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I've been a remote freelancer on and off for about 12 years now. In a lot of cases the clients I've had where I work remotely, were clients that either A) aren

I've been a remote freelancer on and off for about 12 years now. In a lot of cases the clients I've had where I work remotely, were clients that either A) aren't tech businesses and typically don't have developers working on-site anyhow, B) I worked on-site with them for a while, and then either moved or just stopped coming into their office or C) were referred to me from another remote client. Communication is the biggest part of success or failure when working remotely. Slacking off on communication is a surefire way to bring about misunderstandings and potential conflict. Always clarify everything you discuss, never leave anything up to assumptions or guesswork. Bug the hell out of the other people you're depending on (client, coworkers etc), send them regular update emails even if they didn't ask for it. I've managed a lot of remote workers. If it takes you more than 24hrs to respond to an important email, or you leave me hanging past a milestone with no update, or you miss scheduled conference calls, can't jump on chat in an emergency etc - it doesn't matter how good you are, you'll get fired. If you want to work remote, you need to be proactive about communicating, and very clear every time. As a remote worker, personally my biggest problems have always been getting a good routine and keeping up productivity. If you're the type of person who is distracted easily (like me), remote work can be challenging from home. I have all kinds of productivity tricks - site blockers, pomodoro timers, certain music, etc. The biggest thing to me is getting out of the house once a day at least, shuffling around my environment I find motivational. I'll go to a coffee shop for a few hours each day and its often the most productive few hours of that day. Getting a shared office / desk space, co-working with friends, working from the road, library etc are also great ways to change things up and put yourself in work-mode. Hope thats useful advice. Good luck!

ben1040 13y ago
This is great advice, especially about getting out of the house and having a routine. I am on my second remote position and having a daily routine is essential to not falling into productivity hell. I am renting an office in a coworking space so I can have a place to "go to work" rather than working from home. It adds a routine, it gives me separation between work and home, and it's nice to have human contact over the course of the day.
- rwhitman 13y ago
  Yea I used to rent an office for a few years. I learned some important things - particularly making sure that you have the right office environment for your productivity. I unfortunately rented a space before the 'coworking' revolution and got kind of trapped in an office with non-tech guys much older than me constantly bugging about IT advice, a rent barter agreement when my finances couldn't swing the overhead that was hard to break (I basically became an indentured web-servant for a print design agency), and eventually a realization that I wasn't even being productive in the office. Been a skeptic about offices ever since, but definitely curious that a proper coworking space might be different..
  - collyw 13y ago
    Productivity is one of the reasons I want to make the jump to freelancing. I currently have a full time job, and enjoy the periods where I am left to get on with my work, but all to often the non-technical users will not read error messages, and ask me stupid questions to "fix their excel". It makes it impossible to work on certain things, like learning a front end framework when you are being bugged with trivial tasks like this every half hour. (The fact we are still using excel as a data import solution bugs me as well, as I have complained about the lack of reliability for a long time now). So freelancing would hopefully allow me to do the sort of work I want to do. I know there is a whole load of other stuff I will need to manage, but it must be better than fixing formatting issues in excel.
    - casperb 13y ago
      If you are a freelancer, the lame basic PC questions are still coming your way. Maybe not from collegues, but now from clients. There are always people who think you are there to help with there PC questions. Also if the hired you 2 years ago for their website.

ben1040 13y ago

This is great advice, especially about getting out of the house and having a routine. I am on my second remote position and having a daily routine is essential to not falling into productivity hell. I am renting an office in a coworking space so I can have a place to "go to work" rather than working from home. It adds a routine, it gives me separation between work and home, and it's nice to have human contact over the course of the day.

rwhitman 13y ago
Yea I used to rent an office for a few years. I learned some important things - particularly making sure that you have the right office environment for your productivity. I unfortunately rented a space before the 'coworking' revolution and got kind of trapped in an office with non-tech guys much older than me constantly bugging about IT advice, a rent barter agreement when my finances couldn't swing the overhead that was hard to break (I basically became an indentured web-servant for a print design agency), and eventually a realization that I wasn't even being productive in the office. Been a skeptic about offices ever since, but definitely curious that a proper coworking space might be different..
- collyw 13y ago
  Productivity is one of the reasons I want to make the jump to freelancing. I currently have a full time job, and enjoy the periods where I am left to get on with my work, but all to often the non-technical users will not read error messages, and ask me stupid questions to "fix their excel". It makes it impossible to work on certain things, like learning a front end framework when you are being bugged with trivial tasks like this every half hour. (The fact we are still using excel as a data import solution bugs me as well, as I have complained about the lack of reliability for a long time now). So freelancing would hopefully allow me to do the sort of work I want to do. I know there is a whole load of other stuff I will need to manage, but it must be better than fixing formatting issues in excel.
  - casperb 13y ago
    If you are a freelancer, the lame basic PC questions are still coming your way. Maybe not from collegues, but now from clients. There are always people who think you are there to help with there PC questions. Also if the hired you 2 years ago for their website.