
Ask HN: How often do you work from home? - jpmoyn
I was talking to a colleague about working from home, and what a healthy amount of it looks like. I mentioned that among my peers it seems like most get at least 1 day a week from home, which to me seems like the perfect number. He told me that he thinks 1 day every two weeks. I have interviewed for companies that allow 2 days from home per week, which to me seems like too much.<p>How often do you work from home? Is it good for your productivity? Your work&#x2F;life balance?
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existencebox
Two days a week. If my work environment continues to get louder/more crowded,
I'd likely move up to three.

As I type this, I can overhear 3 distinct conversations, over my headphones. I
am _vastly_ more productive at home. Coworkers tend to make async pings over
chat rather than walking over to context switch you. There's less
visual/audial distractions. There are less spurious discussions, since someone
can't just "Grab you." I additionally have more desk space, a more comfortable
work environment, and a generally more peaceful surrounding at home.

(This on top of the obvious benefit of gaining 2 hours back of every day, and
throwing off all the stress that comes via sitting in traffic for those 2 were
I commuting)

After a mix of personal offices and open spaces over the last decade, having a
door, or the ability to work largely remote, have become significant drivers
in my career choices. The quality of life is just so much higher.

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jetti
I have been working from home 2 days a week for the past year. It is usually
Tuesday and Thursday. I have about a 3.5 hour round trip commute, so I just
asked if it was ok if I worked two days from home and my boss was fine with it
and his boss was fine with it. I also see many doctors and so I make sure to
schedule all my appointments on a Tuesday/Thursday.

I'm typically at the same level of productivity when working from home as I am
in the office. There are distractions in both areas. At home, it is the dogs
and at the office it is coworkers.

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atodorov
I work from home all the time. In fact I have been doing it for the past 11
years.

Some places I've also WFH-ed at: my car, on bus & train, on aeroplane just
before taking off, car dealer, co-working spaces or friends and/or customer
offices, various hotels and cafes, etc. I've even been on motorcycle trip
where I've had to pull over and get something urgent done before reaching my
destination.

The key to everything is discipline, a bit of preparation and being diligent
with your work. At the end of the day most bosses don't care where you are
(I've never seen mine, nor the team I work with in person, they are half-way
across the world) as long as your job is done, preferably very well.

To be clear I started working remotely out of necessity but I've had an eurika
moment when I read "The 4 hour work week" by Tim Ferris. This is one of my all
time favorite books and I strongly recommend reading at least some chapters
from it if you intend to work from home.

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anyfoo
At least once a week, usually more. Often, those are the most productive days:
Sitting in a comfortable, familiar environment to my liking, and being able to
focus on code (or whatever else is at hand) without distractions. Not having
to prepare for work and commute helps a lot, too, in terms of wasted time and
psychologically.

In fact the pure knowledge of not having to get up early and go through the
whole morning routine to spend all day in my office often suffices to make the
evening before feel like it's going to be a weekend day the next day, despite
the usually increased productivity.

As for meetings, I don't like to stay home for meetings that I substantially
care about, because I think that even with video conference a lot of
communication bandwidth is lost, but for meetings where my attendance is
merely necessary, it works very well.

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souprock
Never!

This is great for work/life balance. I'm not tempted to even be aware of work
when I am at home. I can devote my time fully to my family.

I will admit to a few other things that help productivity and work/life
balance:

1\. I get solid office walls. Some work locations are behind multiple layers
of heavy doors.

2\. I get extreme flex-time, so I can show up and leave at strange and random
hours. This is really helpful for dealing with any family issues that may
arise.

3\. I'm only expected to work 40 hours per week, for real.

4\. My commute is 3 minutes by car or under 20 minutes by foot. It's just 0.9
miles. This is the benefit of not living in an urban environment. There is a
small house right behind my workplace (you could commute via pole vaulting)
that is expected to go for $180,000.

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peet
I WFH 1 day per week, on Wednesday. I am actually more productive on
Wednesdays because I don't get bothered by coworkers, and I am able to focus
on what I need to do. I would prefer 2 days from home per week honestly.

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jpmoyn
I work from home for 1 day a week. While it may not be the MOST productive day
I get out of the week, overall I think it prevents me burning out on my
coworkers, and my company overall. It's worth mentioning I am a developer, so
the work lends itself to being manageable remotely.

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skypanther
Every day, for almost 20 years now

