On working away from the office

For a long time I have been doing a lot of my work away from the office. It all began while I was working for Sofigate. Their office is in Otaniemi and I moved to Roihuvuori. My commute would have been an hour by bike and even more by metro and bus. And the office was terrible! So, I did most of my work in cafes, libraries and in the cigar club. And it all went quite OK.

Now, after almost three years at Codento, I got the chance to try to do my work from Girona, 2500 km from our office as the crow flies. It is not possible for me to pop in the office and meet someone face-to-face. All communication must take place over some media. I am becoming quite adept at using Google Hangouts, Whatsapp, Facetime, Slack, GoToMeeting and even traditional email.

Not the office, but a good place to think

I have learnt something during my 1.5 months in Girona. Let me tell about how working away from the office has changed my way of working.

• My working day is not anymore some number of consecutive hours. I try to work for 6 hours 4 days a week, but I have noticed that it is much more efficient to work for 2 times 3 hours or even for 3 times 2 hours than for 6 hours in a row. This should be true also while working the office. 
• Working out or going for a walk or ride during the day is a good idea. It seems that human brains work better while the body moves. Sitting at the office is not the most efficient way of getting things done. 
• It takes a lot of effort to stay up-to-date with office gossip and with fast moving customer projects. My workmates are all working in our Helsinki office, so they discuss about and decide on project issues face-to-face. Sometimes they forget to keep me posted, so I need to be active and keep on asking. 
• Sometimes it is quite hard to keep up my motivation. When working in our office, having a word with a workmate usually helps. Here, I need to build up my motivation by myself. It takes quite a lot of discipline. 
• Living in a place with friends is important. I have many friends in Girona and I ride with them several times a week. Girona is also a small town, so run into my friends in cafes, while running errands. Without friends, I would become way too lonely to do any work. 
• I have more time to read. Somehow reading a book at the office feels lazy.

So far so good. I think I will make working away from the office a habit. This is so much fun.