What's your typical work routine?
Interview with Hannah, a freelance writer that travels the world
Some people love routines, but I’m not one of them.
For many remote jobs you are expected to work standard days and hours. With a lot of remote jobs, the only difference is the location. That’s not what I enjoy or what I do.
I love to have my days varied and flexible. That means my day might start with social media work, writing, or something completely unrelated to work. This isn’t a good fit for everybody, but it works well for me. I’ve had to develop a lot of discipline for this because it can be easy to not accomplish much with this method.
I guess when I started freelancing part time and still had an in-person job, there was some flexibility built in from the beginning because there was less freelance work to do.
Something that helps me are time-tracking tools. They let me make sure I’m getting all the necessary hours in for my full-time job and allow me to see where the rest of my time is going. While I’m not a big scheduler, I am a fan of to-do lists and these help me remember everything I need to accomplish. I personally like bigger lists that have both work tasks and other life priorities.
At the beginning of this year, I worked as I traveled abroad in Southeast Asia. I’m now visiting my family in the United States for a bit and am deciding where to head next (thinking Singapore or Thailand).
Hannah is a freelancer writer and social media manager that travels the world while working remotely. Read her interview to learn how she works.
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Interview with Hanling, a data scientist that works remotely on machine learning
Since at the moment I'm a master student, I can work remotely only part-time.
Most of my contracts are short-time (completed within one week). So I have to keep on finding new jobs (recently I'm quite free).
I would review the new job posts on Upwork frequently and apply using my fragment time. Typically I'll do the work in the evenings of my timezone (if it is not urgent) and also two whole days in weekends (if I'm free).
Hanling started working remotely as a student and now does freelance machine learning and data analysis for clients all around the world.
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Interview with Elizabeth, a graphic designer and art director
During the week, I start at 7:45 am to catch the end of the day in Singapore and Hong Kong, where some of my clients are based. I spend the first hour of my day working on written projects—mainly articles and newsletters for clients.
My day starts to get noisy around 9 am, and I spend the rest of my morning either on calls or working through client edits. I try to save the afternoons for deeper, more creative work, so I do most of my pixel-pushing from 4 pm until around 7 pm.
I work long hours as my client base spans from Hong Kong to New York, so time zones are always on my mind!
I have workaholic tendencies that I’m not always proud of, but I usually take Saturdays off and work to some extent on Sundays.
My Sunday ‘surgery’ sessions allow me to course-correct my work delivery schedule and catch up where I need to so that I am well-prepared the start of a new week.
Elizabeth provides the ultimate list of tips for aspiring freelancers and remote workers. Check out her game-changing tools, and advice for thriving as a freelancer.
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Interview with Deb, a sales copywriter who transitioned from software development
My work routine is usually dictated by my clients. The majority of my clients are from the US, the UK, Europe, and Australia. So, time zone differences can be a bit of a challenge at times. If it is an Australian client, then I usually wake up early to attend phone calls and slack/Skype chat sessions. If it is a client from the US, then late nights are the norm.
However, I do try to follow a specific routine to help me get through the day (and night!):
- Wake up around 6 AM and go for a 30 minute morning walk
- Do freehand exercises for 30 minutes
- Check my emails and Slack channels for anything urgent that needs to be actioned.
- Have a look at my schedule (which I write on the earlier night before going to sleep).
- If I have any early morning chats or calls, then I action them.
- Hit the keyboard for a 2-3 hour stretch of writing.
- Break for lunch around 1:00 PM my time
- Write some more from 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM
- Take a break for an hour where I go out of the house to get some fresh air.
- Write some more from 6:30 PM to 9:30 PM
- Break for 30 minutes for dinner.
- Do some light web browsing to catch up for what’s been happening in the world
- Try to hit the bed by 11:00 PM
The above routine is what I follow on an ideal day. However, in the event of client requests for a call or a Skype chat, I obviously must be flexible. There were instances during the early days of my career when I used to go to sleep at 2:00 AM my time to attend client phone calls. However, over the last year or so, I’ve put my foot down and told my clients that I will not be available from midnight my time to 6 AM my time, unless there is a dire emergency.
Most of my clients have been very understanding and have been more than willing to accommodate my request for an alternate time for a phone call.
Deb made the jump from full-time software developer to freelance sales copywriter—learn how he made the transition.
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Interview with Meryl, a digital marketer and master of home office organization
Start my day with a cup of Joe and the newspaper. Yes, the printed edition of the local newspaper. Then, I head to Orangetheory for my 7 am workout and a little socializing.
Bursting with energy and feeling great knowing I got my exercise done for the day, I go home and get right to work. (After a shower, of course.)
The first things I do are the hardest tasks and those with the earliest deadlines. I'll take a mid-day break to walk Melody and Carrie, the furry company mascots. I save the less challenging tasks for the afternoon.
Meryl K. Evans is skilled at creating a home office that leads to remote work flexibility. See her advice for creating a successful workspace, and hear about her journey into freelancing.
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Interview with Haley, a VP of Operations shares her stellar remote work strategies
During onboarding, a coworker recommended Maker’s Schedule, Manager’s Schedule. That informed how I structured my time when I started, and how I continue to revisit my schedule today, usually quarterly.
When I started, I was a manager and an individual contributor - the sole person managing customer operations. I’ve always been “good” at context switching, but 9-12 months in, I started to grow weary of it.
Almost everyone on my team is a maker, creating more flexibility than in a meeting centric work environment.
I design each week in a bell curve.
- Monday: ramp up. Dedicate most of the day to planning and thinking. Have meetings that will help me plan for the rest of the week.
- Tuesday: all the meetings (9A-5P, 1 30m break).
- Wednesday: thinking and deep work.
- Thursday: all the meetings (9A-3P).
- Friday: ramp down. Reflect on the week, begin to tee up the following week. Have debrief and blue sky meetings.
I make time at the beginning and end of each day for admin stuff like email, and block time for tasks that I have to do each week like check invoices, prepping agendas, and reviewing customer notes.
Haley has figured out the way she works best as a VP of Operations. See her principles of remote work and the unique advice a former boss gave her about breaks.
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Interview with Artur, an engineer who found purpose as an Intrapreneur
I try to start my day with one of the following:
- Running
- Tony Robbins priming
- Wim Hoff breathing exercises and a cold shower
Then, I try to journal. The purpose is to dump any lingering thoughts on paper, so they are not cluttering my mind anymore.
Persistent or frustrating thoughts have a way of coming back and something as easy as writing it down purges them from consciousness.
I fail to do this more often than not though. So, I manage to write everything down every 3rd or 4th day.
The ideal next thing is to jump straight into the hardest thing to do on my list. I am most productive in the mornings, but with the European Union and United States time difference, there is always something that happened during the night that needs a reaction.
The hardest part is judging what is hard or more important. Sometimes it is an intricate implementation detail, but with each year I am discovering that dealing with people is more important, effective and difficult. Though, separating signal from the noise is tougher in communication than in code.
I would love to reserve the "unfocused" tasks for the post-lunch energy slump, but it is hard to judge and quickly recognize what these tasks are.
When I am home, communication happens in the late afternoon or evening. I am about six timezones ahead of my coworkers, so they tend to come online later in my day.
Some of the days I can follow the above schedule. In others— life intervenes. My grandpa is getting older and needs our care, we recently ran a full-on apartment renovation, and we are currently in the process of organizing a wedding. So, we have a lot of "life" thrown at us (I'm sure having kids feels this way, and I am not looking forward to that particular aspect).
When I have errands to run, I sacrifice my beautiful morning routine to get stuff done. This happens so often that I count this as a typical thing. I jump out of my bed, scramble like crazy to deal with whatever I have to and dive straight to work whenever I can.
If you have to deal with your family, you will not be able to do the morning thing every day. Start once a week and experiment with different approaches to determine what works for YOU. I found that meditation is not for me, but spending time outside helps me a lot.
Artur realized entrepreneurship wasn't for him—see how he carves out his creativity and purpose as a remote Intrapreneur at Automattic.
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Interview with John, a web developer who works from home
Because our company is run on East Coast time and I live in Vegas, I wake up bright and early to be at my desk at 6am.
I didn't think I was going to enjoy being up so early, but it didn't take long to adjust. By now, being up before 6am is pretty easy, and I love getting off work in the early afternoon.
When I get to my desk, the first 30-45 minutes is always consumed by email catch-up from the night before and checking stats across a handful of platforms. I then like to prep for any client calls that I have that day. The rest of the day lives and dies by my calendar.
Managing my calendar has been one of the most productive things I've done in a long time. On Friday afternoons, I have a 30-minute block of time set aside to fill in my calendar for the next week. I put in placeholders for chunks of development time, client follow-ups, admin tasks, and even lunches.
This allows me to be more in control of my week, and I don't find myself looking at a blank page wondering what to do next.
The added benefit of filling out my calendar ahead of time is that other team members can't fill up my day with meetings - or schedule a meeting at a time that would disrupt my focused development time.
John is a web developer running a mini-agency inside a larger WordPress agency - learn how calendar management and establishing boundaries have helped him boost his productivity.
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Interview with Nathan and Connor, owners of Freeeup
We are both early risers. We like to get up early, get on the same page with our teams, clear our emails and Skype, address any major issues, get planned for the day, then launch into meetings, phone calls, interviews, and projects.
The crazy thing is that we both live on opposite sides of the country in different time zones. I’m in Denver, Colorado. Nate is in Orlando, Florida.
Our days are different in that Nate takes most of the company’s podcast interviews, client calls, sales calls, etc. while I am more focused on behind-the-scenes marketing, content, advertising, and recruitment.
Thinking of creating your own remote startup? See how Nathan and Connor built a successful and effective remote team from scratch.
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Interview with Ascencia, a content marketer, and avid gig economy professional
I get up at around 6 or 7 a.m., do Miracle Morning (meditate, journal, say affirmations, do yoga, read a book or listen to an audiobook), have breakfast, brush my teeth, and take a shower.
At around 9 or 10, I start working. I would tackle the job that gives me the most anxiety first. These tasks are typically special requests from clients or questions from a coworker. Every time I had that, I would do those tasks first. I hate to make someone wait, even though it's not urgent and understandable in remote work.
The afternoon is for routine and administrative tasks. I will finish working at around 4 or 5 p.m.
A forgotten two-year-old Upwork account allowed Ascencia to become a content marketer—see how the gig economy has offered her an alternative path to success.
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