
Ask HN: Anyone in Need of a Friend? - thrwaway69
I noticed some old people here that work remotely. How do you find people to talk to and maintain regular interaction with others?<p>Isn&#x27;t it addictive to work more from the comforts of your home than you would otherwise at a dedicated workplace?
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muzani
I'm married, with kids. I have more social interaction than I need. Also
there's far more communication with remote work than face to face.

Office work doesn't necessarily have that much interaction either; only half
my jobs we had lunch together or talked every now and then.

I think the thing to be careful about with remote work is you don't move
around enough. It's tempting to skip lunch or even bathroom breaks, and
sitting on the chair too long is likely to make you feel bad.

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heartbeats
It's an easy rabbit hole to fall into, and comparatively harder to get out.

Sure, I could quit, but what would I do then? Browse HN all day?

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davismwfl
I've been working remote for a long time, and I've done it as a founder with a
fully remote team and as an employee in both remote and mixed remote/on-site
teams.

It is super easy to get yourself into a state where you don't go out and you
overwork without even realizing it. Even after all these years I did that to
myself last summer/fall and thankfully I work for some pretty good people who
also saw it and we talked about it and realized I needed to take a short
break. They could tell my demeanor was off a little and my productivity had
gone down from what it normally is. So yea, it is an easy trap to fall into
even when you know better.

My basic rules I have for myself, and I ignored a couple last year for a
little while which is what bit me.

1\. Have a hobby or something where other people depend on you that is outside
your home. In my case I generally coach club (travel) volleyball which gets me
out of the house multiple days a week and at least 1-2 weekends a month where
I interact with other human beings face to face. And it has nothing to do with
technology.

2\. Have a general hobby you enjoy doing that isn't something on the computer.
I absolutely enjoy hobbies on the computer but you need something to break
your habit of sitting in front of it cause you can. I also have a family &
kids which helps me break this some.

3\. Set hours and stick to them. Within reason of course.

4\. Setup a distinct area where you work, and don't have it be a common area
where you spend all your other time. What I have found is that it makes it too
easy to keep doing work while say turning on the TV. So you fool yourself
thinking you are relaxing but you still have the computer in front of you.

5\. Force yourself to go out of the house/office everyday at least for coffee
or lunch etc. I'll sometimes make a lunch at the house and go to the beach to
eat there, just is that separation.

There are other things, but that's kinda the big stuff IMO. How I got myself
into trouble last year is I wasn't coaching spring/summer of 2019 and I
violated #3 and was working crazy hours on both work stuff and learning some
new technical skills which was burning me out. I fixed it by taking a few days
off as a start and I already was scheduled to start coaching again in November
so that then kicked me out of the house more to interact with people.

There are lots of team oriented factors I didn't mention, but having people
you interact with regularly on your team that can do what my founders did for
me is helpful. They caught me burning out just through the fact we talked
pretty regularly and my basic demeanor and productivity had changed enough
they could feel it and wanted to make sure I was good.

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dwnvoted2hell
Would you downvote me for saying yes?

