This spotlight illustrates how each remote worker finds freedom and productivity in their everyday life, in their unique way. Get inspired and see how you can improve your workspace, workflow, and work/life balance.

Name: Liam Donoghue 

Pronouns: He / him / his

Current Job: SEO Lead / Marketing Executive 

Current Location: Rainey Manchester, United Kingdom  

Current Computer: A battered 2012 mac book pro, refurbished (Don’t try running Premiere Pro on it)

Current mobile devices: iPhone s 6

Prior to my current role at Passion.io I worked for an IT recruitment agency. I hosted and edited technology podcasts with industry leaders in tech and marketing. I learned so much from hosting these shows. When I was talking to our guest I noticed the same point kept cropping up: remote working is the future!

This got me really curious to try remote working. I also believed that the traditional 9-to-5 career had seen its day (Covid-19 will only hasten its demise), I think we’re moving into a society that enables more fluid, independent ways of working. I knew this style of working would suit me so began looking for a remote role. It was then that I found Passion.io. I was really drawn to Passion.io’s mission. Our goal is to empower 30,000 experts to have a positive impact on 10,000,000 people by 2022. We aim to do this by providing coaches, teachers, and tutors with mobile apps so they can monetise their skills online and reach more students. 

I’m a huge fan of personal development, I think as individuals we always need to be learning and growing. So when I found Passion.io and saw they were a remote company it was a match made in heaven. 

7am - 7:30am - I like to wake up, grab a coffee, and watch the news.

7:30am - 9am - One of the things I love about working remotely is the lack of a commute. When I was working in my old company I was commuting 2 hours a day! That’s wasted time in my eyes. I like to use my mornings to learn new skills. I’ve been teaching myself to code for over a year and I’m currently struggling with Javascript ES6. If I’m not using this time to brush up on my coding skills I’m learning the piano (I have a keyboard so the headphones are in, it’d be a bit inconsiderate to be playing music so early in the morning otherwise!).

9am - 9:30am My working day starts. I use the first 30 minutes of my day to check out what’s going on in my industry. SEO and inbound marketing are always evolving so I think its good practice to stay ahead of the curve and read up on the latest trends in my field. 

9:30am - 9:45am I’ll have a quick look at the traffic metrics for our website. If I need to update any traffic reports for the business I’ll do that during this time too.

9:45am - 1pm My morning is reserved for deep work. I aim to produce at least 3 pieces of content for our website a week as well as organising and editing our podcast. If I’m writing I need a distraction-free zone where I can research topics and produce rankable articles. 

I find I work best in the morning. As the day wears on I become less focused and find it more difficult to get into a good workflow. So I switch off Slack, close down as many distractions as I can, and get some serious writing done during this time.

1pm - 2pm Lunchtime. I love cooking, so it’s great working from home as I can use the kitchen to make some great midday eats. 

2pm - 6pm After lunch the afternoon is normally reserved for meetings and strategy calls. I also use this time to complete more mundane tasks, like data entry or scheduling reminders in my calendar. 

Basically, I use the afternoon to do any tasks which don’t require long periods of intense concentration. I might review our on-page SEO scores, outreach to other companies for collaborations, or schedule social media posts. This is the time where I get through the bulk of my smaller jobs. 

6pm - 9pm After work I eat (obviously) then head over to my music studio. I run a music blog called All My Friends, and that takes up a lot of my spare time. One of the reasons I love working remotely is that it gives me the freedom to work on personal projects like this outside of work.  

9pm - 9:15pm I might have a quick look at Google Analytics. At Passion.io we believe strongly in work-life balance. It’s central to our company culture. So I try not to check our analytics out of hours but sometime I can’t resist.

9:15pm - 11pm This is relaxing time before bed. I try to block off at least 30 minutes of no screen time before sleeping too, sometimes that doesn’t happen if I’m watching something really good or online with friends. 

Covid-19 has meant I’ve been working exclusively from my bedroom for the past few months. I have a pretty stripped back set up. A desk, a laptop, and a whiteboard. I do have a very comfy chair I purchased from an auction house. In a previous life (Not really a previous life, just an old job), I used to value art and this chair is a memento of that time.

That’s probably the only extravagant thing about he setup. It’s good for getting the work done though. My keyboard isn’t far either. If I need a 5-minute de-stress I sometimes jump on it an play a few bars to clear my head.

 

For a large part of my working day, I can’t listen to music. When I’m writing I need a lot of focus so music is a distraction.

That being said, when I’m working on less intense projects I will normally listen to a dance mix sent over by a guest for my music blog. It’s a great way for me to kill two birds with one stone and the music often sets a nice work rhythm.   

I do love starting every day with a steaming hot cafetieré of coffee. The one I’ve got can fill 3 good sized mugs and its never far from my desk. 

 

• • •

Connect with Liam:
https://allmyfriendsmcr.com

Connect with Passion:

Website: Passion.io
Facebook @passion.io

LinkedIn @passion.io

Instagram @passion_io