
How to Work from Home Without Going Crazy - feint
http://task.fm/blog/2009/11/work-from-home-productivity/
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edw519
I have worked from home off and on for years, and this is pretty good advice.
The most important is the dedicated space with a door that closes. So you
still "go to work", just with a very short commute. A few other things that I
have found helpful:

    
    
      - When you're in your office, you're at work, working.
      - When you're not in your office, you're at home, not working.
      - Work in 48 minute bursts, then take a break.
      - Only check email & voice mail during your 12 minutes off.
      - Put internet and work on 2 different machines (if possible).
      - I prefer radio over pre-recorded music; it reminds me I'm not alone.
      - Eat lunch out with a friend several times per week.
      - Eat home meals away from your office.
      - If you're local, go in to the office once per week.
      - If you're not local, go to the office several days per month.
      - Dinner with SO every night, no matter what you're working on.
      - A regular schedule of sleep, meals, exercise, and work makes things easier.

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unohoo
>>I prefer radio over pre-recorded music; it reminds me I'm not alone

I used to keep the TV running in the background -- just to get a feeling that
i'm not alone.

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unohoo
As someone who has worked from home for a year and half I can testify to the
fact that wfh is not an easy thing to do. What I missed the most was whatever
little interaction I had with colleagues. I used to get so frustrated at the
end of the day that I just had to get out somwhere at the end of the day - be
it to a coffee shop,just to see some people. Given a chance I wouldn't prefer
to wfh again. I beleive the ideal combo is to work from office 3 days and wfh
2 days. That said, I know several folks who successfully wfh. I believe a lot
depends on your personality.

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sunkencity
I work at work 2days a week and from home 3 days, I too like this balance.
It's great for focus when programming, and enough time for meetings. Takes a
bit of discipline though. Working from home is great for having time to pick
up the children from daycare without having to leave early too.

~~~
cgs
I think you've got the ideal setup there. 5 days a week in the office leads to
too many distractions / meetings; but 5 days a week WFH leads to loneliness.
I'm currently stuck only allowed to WFH when absolutely necessary. I'd love to
sell this to my employer - was this a change that got implemented or was it
that way from the start?

~~~
sunkencity
From the start because I could not afford to commute, but I am also a
cofounder so I have a lot to say on the issue. I think that for just plain
"time to crank out massive amounts of code" nothing beats working from home.
I've coded most of the non-routine new stuff like new improved libraries and
frameworks this way. For coding maintenance stuff: I think I can do that
better at the office.

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HeyLaughingBoy
The thing that always puzzles me about the working from home discussions is
why programmers seem to be the only ones affected by it.

I hang out on a few boards for machinists, many of whom have one-man
businesses, some run out of their garages. I have never heard any of them
mention issues with working alone except for safety-related concerns: having a
lathe attempt to rip your arm off when there's no help nearby can be a
problem...

Similar for other fields I can think of where people primarily work alone.
Farmers come to mind. In fact, most of my wife's work is done with no other
people around (she trains horses) and it's perfectly normal for her to not see
other people from the time I leave home in the morning to when our son comes
home from school.

So what's different about software professionals?

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theycallmemorty
While farmers and mechanics work from home their actual work environment is
outside of their normal living space. Its pretty easy to stay on task when
you're out in the garage or barn. Meanwhile, we all know what its like to sit
down in front of a computer and have a whole world of distractions at our
finger tips.

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tiffani
I find working from home (or somewhere other than the office) to be much
easier than working at the office _because_ I'm away from my co-workers. Great
folks, but they don't seem to get that headphones, terse replies, and furious
typing mean, "Go away, somebody is actually working here." lol. Doesn't help
that I share an office (no door closing) with a non-programmer and nobody else
writes code there either. :\

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chasingsparks
I worked from home for two years and will soon be doing so again. I think
sometimes the key to working home is occasional gross inefficiency. It's
almost replenishing depleted mental reserves. If I started feeling causeless
frustration, I'd take a day off and vegetate: watch bad tv, lay in the park
without doing anything, go out with friends, go to a bar, etc. The next day I
was usually reinspired...although sometimes it felt like I was inspired again
because I felt like I spent a day wasting time.

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maw
For me, the hardest part about working from home (been doing it since late
2006) is dealing with unproductive days. Some days, try as I might, I just
can't seem to get anything done. I end up feeling guilty about this, far worse
than I ever felt about wasted days while in an office. The fact that
productive days will (hopefully!) outweigh the bad ones should be
consolation—but in practice it's not much of one.

~~~
moron4hire
I don't think you should feel guilty. This is the nature of our work. There
are days where you "feel" it and days where you don't. There are days when
there is a lot to do and there are days when you're in a holding pattern to
see what's happening with something. At least here in Pennsylvania, the state
labor board actually recognizes this fact and has classified software
development professionals as "salaried, exempt" status, meaning there is an
expectation of huge variation in hours worked, sometimes plus, sometimes
minus. Unfortunately, most employers just use it as an excuse to force
employees to work constant plus with no overtime pay.

~~~
maw
I don't think I should feel guilty either, yet I do anyway. I don't want to
give the impression that I think the guilt is rational, though. Still,
rational or not, the feeling is real, and I'm not the only person by any means
to have it.

I often wonder what it's like for people who need to use their minds when they
work yet are under inflexible schedules, such as teachers. They too must have
good and bad days, but they don't have the luxury to say "you know what, I'm
just not going to teach anybody anything today, so after second period is
over, I'm leaving." On the other hand, now that I think about it, I vaguely
remember some high school teachers ending lessons early. Maybe doing so was
their version of calling it quits for the day early.

~~~
moron4hire
From the teachers I know, and I went to a university that is traditionally a
teaching school, they don't use their minds much at all. Most teachers aren't
dedicated to the job, they're just looking for _a_ job. They show up, punch
the clock, zombie their way through the day, go home at the end of the day,
and repeat the next day.

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timf
I've worked from home for four years now and can't imagine consistently
getting anything done at an office.

And that is even _with three young children in the house_ because they know
that when I'm at work, I'm not available and concentrating. Our development
team's communications revolve around high bandwidth when necessary, but
otherwise leaving each other delicately alone. But that would be different at
the office: there would be many lunches and things of that nature as well as
coworkers we are not directly working together with who have (admittedly very
interesting) things to distract us with.

Sometimes I do need to break out my "cone of silence" which is a mix of
earplugs AND whitenoise on headphones.

At one point I rented a spare office in a coffeeshop a block from my house...
that went OK, it definitely helped with the "separate work environment"
psychology that I think is necessary. The biggest problem with that was being
in a coffeeshop: temptation to spend money on espresso constantly. After about
6 months of that, I decided to come back home. YMMV.

~~~
xtimesninety
I'm interested on what whitenoise you are listening to? There are times it
feels too silent in my home office but I'm also not in the mood to listen to
music.

~~~
timf
I made it myself with audacity. Wearing earplugs at the same time, if I get
the whitenoise to where I can _just hear it_ this lets me work even in
coffeeshops in almost pure silence. If you want the actual mp3, email me
(email via profile).

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santry
I worked from home for a couple of years and just recently gave it up to work
in a co-working space.

It took me almost two years to realize it, but the isolation of working at
home nearly drove me crazy. Depending on my roommate's or girlfriend's
schedule, two or three days could pass without seeing another person. For me,
that just wasn't healthy. I found myself going out for lunch just to be around
people. Not a terrible solution, but the cost and calories add up quickly.

So far working a few days a week at a co-working space plus getting a gym
membership has made a huge improvement in my general health and happiness. I'm
back to commuting on public transportation, which I now actually enjoy.
Leaving my house and getting on the train forces a context switch from home
life to work life, making me more productive. My work days are also shorter
since I find I'm more focused.

Co-working also doesn't suffer from the problem of coworkers interrupting me
to ask questions. Sure, a guy at the next desk might talk too loud on the
phone but no one is going to tap me on the shoulder to ask for help figuring
out why the request params aren't making it to the controller on their ajax
call.

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lsemel
The only way I'm able to do this is because I live right in the middle of
Manhattan, so I'm always able to go outside and see other people (even if it
is just talking to the doorman), intersperse the day with meetings,
occasionally rotate among nearby coffee shops, and plan nighttime activities.
I can see how working at home might drive you crazy if you're in a less
densely populated location with fewer people around.

~~~
warfangle
Likewise for me, in Brooklyn. Of course, I only have one coffee shop around -
but I know several of the baristas there (one is in a great local band, Pass
Kontrol), and often see the bartenders from the bistro-bar down the block
(whom I also know fairly well). Add to that the fact that the coffee shop has
a "bottomless cup" option with cheap refills, and I find myself dividing my
time like this:

When I need to do a lot of photoshop work (slicing, dicing, css, et cetera), I
work from home where I have a large monitor. When I need to do a lot of code
work, I take my laptop down to the coffee shop.

Wish I could stick my desk in the living room, but there really isn't any
room! It is perpendicular to my south-east-facing window, though, so I get a
lot of natural light which seems to help my mood quite a bit.

I couldn't imagine working from home if I lived in a suburb, though. The
occasional ten minute breaks (when I'm out of home, instead of out of the
coffee shop) to go down and get a cup (or just to have a smoke) are quite
nice, because I see a lot of people that I know from the neighborhood. I
wouldn't be able to get that, no how no way, out of a suburb.

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mark_l_watson
It would be difficult, I think, to WFH if you lived alone. Except for doing
charity work, my wife is usually at home, but does not interrupt me while I am
working. Having friendly neighbors and friends who live near by is good also.

I used to work exclusively in my home office, but transitioned to also working
in other rooms, and sometimes on our deck. I think that I take a productivity
hit doing this, but it is fun to mix it up re: working environment.

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gchucky
I've been working from home on and off for two years now, and I can tell you
that sometimes there is just no substitute for physically being in the same
room as the rest of your team. Meetings are so much easier, getting help is
far more efficient, and there's the social interaction there as well.

Having said that, it's also nice to have the flexibility of being able to work
from home.

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messel
Link died for me, HN crash the server?

~~~
nakkal
Get the Google cache

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genieyclo
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from-home-productivity/+%22http://task.fm/blog/2009/11/work-from-home-
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