Thursday, August 22, 2013

Things I like vs things that make me work better.

One thing about working remotely is you get more opportunity to customise your work environment. This has taught me that things that I like or make me feel better don't necessarily make me work better. This should not come as a surprise, really, but it has.

Two examples: I always thought of myself as a morning person - I like getting up early and not staying up late, and I feel good when I wake up early. But I realised I am much more productive later in the day. It doesn't seem to be the number of  hours after I wake up, it is about actually being later in the day. So I work better if I get up later and work later. Unfortunately I don't often get to do that, but I do when I can.

Next, I prefer my work space to be light and bright. But I actually work better in a pretty dim environment. I have to take regular breaks to get some natural light though, otherwise I just feel like I'm turning into a troll.

Just some random thoughts.