我是怎样爱上远程办公的？| 英文随笔
Remote work
A remote idea no more
Long-time naysayer, I fell in love with remote work and became more productive and happier
Like countless Chinese impacted by the Covid-19 epidemic, I have worked at home by necessity for the past two months; but unlike many of them, I have opted for it now that I had a choice. As my office lease expired a week ago, I decided against renewing it and embraced my apartment as an effective replacement.
It was not a smooth switch. When it comes to remote work, I was sort of a Luddite, reluctant to adopt it unless I absolutely had to. Having toiled at a startup with offices spread in multiple cities (and thank God, not different time zones), I have experienced firsthand how challenging virtual communication and collaboration could be. One instant message after another, one phone call after another, one email out one email in, and yet confusion and disappointment persisted, no hope in sight. It was soul-sapping, to say the least.
The idea of working remotely never appealed to me also because I didn't have the right space and equipment. Before the Chinese New Year, I would happily bike to work every morning, mentally switching from a living environment to a working one. I needed a comfy space to work, a coworking space or coffee shops with relaxing decor and big tables. At home, I lacked the essentials.
According to wise counsel, however, when life gives you lemons, you should make lemonade. That's precisely what I did, which ultimately turned my aversion to telecommuting into affection. In the small apartment I live with my wife in central Beijing, we have two rooms, but one is a master bedroom-cum-living room (with a sofa and two little tables) and the other is a guest room-cum-study. So at first, working from home meant I had to share the only desk with my wife, a Ph.D. student taking online classes all the time. The priority went to the one who was doing the most thinking and writing at the time.
After a failed attempt to make do without another desk, we eventually bought a bigger foldable table, removed one of the small tables in the master bedroom, and improvised a second study. I know it looks and feels like a makeshift idea, but it has worked. No longer did I have to curl up on the sofa when my wife took the sole desk. I could have the work station all to myself.
The lemonade I made. Cheers.
It turned out this 200-kuai table worked wonders. I felt I reclaimed a neat and separate territory that I badly needed, and by extension, a sense of ownership. The physical comfort helped me form a set of work routines, and once I became accustomed to them, my productivity started to soar. I could sit for long hours and concentrate longer and better. The distractions common and inevitable in open-plan office spaces—irksome ringtones, obnoxiously loud and long phone talking, excuse me's, chitchatting, the ding's of the microwave oven in the public kitchen—were gone. I got more work done.
It is surprising sometimes how a small change can trigger a chain of bigger changes, and how spectacularly adaptive humans can be. To be fair, remote work has its fair share of cons. But for me, it has worked out, and I will keep working office-less, but more productive and happier.
Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara's study,
a.k.a my future study.
P.S. What is your remote work like? Do you enjoy it? What are the major pros and cons for you? Would you embrace it if you had a choice? Any tips on how to work productively remotely?
Feel free to share your experience, stories, and tips.
孟庆伟 Justin
个人微信 ID：justinqmeng
现象级英语联合创始人
《经济学人》11 年研究者
雅思写作 8 分，口语 8 分
题图：Lunch atop a Skyscraper. Author: Charles C. Ebbets.
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