I have been working strictly online for 5 years now, i've gone from miserable times, to bad, to ugly and then great, and again to miserable.
I've done it all from paid commenting, to translating, content writing, engineering, even crypto development and of course trading.
I worked for individuals, companies, startups and for myself...
Through all this i learned 4 things:
- There is never a shortage of earning opportunities if you WANT to work
- Working remotely you work harder than in a job where you are physically present on-site
- Working for others you work harder than for yourself
- Working from home completely annihilates the already thin line between personal and professional life
Infinite number of ways to make money online
As a kid i always wondered how to make money without having a job - but having ~4h free every night which i could use to work. I didn't know any legitimate ways to earn and nobody i asked did either. So i have spent my time playing computer games and learning physics.
Looking back, there were so many things i could, so many ways to earn it is almost painful to think how i wasted my time. Yet i see kids today wondering the same and again no one gives them a good answer.
If you look for an answer on the internet, it spits out only the trite and jaded options like blogging and affiliate marketing. We all know how hard it is to really get any money from blogging - surely this post will slip through the cracks like all the others - see what i mean?
Yet those of us who have been in this game for a while know there are numerous better ways to make money online. Ways that do not require 1000s of hours of building a following, writing articles, messing with serverside issues, etc.
I am talking about job-like things which anybody with the required knowledge can do. Mostly these are done on freelance/contractual basis, but it is easy to set up such a relationship. In most countries you only need to sign a contract, and after you get paid, fill a simple tax report. Even when i was 16 i could have done that!
Crypto opened even more new ways to earn, which millennial and younger generations could bank on. Yet most are clueless about them and so are the biggest search-engines!
Working remotely means working harder
Of course working online isn't all rosy and great as some make it sound and as most think it is.
Yes, there is no commute, for the most part no yelling boss and no annoying coworkers. But there is also no social interaction - which we as social animals NEED - and you have far more responsibility because you have near zero guidance from your superiors.
But the biggest problem i have had - still have actually - is a lack of clear work/life boundary. Here i am not talking about personal issues and boundaries, rather i am referring to the feeling of always being "on duty".
I guess we have some innate psychological trait which drives us to work harder when we are not present on the job site.
It could be our fear of inadequacy and of being rejected, that drives us to deliver more. Because 'what if boss says i didn't work 8 full hours? How can i prove i did?'
Research shows that people who work online ("remotely") work overtime a lot - on average 1.5h every day - but do not report it as overtime.
We could say 'why not, after-all they can work while others commute', but commute is generally not a "creatively taxing" work. This overtime from working remotely can quickly lead into a "creative burnout".
I know i am using many " here, it is because our vocabulary has not yet have the time to adapt to the modern-day circumstances. But the issues i am talking about are very real.
There has been a lot of research and experiments done on this subject, which shows that for every positive aspect of online work there is also a downside and vice versa. So while making money online may seem great at first (and honestly for the most part it is) it is not the right "job type" for everyone.
We are hard-wired to slave for someone else
In the recent years i tried to make money with several personal ventures - offline - and failed miserably each time. Looking back, i know the things i did wrong, but i also see another issue. And i have observed it in others too:
We work harder for others than we do for ourselves!
I cannot speak for others, but for me personally it is that sense of duty which i mentioned above. When i am on "other's time" it drives me to deliver as much as i possibly can.
But when i am on "my own time" i work slower, risk less and generally am less productive. It is not a lack of motivation that causes this, but rather a lack of sense of urgency. And i have not yet found a good way to offset this.
Just a picture for the featured image window - source https://pixabay.com/photos/application-online-job-application-2860023/
How about you, do you like to work online or prefer to be physically present?
Have you found a way to make yourself be just as productive for yourself as you are for your boss?
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