Every home has several distractions — from pets and family members to social media, daytime TV, and household chores. In the end, your soft couch cushion and pajamas may not provide the same level of motivation you’d have when surrounded by your coworkers in an office building.
Even when everything quiets down or you’re home alone, staying productive, getting everything done, and staying on task is challenging. But it’s definitely possible with the right toolkit. Here are some ways to stay motivated as a remote software developer.
1. Self-care is Essential
When working from home, prioritize your health. Even without COVID-19, fulfilling emotional, physical, and social demands in a distant situation is difficult. And when you’re forced to limit your interactions with colleagues to video chatting, it’s even more critical to employ enough self-care in other aspects of your life.
Every now and then, take the time to ask yourself what you could be doing to take more care of yourself. If you find loneliness, communication challenges, or the lack of in-person oversight that comes with remote work difficult, consider what you can do to help yourself. And if you enter crunch time and your stress levels soar, make sure your self-care follows suit.
2. Set up a Schedule
One of the most common misunderstandings regarding remote work is having more free time since you may work whenever you want. First of all, many software development companies work set hours even in a remote environment to ensure remote collaboration is feasible in practice.
And secondly, you’ll be surprised how easily work may get away from you if you have flexible hours and work from home. Soon enough, you’ll find yourself in unplanned overtime more often if you don’t create a strict schedule. The lack of a fixed schedule may be detrimental to more than just your personal life and spare time — without a structured workday, it’s far easier to become distracted and get off track while working. Tasks that should take 20 minutes will take several hours.
You need a clear, strict timetable and the determination to follow it. Pick your work hours and make them a habit.
3. Create a Dedicated Workspace
Since becoming a remote software engineer developer, it’s difficult to resist the comfiest areas in your house – your bed/couch. Some people work on their beds without using a table. However, it is not long before you realize that this setup is not functioning. Even if your back can handle the pressure, working from bed means you’ll begin associating your bed with your job, which will most certainly disrupt your sleep habits. This might have an impact on your productivity the next day.
A desk is necessary. If you don’t have a home office or a separate work desk space, set aside a section of your kitchen table for work.
4. Chat With Colleagues
Working remotely makes it easy to feel alienated and lonely, which saps motivation. And, if you’re accustomed to forming personal and professional ties with your coworkers by passing by their desks for a chat, make sure you’re doing it electronically as well.
Contact other team members regularly to discuss non-work issues via an online chat app or a video conference. You may even take things a step further by suggesting virtual gaming or online team-building activities.
5. Reward Yourself
Speaking of incentives, if you want to remain motivated when working remotely, you need to treat yourself from time to time. Using this basic strategy to inspire yourself daily is only one of many things you’ll have to do to stick to a routine.
For example, if you complete all of your work by 6 p.m., you may watch a couple of episodes of your favorite TV program in the evening. Alternatively, if you’ve managed to keep to your self-care and fitness schedule throughout the week, allow yourself a reward.
You’d be amazed how much a series of modest incentives may help you complete all of your tasks on time and effectively.
Hopefully, this article can help you get more ways to stay motivated and improve yourself to become a successful remote software developer. If you want to join a product-based company in Singapore and work remotely from Vietnam, Inspius can help! Find out more here.
![Most Common Job Interview Questions Part 1 [+ Sample Answers for Software Engineers]](https://inspius.vn/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/article333113-300x146.png)
