Becoming a Remote Developer Has Brought Greater Joy to My Life

Who would have thought that writing code from a desk at home, for 40-hours a week would help me hit the gym more consistently and enjoy more quality time with friends? ⭐️

The truth is: Remote work, like any line of work, will make you experience mental tiredness. However, your emotional and physical reserves will (normally) be bursting with energy at the end of the day.

You will invest that stored energy into a hobby (or a side-hustle, who knows) that has a strong meaning for your personal goals.

I’ve spoken with a few of my colleagues and their main outside-of-work activities are sports 🏃, gardening 🍀 , woodworking 🔨, painting 🎨, and baking 🍰. Some say that they use these activities to unplug and recharge their minds after a day of reading documentation and troubleshooting code.

In my case, I’ve honestly had an easier time spicing up my creativity and overcoming procrastination before starting a new project (which I suffered quite often).

I’m not going to lie, this has provided me with a greater sense of self-fulfillment. In the short term, I’ve started feeling like I’m performing better at my job 🏆, and I’ve acquired a bigger desire to share my work with friends, family, and even with people in my online networks. Only time will determine if this is also beneficial in the long term.

Plenty of other articles list out the benefits of remote work, but I’d like to mention the ones that convinced me to change careers and follow the ‘remote’ path.

Less commuting time, higher autonomy/flexibility, and the peace of being at home will most likely improve your quality of life. That might be by making you more productive, feel less haunted by the stress of living in crowded societies and even spend less of your money. 💰

Once you begin further embracing ‘remote culture‘ you’ll find yourself attending several online events of your interest. In my opinion, the best take from these events is getting the chance to grow your valuable network without the need to travel or dress up (still, put some pants on before joining the event). 😜

Yes, it’s true, you still must attend meetings with your coworkers and bosses during the day to assess the progress of your teamwork, communicate important changes, etc.

But you’ll notice that the time spent talking about work will feel reduced ⏰. Somehow, time advances slower in a video call than in a face-to-face conversation. Most of the time your team will find itself going straight to the point of the meeting.

Productivity metrics are a common practice in the remote workplace, and while some people might feel threatened by this, the truth is that those tools are what give you, as an employee, higher autonomy and flexibility.

In remote development, those metrics are mostly automated, meaning your employer won’t need a supervisor bothering you every half an hour to make sure that you’re working. 😵

The metrics have evolved to change their focus from measuring gross time to measuring achieved milestones. This makes it easier for you to focus on your work by allowing you to take regular (very important) breaks, and not having to pretend that you’re busy 100% of the time because someone is watching you.

To understand that when working remotely, you’ll most likely still spend 40 hours a week working; so treat it as what it is, a job, and you won’t have the issue of work overlapping with your personal life.

Allow me to end this article by confessing that transitioning to software development has changed my life for the good 💪. Be aware that it does take some time to get used to it. We all must take our paths; some have kids at home, some don’t have an ‘ideal’ space to set up their home office, and some just don’t feel like they’ll be able to endure sitting on a chair all day, every day of the week.

All in all, I believe that the benefits of remote work outweigh (by a bunch) any challenges that may come with it.