I enjoyed this post, and it's not like we can say "you made that up" or "you're just trying to get fake Internet points" because it's been tried and tested. Joel's telling us exactly what he did and his awesome results. Thanks for sharing!
From personal experience I love Basecamp and Trello for project management. I've also tried Wrike but it wasn't as seamless as the other two.
I also use Hubstaff for tracking my time and getting time reports. I used to just guesstimate how much I should bill clients but that was such a headache.
I haven't used it personally but I also hear good things about Insightly.
I agree from a business standpoint, I recently downgraded from a paid plan to a free plan on a social media service because I wasn't satisfied with the support efforts.
That's even worse considering you're paying them to do just that. What are the chances that changes in the free plan? It's kind of a red flag for companies that can't muster something as simple as customer support.
Free plans make sense for new businesses that are trying to get users to test a product or service, but once it's been built and is working seamlessly SaaS companies really should start charging.
Working remotely from anywhere can be great, you just have to research the setup before you go and be prepared.
I've worked remotely from Oregon, Seattle, Singapore, Tokyo and Manila (where I am now). None of the cities except Manila caused any problems once you get around the time zone issue. The Internet in the Philippines is generally slow (averaging 1 mbps) and expensive. I'm not sure if this is due to infrastructure or a monopoly or something, but it's tough to work with a slow, expensive connection especially when you're a web developer.
I manage it by working late at night or early in the morning, when the connection seems to be faster (less people are awake and online). I also keep two different connections handy--one is my mobile data, which I can hotspot and use on my computer, and the other is a portable broadband device. That way, even if one of them loses connection (did I mention in addition to it being slow and expensive, the Internet is unreliable???) I can still work using the other one.
Even with the awful Internet I still get things done in Manila, and if it's possible here it's possible anywhere.
I was just in Manila a couple of weeks ago and found the Internet to be infuriating. I could simply not find a place with decent Internet. Even the mobile Internet was terrible. I left Manila and one point and went to a remote-ish island and got faster mobile Internet there than I did in Manila.
From my understanding, the reason for the slow speed is both infrastructure and business. Apparently all traffic in the Philippines is routed through California or something weird like that. On top of that, Filipino telecoms are corrupt and have little incentive to provide good service.
This was my case as well when I tried to work from the Philippines for a few weeks. I even stayed at a Hyatt and purchased room wifi, which did not work at all and would not be refunded by the hotel. Don’t get my started on the broadband sticks (tried three of them and none of them worked).
I’ve seen a few people successfully work from here on the nomads slack channel though. You just have to find places that actually specialize in this - like a co-working space - or an actual home because any public wifi will be spotty at best.
It's more of an issue of technology making us interact in ways that are less human. Check out their link on the study about cell users being less likely to display prosocial behavior.
Before there was facebook and twitter, there were televisions. It boils down to entertainment and how readily available it is vs how readily available spaces to safely interact with real people are.
If you live in a house, who are you going to go hang out with? Your 2 neighbours? Everybody else takes time to get to. Or you can sit down on the couch and just watch some TV and be entertained without going anywhere. There's never any conflict with a television - hence it is so appealing. You have no real ups, but no real downs. People are largely very risk averse (would much rather not get 2 dollars than lose a dollar)
The solution to people interacting with each other again, is TV/Internet blackouts after 6pm at least half of the week.
When the city I lived in had an electric blackout for 3 days - people came out of their homes and actually talked to one another, it was great. Then everybody went right back to their televisions...
There's no money to be made from people learning to get along with one another and simply talking, playing cards, going for walks... So, not going to happen :) More make-up, clothes, tv-shows and making sure people medicate themselves with overpriced drugs. If people learned to get along via come outside and talk method, the current economy would undergo severe restructuring.
To put this in another perspective; 1 gallon = 128 ounces. If you're supposed to drink 6 to 8 8oz glasses of water a day, for the same amount of water you could either remain well-hydrated for 2 to 3 days or eat a single almond.
