Totally Remote, Dude

WFH, Working From Home, or otherwise remote jobs afford an amazing freedom. Now that I’m designated as a permanently remote employee, I’m finding ways to balance productivity with mental health.

Going to the office was always fun for me. I’m a relatively outgoing, extroverted person most of the time. Meeting with people and having the buzz of activity around me gave me energy. The physical office has also provided a natural barrier between working time and personal life.

I’m in tech, so that’s not strictly true. I am constantly connected and have answered my share of middle-of-the-night support calls from home. I often worked “late” at the office too, but I could always work more from home if needed or, more often, if I was still motivated after the drive. The physical separation was effective.

That’s all gone, though. Now that I’m fully remote, I have to be more intentional about getting out of the house and even taking breaks. Taking breaks isn’t actually difficult because there are loads of distractions at home, from cats to the kitchen. It’s dangerously easy to shift too far towards not staying focused. Who can resist a belly rub when this sweet girl sleeps right under your monitor??

Getting out of the house is something I’m lucky to be able to do. I have friends with more urban locations that aren’t really pandemic-friendly. My friends in apartment buildings in Pune, India didn’t provide enough social distancing for millions of people to get outside, so the government just quarantined everyone inside. I’m fortunate to live in a suburban neighborhood in San Diego with more open space per person, lakes, and well-maintained public trails.

Still, I don’t take full advantage of it either my location or my flexible working arrangement. Most days I wake up and go to work at a desk in my bedroom. It’s honestly hard to give up my sit-stand desk and 3 monitors even when it’s possible to work from a coffee shop or my balcony. I’ve been meaning to work outside the home more, but have been held back by several factors:

Power is important, but a decent battery can last me most of a day. Most locations offer power now anyway. Monitor real estate is a loss, but I manage by planning ahead. Most days I work outside are for a handful of focused activities and less about bouncing around on a variety of little tasks. I specifically avoid any heavy comparison and analysis work with spreadsheets. These are often so much better with two or more larger screens that I won’t even attempt them on the tiny screen.

Internet connectivity is readily available around towns, but I live near the beach and mountains! They are just too tempting to pass up. I’ve always had this weird childhood fantasy of working high tech from an extremely remote location, like a forest. There’s just something about the dichotomy of it all that calls to me. I’m deep in nature while connecting with servers and people around the world. It sounds so peaceful to me.

I experimented with working remotely when working in the office was the norm. I found myself getting more focus time by working at the library. There was just enough activity of people moving around to keep me energized, but I didn’t know anyone so I never got distracted. This was perfect for writing annual performance reviews or preparing a presentation. In between spurts of clarity, I could lean back and watch strangers meander through the library while my mind milled over something difficult.

While my wife was traveling back to the Philippines without me, I once made the food court at a local shopping mall my office. For a few weeks, I would drive carpool for my youngest daughter to gymnastics in the middle of the day. She was home-schooled (or a hybrid of online and in-person) which allowed her to spend more than 36 hours a week training on a competitive gymnastics team. That really shaped our family life for about 10 years, but that’s a story for another time.

The food court was actually a fun place to work. It was noisy! Random people would walk by, making it a perfect place to people-watch. I would take meetings there despite the background noise. It was a necessity for a few weeks, so I kinda had no choice. I picked a nice tall table area with bar stools that allowed me to stand when I wanted. Besides getting me off my butt, that was a great way to change things up to keep me energized. I like to pace a little when I think, so this also helped me think in its own way.

This all sort of prepared me for today. I find myself writing this on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. He was a prolific speaker, giving over 2500 speeches in just an eleven year period in the crusade for civil rights. Fortunately, this day has been designated a national holiday in honor of his contributions. My company has also given all employees the day off to reflect or serve or recharge. With this in mind, I let go of my to-do list at home and made it a priority to get out of the house.

The San Diego Zoo Safari Park is just a few miles from my home. I love walking around there. The animals, the trees, the buzz of activity, and the quick access to a churro are big reasons why I’ve wanted to try working remotely from there. Well, today I was able to get there and it feels great.

My wife, Levy, and I had previously spotted a quiet spot near the top of a hill–a picnic bench under a palapa roof in the new California native landscape area. With a modest view through the trees, it is away from the animal attractions and, because of this, beyond the steady flow of visitors. The few visitors that amble past are quieter adults enjoying the plants and moderate exercise of climbing the dirt trails.

There are no power outlets in the immediate vicinity, but the spot has good Internet signal and bandwidth. My cell phone hotspot worked well enough during a dry run last week, but today I’m using my MoFi 5500 cellular router. I chose this router for working from the trailer we bought last year. Since we both work remotely, we plan to travel around the country while working without waiting for retirement. Internet access is the most important, and difficult to obtain, utility we need to work from the road.

The MoFi 5500 has dual CAT7 cellular modems for diversity and redundancy. The model I bought does not support the rapidly developing 5G network. Beyond a minimum bandwidth, reliability is the most important capability for us. Another time, perhaps, I will detail my trailer setup with external telescoping antenna. Today, however, I am just using the small cellular and Wi-Fi antennas provided by the manufacturer. The signal and bandwidth (~30Mbps down and ~11Mbps up) on my T-Mobile SIM card were excellent. I was easily able to have a full Zoom video conference with Levy at home.

The ambiance is so nice here, I almost wouldn’t change a thing. If I were advertising for the Safari Park, though, I would offer a remote working package. Fifteen dollars a day could get you free soft drinks, Wi-Fi access, and power.

Another excellent feature of working at the Safari Park is the substantial walk from the entrance to my retreat at the far end of the property. The 15-20 minute walk gets my blood pumping and gives me that little bit of physical separation I used to have coming home from the office. Unlike my old office, the animals here are behind bars!