Working remotely means working from home as opposed to working in an office. You’ve probably worked alone before but working remotely takes this to the next level – imagine never having the chance of seeing your colleagues face-to-face every day, only interacting with them via chat, code reviews, and video calls. If you’re working in a remote team, here’s everything you need to know about working remotely and working remotely in a Dev team. This is a working guide and as such any additions or commentary on the subject are welcome as always!
History of remote work
The idea of being able to work from anywhere has been around for more than half a century. The first remote working experiment was started by AT&T in the 1960s (Sound familiar? It’s similar to IBM Watson.) To combat urbanization, which was on the rise. Although working remotely has its benefits and drawbacks, the most recent push towards working remotely came in 2013, when Jason Fried wrote ” Everyone working from home. The end of the office “. This article started a revolution in how working is done, with 37signals being one of the first companies to fully embrace working remotely.
Reasons why companies choose remote working
Employers with remote working benefits include happier employees (see below), enhanced productivity as a result of fewer distractions, and cost savings owing to office space reduction. Other important factors are: accessing talent that you may not otherwise be able to hire, greater flexibility in terms of working hours, and cost-cutting possibilities as a result of office space decrease.
Benefits of remote working for employees
The benefits of working as a remote developer or engineer are manifold and can be summed up with one word: flexibility. Working remotely gives you the freedom to choose when and where you work, as long as you get the job done. You can take breaks when you need them, work from home when the weather is bad, and take your laptop on vacation with you. In addition, working remotely often means working for a company with a remote working policy, which means that you may have more flexibility in terms of working hours and working from home.
Remote working for developers and engineers has been around for more than 50 years. The first remote working experiment was started by AT&T in the 1960s in order to combat urbanization.
Personality traits needed for successful remote work
The five key personality traits needed to be a successful remote developer or engineer are:
1) Communication Skills
2) Organizational Skills
3) Self-Motivation
4) Discipline
5) Problem-Solving Skills
Let’s dive into these!
Communication Skills
In a remote team, working from teams is the norm so being able to speak and exchange information efficiently with other members is a crucial requirement.
Most importantly, communication skills for working remotely are essential because there is no fixed working time frame. For example, working from home means that people may not be readily available during the traditional 9-5 work hours. It’s also important that everyone in a remote team understand how they can best contribute as part of the team as well as their specific strengths and weaknesses in order to take advantage of each person’s skill set.
In order to improve communication frequency outside of designated work hours, make a reality for developers working from opposite seasons by scheduling video or voice chats at those times when it might be difficult connecting off hours. For example, working in the European time zone means working when developers in the US are asleep; working in North American hours can be difficult for UK-based developers if they start work at 5 am.
Organizational Skills
Organizational skills for remote developers are important because working in a remote team often means working independently. This means that remote developers need to be able to effectively prioritize and manage their time in order to get the job done. In addition, effective organization skills also help remote developers stay on top of their work and avoid feeling overwhelmed.
Self-Motivation
Remote working can be both a blessing and a curse. While it offers employees freedom and flexibility, it can also lead to feelings of isolation and loneliness if not managed correctly. For this reason, self-motivation is key for working remotely.
In order to stay motivated when working remotely, it’s important to set goals for yourself and find a remote working community (online o offliner) that you can connect to regularly.
Self-motivation is key for working remotely because remote working gives developers the freedom to set their own working hours and work at home, which means working independently without having an assigned project manager or supervisor.
Discipline
Working remotely requires discipline in order to get tasks done on time without someone waiting over your shoulder to make sure that you’re working.
It’s common for remote developers to feel like they are working hard but not getting anywhere; this is because working remotely means working independently, which means no one will be there to tell you when it’s time to take a break or keep working. This can lead to many problems, especially working long hours without working effectively. In order to stay working efficiently when working from home, remote developers should try to work in blocks of time and also take breaks from working from their computer.
Problem-Solving Skills
Why are problem-solving skills important for remote developers and engineers? These are super important because working remotely requires working independently. This means that if something goes wrong, you’ll have to be able to solve the problem yourself without relying on someone else to do it for you.
Remote developers need problem-solving skills in order to stay motivated and work efficiently when working from home. It also helps them avoid feeling overwhelmed and working long hours without working effectively.
In order to solve problems when working from home, remote workers need to set specific working times for themselves since working all day at home can sometimes become a bit draining after a while. In addition, working in blocks of time is much more effective than working straight through the day.
How to avoid burnout as a remote developer?
Working remotely can lead to feelings of isolation and loneliness working away from co-workers. For this reason, remote workers need to set working times for themselves in order to stay on track with their work and avoid working long hours without working efficiently.
Remote developers also need to exercise self-discipline by setting goals for themselves and working towards achieving them on a regular basis instead of working straight through the day. This helps remote developers stay motivated when working on their projects. Finally, working independently means that it’s important for remote developers to have good communication skills in order to collaborate effectively with teammates who are working from different locations at different times throughout the day or week. It’s also important that they are able to prioritize tasks effectively so that they can stay working efficiently without working too many hours at once.
Planning Remote Meetings
Remote developers and engineers can plan remote meetings in advance so that they are set up to be productive when working independently.
To plan an effective meeting, it’s important to gather everyone together for the meeting by doing a live video conference. This allows everyone working remotely to see each other and interact face-to-face while working together on their project goals. At the end of the meeting, remote workers should send out follow-up questions via email or chat after discussing everything that was discussed during the meeting.
It’s also useful to create an agenda before holding a remote work session with your team from different locations. Having an agenda helps keep remote working productive and focused, in addition to sending out the agenda to everyone working remotely before the meeting starts. This is helpful for remote developers because it helps them prepare for what they’ll be working on during the meeting so that they can stay working efficiently.
Tip: Working with teammates who are working from different locations requires strong communication skills in order to effectively discuss your project goals and get things done at work every day.
It’s also important when working remotely that you prioritize your tasks effectively so that you can achieve everything you need to do for the week without working too many hours at once.
Best collaborate tools for remote dev teams
There are so many tools and resources to help remote working and collaboration on a project, and some of the best ones for working on a remote team include:
- Google Drive: working with documents, spreadsheets, and presentations together as a team on projects
- Airtable: working with lists and project management as a remote development team
- Trello: working with tasks and project management as a remote developer team
- Slack: collaborating via chat rooms at work as an individual or working remotely through group chats if working in different time zones from teammates you can’t meet up with all at once.
- Evernote is another tool that remote developers working with teams might find useful for working together on both personal and company projects. Evernote lets you share notes, reminders, to-do lists, links, etc. as a group or work independently with all your teammates remotely without having to send out emails or text messages back and forth constantly.
- Asana is another one of the best working remote tools for teams working together on projects because it’s a project management tool that helps you plan tasks and track time using messages, files, and due dates.
- Notion is a working remote tool similar to Asana that helps you work on projects and collaborate with teammates working from different locations all at once.
- Amplitude is another working remote tool that allows for time tracking and project management while working on your own or collaborating with your team using this app.
- Google Meet is another working remote tool that lets you work on projects using video chats and working together as a team through live meetings.
- Other working remote tools for teams to use as developers working collaboratively include: Github, Glitch, Whiteboard Fridays (for discussion and learning), Dropbox Paper (when working with spreadsheets or presentations).
Final thoughts on remote working within a development team
Working remotely within a development team can be a challenge, but with the right tools and communication skills, it can be a productive and successful experience. In order to work successfully in a remote team, it’s important to have strong communication skills and to prioritize your tasks effectively. It’s also helpful to use tools like Google Drive, Airtable, Trello, Slack, Evernote, Asana, and Amplitude to help you collaborate with your remote teammates. Finally, working remotely within a development team requires strong time management skills in order to get the most out of your working hours.
