Being Fully-Remote for a Year
My first-year experience in a startup with no physical office.
Remote work is at an all-time high these days. With the COVID-19 situation, more and more businesses are trying to offer to telework or to hire talents in other countries.
Medias are explaining the situation of remote work from the companies’ standpoint, but how is it from a guy that has been working 100% for a full year?
Here’s my quick memoir about my year experience as a remote worker.
Hello Remote Work 👋
Remote work made a weird first impression. I didn’t know what to do, and I was distracted. I was working remotely, maybe a total of five days in three months, and those days were far from productive.
The same happened on my other job after that; no real results, low productivity, distraction, etc. I was feeling like I couldn’t work correctly without being at the office.
It was until I started working at V2 Cloud that I truly discovered the benefits of remote work. To be honest, I wasn’t sure about the whole fully remote team, but I knew that I wanted to be in a tech startup doing digital marketing so, I jumped on the occasion.
It was after 2080 hours, two remote work trips, many cups of coffee, and a shitload of open tabs that I realized I had made the right choice.
If you’re looking to discover more about my switch to remote work, I did an article for remote.tools about it.
The Remote Worker Luggage 🧳
Just how a good carpenter needs the right wood to build amazing creation, a good remote worker needs the right equipment.
Here’s what I’m using so far. It’s not much, but it’s honest work (quick reference).
*”Disclaimer: I’m not affiliated with any of those products, I just like using them.”
1.Bose Headset SoundLink
Working from home means isolating you and your work from outside noises, which is not always easy to implement. With the Bose SoundLink, it’s cutting you entirely from your roommates, kids, and pets.
You feel like you’re in your world, ready for anything, and focus on achievements. It’s also essential while traveling to make sure you can work in a hostel full of party people.
2. Roost Laptop Stand
Ergonomy is everything when remote working. You don’t have the same furniture as at the office, so you have to adapt. I’m 26, and like many millennials, I get back pain for working 40 and + hours per week.
Roost is an expensive laptop stand, but it sure does the job. You can even email them to know if this will fit your laptop. It’s stable, adjustable, and can shift in a small stick to travel anywhere.
3. Logitech Keyboard K380
If you use a laptop stand, you need to have a remote keyboard. The K380 is Bluetooth, looks pretty neat, and is kinda small. It’s easy to transport too. I don’t have a lot to talk about that since it’s only a keyboard, but it’s affordable for the quality you’re getting.
4. Logitech Mouse M325
It’s a small computer mouse that fits with the keyboard. It’s straight-forward, and the battery lasts a long time.
5. Gnceei Power Bank
Working remotely means being online…A lot. Your smartphone and devices have limited power. With this tool, you can make sure you never lose battery again.
The Gnceei Power Bank is not the “ultimate” one I recommend, it’s only the one I’m using. However, it’s doing the job well; you can charge three mobile devices at once, it lasts for a long time, and it’s affordable. But at the same time, it’s pretty big, and his own charging cable is too short.
6. Data sim cards
Data sim cards are not a specific tool per se, but an element really important in the remote toolkit. When I was in my remote work trips, I bought a couple of those to enable data anywhere.
There is a term called “tethering”, that means you’re using your phone as a modem to connect your computer. In some hostels or public places (looking at you, mediocre airport WiFi), you cannot solely depend on those poor WiFi connections.
Buying a data sim card is often the solution, and you can even consider getting a sim card removal tool.
But what about your laptop?
If you’re wondering what type of laptop I’m using, it’s irrelevant.
I’m using a cloud computer with V2 Cloud, so my local hardware is not used for my work. However, I’m using an average between 6 and 8 RAM (memory), so this might help you in your search for a laptop.
The screen size usually depends on what you’re doing. If you’re a web developer, the more pixels, the better.
As a digital marketer, my screen is 15 inches, and it’s working pretty good so far. I suggest you take a screen a little bit smaller if you’re planning to travel.
Remote Trips ✈️
Remote work is about productivity, not traveling.
Of course, you can have some remote work trips without being classified as a digital nomad, but as a guy that tried both, remote work is better at home, at a coffee shop, or a co-working space than moving with your backpack every three days.
Here are some outlines of my work on the two trips I did while working remotely in the last year.
Spain/Portugal
Trip length: 5 weeks
Type of accommodation: Primarily Airbnb’s, some hostels.
Summary: I left in Fall 2019 to enjoy longer summer weather. It was also a great timing with one of my friends. We discovered western Europe in a couple of weeks.
I spent two weeks in Portugal and three in Spain. It was pretty fun. I was working maybe 4 hours in the morning (I’m an early bird), and I kept dealing with a couple of things for 2–3 hours in the evening.
The 6 hours timezone difference was a bit hard to deal with, but it was manageable. I had the opportunity to work in unique places like when carpooling, coffee shops, bars, trains, etc.
I believe traveling across Europe while working remotely is easily doable. You just have to be aware of the connection quality. Knowing the major ISP in each country is also helpful. For the connection quality, feel free to use Speedtest by Ookla.
Overall it was a great trip, but I would have loved to have more time spent in each city and maybe staying longer in the South of Spain.
South-East Asia
Trip length: 10 weeks
Type of accommodation: Primarily hostels, some Airbnb’s.
Summary: I left at the beginning of January 2020 with my girlfriend to dodge the cold winter of Canada (also for an overall great climate in SEA).
This trip was absolutely insane. It’s the digital nomad life goal.
We usually spent 4 nights at the same place, and we traveled a lot. It was not the best work-life balance, but it was a solid experience. A lot of hostels have shitty connections because there’s a lot of people on the network at the same time.
I didn’t expect to use “tethering” that much, but I was able to keep working because of that. Because of the 12 hours time difference, I decided to work at night (because of my experience in Europe, I thought that it would be easier to manage my workload by being connected at the same time than my colleagues — disclaimer: it was.)
A casual work shift was from 5 PM to 12 AM. Sometimes, I started earlier and finished later. The cool thing with this schedule was that I could enjoy my day and work at night, while my girlfriend was watching Netflix.
Our trip finished early because of the COVID-19, and it was kind of a mess going back home, but we’re safe and sound now.
Quick disclaimer: Not all remote jobs will enable you to live this digital nomad experience. I consider myself very lucky that I was able to travel that much in my first year. If, like me, you’re used to working 40 hours and more at home, productivity and achievement are clearly different when you’re traveling.
The Best Productivity 💻
I saw a lot of articles about remote work productivity since everybody is in quarantine. My opinion about it might be unpopular, but here it goes:
There is no secret trick.
There is no magic checklist.
And finally, you cannot do remote work half-heartedly.
What I mean by that is this: teleworking is okay, but being fully remote is way better.
When you are working from home, you are not accustomed yet to remote work since you go to the office the majority of the time. An unproductive day while working from home? No worries, I’ll work better the next day at the office.
By being fully remote, you have no choice to be productive. There is no office. Plus, you’re used to having way more productivity at home since it’s the same thing every single day.
Of course, not everyone has the luxury of going fully remote. That’s why I will still share my “ultimate” trick to be more productive while remote working.
Ready? Here it is: you have to know yourself.
By knowing if you work better in the morning or in the evening. By knowing if you prefer tea or coffee as a drink of choice. By understanding if your home or public places are better for you.
Knowing more about when you are at your most productive is a solid trick. There is a handful of logical tips (dress professionally, get out of bed, etc.), but nothing beats knowing your best work habits.
The Outcome 💡
My first year of experience as a fully remote worker was great. I loved every single bit of it.
It was my first experience, but I don’t think I can have a normal job afterward. If one day I have to find another job, it will surely be remote again.
I hope that more companies will become fully-remote teams and that we can all thrive in a world of travels, high productivity, schedule flexibility, and self-actualization.
If you loved this article, feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn and follow me on Product Hunt.
