Be Productive Anywhere: Strategies for Better Remote Work | Hacker News Reader

Be Productive Anywhere: Strategies for Better Remote Work

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151 points_gkcw48 comments

> If you make your bed every morning, you will have accomplished the first task of the day. It will give you a small sense of pride. And it will encourage you to do another task.

It bothers me when people present anecdata like this. I don't have a problem with people feeling this way. But it's a huge leap of logic to say that this phenomenon is generalizable, especially since there absolutely are counterexamples. I, for one, have never felt this way after making my bed.

As someone who is not a morning person and who is experimenting with daily habits like the above, I'd like to give you my thoughts on this.

One of the things that Charles Duhigg writes about in the "Power of Habit" is reducing the barriers to action. One of the examples he gives is starting a running program. The best thing that you can do is to reduce the barriers to action for yourself by putting your running shoes and socks by the door. By preparing yourself for action, all you have to do is act (e.g. lace up and go out the door). If you have to find your socks or shoes in the fog of your morning waking up, that is a barrier to action that might even be enough to make you stay in bed.

Making the bed in the morning is a symbolic action. I believe it mentally separates you from the 'sleep' part of your day to the 'wake' part of your day. By choosing to make the bed, you are choosing to take action on something that, honestly, isn't that important.

Once you start your morning, you can add other habits (reading a good book, meditating, drinking coffee, playing with your kids, walking your dog). Note that I didn't say these or good or bad habits - but something that you would like to do.

In fact, some life coaches argue that perhaps the goal is to extend your morning routine such that it takes up most of your morning and extends into the afternoon.

There is a famous demonstration that involves a glass jar, sand, large rocks (not so large that they wouldn't fit into the jar), smaller rocks, and gravel.

When you pour the sand in first, it is near impossible to smash in the rocks and even some of the gravel.

The counter demonstration is that when you put the rocks in, then the smaller rocks, and then the gravel, you can pour the sand in and it fits between the voids.

This is an analogy for making time for the important actions in your day. The ones that you want to do. The practical theory is that by doing what is good for you right away, you won't procrastinate all day (e.g. reading Hacker News) and do something relatively more useful like physical exercise or meditation or coffee with a good friend.

Humorously, I am probably never going to actually own an actual bed again. So, making the bed is probably never going to be a part of my life.

I work remotely. I see very little of this as relevant to me.

Even if a few of this kind of tricks sometimes work, my experience is that their effect vanishes after a few days and you're back to square one. I guess it is because they are just tricks: your mind (well, mine, at least) can only be abused or abuse itself so long, and then it detects the trickery.

Remote work is like catnip to me. Not the actual work thing (I spent 18 months working for a Texan university while five time zones away, so I know a little about it) but the thing for me is the movement

Remote work should be everywhere. Almost every office job could be done remotely with far less crappy distraction. I think that there are genuine difficulties with close co-ordination, with productivity etc, but these are far far out weighed by the gains (I got some real work done remotely and I was not the one of the best)

There are I think three things preventing remote working taking off

- managers cannot manage. With remote worker you have to manage the work itself, which means the proxies for good work (ie telling if someone is a good worker, is engaged is enthusiastic etc) are gone, and so it is necessary to define the work upfront, decide if you are getting that work and correct. This is really hard and usually the managers reporting line wants them facing up most of the time thus reducing the time they have to manage.

- companies cannot compete. If your company is the only factory in say a thirty mile radius, you are a monopoly employer and get to pick the best workers for a pittance. If more factories spring up, you are now competing with those other factories for the best workers and salaries should rise. Now imagine the radius is 30,000 miles. Companies are now competing against every other company for their workers. It is possible remote workers will act like football superstars and extract majority of profit from firms

- the "out of place"'tipping point. Untill 51% of coworkers are remote the company culture does not change and you are a second class citizen

I think these are big headwinds for remote working

Or because people are like me - completely unable to work from home. I've been doing it for the past 6 months and it has totally destroyed my productivity. I've tried all the tricks, nothing helps. I'm just not fit to work remotely.

I can wfh as much as I want. I would even argue that its a dumb waste of resouces for me to have space in an office. Our companies money could be better spent elsewhere.

But I go to the office every day that I can because wfh is hard for me. If I didnt have an office, I'd have to go to a coffee shop or something every day.

You are far from alone.

Like the "flat organization" thing, everyone thinks it sounds great, but companies aren't that good (yet?) at managing it, and it just isn't a good fit for some employees.

You're ahead of the curve if you already know this about yourself.

From home or, as I eventually did, from an office near home? Try that I suggest - it's completely different especially with a family

This is a useful thing to know about yourself, and I hope you find an on-site job you're happy with.

There are definitely people at the other end of this scale too, i.e. finding offices -- or at least big open plan affairs -- inimical to concentration. I hope more employers learn that different people need different workplaces.

I've been mostly working remotely (80-90% remote work) as a developer and consultant for over a decade. The changing point for me was to have a dedicated office space (an entire bedroom or den). Let's face it, if you are working late in the evening at the office and no one else is in the office, what difference is there from working remotely? Now, for me, it mostly doesn't matter where I work from: home office, rented space, living room in a La-Z-Boy, coffee shop, etc; anything but a cubicle or an open floor plan.

Slightly off-topic: my wife, who also works remotely and has a dedicated office space (a tricked-out bedroom), commented today how she hasn't had a sick day in over two years because she is not exposed to the multitude of germs and viruses she was exposed to in the corporate office. I noticed similar results: I have not called in sick to a client in many years while working remotely. Not getting sick as much is definitely a productivity boost. Not having to shave and dress up (good ol' pj pants and a polo shirt top works great on skype) and make a two-way commute are also productivity/lifestyle boosts.

I also have a camera behind me, overlooking my monitors and the back of my desk chair (the monitors are not readable by the camera, can only make out color blocks but can't read 12pt text). When someone skypes me, I just turn around to face the camera. The viewer can more easily see that I am actually working and if I have to check something on the computer, I just turn around and let them watch me work on it. This has been very effective in eliminating comments/feelings that remote workers are ineffective.

This week I do have to be onsite and the weekly commute will eat 15-20 hours, depending on traffic, for my 26 mile commute (each way). That is 15-20 hours of basically nothing but listening to podcasts or music. That's a productivity hit, as other than the feel good of being in the office, there is nothing that I could not do remotely, but it is a new client so I think it is a fair trade off.

I also stopped using the phrase "work from home" as I truly can work remotely from any location with electricity and optionally, wifi/cell service. I once worked remotely for two weeks from the campgrounds near the Redwood National Park and just drove to Crescent City to send/receive emails and code every evening during my nightly and rightly beer run. I did have regular or extended cell service (no data tho) if someone needed to discuss anything urgent.

I like the camera position trick - very nice

Glad you liked it. I use a cheap $9.99 1080p manually zoomable camera and a 20 foot USB extension cable routed under the chair mat and up a 5.5 foot tripod to the camera. Having the camera taped to the tripod (no proper mount on the USB camera) makes it super easy to use the tripod controls to pan, tilt, or lock in place. Due to a conveniently located shelving unit, the tripod's legs are not fully spread out, reducing the tripping hazard. A simple loop of paracord and a knot 'secure' the tripod head to the shelving.

Have you tried to work remotely from home? I've found what work best for me is libraries (surprise) and some days just to move from one place to another.

Your "companies cannot compete" is a great insight. However, it only works in preventing remote work from taking off if every company (like a cartel) plays along in requiring employees to be local.

The "you are all dehydrated and need to drink 37 glasses of water a day" myth really needs to die...

I'll let Dr Carroll rant for me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbHp7cu2Ubk

> Research shows that willpower, like energy, is a finite resource.

This has recently been called into question as well, as the original study showing "ego depletion" failed replication.

There are certainly states where the psychlogical capability to do things is decreased. If we look at a clinical case of willpower depletion we are looking at depression or other depilitating condition. People at this stage often explain their state that they have only a limited amount of units of action per day after which they cannot psychologically function, and must recharge. This is not normal state by any means, but the implications, IMO, are clear - there is a spectrum of willpower-or-similar-mental-resource available to people. At the other end are the clinically depressed with very little - the question then remains, is, how far this resource stretches on a healthy person and what are the individual differences.

Source: https://replicationindex.wordpress.com/2016/04/18/is-replica...

3.2 liters of water a day is much less than 37 glasses of water. The article mentioned 3.2 liters.

"37" was hyperbole.

3.2 liters of water (on top of all the water we already get from prepared foods, coffee, soda, etc) is still a _crazy_ amount of extra water.

Coffee is mostly water believe it or not. If someone tells you it doesn't count they are fail.

Anyone who has ever made coffee should have a fair idea of how much water is in it...

I think the concern people have with coffee is that caffeine is a diuretic, so you lose more water than you take in. While it's technically true that coffee does make you urinate more, it's a very tiny effect.

Except with regular use the diuretic effect goes away. There is no measurable difference in hydration levels of coffee vs non coffee drinkers. If it had a long term effect you would expect the coffee drinkers to be chronically dehydrated.

No, even in very short term use, the net effect of drinking coffee is to increase the amount of water in your body. The diuretic effect of the caffeine is more than offset by the water in the coffee (by a very wide margin).

In 1945 there was a recommendation that a healthy adult should have about 2.5 liters of water intake a day, including water that is part of the food you eat.

Somehow the media managed to drop the last part, and recommended you drink at least 2l water a day. Or even more.

Source: http://www.sciencealert.com/there-s-no-evidence-we-need-to-d...

I know of no credible research that shows that drinking more than required to still thirst is beneficial in a healthy human.

That would be just over thirteen and a half cups of water, which may or may not be a lot depending on heat, humidity, activity level, and most of all, are you thirsty?

I am surprised by the down votes. I didn't realize drinking water was so controversial.

One data point: my neighbors, husband and wife, are a surgeon and a neurologist. We live in the mountains of central Arizona, and hiking is a favorite pastime. Both of these doctors say one should drink 1 quart of water an hour while hiking. I don't quite do that, but I certainly drink 2 liters on a strenuous 3 hour hike.

The claim you're supporting in the article is not about drinking water while on a strenuous hike in a hot, arid climate. It's about drinking water in routine, day to day life.

I was not 100% supporting the claim in the article. I was just pointing out what I thought was someone's error in converting 3 liters to 37 cups of water.

These kind of advice articles about personal productivity never really take into consideration that you might be sharing your living space with someone else. Sure, I'll make my bed at 5.45 every morning, first thing of the day, just let me wake up my girlfriend super early too, just because I'm a productivity freak. Sorry hon', Tim Ferris told me to do that!

If you care about personal productivity, you don't have a girlfriend. ;). So waking her up every morning should solve that problem.

So I agree, if you want to increase your personal productivity, make your bed early every morning. :D.

> if you want to increase your personal productivity, make yourself single.

FTFY!

No matter what the work I still find being around people I work with to be much better than working by myself at home, despite Slack and email etc there is no replacement to talking with people in person. While the occasional day at home is fine I just can't enjoy being alone all the time and still try to be productive. I'm sure it works for other people but not me.

I'm actually the complete opposite I hate working with anyone in the room with me

It's almost as if everyone is different lol

Don't give orders to other people when in fact you just present a list of things that work for you (at the moment). There's nothing universal in those advices, it just fits you (at the moment).

Working remotely is hard enough. Working for yourself is even harder. A good manager should be making contact at task-appropriate intervals. Keeping organised and going shouldn't be too different from office life.

But when you're alone and it's your responsibility to keep yourself motivated... Base urges (and laziness) creep in. Takes a while to find your efficiency.

This may be relevant. https://youtu.be/co_DNpTMKXk

This article seems rife with BS.. Not going to bother going into detail. But one example: you need to drink 3.2 L of water a day, is completely baseless as far as I'm aware.

The article assumes that you don't find your work interesting enough to keep your attention focused for a prolonged period of time. Maybe it is better to try to understand why it is not interesting and find ways to make it actually catching rather than figure out workarounds. Because why should we spend time on things we are not interested in?

Tell me about your job that is always interesting.

sometimes work becomes work. I really enjoy providing control systems for hydro electric power plants, but when people change their minds and I have to re-do the same work, or if some equipment provided by another firm doesn't work properly and it eats up a bunch of my time it is a drag. Or I get burnt out after working 12 hour days for four months so that we don't get sued if the power plant isn't generating on time, and then I might have loads of work to do after to clean up the documentation and other parts of the contract so we can get paid the full amount, but man I just don't feel like working anymore, whereas if I'm doing a moderate amount every day with lots of time for exercise and socializing I really enjoy the same work.

edit: I should add that I work either on site at power plants or remotely from home

I really enjoy programming and applying various technologies to solve problems.

However, I don't always enjoy my work. If I'm stuck o the same thing for prolonged amounts of time or if things keep not working out (eg fixing a bug only to find another and another and...). My work also requires that sometimes I do stuff that I don't enjoy. I've yet to come across a job where I enjoy 100% of the tasks that come my way.

I've also noticed that there's a difference in enjoyment between tasks that I do because I have to and tasks that I choose to do because I feel like it. Both tasks could actually be the same thing, only one I decided I wanted to do and the other external factors decided that I should do the task.

For example, one day I was feeling frustrated and burnt out by work and after work I did a little programming that was more-or-less the same kind of work that I do in my job, but I did it for myself for fun. And I felt refreshed.

There have been multiple comments here calling out drinking specific quantities of water.

I am not sure about the scientific validity of the advice and hence not going to comment on that.

But what I do have realized is (atleast is my case) often we mistake thirst signals from our body for hunger signals or rather as cravings and grab a snack. This idea was suggested in one of the n number of resources I read online about weightloss, so I am not able to cite the exact article.

Consciously noting craving signals and just substituting water often made the cravings go away. When it doesn't, obviously I am hungry :)

Now we are venturing deep into the land of extrapolation. So, take this with a huge grain of salt. I suspect that in our hunter gatherer days (or earlier0, water was not readily available at hand. So humans, then, would have depended on fruits and leaves as a source of water as well as food. Hence why atleast some of get our hunger and thirst signals mixed up ;)

I have been working remotely for past few months after spending years at offices and I can say, it's way more productive.

The same for me. Author claims that remote working is less productive, but I can negate it very easily - for me, it is not. I feel much more productive when the only distractions are Facebook and Slack. They are still there in the office and we have to count in additional distractions like people talking.

Great article!

Embrace contrived progress meters.

I put every trivial to-do related to a repo into a github issue.

I commit routinely, even for small changes, with a short message.

These stink of make-work, but they expose my progress to my other remote colleagues.

Slack is an exception...using it as a progress meter just annoys others.

Hmmm, I wrote a todo-inator that extracted todos etc from code comments. I would use that as micro-tickets so my progress was visible to me. Expanding the idea to show others what I was doing was a blog thing that never took off but I like the general idea.

Plus I hate slack

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