How I think about remote work (as a remote worker)

I started my first fully remote role a couple months back (at Y Combinator), and getting adjusted and onboarded has been both a professional and personal learning experience.

A few tips I've picked up along the way:

1. Communicate early and openly -- Your team doesn't know your work style (and you don't know theirs), so put in extra effort to understand the communication status quo.

2. Manage your social meter -- If you love interacting with other people, deliberately build that into your work day. It's more difficult to socialize through work in a remote role, so you may have to do extra planning to get it in. (Alternatively, if you get Zoom fatigue from too many video calls, change things up with a regular phone call!)

3. Make your "commute time" your personal time -- I reserve the time I would ordinarily spend commuting on personal tasks like working out, cleaning up, reading, going for walk, etc. This gives me a set block of time for myself every day and helps me stay focused on work for the rest of the day.

Prior to covid, I never would have thought that I'd enjoy a remote role, but here I am!

If you're looking for your own remote role at a startup, I'd recommend checking out Work at a Startup - there's a toggle to show only remote roles :)