#tiger ted

When the Wifi stops working, you gotta have a backup plan.

This is was a surprisingly nice break. Thanks, Winnnie. I’ve learned so much.

Recovering

This week is all about recovering a bit. So I’ve been taking things slower; this week is more about helping others and not taking myself too seriously, after my recent burnout.

I’d say I’ve been doing okay... but it’s surprisingly difficult to just sit still and do nothing when the atmosphere around you is one of getting things done. Having downtime sounds like the easiest thing to do, but when you’re used to always being in faux productivity mode all the time, it gets surprisingly difficult, your brain never shuts down.

So today I’ve worked on a few ideas, explored designs for my portfolio and discussed some ideas about following and maintaining project ideas with Janne, which has been most helpful getting my mind back on track again.

Work has restarted

Work, as in my dayjob working for GatherContent, has restarted this past Monday, which I was quite looking forward to — I’ve been wanting to try and working remotely — remotely for a while and see how it all works out.

So what better way to start than working from a treehouse?

The place in the photo is Tiger Ted, just a few blocks away from Maya. Very good coffee, a chilled treehouse at the top with plenty of books and even a comfortable sofa to sleep work from.

For dinner, I’ve tried the best grilled chicken I remember having in my life: yes, it was that good! I don’t know the name of the place (it was in Thai), but I know where to find it on the map. I’ll be returning there again for sure; a good healthy and solid meal will only set you back around 80 Baht. 

Thoughts on remote-remote working

Getting used to working from a new schedule hasn’t been easy — but I guess that was the challenge. I’m used to starting my working day very early, usually around 8am and wrapping up around 5h ~ 5h30pm. To be able to coordinate with my team in London, I’m now starting to work at around 12h30 ~ 1pm, which means that my mornings are now my evenings; it’s not an easy shift to do just like that, especially since I’m still waking up early.

That does mean I am now missing out on some of the Hacker Paradise goodness. Alex did a talk on Sleep Hacking that I couldn’t pay any attention to, because it happened at a very reasonable 5pm local time; but I was working. Today there’s a house party starting at 7pm — I’ll be working.

Remote working definitely exercises discipline a lot. You’ll have to remind yourself so many times of why you do what you do and who you want to become, and it’s easy to get a bit sidetracked.

For example, yesterday I didn’t get sidetracked on work, but my mind found a way to cope with what I was missing out on by eating shits loads of crap. Ice cream, cookies, you name it — I had it all.

#shame

But then again this is what remote working does to you — it makes you learn about who you are and it constantly reminds you to pay attention to your feelings, because you will always feel like you could be or doing something/somewhere else.