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Hidden Environment Inputs - Mindful Remote Work

Summary

In this episode of Developer Tea, host Jonathan Cottrell shifts the conversation about remote work from typical procedural advice to examining the hidden environmental inputs that shape our daily experience. He argues that while much literature focuses on changing habits, we often overlook the persistent, passive inputs from our surroundings—like natural light positioning, clutter, and designated workspaces—that have downstream effects on productivity and interpersonal dynamics.

Cottrell provides concrete examples, such as how sitting with your back to a window during video calls can create poor lighting that obscures facial expressions. This seemingly minor detail reduces communication bandwidth, leading to information gaps that colleagues may fill with negative assumptions due to inherent human negativity bias. The episode emphasizes that these environmental choices matter more in remote settings because they constitute the entire context through which others perceive us.

To address these hidden inputs, Cottrell recommends conducting a “pre-mortem” exercise: imagining a future negative outcome stemming from your environment and proactively adjusting to prevent it. He cites research showing that clutter increases procrastination, suggesting that cleaning your space before starting remote work can set you up for success. The underlying principle is to become mindful of environmental cues—both those you intentionally create and those that exist passively.

Ultimately, the episode encourages listeners to think one layer higher about their workspaces, using environmental design to foster better habits and clearer communication. By consciously shaping these hidden inputs, remote workers can improve not only their productivity but also the quality of their collaborative relationships.

Recommendations

Concepts

  • Negativity bias — A human tendency to fill information gaps with negative assumptions, which can affect remote team dynamics when communication bandwidth is low.

Exercises

  • Pre-mortem for remote work — Imagine a future negative outcome caused by your work environment, then identify current adjustments to prevent it. This exercise helps anticipate hidden problems.

Topic Timeline

  • 00:00:00 — Introduction to remote work and hidden environmental inputs — Jonathan Cottrell introduces the episode’s focus on remote work, noting that while there’s abundant advice on habits and procedures, he wants to discuss the less-examined environmental changes. He defines these as ‘hidden inputs’—persistent, passive factors in our surroundings that influence our day-to-day experience, distinct from active media consumption.
  • 00:03:25 — Example: Natural light and video conferencing setup — Cottrell uses the example of sitting with your back to a window during video calls. The backlight blows out your camera, making it hard for others to see your face. He explains that this detail matters because remote meetings often provide the sole visual context for colleagues, and reduced visibility lowers communication bandwidth.
  • 00:04:45 — Consequences of low-bandwidth communication and negativity bias — When video or audio quality is poor, creating a lack of information, humans naturally fill in the blanks. Cottrell explains this often leads to negative interpretations due to ‘negativity bias’—a survival mechanism where we assume the worst to prepare for it. Thus, a simple environmental input like lighting can significantly impact workplace relationships.
  • 00:06:21 — Recommendation: The pre-mortem exercise for remote work — Cottrell suggests a ‘pre-mortem’ for your remote work environment: fast-forward two months and imagine a drastic negative outcome caused by your surroundings. Identify what that might be and what you can do now to prevent it. This exercise leverages intuition to anticipate problems, though intuition alone isn’t always sufficient.
  • 00:07:32 — Research on clutter and procrastination — Citing studies, Cottrell notes that clutter in your workspace increases the likelihood of procrastination, even if you feel you can operate effectively within it. Therefore, cleaning your space before starting remote work is a practical step to set yourself up for success, aligning with the pre-mortem’s proactive approach.
  • 00:08:24 — Using environmental cues to shape habits and perception — The episode concludes by discussing how we take cues from our environment and can design it to send better signals. Designating a specific area for remote work (rather than working anywhere) helps create productive associations. Cottrell emphasizes that being mindful of these cues—both intentional and unconscious—is a powerful way to develop positive new habits.

Episode Info

  • Podcast: Developer Tea
  • Author: Jonathan Cutrell
  • Category: Technology Business Careers Society & Culture
  • Published: 2020-03-18T09:00:00Z
  • Duration: 00:10:00

References

Podcast Info

Transcript

[00:00:00] many of you are working from home for the first time maybe in a long time interestingly for the

[00:00:11] people who listen to this show remote work is probably more and more prevalent at your company

[00:00:16] or at least with people that you know in the industry there’s a lot of literature there’s a

[00:00:23] lot of blog posts that are being shared lots of advice going around about remote work and much of

[00:00:30] that advice is about how you can change your habits or your daily procedures to better cope

[00:00:38] with remote work and it’s worthwhile to read some of this advice but in today’s episode I want to

[00:00:45] talk about something that’s less discussed about remote work my name is Jonathan Cottrell you’re

[00:00:51] listening to developer t my goal on the show is to help driven

[00:00:53] developers like you find clarity perspective and purpose in their careers now whether you

[00:00:59] are dealing in your country with the global pandemic of the coronavirus or if your company

[00:01:08] has decided to go remote anyway perhaps you work for a fully distributed company maybe you’re moving

[00:01:13] from one job that was not remote to a job that is whatever your reason is for changing your

[00:01:22] work style

[00:01:22] to work remotely there’s a lot to consider about the effects that this might have on your work

[00:01:31] and on your life of course it’s going to have an effect on how you collaborate and communicate

[00:01:37] with your co-workers we’re not going to focus on that aspect because it’s been covered in so many

[00:01:43] other media outlets and so many other books for example on the subject instead I want to focus on

[00:01:50] the hidden input

[00:01:52] the environmental changes around you that you are subjecting yourself to by working remotely

[00:02:00] and this thinking applies even if you aren’t changing your work from an office with people

[00:02:08] in it to a remote office even the simplest changes let’s say you are staying in an office

[00:02:16] of people even the simplest changes to your environment are shifts in the

[00:02:22] inputs that you have in your day-to-day experience so what are we talking about when we say inputs

[00:02:29] when we say hidden inputs in particular well these inputs are not fundamentally hidden exactly

[00:02:37] instead these inputs are persistent or passive inputs they’re things that we’re not necessarily

[00:02:44] choosing as inputs traditionally when you talk about inputs you think of media

[00:02:52] like a

[00:02:52] book that you’re reading, or you think of music that you might be listening to, or news that you’re

[00:02:58] watching on TV. What we’re talking about with these inputs are your environmental surroundings.

[00:03:04] And the goal of this episode is to get you to think about the downstream effects of those

[00:03:10] environmental choices, those environmental surroundings that you are choosing as passive

[00:03:17] inputs to your day-to-day life. So one very simple example. Let’s imagine that you work

[00:03:25] in a room with a window, and that window has natural light coming through.

[00:03:32] Most of the time, you want that natural light to show on your desk. And so you sit with your back

[00:03:39] to the window. Now, anybody who’s worked remotely for a while knows that this can have a major

[00:03:47] effect on your life. And so you want to be able to see that natural light coming through.

[00:03:47] And so you sit with your back to the window. And so you sit with your back to the window.

[00:03:47] And so you sit with your back to the window. And so you sit with your back to the window.

[00:03:47] And so you sit with your back to the window. And so you sit with your back to the window.

[00:03:48] And so you sit with your back to the window. And so you sit with your back to the window.

[00:03:48] On your video conferencing, it’s really simple. But when you have light coming from behind you,

[00:03:54] the camera you’re using is going to be blown out. People are going to have a hard time seeing your

[00:04:00] face. Now, this may seem trivial. You’re wondering, well, we talked about all of these really big

[00:04:06] ideas on Developer Tea. Why are we talking about, you know, a webcam setup? Well,

[00:04:10] when dealing with remote work, the details tend to matter more than we expect them to.

[00:04:17] the way that you are presented in that 20 minute remote meeting on zoom on your zoom call or

[00:04:24] something that is the entirety of people’s perspective of where you are if they have a

[00:04:34] lower bandwidth and when i say bandwidth here i don’t mean that their video is loading slowly i

[00:04:38] mean the amount of information that they’re able to receive as a result of this of this video call

[00:04:45] if that video call is lower bandwidth if they are not able to see your facial expressions clearly

[00:04:51] or if they’re not able to hear you clearly you’ll end up with a lack of information

[00:04:59] and that may not sound like a big deal a lack of information is not necessarily a bad thing but

[00:05:07] because humans tend to fill in the blanks we have to pay attention to

[00:05:14] you

[00:05:15] a lack of information in the most simple scenario it’s likely that two people will have a different

[00:05:22] takeaway when faced with a lack of information in a worse scenario people are going to fill in

[00:05:30] the blanks with something negative and this isn’t because they’re negative people it’s because

[00:05:36] this is human nature when we don’t know something when there’s uncertainty humans tend to fill in

[00:05:44] the blanks with negativity this is called the negativity bias and it’s something that humans

[00:05:50] have done for a long time and there’s a functional reason for this if we assume the worst or if we

[00:05:59] imagine the worst then we can prepare for it and so this simple environmental input to your day-to-day

[00:06:07] life has had a major effect potentially on your relationships with your co-workers

[00:06:14] so what do we need to do to uncover some of these hidden inputs these implicit inputs

[00:06:21] you no doubt have received a lot of advice about working from home working remotely how to keep

[00:06:28] your team productive and sane when you’re working at home it’s important to think a layer higher

[00:06:37] to rewind from kind of the problems that you might face this is one recommendation that i’m going to

[00:06:44] share with you today so i’m going to start off with a little bit of information i have for you

[00:06:47] imagine doing a pre-mortem but specifically about your remote work or about your working environment

[00:06:53] in general if you were to fast forward two months and imagine that you’ve experienced some drastic

[00:07:01] negative experience some drastic negative thing as a result of your environment what was the thing

[00:07:08] and what can you do in your environment now or in an ongoing way to avoid that drastic negative

[00:07:14] event this can be a helpful exercise but it also relies on your intuition to know what may go wrong

[00:07:23] in reality sometimes our intuition is not enough for example as it turns out cleaning up the clutter

[00:07:32] in your house when you’re about to start working remotely may have a major effect on your

[00:07:40] productivity and even if that clutter isn’t

[00:07:44] your way even if you can operate effectively you think with the clutter around you there have been

[00:07:52] studies that show that working with clutter or an environment that has clutter the people who are

[00:07:59] working in that in that environment are more likely to procrastinate so it might make sense

[00:08:04] before you start this working from home policy to set yourself up for success start by cleaning

[00:08:12] the underlying theme of the pre-mortem is that you have to be able to work from home

[00:08:14] you have to be able to work from home you have to be able to work from home you have to be able to work from home

[00:08:15] implicit or hidden inputs is the idea that we take cues from our environment and we can add

[00:08:24] information into our environment to change the cues for example the experiences that we have in

[00:08:33] a given environment are likely to change our perception of that environment for this reason

[00:08:40] it might make sense to designate a specific place for your environment to work from home

[00:08:44] instead of working wherever you feel comfortable which might seem like good advice you may instead

[00:08:53] want to designate an area of your home for that remote work focusing specifically on this idea

[00:09:00] of cues there are a lot of habits and patterns that can help you use cues to your advantage

[00:09:09] use those environmental cues to your advantage as it turns out

[00:09:14] this is in fact one of the most powerful ways to develop new habits to create new cues for yourself

[00:09:23] be mindful of your environment and the cues that you’re creating the cues that maybe you aren’t

[00:09:30] even aware of on a day-to-day basis seek those cues out thank you so much for listening to today’s

[00:09:38] episode if you enjoyed today’s episode and you don’t want to miss out on future episodes

[00:09:43] subscribe in whatever position you’re in and I’ll see you in the next episode

[00:09:44] bye

[00:09:44] today’s episode was produced by Sarah Jackson my name is Jonathan Cottrell and until next time

[00:09:52] enjoy your tea

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