Day in a life of a web developer; Kat Wlodarczyk

My day starts at 6.30 am when the alarm goes off. I try to get up straight away, but sometimes I check my social media and the weather forecast for 10 minutes or so to fully wake my brain up. 

Around 8.15 am, I head out to take my daughter to school, giving me a nice 20 minutes walk (around 10 minutes each) to add some steps to my day. 

After returning home, I make myself a coffee (Nespresso with oat milk) and sit down at the desk to begin my work day. I usually start by checking emails, Trello board, Harvest and Slack for notifications or news from my colleagues.

After that, I dive into whatever project I’m currently working on.

Every project has its own Trello board with columns of tasks to work on, currently working on, ready for QA or completion. This system works great and ensures the correct delivery time. 

What I really like about Steadfast Collective is that there is no micromanaging. Everyone knows what they are responsible for and are in control of their daily timeline.

Depending on the day, we have different activities around the week to catch up with each other or take a little breather to clear our minds.

On Tuesdays, there is tea at 11 am, which is a 15-minute zoom call to chat about anything, and on Fridays, we play online together for half an hour. GeoGuessr is the team’s favourite at the moment, but I suck at geography, so I’m usually at the end of the scoreboard (🙊). As a fully remote team, those little get-togethers are important to socialise and get to know each other better, as you don’t have regular chit-chats here and there like you would have in the office environment.

After that, I’m back at the project until my stomach tells me it’s time for my lunch break.

I batch cook my meals a few days ahead, so all I have to do is reheat them in the microwave or an air fryer for a nutritious, warm meal. Having your kitchen close by is another perk of working from home, as I’m not tempted to spend money on take-outs.

During my half-hour break, I watch a bit of Netflix (currently watching The Umbrella Academy) or scroll through Instagram. Again, no micromanaging here, so we can take shorter or longer breaks if we want to, it just means our finish time varies.

Back at the desk to continue with my tasks. At 2 pm, the team jumps on a quick (5 mins tops) call to talk about everyone’s progress that day. As I already mentioned, everyone’s day can start and finish at different times therefore having this catch-up in the middle of the day ensures it works for everyone’s schedules.

What I really like about being a web developer is that no two projects are the same.

Every website or application I helped develop over the years has taught me different skills, and my knowledge is constantly being improved. However, if I struggle with a certain task and have exhausted all known ideas, I can always reach out to others for help.

When I first started working fully remotely, I was a bit anxious about that, as trying to solve the problem from a distance might be tricky, but with the right software, it’s as easy as if someone was just next to me. 

The software I think works great for remote working: 

• Tuple, for pair programming. A great tool that lets you share the screen, and the other person can remotely control it (move the mouse, type etc.);

• Huddle on Slack, to quickly chat things through using audio. There is also an option to screen share, but no remote control here;

• Loom, to screencast the progress or, in case of, for example, QA, bugs that would be hard to explain in writing.      

Remote working can mean different things at different companies, and it also may not be an option for everyone, but Steadfast Collective is definitely doing it right, and I can’t imagine any other form of work anymore.

Apart from the obvious logistic reasons and a more stable work-life balance, it also means I can work in an environment that is comfortable for me (starting from the desk/chair and finishing on the choice of music or lack of) to maximise my potential.   

Speaking of the environment, my workspace setup consists of:

DynamicDesk (EB2) standing desk base from FlexiSpot paired with Ikea Anfallare bamboo desktop, an office chair, MacBook Air 13’ with a Dell monitor, Apple keyboard, Apple Magic mouse, Ikea Sösdala memo board to store photos, notes or a collection of my daughter’s art, and my furry co-worker- Skywalker the cat.

The standing desk was, so far, the best purchase of the year. I can adjust the desk’s height to my needs and change position from sitting to standing every few hours.

The cable situation underneath the desk is on my to-do list. I’m still looking for the best solution to manage this “mess”.

I take the remainder of my lunch break at 3 pm to pick my daughter up from school.

This adds another 20 minute walk to move my body and add extra steps to the day count. After we’re back home, I continue working on tasks for the current project I work on until I finish work around 5.30 pm/6 pm, but of course, it depends on the time I have started and the duration of my breaks.

My evenings are pretty ordinary. Playing with my daughter, batch cooking for the days ahead and all the boring house admin stuff. To keep my body in good shape, I try to squeeze 1/2 hour of training three times a week with the Nike Training App before heading to bed around 11 pm.