Destination Remote: Nigeria 🇳🇬 Africa's most populated country

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Hello (future) Remote Friend,

Happy to see you again for a new edition of Destination Remote. This week we’re heading To Nigeria, Africa’s most populated country.

Plus, it appears most of you want to get tips to land a remote job. So I partnered up with a Remote Career Coach to share actionable tips every week in Destination Remote. And we’re starting today!

Let’s freaking go!

PS: Tell me which part of the newsletter you prefer by responding to this mail.

👀 A glimpse of what you can expect today

•  🇳🇬 Meet Ngozi, the cool remote mom

• 👨‍👨‍👦 Remote Working tips for parents

• 🧑‍🏫 First tips for landing a remote job

• 📈 The power skills revolution

• 🏋️‍♂️ Remote move challenge

 👋 Have you met Ngozi (🇳🇬)?

Two weeks ago, I met Ngozi (or Ng, pronounced Engie), a remote-working mom based in Lagos, Nigeria. It was a fun call because I was sitting in the car while my fiance was driving and our call got interrupted because I passed the Belgian border into France. The beauty of working remotely, right? Luckily, after that, everything went smoothly.

When we met, Ngozi was a Senior HR Generalist for a US company in charge of 160 people in Nigeria. This week, she started a new remote job. She’s also responsible for 2 cool kiddos at home. I even got the chance to meet the oldest on camera 😎. Later in the letter, Ng will tell us how she manages to be productive with her kids around at home!

💡 Ng’s Remote Work tips (if working from home):

• 🧑‍💻 Establish a dedicated workspace

  → Designate a quiet and organized space in your home

• 🕜  Establishing a daily routine

  → Especially when you have kids with extracurricular activities

• 👀 Minimize Distractions and Practice Self-Discipline

  → Identify your biggest distractions and take proactive steps to minimize them (e.g. household chores)

🗽 Ngozi’s must-see in Lagos:

“It’s really difficult to choose only one place. I’d say, Balogun Market. Don’t forget to take a guide or there’s a 99,99% chance you’ll get lost!”

🖥 Set-up of the week

👶 Remote Work Tips for Parents

Being a parent and working remotely is amazing. It allows you to be around your children, share more moments together and not miss out on important family moments. But it can also be complicated sometimes. Small children don’t always understand why/when mommy or daddy is working.

Ngozi shared three really cool tips and tricks to be more productive as a home-working parent:

1. Ngozi has one room that is dedicated to being “Mommy’s office”. And she has only one ground rule: when the door is closed, you cannot interrupt unless it’s an emergency!
   
   At first, this was complicated. You know, wanting a cookie is an emergency for a 5 years-old 😅. So it led her to point 2.
   

2. The conversation: Ngozi has a really nice method to get her children to understand when they can interrupt mommy in case of an emergency. This is what she told her children:
   
   “I understand you want a cookie, but you know, mommy needs to work and earn money to buy cookies. When this door is closed, I am making money to buy you cookies. If you interrupt me, I cannot earn money and I will not be able to buy you cookies. What about you let mommy work to buy cookies and we have a cookie later?”
   
   After this, her children better understood that a cookie wasn’t an emergency. Way to go, Ngozi 🤩
   

3. Extracurricular activities: Make sure your kids have activities outside of school, it will leave you with some time for deep work when they are not at home 😉. Plus, it’s good for them!

🌍 Remote jobs

Imagine working from anywhere without having any location constraints.
It’s possible and here are 5 WFA job offers to prove it 👇

• Senior Manager, Business Development @ Multiplier

• Technical Support Specialist @ ROCKET.CHAT

• Product Manager @ Metabase

• Executive Assistant (international) @ Varsity Tutors

• Growth Account Executive @ Iterable

_{Is your company hiring for remote positions? Contact me to be featured in next week’s newsletter (WFA positions only).}

🗞 The Remote Work Gazette

• The power skills revolution: Unleashing the potential of new workplace competencies. Read more

• 4 Things to Remember When Searching for Remote Jobs. Read more

• Work Shift: These CEOs Are Still Bullish on Remote Work. Read more

🏋️‍♀️ Remote move challenge

Let's face it, working remotely often means we're glued to our desks longer than we'd like to admit. It affects our health, zaps our energy, and impacts our overall productivity and happiness.

To keep yourself active and energized, every week I propose a short challenge for you. Here is this week’s remote move challenge:

• Do the plank every morning and add 10 seconds every day

• Incorporate at least one walking call into your schedule

• Dedicate one hour per day to working while standing

• Take at least four 5-minute walks every workday

I promise you, it will make you more productive and you will feel a lot better 💪

📊 Remote Stat of the week

The most common Remote Work struggles:

• 21% of remote workers stay home too often

• 15% say they regularly deal with loneliness

• 14% struggle with different timezones

• 11% find it hard to unplug from work

• 11% struggle to stay motivated

• 9% find it difficult to focus

• 9% say they work more

Don’t fall into the trap of remote work. Set boundaries, take breaks, plan focus moments, and have a hobby to go outside!

Source: Buffer’s State of Remote 2023

Which remote work buddy of yours would love this newsletter?
Be a good friend & transfer Destination Remote so they can subscribe here ✌️

From Belgium for the next 4 weeks 🇧🇪

Remotely yours,

Alex

PS: I’m on a mission to meet a remote worker in every country. See my progression here and contact me if you are currently working remotely from a country I haven’t checked on the map yet.