Remote: Office Not Required

by David Heinemeier Hansson

you can use the layout of your house as a switch. Make sure that real work only happens when you’re in your dedicated home office.

You can get several days’ worth of work completed in one motivation-turboed afternoon. Or, when you’re motivation starved, you can waste a week getting a day’s worth of work done.

Trying to conjure motivation by means of rewards or threats is terribly ineffective. In fact, it’s downright counterproductive. Rather, the only reliable way to muster motivation is by encouraging people to work on the stuff they like and care about, with people they like and care about.

If a worker’s motivation is slumping, it’s probably because the work is weakly defined or appears pointless, or because others on the team are acting like tools.

If you’re working remotely and find yourself taking a week to do a day’s work, that’s a flashing red light and it should be heeded. The sooner you act on that message, the better.

Motivation is pivotal to healthy lives and healthy companies. Make sure you’re minding it.

“When I retire, I’m going to travel the world” is a common dream, but why wait for retirement? If seeing the world is your passion, you shouldn’t wait until old age to pursue it.

Creative work that can be done remotely generally only requires a computer and an Internet connection.

If you don’t burden yourself with a mortgage, car payment, cable TV, and other supposed necessities of modern living, there’s usually more than enough left over for travel and accommodation.

Routine has a tendency to numb your creativity.

Changes of scenery, however, can lead to all sorts of new ideas.

So don’t think of working remotely as just shifting your routine from the office to the home. The choice of kitchen table versus cubicle is a false one.

There are two fundamental ways not to be ignored at work. One is to make noise. The other is to make progress, to do exceptional work.