These are my first two full weeks of working remotely, and I want to share my thoughts about it. It an absolute perfect nightmare. You might be confused about the previous sentence. But it is okay, you will understand it by the end of this article. Working remotely is almost perfect. However, it comes with considerable drawbacks. Let’s see what is good, and what is not-so-good about it.

THE GOOD THINGS 👍

The evident good parts about working remotely are the time and money saved. The tweet below summarizes that perfectly.

1 week of remote working.

Saved 10 hours of commute time. That would be 40 hours per month of saved time!

Saved £150 in travel fares and food. That would be £600 per month of saved money.

Remote working is not that bad, huh?

— Catalin Pit 💡🚀 (@catalinmpit) March 15, 2020

I could save 40 hours and £600 per month by working from home. That means I spend one week per month on the train. The good thing is that I can get that time back! Also, with £600 I could pay my rent. These are huge savings; especially the time, which is something you cannot get back.

Another benefit I like is that I can jump straight to my desk in my pyjama; no more time spent getting ready for work. Ah, by the way, I did not add the time required to prepare for work in the calculations above. That would change the numbers from 40 hours to 50 hours of saved time per month. Insane numbers.

Spending more time with my family is another benefit I cannot overlook. The thing I do not like about offices is that I get to spend more time with strangers (even though they are my friends) than with my family. It is the opposite when working from home, and that is a deciding factor for me.

In my case, I feel more productive when working from home. I cannot tell the reason for this, but maybe it has to do with the fact that I feel more comfortable at home?

THE BAD THINGS 👎

Like the tweet below says, you are suddenly becoming the most sought-after person in the world. The biggest drawback of working remotely is that people cannot comprehend that you are working. You get continuously interrupted, which is not the best thing when you are in the middle of a task.

These are my first two weeks working fully remote. What I've learnt:

Nobody can understand the idea that you are working. You suddenly become the most sought-after person in the world.

I remove my headphones 10000 times a day to tell people I'm in a meeting.

— Catalin Pit 💡🚀 (@catalinmpit) March 17, 2020

Another massive disadvantage is that it is hard to switch off from work. You tend to over-work yourself. When I work from home, I spend more time working. I also forget to take breaks. Do it once in a while, and you do not notice it. Do it regularly, and you might approach a severe burnout.

When working remotely, there are more distractions than when working from an office. Staying focused on your work might be a big challenge.

CONCLUSION 🏁

Remote work is not for everyone. Some people might love it. Some people might hate it. In my case, I prefer working from home, with occasional trips to the office once in a while.

The good parts about remote working:

• Save time
• Spend more time with the family
• Save money
• Feeling more productive

The bad parts about remote working:

• You get interrupted constantly
• You might over-work
• You might not be able to switch off from work
• More distractions

What do you think about this subject?