Recommendations for those remote office programmers!

Author | Ndepend

Translator | Mingru Ruyue, Editor-in-Chief | Guo Rui

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The following is the translation:

With the outbreak of the new Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) worldwide, many programmers are forced to work remotely, and most people will stay at home.

Being in the IT industry, especially in the software development industry, we are very lucky: most of our work can be done remotely. I think most developers prefer to change their daily life, reduce social interaction, and spend more time coding.

I have 15 years of remote work experience. Here are some suggestions for your reference.

Improve your working environment

Most passionate programmers usually have a work space at home. As a programmer, you must have considered these issues, so I do not have to discuss in detail in terms of hardware. However, it is time to improve your working environment.

For me, the first step is not to use the bedroom as an office space. Your brain needs to clearly understand where to code and where to rest. Outside the work office, thinking about programming problems is common, but working from home elevates this thinking to a different level. Unfortunately, working outside the bedroom is not always feasible, especially considering that if the government decides to close the school, the children may have to stay at home, as some countries have already done. If you can spare time to work in a room different from the children's rooms, then you should consider buying a silencer headset that can be combined with a pair of earplugs. Custom silicone earplugs combined with my BOSE QuietComfort greatly reduce noise.

When working from home, the most important thing is to reduce distractions. If your window has a good view, or at least you can clearly see the sky through the window, you can consider working near the window. If possible, work in a room without a TV and game console. However, the biggest sources of interference in working from home are chats, meetings, social networks, e-mail, news, and video sites, which all consume a lot of our time. But I suggest that you better take an aggressive approach: turn off WIFI during times that are not suitable for Internet access. This inspiration came from my efficient programming experience on the plane. However, access to github or stackoverflow may cause inconvenience, so you can quit all social software and use the browser incognito mode less aggressively: The key is to voluntarily stay away from temptation. The more you resist, the easier it will resist.

When you have to stay at home, it is also important to create an informal workplace. For example, you can choose a sofa as an informal office place. Working on a sofa with a laptop for one to two hours is usually very efficient. But do n’t work in bed: If your brain associates bed with work, it ’s bad, and you ’ll easily lose sleep.

Plan your daily life

Determine your most efficient time of day and arrange daily work around it. When you want to conduct virtual chats and meetings, you must agree with your company. If they are not flexible in their social work schedule, they will insist that you arrange a large amount of undisturbed time at home. Working from home can avoid being interrupted when coding is invested, and can work during your most efficient time.

Pay special attention:

Before work begins: Here is a tip recently shared by Scott Hanselman. It is recommended to spend 20 to 40 minutes doing any non-digital things (workout, walking, being with family, breakfast, mindfulness meditation ...) before the work officially begins. Also remember that starting work is the most difficult part: pay special attention to what you are doing in the first few minutes of your work each day, which will determine your productivity for the next few hours.

Lunch time: If possible, it is time to go out and meet others. At the same time, daytime is also an important part of a good night ’s sleep.

After lunch: 10 to 15 minutes of nap can help digestion and relieve fatigue, and will be more spirited and focused in the afternoon.

Off hours: Unless you are the kind of programmer who is particularly efficient at night, please decide in advance when you should get off work. Programming is a very addictive activity. If you do n’t pay attention to coding at night, it is easy to disrupt your sleep cycle and social life.

communication

You must already be using a remote code hosting platform, such as github. But in many cases, a short face-to-face video chat is more effective than a few hours of text communication. Conducting a short face-to-face video chat requires the approval of all team members, and you must determine in advance when you need to end the chat in time.

In addition, everyone is different, and you should be aware of (and take into account) the way each colleague likes to communicate.

Trust plays an important role in the teleworking team. It is a good habit to explain what you are doing and seek feedback. If for some reason you estimate that your progress is not as fast as expected, you can discuss it with others. However, talking too much about yourself can quickly become a problem for others: find the right balance and pay special attention to listening to others' opinions.

Require code review and review your colleagues ’code, especially if your team does not use code review as a practice. Remember, the code itself is a great way to communicate with other developers.

take care of yourself

Lost the rhythm of daily work in the company, especially when you live alone, you are easy to become a lazy worm. So you should take care of yourself and follow some brainless conventions:

Stick to bathing and shaving.
Wear clothes, preferably clothes suitable for work.
Exercise at the same time every day. Exercise is an integral part of your work.
Pay attention to diet and improve the quality of diet is very important.
If you can go out, go out at least one hour a day. Otherwise, you must open the window to see the outside world.
Use mindfulness meditation. Our goal is to spend most of our time on work. However, when your thoughts slip to a social network or delay, it means that you should take a break.
You need to know when you should rest.
Ensure at least 7 hours a day, preferably 8 hours of adequate sleep. I know that some developers sleep less for work, but lack of sleep will destroy your health and long-term combat effectiveness. This is not speculation but scientific basis.
If you work at home alone for a few weeks, you will soon feel lonely. When you realize that you may have this problem, take action: If possible, go out to meet your friends and relatives, or video chat with them. (Personally) Listening to a concert while programming is very stateful.
Before having children, I like to work on weekends without email interference. Until now, my weekends are completely used for family and social time, and even during peak hours, I will not sacrifice them. Whether you work in the evening and / or on the weekend is entirely up to you, but remember that there are reasons for the existence of standard work schedules. The key to great achievements is to rest at the right pace.

to sum up

We are facing a special period of time and the situation may be worse in the coming weeks. Many professional programmers will experience remote office for the first time. The good news is that the mathematical model tells us that the worldwide outbreak of COVID-19 will show a downward trend this spring. Take care.

Original: https://blog.ndepend.com/advices-to-become-a-remote-programmer/

Translator: Mingmingruyue, Java senior development engineer of well-known Internet company, CSDN blog expert.

This article is a CSDN translation, please indicate the source.

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