Working Remotely During a Pandemic: Tips for a New Year

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I’ve been working remotely in various forms for over seven years and even I have felt 2020 to be particularly difficult. It’s not easy to stay productive and focused when there’s a worldwide pandemic! I first wrote several tips way back in 2014 (Working Remotely: I Do It, & So Can You!), and now I’d like to offer a follow-up post of additional advice that I have learned over the past few years.

One of my tips from that blog post centered around finding a coworking space. With most coworking spaces temporarily closed, and many coffee shops offering takeout only and no dine-in, options for working outside of the home are limited and not recommended. However, staying in the house 24/7 is not ideal either, as long as you take the appropriate precautions to keep you and others around you safe. Here are a few alternative suggestions to break up your workday:

  • Get outside at least once a day! “Commute” to work with a walk around the block, or get in a bit of exercise with your activity of choice. This is probably the easiest and safest thing you can do to simulate getting ready for the day. You can even go for a walk at the end of the day before transitioning into leisure/family time as well.
  • If possible, turn one of your walks into a coffee adventure and support your local coffee shops and cafes. While my morning meeting schedule can sometimes be too crammed together to do this as often as I’d like, I enjoy going to one of my local coffee spots at least once every week or two to pick up a cup of caffeine to take back to my home office.
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Ups & Downs: My 2019

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As I’m currently writing this recap during the 2020 coronavirus pandemic, it’s hard to think of 2019 as anything but sunshine and roses. Wasn’t life so much better back then?! But unfortunately for me, it had its down moments too.

The good:
Over the summer of 2019, Tym and I had the opportunity to upgrade to a bigger house in the Central District neighborhood of Seattle! We’d been casually looking for a few months but weren’t quite certain it was something we’d commit to in 2019. I’m happy to be back close to the Capitol Hill and downtown areas, which is where we lived for our first two and a half years in Seattle.

As far as fitness goals, I continued my fitness regimen of running and boxing. This resulted in a PR in the 10k for the first time in almost 10 years! I also completed another trail marathon, DNF’d a 50k, and started biking to work more often (even during our rainy winter!)

Venice, Italy – Fall 2019

My husband and I’s big adventure last year took us to Italy, which had been on my bucket list for several years. We spent almost two full weeks exploring the beautiful cities of Venice, Rome, and Florence. I enjoyed each city for different reasons, but I certainly wouldn’t mind going back to Venice and spending more time there one day.

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Attending My First Salesforce.org Open Source Community Sprint!

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Disclaimer: While I am employed by Salesforce.org, this article is written out of my own desire. All words and opinions expressed here are mine.

In July of this year, I flew to Detroit to attend my first Salesforce.org Open Source Community Sprint! Salesforce.org hosts 3 community sprints in the United States and an additional sprint in Europe every year. Nonprofit and education customers, partners, and employees of Salesforce.org all met up for 2 days of collaboration and fun in Long Beach, Detroit, Philadelphia, and Amsterdam in 2019.

So, who should go to a sprint? I would encourage anybody involved in the Salesforce ecosystem that has a desire to contribute to Salesforce.org’s nonprofit and education open-source products to attend a sprint! Sprints are the perfect opportunity for community members to come together with Salesforce employees and partners to build something great; this includes administrators, developers, project and product managers, architects, and executives.

Sprints especially need developers! There are so many fantastic ideas that come up in every sprint, yet I felt that having more developers in Detroit would have enabled some projects to see even greater progress.

Don’t believe me that a sprint is worth attending? Just check out some of the highlights below — and follow along on Twitter in 2020 with the #SFDOSprint hashtag.

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2018: Hawaii, Weekend Trips, & Salesforce.org

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I am certainly well overdue to talk about my goals from last year and what I’m aiming to achieve in 2019 now that we’re already more than halfway through the year! Here’s a quick recap…

2018 Review

I accomplished a lot in 2018! The busiest months of the year were in February and March when Tym & I decided to go through a bathroom remodel immediately after returning from a week-long trip in Hawaii.

At the top of Haleakalā on Maui Island

Hawaii had been on our bucket list for quite a while, and it definitely did not disappoint. We had just enough time to drive the road to Hana, drive up Haleakalā, go snorkeling, and relax at our resort. We spent our entire time on Maui island, so if we ever go back I’d want to explore one of the other islands.

The Painted Ladies in San Francisco

The rest of the year was a whirlwind with many smaller trips (including my 10-year high school reunion!). I traveled to San Francisco fairly often for work and finally spent a long weekend there in the late summer. Tym & I also took a short trip to Victoria, Canada on the Victoria Clipper ferry and explored some of the islands around Seattle as well. Continue reading →

Dreamforce 2018 Recap

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This year marked my second Dreamforce conference – the first being in 2016 when I co-presented with Dan Appleman on The Dark Art of CPU Benchmarking. I’ve attended all 3 TrailheaDX conferences as well, so I felt that I was able to take those experiences and successfully navigate my way without getting too stressed or fretting over the small annoyances (especially since I wasn’t presenting this year). Dreamforce 2018 had over 170,000 registered passes – that’s a lot of people!

Dreamforce 2018

ISV Takeaways

Since I work for an ISV (Independent Software Vendor), I went into this Dreamforce looking to find some answers specifically related to managed package development and connecting with other partners. Here are what I consider the top things I learned from an ISV perspective:

  • The second-generation of packaging will likely not be Generally Available until next Dreamforce at the earliest. Salesforce is still working through a lot of issues getting this ready and it’s not quite there. For now, we’ll stick with the current packaging process to which we’re accustomed.
    • Note: ISV partners should also be wary even when this feature is GA. We typically like to give a new feature a release or two to stabilize, as there are usually always some sort of snags hit. Sometimes it’s best to be patient and keep waiting!
  • The Circles of Success for Partners sessions are tremendously helpful. I attended a session and sat at a table with some other partners who all wanted to discuss Salesforce DX and project migration strategies. What I’ve learned: Many ISVs are still struggling to fully switch over to Salesforce DX and we are in dire need of a best practices guide.

The Future Roadmap

As always, there were a number of features and announcements at Dreamforce that aren’t quite ready yet (though many are nearly ready, with the Winter ’19 release). Some of the highlights: Continue reading →