Web Developers On How To Stay Productive When Working From Home

Even though BelugaLabs has three offices, many of our best developers work from home. If it’s convenient for them, who are we to judge? After all, all of us are different, and what works for one destroys the workflow of the other. That’s why we allow our team to work however they want. So if you’re wondering can web developers work from home or not, for us, the answer is a resounding “yes.”

The extroverts out there might have a hard time understanding why someone would refuse to socialize in an office — after all, that’s how all the best ideas appear, right? Well, we at Beluga embrace the individual model of working, and a lot of the best web design agencies started doing the same.

While brainstorming is best when people are gathered together, work itself can be done in any place as long as you have all the necessary equipment. But how to stay organized and not get distracted?

Can web developers work from home? They can, but it can be tricky

“Go to work” without going to work

What we mean is start working at the same time as you would at the office. Flexible time hours can be good, but if you want to stay as productive as someone would at the office, you have to have a proper schedule. It stops you from procrastinating and helps to focus.

Create your home office before parting ways with the real one

Working from home sounds good… until you remember that your neighbor has been doing his renovation project for the last five years, or that your parents prefer to watch reality TV at full volume, or that your cat sleeps exclusively on warm laptops. So, prepare everything in advance. Have a separate room just for yourself, or buy noise-canceling headphones. Whatever you’re doing, you can’t afford constant distractions.

Buy a decent web camera —  web developers can’t exist without one

Safe for some more expensive notebooks like the MacBook Pro, most modern laptops have horrid web cameras and mics, making video calls a pain for everyone involved. You can buy a better laptop, but a cheaper and more logical solution would be to buy a good web camera. Preferably with a decent mic built-in. That way, your coworkers will be able to hear and see you. Trust us; chances are your laptop camera is useless.

Buy a decent office chair, NOT a gaming chair

We know what you’re thinking: this one YouTuber has a fancy gaming chair and looks sooo comfortable using it. Well, don’t believe all you see on the internet (except for this article): the whole gaming chair market exists solely thanks to influencers who get these chairs for free. And in our experience, no gaming chair is as comfortable as a medium-priced office chair. Yes, it won’t look like it belongs in an F1 car, but that’s the point: F1 drivers are miserable during races, and you will be, too, if you overspend on a gaming chair instead of buying something that actually makes sense.

Taking too few breaks is as bad as taking too many breaks

People are different: some make too many pauses to procrastinate, which results in missed deadlines. Some work too much, feeling guilty for the sightliest of breaks. Both situations are unhealthy: you don’t have to force yourself to work non-stop to be productive. If anything, it makes you more tired. Take pauses between tasks, walk around the “office,” and clear your head before making an important call. We’re not robots, and a few 5-minute breaks won’t make you a freeloader.