, the goal is to expose as much data as possible about my experience, and help other people in my shoes learn. While I love ‘Remote’, I think there’s more data that we can uncover (especially for me personally.)
Weekly Progress Updates
By publishing this data to the public, my hope is that I can personally develop effective habits. I’ll focus on the following:
- Productivity – I’ll be using RescueTime to track productivity on my computer.
- Exercise – Using a Fitbit flex – I’ll track the amount of exercise I do and weight loss/gain.
- Activity – I’ll keep a log of places I visit while working remotely. Am I more productive earlier in the day or at a coffeeshop in the afternoon?
If you have any suggestions on what I should add to the list, just leave a comment, I’d love to track as much as possible (within reason.)
In short, I want to be a human guinea pig – I’ve never worked remotely before, so I might dive into tools that I love/hate too.
My Background
In all honesty, my background may favor working remotely, and here’s why:
- I grew up homeschooled (I was one of four kids, so there was some social interaction, although I’m used to “working” from home.)
- I’ve contracted remotely before (I’ve done side projects for a few companies remotely, but the max was about 15 hours/week. It was also never for more than a month or two.)
- I’m personally biased towards remote work (I think remote work is going to explode in popularity, which is why I’m going to focus on data instead of how I’m feeling.)
- I will be meeting the team in person – many remote teams do not do this. YesGraph has 3 remote employees, and 2 ‘on-site’. It’s a hybrid setup.)
Follow my Progress
I’m not really sure what will happen with this experiment, but I’m extremely interested in what we can learn. If you want to follow along, just enter your email and I’ll keep you in the loop. Also, if you have thoughts, please let me know on Hacker News.
Update: Check out my week #1 results!