Vivek Nair

Doug Safreno

I've done back-to-back two hour sprints. I make lunch by myself, eat quickly,
and get back to work. All of a sudden, I'm browsing through NBA news, politics,
really anything to distract myself. I turn on a "distraction blocker" and go
back and face my work. But I just can't do it. I start feeling guilty. Why am I
so terrible and unproductive?

This was me, in 2018, during my first stint working remotely. I'd sold my
SF-based company to a company in Santa Clara, and after spending 3 hrs per day
commuting, I made the switch to remote work. I was resolved to be mature and
productive while working remotely, but I discovered it was a massive struggle.

Now, almost all of my friends are going through the same process, only with even
more reason to be distracted - a global pandemic.

In this article, I discuss how loneliness distracted me and how I got over the
hurdle of remaining productive while working remotely. This focuses primarily on
my time working at a company, and not on my current endeavor as an entrepreneur;
the entrepreneur's struggles with loneliness are quite different. I hope this
can help others going through the same process today.

Why loneliness is distracting
I believe that loneliness distracted me for a few main reasons.

The need for validation
This may sound selfish - in fact, it is. I need validation that the work I'm
doing is important, and that generally needs to be reinforced in some way,
shape, or form quite frequently.

For me, validation can be quite simple. "Hey Doug, how's it going on X? We
really need to get it done soon for Y reason." I already was working on X and
knew about Y, and honestly I could be annoyed by the reminder. However, I
certainly feel better about the necessity of Y getting done.

When working remotely, tasks tend to be dealt with more asynchronously, which
removes the human aspects of why things need to be done. In my role, I spent
some of my time engineering. I would pull work out of Jira, complete it, and
then move on to the next task. Efficient, but soulless.

I could reason about the reasons that the work was important. But the lack of a
human "backing" of that work made it hard for me to feel it was important on a
deeper level. 

Sometimes, I'd get the same message pinged over Slack or e-mail. "OK, I'm
working on it." Fire off another text message into the ether. It helped a bit,
but I still yearned for human contact.

Human = community
As I thought harder about the reasons I needed social interaction, I realized
that outside of validation, I didn't have a clear answer. Frankly, I think it's
just biological. Humans are social animals, and they need to interact with one
another.

This thesis is validated by a ton of research and probably doesn't come as a
surprise. But why does a lack of social interaction lead to distraction?

For me, it has to do with happiness, and the impact of happiness on
productivity. Part of being unhappy is, either consciously or subconsciously,
searching for happiness. That search for happiness takes us out of our lonely
workspace and into various "communities" online. We seek our community outside
of work rather than inside it.

I'd find myself in this cycle at least once per dayHealthy vs unhealthy
distraction
To some degree, distraction is necessary and healthy. There's tons of research
out there on ways to optimize productivity, and researchers generally recommend
taking at least 5 minutes off every other hour. The problem with being alone is
that you tend to distract yourself in a less healthy way.

The root of this issue is social media and the modern internet. Social media and
online news outlets are built to capture your attention and keep your eyeballs
for as long as possible. Your office, and your office mates, are not. So when
you fall off the horse alone in front of your computer and find yourself on
Instagram, it is much more difficult to get back on.

For me, Twitter and the NBA news outlets (Bleacher Report etc) were especially
bad; they would suck me in, and I could easily be lost for an hour or more. In
the office, I'd grab a snack, chat for 5 minutes at the water cooler, and get
back to work feeling more fulfilled in far less time.

How to be less lonely and more productive
Here's how I became less lonely and more productive working remotely.

Text → Audio / Video
Text communication is impersonal. You could send 100 Slack message or e-mails
per day and still feel totally socially unfulfilled. If you're in a role where
you don't regularly get on audio / video with your co-workers, find a way to do
it as much as possible.

Moreover, think carefully about how you do video, especially in hybrid scenarios
where some people are in the office and some are at home. "Brady Bunch"
conferencing, where everyone is visually equal, is helpful. Check out my post
[https://pragli.com/blog/include-your-remote-team-with-brady-bunch-video-conferencing/] 
on this for more details.

Increase communication by reducing friction
Reduce friction in communication generally so that people communicate more.

For me, this involved becoming comfortable shooting links to video conferencing
around and expecting people to just hop into them. That way, I could get people
into audio / video faster and with less back-and-forth beforehand.

Take healthy breaks
I have other housemates who work remotely, and I started walking to the local
coffee shop at least once per day in the early afternoon. Alongside lunch, this
provided a healthy break where I could communicate socially and return feeling
refreshed.

When my other housemates aren't working remotely or are traveling and I'm
totally by myself, I actually still do the same thing, just by myself. Along the
way, I call my parents, siblings, people at work, whoever. Using that time to be
social became crucial for me. Even if I don't speak to anyone, being in a coffee
shop environment for a few minutes seems to trigger some sort of social
happiness for me.

Build togetherness
In an office, I would see other people at the water cooler. I could look up and
see other people around me working. I passively heard people moving around in
the office. I knew I was part of a team working towards a shared mission.

It's important to create that sense of togetherness when working remote. Create
some way of feeling present with your team.

One step at a time
Especially now, taking things one step at a time is critical to moving forwards
in the face of loneliness, anxiety, and the many other emotions you may be going
through. Try to focus as hard as you can on the next thing directly in front of
you, do that thing, then continue onwards.

Plug: my new solution
After working remotely for a while, I decided to build my own solution to this
problem. I co-founded Pesto, a virtual office for remote teams. 

Pesto enables teams to very quickly start audio/video communication. It also
builds closeness by creating water-cooler spaces and by passively showing your
team with live avatars. 

If you're interested in learning more about Pesto, click here
[https://pragli.com/blog/the-pragli-pitch]. If you'd like to just try it out,
sign up here [https://pesto.app/signin].

Loneliness is Distracting

All downloads
[https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1LwduQcbMny2qXxn5Pt3irX_a9D_5Wn7R?usp=sharing]

Pesto raises $5M to make remote work more human [https://pesto.app/blog/seed]

Roadmap
 *  Overview
 *  Traction & Quotes
 *  Funding
 *  Screenshots & Logos
 *  Team
 *  Social

Overview
Pesto is the digitally native, authentically human workplace.

At Pesto, we envision a world where remote work is more effective and less
lonely than the office, where interacting in a digital workplace is more
powerful and convenient even when people happen to be physically collocated.

Today in Pesto, co-workers build a digital workplace together that’s
authentically human. They customize their avatar in the workplace, which takes
the place of video to be less fatiguing and more personable. Then, they create a
variety of rooms – organized spaces for audio-first collaboration that include
screenshare, video, games, or spatial features. Together, avatars and rooms
empower teams to work together in ways that are more organic and immersive.

Traction & Quotes
Over 10,000 teams have signed up for Pesto. Pesto users logged 100,000,000 voice
and video minutes in 2021.

Peter Verillo, CEO @ Enhatch

> During the pandemic, Pesto connected our team in a way that forever changed how
we work together. This allowed us to almost triple in size this year, with team
members across several time zones.
Katie Robinson, General Manager @ Sortify

> Pesto IS our office. Our daily standups, development team meetings, and casual
chats are here. We have Friday drinks here! We couldn’t operate without it.
James Deacon, Sales @ HiHello

> Pesto allows me to connect with my colleagues in a fun environment that is far
less draining (and far more fun) than video calls. My favourite feature is the
LoFi room... tune in, zone out, and get s**t done!
Arber Muharemi, Full Stack Engineer @ FullStory

> FullStory's Workflows team uses Pesto daily for collaborating on code. The
platform serves as a way for the team to casually communicate like they're in
the office, all from the comfort of their homes.
Shintaro Tsuji, CEO & Founder @ aiPass

> Pesto not only builds our virtual office, but also supports communication for
better team building.
Philip Rees, CTO @ Tidal Migrations

> Pesto is great for connecting with teammates throughout the work day. We use it
to easily start ad hoc discussions (or scheduled ones). It's personable and fun;
everyone has their own custom avatar.
Funding
In February 2022, we announced our $5M seed round led by Jett Fein and Jaja Liao
at Headline. Read the announcement [https://pesto.app/blog/seed].

Previously, in April 2020, we announced our $1M pre-seed round led by Manu
Kumar, the founder of K9 Ventures and founder of Carta and HiHello.

Manu's Twitter: @ManuKumar [https://twitter.com/ManuKumar] 

K9 Ventures website: https://www.k9ventures.com/

Screenshots & Logos
All downloads
[https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1LwduQcbMny2qXxn5Pt3irX_a9D_5Wn7R?usp=sharing]

Team
For the latest details about the team, please visit our about us
[https://pesto.app/about-us] page.

Social
We have an active presence on the following social networks.

Twitter

 * Doug Safreno's Twitter: @dougsafreno [https://twitter.com/dougsafreno]
 * Vivek Nair's Twitter: @virtuallyvivek [https://twitter.com/virtuallyvivek]
 * Pesto's Twitter: @PestoHQ [https://twitter.com/pestohq]

LinkedIn

 * Doug Safreno's LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/dsafreno/]
 * Vivek Nair's LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/vnair611/]
 * Pesto's LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/company/pestohq]

Other

 * Pesto's Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/pestohq/]
 * Pesto's Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/PestoHQ/]

Pesto Press Kit

Roadmap

Overview

Traction & Quotes

Funding

Screenshots & Logos

Team

Social

Loneliness is Distracting