Those of you that follow this blog are probably already aware of the fact that I am working remotely full time "For Great Justice!" a.k.a. "To Pay the Bills". It's been over six months since this situation first started. So far, it's been an interesting endeavor in adjusting to not going into an office. There are obvious benefits like being able to literally roll out of bed and drag oneself in front of the computer to begin work. Of course, there are also the obvious downsides like the incredibly lack of face time asides from the few and far between office visits. Finally, there are the "Eh?" things that are a wash: having easy access to distractions.

However, certain things about being off-site full time only become apparent after this long a period. For one, other people may take longer to answer your requests because your absence in the office makes it unintentionally easier to forget the requests. For similar reasons, taking the floor in the middle of an exchange is incredibly difficult when teleconferencing. Also, you tend to have a more dire view of how you stand with the home office because there simply isn't enough interaction to determine that. However, the biggest change is how the "normal" work day and week start to lose their meaning if you do not support production systems - it's incredibly easy to begin and end work as you like it; your only real constraints are your co-workers, meetings and deadlines.

For me, adjusting to the home office was a big challenge. When I first arrived here, I didn't even have a place of my own - I was literally working out of someone else's kitchen. Soon afterwards, I acquired a set-up that made working easier: my own place and a desk. However, it took a few weeks on top of all that to really get an established routine - I was still settling into my new hometown and place. But now that months have elapsed, things seem to be in a good place: I am comfortable with my work environment, newly separated from the entertainment stack, the project is progressing more to my liking, and I've taken up the habit of shutting down my work computer to formally mark an "end" to my work day. It's been a continuing evolutionary process to get here, and I don't doubt that I will "tweak" things in the future in the pursuit of "Remote Working Perfection", but it's very nice to have reached this point.