2020 is a strange year.
On one side it is scary. You do not know who will die and when. We are all working from home and don’t know when we can open the door and run around the lake.
But every time people are in trouble - they evaluate and adjust for the new environment.
Mobility is the key feature that people (or at least IT professionals) should acquire to be more productive and survive in the future.
But what is mobility for us? Does it mean that we should use 1 monitor instead of 3 and that’s it?
Devices
Mobility - is a state when you can change your environment and work without frustration.
First of all, you need to change your mindset and realize that you should work at different places. No matter if you love it or not, you should accept it. You do not need to have 5 places to work in. If cafes or parks are not for you it doesn’t mean that you will not be mobile. You can.
At least you should reach the same level of comfort at home and work.
My story started a long time ago when no one was ready for coronavirus. I just wanted to work from home. When everyone used 2 monitors and was happy, I have 2 monitors and was sad. At home, I have 1 monitor and every time I changed the environment I get a lot of frustration, different window placement, different screens etc…
Can you imagine that shock of my teammates, when I refused to use the second monitor and started to use 1. After that, I have 2 sets of the same devices. Keyboard, mouse, monitor, and even the chair was the same. After some time I just get a Laptop and was happy with that.
So my first step was simple - use the same device in any environment. Nowadays I use a single laptop and headphones at work, home, park and this is awesome.
Schedule
To be productive you need to have a schedule. Nope, I do not talk about Google Calendar, but about your plan of the day. You need to set a goal (small or big) and reach it.
When you are working from home it is harder to communicate with your teammates. Someone just wants to start a meeting immediately and right now you are in the shower and do now wat to jump to the Zoom in that second.
Planing is more about activities that you will do today: working, cleaning, learning. And when you will reach your goals endorphin will give you some happiness.
So plan a day. Start from the small tasks in your head.
Learning
Every time you stuck with something try to find the reason. Fixing with the tape is not the right way.
Sometimes you will have same problems every day. For example “How to stop watching Youtube and fix a bug?”. The answer for me, at least, is very simple - task is not interesting. For you, it may be another reason. And when you figure it out - you can then start to avoid it.
I just start to find an interesting way of how to do the job. Learn new technology during this job, find a new methodology of fixing it, or even prevent similar bugs in the future and create some tools. Working with interesting things can beat Youtube in one shot. Do you remember the times, when you were working on a new cool super-duper project for 8 hours without the rest? I remember.
Find an interesting way to do the job and you will be productive all the time.