Due to COVID -19 (Coronavirus), many employees and employers are facing a new reality: they have to work remotely and they’re unsure of when they’ll be able to return to the office. Thus, we thought to ourselves, why not ask developers from the Proxify community who are used to working from home for some tips on remote work. In this post, Oleksiy, who has been working remotely from his home for the past 3 years, shares his best tips.

Working remotely could be a challenge if you do not have a prepared workspace, schedule and, most importantly, mindset for it. path

The first thing I did when I started working remotely was to create a home office, a place where I had everything I needed for doing my job (a laptop, additional monitor, table, a comfortable chair, and good lighting) and where there was nothing that could interrupt me from doing my work, like, for example, a TV or PlayStation. Ideally, your home office or work station should be a separate room where you can focus on work and nothing else. Personally, I don’t use this place for anything other than working or studying. I do not like working in silence so I prefer listening to some music or podcasts - I believe that podcasts are especially good because you can surround yourself with people talking almost as if you were in a normal office space and you can also learn something new. Another important thing, not only in working remotely but almost for everyone is to have a daily schedule. And not just having it but making sure you follow it as well :) Of course when working remotely your schedule can at times be more flexible and you can use the time you normally use to reach an office for something more useful like morning exercises, but to tell the truth I prefer to have an additional 30 minutes of sleep. I’m trying to keep my schedule as close to a normal office schedule as possible - starting to work at 10 am, taking lunch at around 3 pm and finishing my work at 7 pm. This allows me to have enough time to focus on work and to also have time for some other activities, family and so on. What about the tools I’m using? To be honest, I wouldn't say that I'm using anything special or out of the ordinary, all the tools that I use could be used at a normal office as well (Skype, Slack, code editors, etc), but there are some apps I would recommend for people that spend lots of time with a computer. The first app is called Break for eyes, it helps users make pauses in work sessions to let their eyes rest, I also use these pauses to make some simple full-body exercises. Also, I’m trying to keep my Apple Watch activity rings full so when they ask me to stand for some time I’m doing this. Another useful app is called Blink, but you should have an iPhone not older than iPhone X for this. This app allows to make eye exercises and track your progress using the true depth sensor. So, take my word for it, remote work is a great idea, it gives you an opportunity to be more flexible and independent, but you should also make sure you are responsible for organising your workspace and that you have enough self-discipline.

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