What's your typical work routine?
Interview with Erin, a virtual assistant with a successful approach to freelancing
My routine varies somewhat depending on where I'm working from. Since my wife and I both work online, we opted to take our "show on the road" in 2014. We have been working while traveling around the world ever since.
I purposely ensure that my clients are all located on the west coast (PST) in the US. By keeping everyone in the same area code, I'm able to guarantee my clients that I'll be available during their working hours, regardless of where in the world I'm working from.
Having said that, I always begin each day the same way: with a cup of coffee in bed while I read my favorite blogs or skim social media. I also end each day the same way: A late night workout at home.
Erin has found freelancing success as a virtual assistant—see her organizational tips & insights into how she picks clients that suit her business.
Read full interview from Interview with Erin, a virtual assistant with a successful approach to freelancing.
Interview with Chanell, a freelance writer and social media manager
Having a daily routine has helped me to stay grounded in this career change.
I decided to go remote last fall when I saw that I needed a better plan to accomplish real work-life balance. I was doing full-time communications work at a brick and mortar office, and I had been doing some freelance writing work on the side.
Once I transitioned from working in an office to working at home, there were still some things about my work in the office that I wanted to take with me. I decided to keep the same work hours as I had before. I typically begin working at 8:30 am and continue until I finish completing my projects for the day. Unless I received a late project, I usually end the day at 5:00 pm (including all business communication).
To start the day, I take my dog for a one-mile walk. This helps me to relax, and get my rhythm for the day. While I grab breakfast, I usually sit down and look at the schedule for the day. I create my plan for the week on Sundays and add in any new additions throughout the days.
I always start with the longest and most involved project first —since I have the most energy in the morning and early afternoon— and then tackle shorter projects throughout the rest of the day. Once I begin working for the day, I always try to step away at least every hour to walk around and rest my brain. I never realized how much brainpower it takes to sit down really and write, even if you have an outline set and ready to go. Therefore, it is crucial for me to step away and allow my head to rest to gather my thoughts.
I stop for lunch around 1:00pm, and also try to take a short power nap to regain some energy to finish the day. At the end of the workday, I always double-check my schedule for the next day to be sure I have included all that needs to be done (there is always something new to add).
I will check all platforms (Upwork, email, and Trello) one last time for any late day assignments, or confirm deadlines for the next two days. I then end the day with another mile walk with my dog to transition into a time of rest for the evening.
Chanell is a freelance writer working from Atlanta that writes about business management tips and video game entertainment threads.
Read full interview from Interview with Chanell, a freelance writer and social media manager.
Interview with Maggie, a senior product manager at HubSpot
In the morning, I put the head down and focus on getting my work tasks done, check Slacks, follow up on emails. The afternoon is usually wrapped up with Zoom meetings, where I talk to my colleagues in Boston. After the kids go to bed, I usually follow up on Slack chats with my team.
Remote work allows Maggie to live in a small town and excel in her career. Hear about how she stays professionally connected, and her essential career advice for remote workers.
Read full interview from Interview with Maggie, a senior product manager at HubSpot.
Interview with Ben, a web developer who freelances from home
The last few months, I've been working hard at keeping to a more early wake up time. During the winter, I was rolling out of bed 10 minutes before work, grabbing something to eat, and settling in.
These days, I usually get up about an hour and half before work, sometimes the gym, most times not (I'm trying I swear). I'll grab a bite, then sort of dig through emails before I even really start work (it's sort of a warm up time to me actually being functionally working).
Depending on the week, I do code reviews, which might start as soon as the clock officially rolls over to 8AM where they are (I'm in the AST timezone, they're in CST).
Other than that, it's the usual messages from different members of their staff with questions and bugs and requests for queries, in between working on whatever my current contract task is. I usually pull about 3 -4 hours of work in the "morning", somewhere between a half hour and hour and a half for lunch, then another 3-4 hours (most times I stop working around the same time their offices start shutting down, because the people I might need answers from leave).
I generally match their 8-5, and on American holidays I get less work done, either because I'm feeling less motivated, or because I need someone to answer a question. I don't usually take time off for Canadian holidays, because time off is money not made.
I've never been much for vacations, so I don't really block more than a day off here and there (except for maybe a 3-5 day stretch somewhere in the middle of summer, and of course Christmas and New Years).
Learn the tips and tricks Ben uses to stay productive while working remotely on a hybrid team
Read full interview from Interview with Ben, a web developer who freelances from home.
Interview with Jake, a customer success manager for Atlassian
I like to wake up early and get my day started before everyone else.
There's something about waking up early that feels like a "hack"... like I'm beating the system somehow, haha.
I really value a quiet morning. Typically my morning involves a quick dog walk, making coffee, eating breakfast, and then getting to work. Some mornings I'll dedicate to exercise, and I'll be honest, that should probably be more of a routine... I'm getting there! To start the workday, I'll check Trello for outstanding tasks and due dates.
Jake was burned out on the San Francisco lifestyle—see how he transitioned from working in-office to working remotely for a remote-friendly company.
Read full interview from Interview with Jake, a customer success manager for Atlassian.
Interview with Jenna, a freelance writer who works remotely to help manage her health
One of the biggest reasons I chose to work freelance is because of my health.
I have fibromyalgia, so I need to sleep a lot to minimize flare-ups, which really reduces my effective working hours. I also am quite mentally “foggy” and not at my best for the first few hours of my day. Some days I can’t get as much done as I would like. I’ve always pushed myself too hard and ignored warning signs until my body essentially shut down and forced me to stop working (I ended up on a leave of absence in 2016).
This all means I’ve been learning the importance of listening to my body and allowing my schedule/routines to be flexible and based around how I’m feeling. It’s a delicate balance because in order to get anything done I can’t rely much on motivation (I also have ADHD and depression) and need to push myself at least a little bit to do things when I don’t feel up to it. But as I mentioned, I have a history of pushing myself way too hard and suffering the consequences afterwards.
With all that said, my typical work day starts at some point in the afternoon after I’ve had a few hours to fully wake up. I usually start off by going over my schedule for the week and any approaching deadlines. I try to schedule as much as I can ahead of time so that I’m never doing anything at the last minute.
Even though I work well under pressure, I never know when I’ll have a flare-up or migraine which renders me totally unable to do anything, let alone write coherently. I also like to look for new clients in the early part of my work day, since it doesn’t require much thinking.
Sometimes I write my burn drafts earlier in the day if I’m not struggling to find words, but for the most part I leave the actual writing for the later hours. Any time I try writing too soon, I end up making stupid mistakes, or it takes me forever to write anything because the “fogginess” affects my vocabulary and creativity. I’ve always been a night owl and am the most creative and productive at night so that’s when I like to write.
Jenna started working remotely after realizing her office job was causing health problems—now she works as a freelance writer and writes about self-improvement
Read full interview from Interview with Jenna, a freelance writer who works remotely to help manage her health.
Interview with Lily, an entrepreneur building VR conferencing for remote teams
My typical work routine isn’t too exciting. The first thing I like to do in the morning is take my dog for a walk around the block. While making coffee, I boot up my computer and get to work!
Experts say you should start the day with your most difficult task but I tend to check email and Slack first. Meetings are normally in the afternoon, which I’ll get up from my desk and hop in VR for. Throw a couple more dog walks and a trip to the gym around lunch time and that’s my work day.
Lily has almost a decade of remote work experience, now she's building the team collaboration tool of the future with Virtual Reality
Read full interview from Interview with Lily, an entrepreneur building VR conferencing for remote teams.
Interview with Laurel about helping companies transition to remote work
Because I work with multiple clients, my routine is scheduled by week.
Weekday afternoons are blocked for one client, Tuesday and Friday mornings are reserved for another client, etc.
On a daily level, I start my workday around 7:30 catching up on email or doing some content writing at my treadmill desk. I'll take a break around 11:00 for a shower and early lunch, then resume working in my home office until I go pick up my kids from school at 3:00.
After that it's time to focus on my family and personal hobbies. I am a notorious workaholic, so it's important for me to maintain strict office hours to preserve work-life balance.
Laurel is an advocate for remote work and helps companies learn how to work remotely through her consulting and writing.
Read full interview from Interview with Laurel about helping companies transition to remote work.
Interview with Dani and Luca, digital nomads who have mastered work and travel
We start to work when it's about 9:00 am in Italy, and we work for about eight to ten hours a day, that means that this year we usually worked from the early afternoon till about midnight as we were in Asia almost all the time.
It's always been hard for us to get up in the morning so this time zone difference helped us to be way more productive!
Dani and Luca have mastered the art of traveling while working—see their hacks & tips for thriving as digital nomads.
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Interview with Laura, a communications specialist and travel writer by night
While I live in the west, I work east coast hours. So, I log into work at 7 a.m. PST, Mondays through Fridays.
First, I greet my teammates, letting them know I am around. I then log into Help Scout to answer customer inquiries for website projects and coordinate those accordingly.
I spend my day multitasking. So while I'm working with customer inquiries, I'm also monitoring our social media for engagement there, as well as our blog for comments.
I like to tackle content first, so I work on editing, coordinating, and scheduling blog posts. If there are other content needs required, such as updating or creating content for a landing page or marketing collateral, I do that, too.
During the last hours of the day, I work on our social media. Peppered in between all of that are quick meetings and chats with teammates about content.
Laura Coronado discusses her method for juggling her career as a communications specialist by day and her side hustle as a freelance travel writer by night.
Read full interview from Interview with Laura, a communications specialist and travel writer by night.