Working Fully Remote Sounded Amazing — Until I Learned These 5 Things About The Reality Of It
The dream of total freedom quickly met the reality of isolation and blurred boundaries.
Jonatan Balderas | Unsplash If you’re here, chances are, you love words and have something to say. I’ll go on a limb and assume some of you are interested in starting an online career or side hustle.
It’s an exciting thought, isn’t it? The opportunities are endless, from becoming an online teacher or coach to designing and selling courses. Whether self-employed or hired, going full remote will give you the chance to work with international clients and cut the expenses and stress of the daily commute.
If you think that’s the part where I shake my head and discourage you from trying by picturing the hardships of being a remote rookie in a competitive world, you’re wrong. I do work exclusively online, and I love it. My quality of life has improved dramatically, and I’d never have found such a fulfilling, satisfying, and well-paying job in the town I live in. So yeah, if you’re dreaming of turning your home into your office, go ahead!
But first, please stop to consider these five elements that I’ve seen too many professionals overlook, at the expense of their work-life balance, their mental well-being, and their job satisfaction.
Working fully remote sounded amazing until I learned these 5 things about the reality of it:
1. You still have to look like a pro
I’m a language teacher, not a techie. I know nothing about hardware, and I seriously underestimated its importance when I started to work as an online teacher. Luckily, my husband is the world’s biggest expert on PCs, and let me tell you: it does make a difference.
Whenever I’m in a meeting with other teachers, my video and audio are top-quality, and I can upload and share files in no time. The only time I had to interrupt a lesson for a technical problem was when the Zoom platform itself crashed all over the world.
Having good hardware doesn’t make you a better teacher or coach, but having bad hardware makes you look less professional and feel less confident. Just think of all the times you’ve had to say: “Ehm, just a second, it’s loading … you should be able to see it now …” in the middle of an online meeting.
You don’t want that to be your routine. It disrupts the flow of what you’re saying and distracts the people who are listening to you.
So, what should you do if you know nothing about technical specs and image resolution, and didn’t marry a hardware nerd? Well, here are some starting points you might want to consider.
- The PC. Many think a laptop is the best option to work online because it allows you to work from anywhere. However, in terms of power and convenience, a desktop PC is definitely the best choice. If you’re going to spend your whole day in front of a monitor, you want it to be big and comfortable (and possibly double, see below). Plus, a laptop is designed to conserve energy in order to last longer, which negatively affects performance. For instance, unlike a laptop, a desktop PC has a dedicated graphics card (GPU), which is essential for high-quality streaming or video recording and editing, as well as to take full advantage of advanced AI features.
- The Internet connection. This is the one requisite you can’t do much about. If you want to stream in 4K (better option), you need at least 30 Mbps in download and 15Mbps in upload. If you want to stream in 1080p, you need at least 10 Mbps for download and upload. No point in investing in an excellent 4K webcam if your connection doesn’t allow you to stream.
- The webcam. Good news: a decent camera is not necessarily expensive. For less than 100$, you can buy a 1080p webcam.
- The microphone. You can go for a cabled or wi-fi microphone.
- The headphones. Having a quiet home office is great, but you can’t avoid unforeseen noises like your neighbors doing renovations during your dream job interview. Make sure to have noise-cancelling headphones that are comfortable to wear. You can also choose the ones with a built-in microphone, although stand-alone ones usually offer better quality.
- A double monitor. Constantly switching from one tab to another gets tiring. A second monitor allows you to keep tabs open without them getting in the way and to look at several of them at the same time. Plus, if you’re sharing your screen in a meeting, you can use the spare monitor to open more tabs without interrupting your sharing or having other people see them.
Add to the list a comfortable keyboard and seating (I suggest taking a look at gaming chairs), and adjust the monitor settings and the room lighting to avoid stressing your eyes out, because you’re going to spend an awful lot of time there!
2. You may suffer from notification fatigue
fizkes / Shutterstock
We’re all drowning in notifications. Emails, WhatsApp, Slack … personal and work-related messages pop up on our screens all the time.
If you think that's bad now, consider how worse it’s going to become once you go fully remote. Because all communications are exchanged through your devices, and you can’t afford to just ignore them.
I’d lie if I said that’s a problem I’ve solved completely, but here’s what helps me: whenever I check my phone or open my inbox and find tens of notifications, I grab a piece of paper or open a .txt file and jot down a note for each. For instance, “John, June invoice,” or “Lisa, July schedule.”
As soon as I have some time to answer, I look at the piece of paper and decide where to start. I’ll answer what is urgent or what is quick immediately, and for things that require more time, I’ll sometimes just write: “Got it. I’ll get back to you by …” and specify a reasonable timeframe.
My little notes save me. If I skipped this step and simply opened my inbox, I’d risk prioritizing the most recent messages instead of the most urgent, or lose track of time and neglect other tasks.
3. You must put structure in place
Whenever I enter my home office in the morning, I open the blinds and turn on my PC and the bright pink LED sign hanging on the wall that my husband bought for me. It’s like saying, “The teacher’s in.”
When I leave the room in the evening, turning it off and closing the blinds is the last thing I do, and from then on, I’m off. If you’re used to working in an office, you probably have your rituals, too: having coffee, arranging your stationery, or anything that tells your brain “work starts, now.”
If you’re working from home, the lines between work and life are going to be blurry, so rituals are all the more helpful to tell you when you can relax and when you need to be focused.
Of course, having a separate room to use as a home office is vital, too. Decorating the background with a bookshelf or nice paintings helps you express your personality and set a good mood; why settle for yet another cubicle when you can fully customize it?
Lots of articles online recommend dressing for work and putting on make-up too, but honestly, wearing comfortable slippers and wrapping myself in a heated blanket on winter days is part of the perks of working from home for me. If lipstick and dress pants make you feel at the top of your game, put them on!
If instead you’re the kind of person who can’t wait to go back home to get rid of her bra and tie her hair up, enjoy the invisibility cloak your fixed camera angle gives you.
4. You need a distraction-free environment
djile / Shutterstock
We all remember the video of children interrupting Professor Robert Kelly during an interview for the BBC in 2017. If you have a human soul, you might find it adorable rather than unprofessional, especially after a global pandemic made all of us familiar with the difficulties of working from home.
However, when your colleague is constantly interrupted or turns off his camera to answer the door for the delivery guy during your meetings, it can quickly get on your nerves. If you’re a teacher or coach, you’re only allowed to excuse yourself if a bomb explodes in your living room!
Not all families are equally sensitive to remote working, and it’s your job to make everybody in your surroundings understand you’re working. This doesn’t just make you look professional, but it’ll make you feel more confident and relaxed because you know no one’s going to open the door to “just quickly fetch something” that’s positioned right behind you in the camera frame.
5. You want to arrange for quick transitions
When you go to the bank for an appointment with your consultant, you’ll be welcomed in and asked to take a seat and wait for the director to finish with their previous meeting. Waiting may be annoying, but it’s not frustrating.
But when your customer’s waiting for you on the other side of a Zoom call, they have no idea why you’re not there. Did you forget your appointment? Did they mistake one day for another? Is there a technical issue? Did they click on the wrong link? That’s incredibly unpleasant and sets a bad mood for the following meeting or lesson.
To avoid this, I recommend:
- Using a password manager. If, like me, you’re constantly logging in and out of platforms and switching accounts, you can’t afford to waste time looking for the right password or recovering your account. A password manager can take care of it smoothly and safely.
- Preparing in advance. If you have a double monitor, you can keep all the tabs and files for the next customer ready on one of them while managing your current session on the other one. You think saving just one minute can’t make a great difference in how professional you look and feel? Try it, then let me know.
- Prioritize clear communication. Life happens, so maybe every once in a while you’ll be five minutes late. If that’s the case, send a quick email to the person waiting for you to let them know. It shows you respect their time and are doing your best to solve the issue.
I selected these five elements because they are the ones I’ve seen a lot of colleagues struggle with, and because they’re mostly unique to remote working.
Of course, other considerations are also important, like learning to keep your invoices and contracts in order if you work as a freelancer, or making the time to turn off the PC and leave your house whenever possible, the latter being recommended for everyone and not just those of us who work online.
When they start working online, many picture it as the ultimate freedom: you can work “from anywhere” and “with flexible hours.” If that’s your idea, you might find out that “anywhere” has to be equipped with an excellent Internet connection and impeccable hardware, and that the hours are only flexible in that they stretch into your evenings and weekends.
However, this doesn't mean remote working can’t contribute to improving your quality of life. You save on gas and don’t get stressed out by traffic or rail strikes. If you have a free hour between two sessions, you can relax on the couch or cook dinner without compromising productivity. If you have children, you can check on them between meetings, and if you have pets, you don’t have to leave them alone all day.
Having realistic expectations, setting boundaries, and being adequately equipped and organized can help you make the most out of your online career and increase your confidence and well-being.
Federica Minozzi is a writer and language teacher based in Italy. She has posted articles on Tiny Buddha, the Glossika blog, and Medium, and she has a weekly newsletter on language learning on Substack.
