On-Site Anthropology
The Importance of Conventions
Thank you, Hillman Curtis.
Rut-Roh! I’m in a Design Rut
Cognition
The Challenges of Working Remotely
- @ryanirelan
- Technology & Development Director
- Ryan’s articles Feed
- Bio on Happycog.com
Last Monday, Happy Cog’s Greg Hoy led a SXSW session about company culture. I wasn’t able to attend SXSW this year, but Leslie Camacho 
wrote up a detailed summary of the session. Of particular interest to me was the discussion about working remotely.
For the last five years, I’ve been working from home. It started back when I was the first employee at Airbag, and then continued after we merged with Happy Cog in August 2009. As part of the San Francisco team, I’m 3 hours ahead of, and almost 3,000 miles away from, most of my co-workers. My process and methods have evolved since the early days when it was just me on the East Coast and Greg Storey in our southern California office. As we added more people, I learned new ways and implemented new tools to become a more effective remote worker.
Fast-forward five years. As a Technology & Development Director at Happy Cog, I run and direct all of the development projects in the San Francisco office. I work closely with our entire team day in and day out. This does, of course, present some challenges. My days have me jumping from project to project, writing code, being on phone calls and sorting through email. Here’s some insight on how I try to organize my days to help me be as efficient as possible while working so far away.
The Quiet of the Morning
The mornings are quiet because San Francisco is still sleeping, so I use this time to get through tasks that don’t require consulting with my coworkers in San Francisco. The first task of the day is always email.
I sit down with my morning coffee and review email that came in the evening before. Unread email usually consists of new issue tickets from clients (we use Lighthouse) and Basecamp messages from clients or co-workers (like the milestone reminder that this blog post is due). I am copied on every new issue ticket submitted by a client so I can see what the problems are, fix them or discuss them with my co-workers when they start their workday.
I use my quiet time to go through the email and plan my day. If I try to immediately respond to and act on every email message that lands in my inbox, my day would consist of just reacting to several different projects without any organization or method. Spending the entire day just reading and reacting to email doesn’t sound like much fun at all. To prevent this, I don’t respond to email immediately unless it’s an emergency. Instead, I create tasks for myself in OmniFocus. I jot down notes for a later discussion with a co-worker (for the GTD wonks, I use the “Talking to [coworker name]” context) or ideas I want to bring up on our daily phone call.
The email step can take awhile, but I do try to limit it to one hour. After that, I close my email client so I’m not tempted to ride the “New Mail” button. For the rest of the day, I close my email client when working on a task, and if it is open, it is set to only check once per hour.
In the remaining time, I try to complete work that requires intense focus, like coding, reading, or writing.
Lines of Communication
Early on, I found remote workers need to over-communicate with their co-workers and vice-versa. Over-communication is a must. Leslie Camacho notes some discussion during the SXSW session on company culture:
Mozilla’s biggest tip for working virtually is to over communicate. Say it once, then email, then IM, then phone, then whatever it takes to be understood. Working in a completely virtual company myself, I highly endorse this tip.
How we communicate is also very important. Some methods are more awful than others, and they are all awful compared to being in the same room. Bank on that. But we can still make it work!
Here are the tools we use to make it easier:
- Basecamp – The central repository of all knowledge and information about a project. Don’t put it in email, put it in Basecamp.
- Campfire – Chit chat, silly banter, and a place to check in.
- Instant Messaging (iChat) – Great for private conversations, but very disruptive.
- Phone/Skype/Audio Chat – Should be used a lot and whenever there is a communication breakdown via other methods.
Did you notice I didn’t include email?
For real-time, intrusive chatting tools like Campfire and iChat, I suggest removing all alerts (bouncing icons, badges) and silencing all sounds. No one should be able to interrupt you at will. That’s what the phone is for, and, unlike iChat, it’s used much more sparingly.
Scheduling Phone Calls
To keep my mornings free to focus on work, I try to schedule all phone calls in the afternoon, if at all possible. Since I’m 3 hours ahead of the San Francisco office, this is easy to do. The first phone call of the day is at 12:30PM Eastern time for our daily check-in. The entire team in the San Francisco office spends 10 minutes discussing the tasks for the day. I always request that the rest of my phone calls take place in the late afternoon, and I try to bunch them up. This isn’t always possible, of course, but I make it my goal.
Taking Notes, Organizing Project Materials
For some reason, I find it harder to remember information from conversations if I’m not in the same room as the person with whom I’m talking. I used to keep a notebook with notes and ideas from phone calls, and it allowed me to always reference back to a phone call to verify information. Last year, I switched over to a software solution, because I found that searching is faster than flipping through pages.
My project documents, phone call notes, related emails, reference URLs, and anything else I might need get stuffed into DevonThink Pro Office, a powerful database tool by Devon Technologies. DevonThink is an over-achieving piece of software that allows you to easily store, tag, classify, and search for documents. It’s where I put everything: bookmarks (fed in via RSS from Pinboard), PDFs, images, text documents, phone call notes and email. It’s the hub of my attempt to maintain a paperless office.
Do you work remotely? If so, what tools and tricks do you use to manage your time and still be an effective coworker?
38 Responses
I have a new blog post over at @happycog's Cognition blog on what I've learned about working remotely:
Thu, March 24, 2011 10:59:11
Do you work from home? @ryanirelan can tell you a thing or two about a thing or two. #cognition #fb
Thu, March 24, 2011 11:01:37
Great tips from @ryanirelan on working remotely with a team and staying productive.
Thu, March 24, 2011 11:06:09
I work from Madison, WI for @nmcteam based in Carrboro, NC. I agree 100% with @ryanirelan about working remotely.
Thu, March 24, 2011 11:06:29
At EllisLab we use primarily Sococo & Jabber for internal communication. Both handy tools for a fully distributed team.
Thu, March 24, 2011 11:07:00
Nice process. I create .rtf documents for each call, save it to the project's /admin/notes folder and name it the date.
Thu, March 24, 2011 11:31:37
Working Remotely? Good read: @ryanirelan's #cognition post on working remotely.
Thu, March 24, 2011 12:28:41
I'm about to start working from home for the first time in my career and any advice is great! Thanks for the write up
Thu, March 24, 2011 12:43:04
Work remotely ( like me ?) Check out @ryanirelan's #cognition post - good stuff!
Thu, March 24, 2011 12:44:31
We run our remote team almost exactly like this (we also use Backpack).
Thu, March 24, 2011 12:49:13
Great article from @HappyCog on working remotely - which I plan on doing from another country this winter - bring it on!
Thu, March 24, 2011 12:52:57
The Challenges of Working Remotely:
Thu, March 24, 2011 1:48:04
Good tips on working remotely like myself.
Thu, March 24, 2011 2:48:19
Over the last five years @ryanirelan has developed the best system for working remotely. Take notes.
Thu, March 24, 2011 3:31:25
Now if only someone could teach cats to keep notes. A look at working remotely from @ryanirelan
Thu, March 24, 2011 3:45:23
Highly valuable insight. Now to do some convincing...
Thu, March 24, 2011 4:36:11
.@ryanirelan on productivity, focus, and working remotely:
Fri, March 25, 2011 8:58:40
@ryanirelan Great write up! I am thinking I can apply some of your process to my in-office work environment. Thanks!
Fri, March 25, 2011 10:20:38
Do you work remotely? @ryanirelan's Cognition article has some great tips to help you become and stay more productive.
Fri, March 25, 2011 11:40:38
@ryanirelan talking remoteness. Skype and basecamp kept me rolling during 4 months in AU/NZ. Good tips.
Sat, March 26, 2011 9:53:18
Have spent nearly 8 years working remotely, so much about @ryanirelan's post strikes a chord with me.
Mon, March 28, 2011 9:26:57
Our team uses a Facebook “secret” group for daily chatting and sharing. It’s fast, and fluid. Great, post @ryanirelan
Tue, March 29, 2011 7:19:20
this comment system is exactly what I have been looking for. Is it a service or custom? ie, can I add it to my blog?
Wed, March 30, 2011 6:37:34
Over communication is good when you're working remotely >>
Sun, April 03, 2011 3:32:56
tring out a tweet
Tue, April 05, 2011 4:32:05
But what happens if EVERYTHING is an emergency? Nice article, though @happycog #remoteworking #tips
Tue, April 05, 2011 12:27:55
@ryanirelan Great article. I will definitely apply some of this stuff in my work. Thanks!
Wed, April 06, 2011 6:10:03
Meep
Thu, April 07, 2011 8:08:28
Hi @ryanirelan, about your #cognition 'remote working post', just wondering what you use for code repo?
Tue, April 19, 2011 6:47:17
Working Remotely? Good read: @ryanirelan's #cognition post on working remotely.
Mon, May 02, 2011 12:04:30