🚣 transitioning to remote work.
Over the last few weeks, I’ve been piloting a 5-day email course that will walk anyone through how to transition from an in-office setting to working from home productively and effectively.
If you’re interested in signing up to receive the first lesson in the series, sign up here.
No article today. Instead, I’ll be sharing my approach to transitioning to working from home.
I had worked in an office setting for about 3 years at the time through a few different jobs. At the tail end of college, I started learning how to code and I was able to land a role as a Customer Support agent at a small tech agency in Miami, FL. Before this I had never experimented with working from home and didn’t know it was even an option. The more and more I was getting involved with learning to code and design, the more I saw people in communities mentioning “work from home” or “telecommuting”. It piqued my interest but I thought, “well, I’ll probably never have a boss who will let me work from the comfort of my home own home.”
Turns out I was wrong. After 2+ years at the agency in Miami, I had shown my value as a contributor to the company and I had gained a lot of trust from executives. I finally felt comfortable asking for the opportunity to go remote.
Now, before I even thought about mentioning my interest to go remote, I did tons of research.
Here are the five steps, which I go over in the email course, that I took as I considered transitioning to working from home.
Is remote work right for me? Diving into this and asking myself those hard questions about the differences in communication, socialization, and autonomy between an in-office job vs. a work home from role. Was I okay with this change?
Giving it a try before committing to remote work. Before asking my bosses to go fully remote I tried it out. I asked for 3-4 hours of work from home time, or if I was sick I requested to work from home. This gave me a great view of the ins and outs of a typical remote day.
Now it’s starting to get serious. I started to imagine and sketch what my workspace would look like and feel like. Where in my home would I set up my desk? Did I have any distractions that would keep me from being productive?
Having a daily routine is crucial. Before going remote I started to plan out my day every morning with projects, folks I had to follow-up with, documentation that was on my plate, everything! I wanted to get into the habit of having structure while working from home where I knew I’d have the freedom to play with my schedule.
Lastly! It was time for me to ask to go from an in-office employee to a remote employee.
For you, you may be looking to leave your current role and jump into a remote role and there are several great sites, such as WeWorkRemotely and RemoteCo that can help get you there.
Questions? I have open slots for 15-min chats to help you answer any concerns or questions you’re facing as you transition or begin to work from home. Or reply back to this email and I’ll get back to you asap.
Thanks for reading! And see you next time.
Irma
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