How to Thrive, Not Just Survive, as a Remote Worker

Intended Audience and Expectations

This article is for anyone curious about remote work, from the public to the private sector. This article will give a very candid look at a personal example of the successes and failures of a long term remote worker: me. A remoter employee struggling to figure out how not to drown in new freedoms will find tips on how to cope and better manage their work/life. A manager of remote employees will get insight into the daily mental and emotional struggles their remote reports go through so that they can better support them and help manage their expectations.

As for why I decided to write this: because I felt I had something to say that might help someone out there struggling with what is often touted as "the dream job."

If, after reading, you liked this article, found it helpful, or know a remote worker that you think it could help, please thumbs up, share or comment below.

The Remote Dream

I've been a remote worker for over five years now, but I remember more about the last day of my in-office job than the initial day of my first remote gig.

There I was, using my temporary badge to exit the building I had dedicated my life to for six years. I looked around at everyone going about their lives: to them, it was just another day to file paperwork or conduct day to day operations. For me, it was the precipice of the unknown. I had no idea what tomorrow was going to look like, how I was going to get work, who was going to tell me what to do, and when it was due. Would I start my day too early and sit around waiting? How would I ensure that I documented my work so that my supervisors didn't think I was "goofing off" all day. After all, I was working from home, not in a brick and mortar office where I could do real work.

I don't remember my first remote day, probably because the days all blur together terribly over the years. I imagine it went something like: I woke up at a regular time; I messaged someone on a Google Chat that probably said, "Hey, what's up when are we doing this," and I started doing stuff. I probably took a long lunch to go to the gym at off-peak hours and then picked work back up that night after my kids went to bed. Sounds pretty chill, right? For the most part, it is. Especially the chill part at the end, "picked work back up that night after my kids went to bed." With the good comes the bad. And while I don't always make it to the gym daily, doing work at all times of the day has remained a consistent part of my half-decade of being a remote employee. Sometimes at the expense of my family sitting in the other room waiting for me to punch out finally.

Luckily for me, they still care enough to wait: I haven't driven them away by my work lifestyle. That wasn't just fate, however. Figuring out my discipline structure took ingenuity in how to progress through my day and a hell of a lot of crafting.

Crafting your Discipline

What I mean when I say "craft your discipline" basically equates to "pick your battles." Let me elaborate with an example: in my head, I have a crystal clear image of my perfect remote workday. I'm up at 5 in the morning to hit the gym, home by 6:30, showered and dressed in time to get the kids ready for school, start my day by 8, work until they get home, mandatory family time, in bed by 10. Rinse and repeat.

Except I can do hardly any of that. Well, yes, I am capable of doing all those things, but I don't have the discipline for it. And I'm okay saying this because I've figured out a way to compensate for my deficiencies. I wasn't content with saying that I had a discipline problem and doing nothing about it. I wanted to thrive as a remote worker, not just survive. But before I could craft my discipline to support my deficiencies, I first needed to identify what all of the things that were sapping my willpower or were a danger to it. Here's what I came up with, my "Top 5 things most likely to derail your remote life!" clickbait inspired list.

1. Access to all of your food all the time
2. Sunlight or outdoor exposure
3. Daily movement and ergonomics
4. Daily hygiene
5. Human interaction

Now that I had identified what was sapping my discipline the most, I crafted strategies around them that supported my discipline style. I used my strengths to overcome my weaknesses, and this is the essence of crafting your discipline.

Developing Strategies

Delving deeper into each of the five things that affected my discipline the most is the focus of this section. I want to show the personal challenges that I endure daily with the hope that it will help you gain insight into yours.

Access to All of Your Food All the Time

When I worked in an office, I either had to pack food and bring it with me or go somewhere else to purchase food. What I didn't realize when I started working from home was: all of the food I would ever need is about 20 steps away all the time. Since becoming a remote worker, I have gained weight, which goes in contrast to what I believed being a remote worker would do for my fitness goals. "Oh, I can exercise like, all the time," is what goes through my head. In reality, I find that when I get stressed or bored: I snack. Contrast this to what I did when working in an office. When I got stressed or tired, I went on a walk or visited my friends in another office. I replaced exercise with stress eating, and I didn't realize it until a few years after I had started doing so. 

Strategy: I developed to combat this was to go on an Intermittent Fasting plan. If I use the correct mental repetition, such as "I do not eat until noon" versus "I won't eat until noon," it reinforced my discipline enough to keep me from overeating. It also provides me with a reason to take a break at lunchtime, whereas before I was practicing IF, I would often work through lunch. 

Sunlight or Outdoor Exposure

Managing sunlight exposure is a very personal issue for me and definitely may not affect other remote workers. I didn't even know I had a problem with this until a few months ago, almost half a decade after I had started doing remote work. I discovered this winter I was having issues with Seasonal Affective Disorder or SAD. I woke up in the morning and felt that the days were blurring together more than they usually do, and because of that, I had no desire to do anything that day. Fortunately for me, my brother published his blog about his struggles with SAD, which made me realize that I was having issues of my own. Just because I could see the outdoors through my window didn't mean that I was receiving any of the physiological or mental benefits of being outside. And because my office was just steps away from where I slept, getting up and starting work had slowly crept into my daily routine as the norm. Without realizing it, I found myself not having been outside of my own house for more than 15 minutes over three days. 

Solution: I purchased the most expensive SAD lamp I could find on Amazon. The $100 it cost to get a SAD desk lamp was worth the gamble of curing what may or may not have been a made-up disorder. I'm happy to report that after two months of use, the days no longer seem bleak even though it may be bleak outside. Placebo or not, I wish I would have purchased this five years ago. I didn't realize how much I missed the 15 to 20 minutes of sunlight that I would get just going to an office. The parking lot, taking a break outside, all added up and kept me healthy. 

Daily Movement or Ergonomics 

Much like the issue of not realizing how vital sunlight was, getting up and moving was also just as critical. I did peg this one almost as soon as I started working remotely, however, when I became aware of just how much I was sitting at my home desk in my home chair doing hours of work. The personal products that I had purchased for light school or video game usage were nowhere near the same level of ergonomics as desks and chairs designed for prolonged office usage. At first, I tried all manner of large workspaces with chairs that had lumbar support, but I still squirmed and couldn't get comfortable while I was doing my work, which affected the quality of my deliverables in the end. 

There were also numerous times that I forgot to walk around or move. I am sad to say that I need more than two hands to count the number of times over the past five years, where I moved 500 steps or less during an entire day. I would get so busy or zoned in on work that I just forgot to move. I blame the addictive nature of red team operations.

Solution: I purchased a standing desk that went high as well as very low, which allowed me to use a yoga ball as a chair because it was so close to the ground. This solution has been an absolute game-changer. I spend maybe only an hour or two a day sitting on the yoga ball. The rest of the time, I am standing and generally feeling very comfortable while I have the freedom to fidget and move. The desk I purchased is over five feet long, so I have plenty of space to move around and place items to help me work. 

I also purchased a folding walking treadmill on Amazon a few months ago to replace my usual routine of walking around my kitchen island over and over. While walking around the kitchen island gave me the required steps I needed during the winter and it was too cold to go outside, I couldn't walk fast enough to get my heart rate up and give it the exercise it needed. Doing laps over and over also drove my wife crazy while she was trying to talk to me. With this treadmill, I can slide it under my standing desk and walk during meetings or go bang out a 20-minute mile on a quick break in the other room while watching Netflix.

Daily Hygiene 

While this is slightly embarrassing to bring up, I did say that this would be a candid look into the life of a remote employee. I have mentioned many times that the days blur together, and there is also a saying I read a while back that stuck with me, "the more I work from home, the more homeless I look." It is true. It's easy to get into this rhythm where you wake up and just put on the same clothes that you wore the day before and start work (starting work as soon as you wake up is another problem on its own, but not one of the top 5). There have been times where I was conducting extended red team operations where I would wake up and go right to work without taking care of myself, and sometimes those days would chain together. It isn't healthy, and it snuck up on me more than once. 

Solution: I force myself to conduct daily hygiene as if I was still going to an office while always dressing as if I needed to go to have lunch with a friend. Going through the motions as if I was going to meet someone, while I knew that I was not meeting anyone that day, keeps me sane and healthy while it sounds completely illogical. I convince myself that this is the same as running drills. For one day, I know I will be required to "come back in from the field" and work in an office.

Human Interaction

While I have a family that I live and interact with daily, I do need to be able to talk to other people; peers, especially. Being alone all the time has my conversational timing off, and I often can make conversational leaps that come off as aloof. My primary method of interaction with peers is through Slack or Google Chat, so when I'm face to face with a talking person, I have to shift gears back to the real world. 

Solution: I go to the gas station a few times a week to get coffee or a Bang, even when I don't need to. Going out reinforces my daily hygiene routine while also simulating a small commute that will one day eventually return. 

Putting it all together

I have more than five pitfalls I have encountered while being a remote employee, but I also don't want to write a dissertation about it either. Not all of my struggles will apply to everyone, but I have started to run across more and more of my peers that are beginning their remote work journey. There are a ton of things that I wish I knew when I started, and I hope that this article will help those people live a healthier dispersed work life.

So go out, remote worker or not, and craft your discipline accordingly. Adapt and overcome!