Working Remotely in Trenches

At this rate I think I need to sit my folks down and give them a long lecture on why my physical presence in the house doesn’t equate availability! 😂

So I’ve been working on this application lately, an e-commerce application that offers customers the opportunity to connect with international stores and deliver products to their doorstep without hassle. While trying to provide solutions to people across the globe I realized I have an internal issue I needed to fix in my house to make significant progress on the project.

As a front end developer - a fast growing enthusiastic one - I wasn’t so lucky at my first job, maybe because it wasn’t an all "techy" environment although tech was really needed to drive operations. I didn’t get to enjoy the “luxury of working from home” at least that’s what I used to think.

I opted to freelance just so I could enjoy “the luxury of working from home”. I got a few gigs from colleagues and friends in the space and I set up a low budget workspace - work desk was my ironing table and chair was an old chair from my mum’s office, now you can relate to why I said it’s low budget - right there in my sitting room.

Before now, I used to envy people that work from home but it appears that our reality differs depending on some factors such as location, available resources, etc.

My first hurdle was time management. I’d wake up early as usual to do my normal routine but because I don’t step out of my house it feels like time runs faster and differently from when I worked from a physical location. I would always tell myself that my PC is right there on my table so I don’t need to rush as I can reach it anytime I want to.

I struggled to keep up with deadlines until I realized that the only difference between working from home and working from a physical location is the settings, I soon learned that I have to treat my low budget table and chair as an office. So I got myself a white board and a marker and would write my plans for the day, work closely with it like I would in an office, and I started adjusting.

Time management soon became a thing of the past then my folks came around for holiday, my mum was on leave and every time she sees me on my laptop she’ll ask what exactly do I press the whole day. 😂

Somedays I would be asked to prepare breakfast for my nephews and nieces, sometimes lunch but I can’t refuse - it’s a typical Nigerian home so it’ll take a while for my explanation to sink. Now it’s an issue of my task fighting with my folks for my availability.

I struggled to find a balance, my folks couldn’t stomach the reality of me being in the sitting room but not interested in whatever they’re doing at a particular time, they couldn’t agree with me saying I’m not available at the moment when they can see me physically.

It really was a huge problem for me but I had to get the job done. So I changed my schedule, I became nocturnal at least for time being.

I would work all night and sleep by the day, but guess what? That only lasted for a while until my mum starts asking why do you sleep all day like one who doesn’t have a job? She eventually understood my routine although not totally and she’ll make jest of me sometimes saying it’s not under my nose you’ll be in this house and I’ll be cooking for you morning, afternoon, and night.😂

So far it has been a great journey, a challenging one and I’m happy that I’m able to find a solution to each of the problems that come my way, maybe slowly but I always pull through and it’s always with the help of my family.