I'm a remote worker and I have a heavy guilt when I don't do anything after I complete all my sprint work. It's actually happening right now - we have a full day of "spring planning", but since I am shifted in time zones, not physically in the office, and free of real work, I feel guilty just using this day as a day of leisure.<p>Is it fair to start on the next sprint's work?
I work on a side project that's designed to improve the projects we work on.<p>I strongly believe everyone (literally everyone, including support and admin staff) should have side projects that are aligned with the future goals of the business they work in. It doesn't need to be code; it could be developing better processes to improve the way things are done, to document <i>everything</i>, to automate away boring things, to test other people's projects, to just learn something useful, whatever. If you have a side project then you're never left doing nothing and you have a sense of being a more integral part of the company culture.