Dansday
Last year, in 2025, the team at 3cat gave me the opportunity to work entirely from my home in Indonesia. Transitioning to a fully remote setup is something a lot of developers aim for, but the daily reality is a mix of incredible freedom and strict self discipline. Building from a home office completely changes your relationship with your work, and I want to share what that experience actually looked like on the ground.
Working remotely is not just about writing code from a different desk; it requires a complete shift in how you operate. Here are the core realities I experienced during my time working from home:
- Reclaiming lost time
The biggest immediate win was eliminating the commute. When you are not bleeding hours staring at the back of another car in a daily traffic jam, your day fundamentally changes. I could suddenly invest that recovered energy back into myself, my family, and my friends. That physical presence at home is the absolute best part of the arrangement. - Dealing with the unpredictable
Infrastructure in a home office will eventually test you. I learned this the hard way when I was in the middle of a smooth work session and a sudden blackout hit. My PC shut down, my wifi died, and I was completely offline. I had to scramble through my mobile connection to explain my sudden disappearance to my manager. It is a harsh reminder that you cannot control everything. - Constant communication
That blackout incident hammered home a critical rule: communication is your lifeline. When nobody can physically see you at your desk, you have to make your work visible. I learned to constantly update my team on what I was doing, what my immediate plans were, and exactly when releases were scheduled to happen. Ambiguity is the enemy of a remote engineering team. - Controlling the burnout dial
Ultimately, this setup made me significantly more productive. Because I could control my environment and filter out typical office distractions, I found myself closing a lot more tickets and fixing issues at a faster pace. I managed my own energy levels rather than conforming to an office schedule, which was exactly what I needed to keep myself from burning out while maintaining high output.
Working for 3cat remotely taught me that productivity is not about being visible in an office chair for eight hours. It is about taking ownership of your environment, being painfully clear in your communication, and doing the actual work on your own terms.