wordpress – Cesar Abeid

A few weeks ago I joined fellow Automattician Dustin Hartzler as we were interviewed by our friend Erik Fisher, host of the phenomenal Beyond the To-Do List podcast.

We talked about the rewards and challenges of remote work, including our workstation setup, balancing family and work, staying productive, fitness, and wearing pants 🙂

Click here to listen to this podcast episode.

Besides being my coworker and friend, Dustin hosts the weekly Your Website Engineer podcast. If you are into WordPress, I really recommend you subscribe to this one.

This is my second appearance on Beyond the To-Do List – Erik had me on the first time to talk about my Project Management for You book.

Besides being a lot of fun, it’s a great honour to be included in Erik’s extensive list of amazing guests, such as Carl Newport, David Allen, Jason Van Orden, John Acuff, Chris Brogan, Michael Hyatt, and many others.

It’s been over a year now since I started working at Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com and a bunch of other awesome products.

While at first it was a big adjustment to work from home and have so much freedom, I’m now 100% used to it and loving it even more.

I get a lot of questions about what it is like to work there, what it is like to work from home, and also what it is like to make my own work schedule.

So here’s a little post in which I describe a typical day of work for me. Let me know if you have any questions by adding a comment below!

5AM: I wake up and spend some time alone before the kids wake up. I do some reading, praying, and meditating. This is especially important this year, when I’m trying to focus more on my interior life.

6AM: I go to my “cloffice” and start my day by connecting with WordPress.com users via live chat. This is always exciting, as I never know the questions I’ll get, or what issues our users are facing.

The Cloffice: The guest room closet that we converted into an office.

8AM: Coffee and breakfast with my family.

8:30AM: Back to live chat, catching up on e-mail, and multitasking a bit, now that I’ve had some coffee!

11:30AM: Break to go to the gym, eat some lunch, and shower 🙂

1:30PM: At this point, sometimes I choose to go to a coffee shop to continue my workday. I then reply to some more messages, and work on different projects.

2:30PM: A 30-minute chat with a co-worker. We are encouraged to do this and have work “buddies” who can help us and be helped as we navigate the excitement and challenges of remote work. I always enjoy these calls.

3PM: If I’m home, I take a short coffee break and enjoy a few moments with my wife.

3:30PM: Back to the computer! I now check on our team goals, projects, and commitments and see whether we are moving at a healthy pace to reach our weekly goals.

4PM: Answer some more customer emails, follow-up on anything that needs attention before the end of the day.

5PM: Close the computer and end my work day.

This is a pretty typical day for me.

One of the neatest parts of my day is life’s little “interruptions.” Let me explain: Because we homeschool, my awesome wife Amy and our kids are home all day. I have an open-door policy, so they can always come in and give me a hug or tell me something they want to share – even if I’m working. Apart from the few times when I’m on an important call, these little interruptions do not distract me from what I’m doing. In fact, they remind me of why I work in the first place.

Automattic is a great company to work for, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to work on something meaningful, while at the same time witnessing my family life from a front-row seat.

Let me know if you have any questions!

Oh, and by the way, we are hiring.