Remote work experiments for a productive & happy life

Last updated on November 18th, 2022 at 11:36 am

Today I want to share tips on how to integrate remote work into your life.

While there’s no “right way” to structure your work and life, seeing examples of how others “counter-program” against the 9-5 can inspire you to tweak your schedule to live a happier, more fulfilling life.

I hope this guide inspires you to experiment with 1 or 2 small changes that’ll save you time, money, and make you more productive at work.

Note: Every quarter I publish an update on goals set for the year. You can read my 2022 Q3 update here.

The Research: Segmentors vs. Integrators

My colleague Alison Kaprielian recently introduced me to the concepts of “Segmentors” vs. “Integrators” in the context of remote work:

• Segmentors = rigidly separate their personal and work lives
• Integrators = those who tend to blur the lines between the two.

Google has done research on this. They found that those who rigidly separate their personal and work lives are significantly happier about their well-being than those who tend to blur the lines between the two. Source

I don’t think the research tells the full story. The traditional work schedule made integration less feasible. Segmenting was the norm. Remote work has disrupted this traditional model, but we haven’t had enough time to adjust.

Without enough “reps” at integration, people will be happier segmenting their lives because: (1) it’s what we’re used to, (2) it’s how others around us behave and (3) there aren’t clear best practices on HOW to integrate work and personal life.

With remote work becoming a viable alternative, more of these best practices are becoming codified (more on this below).

The Benefits of Integration

Why integrate your work and personal life? Because when you zig while others zag, it’s easier to save time, earn more money, and live a healthier life:

Save time: Reverse commute, avoid queues

Earn more money: Start a side hustle, look for overemployment opportunities

Live healthier: Get outside, workout regularly, cook at home

What’s important to note: integration is a two-way street. Yes, sometimes it means taking a call after dinner when someone typically working a 9-5 might be off. But it also means you can take an hour in the afternoon to tend to personal care or get to the gym.

As you try and do this, you’ll run into headwinds: it can feel like you’re doing something wrong. Or if you’re surrounded by others who prescribe totally to 9-5, it can feel like you’re the “weird one.”

The best way to start is by treating it like a series of experiments. Try it on like a piece of clothing. If it doesn’t fit your life right now, put it back. But if you find something you like, add it to your rotation.

8 Tiny Remote Work Experiments You Can Run This Week

The best experiments are small ones you can run quickly and easily. You can group these into three buckets:

• Practice “productive procrastination”
• Manage energy, not time
• Design a bespoke workday

1/ Practice “productive procrastination”

I’ve practiced this for years, but I borrowed the naming from Abe Wagner on the naming.

Sometimes you need a mental break. Other times, you can’t summon the willpower to do your next task. Either way, you’re not feeling it. So you procrastinate.

Procrastination is normal. But if you’re going to procrastinate, you might as well be productive about it.

Working remotely is the perfect setting to practice productive procrastination. Things I get done during the “work day:”

• Dishes
• Laundry
• Food prep
• Cook meals
• Clean
• Book flights
• Banking

Once you understand your typical rhythm, you can be more proactive, scheduling “productive procrastination” moments into your day. Then you can integrate more into your work day, like:

• Gym
• Grocery shopping
• Haircuts
• Dropping off dry cleaning

Certain tasks you’re going to procrastinate on. Certain times of day, you’re going to be low energy. Then the small tasks snowball on you. With remote work, you can productively procrastinate to stop it from happening.

2/ Manage energy, not time

By now, everyone knows the importance of time management.

But not everyone has explored energy management. The idea is simple: instead of optimizing tasks around how much time is available, you should optimize for the amount of energy needed for the task.

For example, creating a client-facing marketing deck might only take an hour, but will require your best thinking. Rather than slot the work into any available block of time, slot it in when you have the most energy available to tackle the task.

Because remote work gives you more autonomy over your schedule, it’s easier to experiment with managing energy over time. Some frameworks to help you get started:

• Maker’s Schedule, Manager’s Schedule. Paul Graham’s take is: separate the day between the work of a “maker” (programming) and a “manager” (attending meetings). For him, this meant programming from dinner until 3 am, then not getting into the office 11 amam.
• Deep Work vs. Shallow Work. Cal Newport explains it takes focused, deep work to produce remarkable things. If your goal is to produce remarkable work, you need to defend high energy, deep work sessions with time-blocking, depth rituals, and shutdown routines.
• Power Box Prioritization. Shaan Puri hates Todo lists because they lack prioritization. Instead, he uses a framework called Power Boxing. Instead of a list, Todo’s go in a 2×2 matrix. Impact goes on the X-axis, and urgency on the y-axis. Then, high impact, high urgency prioritize high-impact, urgent tasks for when you have the most energy. Note that time is irrelevant. This could be a quick task, like that phone call or email you’ve been putting off.

3/ Design a bespoke workday

As a society, we accepted the Monday to Friday, 9-5 workday because it was convenient to keep everyone on the same, consistent schedule. With remote work and the Internet, we don’t need to adhere to those rules anymore.

Instead, experiment with designing your own bespoke workday. A day that fits with your lifestyle and enables you to do your best work.

Some examples I’ve seen:

• Frontload the week. Monday and Tuesday are heavy days, putting in 10-12 hour each. Then, on Wednesday work a normal 8 hours. Finally, shift into the weekend with a couple “light” days on Thursday and Friday, putting in 4-6 hours each.
• Sunshine schedule. Work 6 am – 11 am. Then take advantage of the daylight by spending it outside, living your life. Then use the back half of the day for more work, from 4 pm – 8 pm.
• No-meeting days. We incorporate this at my current company, Persefoni, with varying degrees of success. Some people ignore it. For others, it’s THE mechanism that helps them get work done. The rule is simple: meetings are only allowed on 3 days of the week, e.g. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Tuesday and Thursday are strictly no-meeting days so you have the opportunity to plan focused time accordingly.

TL;DR there’s no “right way” to structure your work and life. But seeing examples of “counter-programming” against the 9-5 can inspire you to tweak your schedule to live a happier, more fulfilling life.

Does it take some adjusting? Yes. Keep in mind we adhere to the “9-5” because it’s convenient for society. It’s not necessarily what’s best for each individual. Remote work enables us to experiment; take advantage of it! Start with 1-2 experiments from one of the buckets this week:

• Practice “productive procrastination”
• Manage energy, not time
• Design a bespoke workday

Image: Everything Everywhere All at Once written and dir by: Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert; starring: Michelle Yeoh