Developer's perspective: how I travel and work remote

Working remote is becoming more and more popular in the last few days. The perspective of working in any place in the world seems promising. I’d like to share my experience as a remote working software developer and highlight some specific working points in remote mode.

What does it look like every day?

There are many imaginations of how does the remote work looks like. I’ll try to briefly describe my daily schedule and highlight the main parts of working remotely.

I try to wake up pretty early, between 5 am and 7 am. I need some time to get more awake and prepare some breakfast which will empower me for the day. After breakfast, I start to work on the morning tasks. At this point, I’m usually working at home just to create the job pretty early without any distractions. I work 3-4 hours with small breaks included, just to finish half of my assignments by midday.

After the first part of my work is done, I’m taking a necessary break just to let my mind rest a bit from all the data I’ve processed. After that, I’m trying to move a bit by running in the park, working out, or surfing by the ocean on better days (sounds good, right? :)).

This break is necessary because the mind should rest until it’s still working efficiently. I’m certainly using the possibility of going out during the day to get some fresh sun air and recharge batteries by physical activity. Later on, I’m eating lunch and getting ready to start the second part of the daily tasks.

I’m trying to work in 1-2 hour intervals to finish the planned work in the afternoon. This time I’m usually looking for some outside spot like a cafeteria, park, beach bar, or library, where I could move my “office.” In the second part of the day, I also need to cut myself off from the outside world, and that is why I’m using my headphones to play some music which helps me focus and reduces distractions.

In the evening, after I’m done, I either rest at home or go out with friends. This part of the day is intensely individual.

My day does not look like this every time. However, this is so far my optimal daily schedule of mine.

Living abroad and traveling

You already know less about the working part of the week, now let’s jump into the weekend and holidays and see the opportunities for remote workers to travel.

Currently, I’m living in Portugal in a small city called Aveiro. I stayed here after my Erasmus exchange because I couldn’t say goodbye too fast!

Living abroad gives me the chance to visit many places during the weekends. Moreover, there’s a possibility to change your location every 3 weeks, 2 weeks, 1 week, and in most extreme cases, every day. Just find what suits you best!

The thing I really recommend is working while traveling. It feels super productive, and after you’re done, and you reach your final destination, it feels like an instant holiday as a reward for what you’ve done on the way.

There’s several places I was working in:

Working on the train? Sure.

In the ship? Done.

On the bus to the beach? Of course.

In the plane? Absolutely.

That’s the flexibility we are given while working remotely!

Is it always like a paradise?

I’ve already pointed out some great things about having the opportunity of working remotely. However, I’d like to show that there’s also the other side and everything is great when we follow specific rules.

You have to be disciplined.

It is easy to get into the laziness trap when you are the one who is managing your work. Sleeping long taking long breaks is not always good. It is easy to lose much time while working remotely when so many distractions are around. Remember that you must do your work, and good discipline will help you stay on the right track. Manage your time and energy properly to get things done, and you should be fine.

Find your daily routine.

We live with our habits and that is why you should work on inventing your daily routine, which will help you work efficiently. When you are not used to practicing, it’s easy to get lost and dive into chaos. This might get you into an uncomfortable and stressful position. Find your way and don’t let the mess get into your days.

Keep up with the social life .

As we’re flexible with our time, it is easy to forget that other people usually work in regular working hours. If we spend our mornings sleeping a lot we might not spend some time with our friends or family. The trick is to manage your time to spend some time with people you value. Take advantage of working whenever you want, nevertheless sometimes try to adjust your schedule just to have time for the ones you like to spend time with. Balance is good in every aspect.

That’s all I wanted to share at this point, and I hope you got some valuable information for yourself about working remotely, and hopefully, you’re on the way to experiencing that as well.

I wish you all the best, I wish you a remote job!

By the way, I wrote this article on a plane during my flight from Italy to Portugal.