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Ask HN: How do you switch off from work, particularly when working from home?

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Re: Ask HN: How do you switch off from work, particularly when working from home?

#131

Post by mindcrime »

sjm wrote: post #120
igetspam wrote: post #76

Dedicate a work space and stay far away from it, when you're not working. Maybe get a large whiteboard to hide it from your field of vision when not working (bonus: whiteboard!). Separating work from personal is the most critical part of being able to work from home without always being "at work." I'm lucky enough to have been remote for years, so COVID hasn't changed my pattern but I know the pattern can be hard. Al…

The first part is great advice but unfortunately not always easy for those in small apartments where that space is precious. One thing that has worked for me is to instead try to detach my work space from being purely work, and give myself time in that space to do "me" things, whether it's reading, video games, creative endeavors... Also giving myself a specific window of "work time", with an alarm set to tell me its…

The first part is great advice but unfortunately not always easy for those in small apartments where that space is precious.

Yeah, I struggle with that for this very reason. I have one room in my apartment that was already my home-office / library where I would sit to work on my personal projects and what-not. Now with this pandemic inspired WFH situation, it's just the best place in my apartment to carry out my normal work day. It's also still the best place to work on my own projects or just sit and study. Sadly that means that A. I wind up spending way too much time in here, and B. change of room isn't much of an option in terms of demarcating the boundaries between "work time" and "my time".

But if I close down my work laptop, go take a bath (see other comment), and the later come back in this room with my personal laptop, I get a pretty good sense of having transitioned from one mode to the other.

Doesn't help with the sense that I spend too much time in this room though. I gotta get back into bike riding more again or something, to have an excuse to spend more time outdoors.

Re: Ask HN: How do you switch off from work, particularly when working from home?

#132

Post by codeadict »

I have been working remotely for several years. One trick I do is just disconnect my router from the power source at 5:30. After that I go and bike for 30-45 minutes or go swimming. Some days, kids have not been very quiet and I cannot go outdoors and leave the wife alone after a long day with them. Those days I just play some music and do some silly dances with the kids or cook something new from a recipe website. Anything you love more than coding or requires physical exercise will do the trick, for me cooking produces an effect that feels like coding but without the stress of doing it for work.

Re: Ask HN: How do you switch off from work, particularly when working from home?

#133

Post by mindcrime »

madcol wrote: post #56
air7 wrote: post #20

I met a guy that was in your situation. He would wake up with an alarm clock, shower, get dressed "properly", eat etc. Then leave the house and walk in a predetermined path around the block to arrive back at his house for "work". When work was over (at a set time) he would get up, leave the house again, walk the path in reverse, and arrive "home". ymmv.

One other thing that can help is if you have a badge, lanyard or work clothes you put them on when you start work and take them off when you finish as you might in the office as normal. Assuming you work in an office that is.

lanyard

Hah! I just realized, I haven't seen my lanyard / "dork badge" in like 4 months. If/when we are asked to return to the office, I'll probably never find the darn thing.

Re: Ask HN: How do you switch off from work, particularly when working from home?

#134

Post by dsr_ »

When I worked in an office, I had an alarm set on my phone to remind me to stop so that I could catch my preferred train home. There were others, later, but unless there was an emergency or someone absolutely needed to talk to me at the end of the day, that was when I left.

These days, that same alarm goes off, now at 5 PM, and I apply the same rule: this is when I leave, under normal circumstances.

I strongly advise doing something similar. Also: this is the time to take a walk around the neighborhood, take a shower, start prep work for dinner, meditate, whatever. Do the non-work things.

Re: Ask HN: How do you switch off from work, particularly when working from home?

#135

Post by j45 »

Some of these might help..

Compartmentalize your time:

First, dedicate space for work only, with a door you can close. If not, separate the space with folding dividers, or something.

Make your desk face away from the rest of your living area. If it feels different than the rest of your place it helps a lot.

Get an oversized whiteboard you would not expect to have in a home. It feels out of place and helps. 6 to 8 feet wide. A piece of glass board mounted on the wall can fit in nice at home too.

Get separate devices for personal use instead of work. If need be set up a smaller 2nd desk for personal use.

Shower and dress every day for work. It's still work. Just like sleep is a shower for your brain to feel fresh and focused so is telling your body you're ready to work.

Have a comfortable chair that feels like work, not home. Have a pair of comfortable monitors, 24 to 27" setup. When I leave this setup I only have my laptop and it doesn't feel like serious work anymore.

Try to do some meetings by phone only, pop on a good headset and go for a walk. You might be surprised.

If you're used to a commute, help your brain with a familiar experience. In the morning, "go to work" by walking out your door, around the block and back inside to work. At the end of the day "go home" with a similar Wallin, ideally in the opposite direction.

Wear running shoes indoors that you put on during work hours only and take them off when working.

Take coffee breaks, physically away from your desk. Consider getting a caffeine maker you only use for work.

When possible, structure your end of day meetings to be lighter / creative to help transition.

On Friday afternoons build a routine to unplug by 5 or 6 every day, and then do it consistently to let you have your weekend.

Last, but not least, it might seem small, but give yourself permission to disconnect so you can recharge and your brain can come back full force on Monday. This is literally something you cna tell your brain. The time away from the keyboard is as important as the time at the keyboard.

Re: Ask HN: How do you switch off from work, particularly when working from home?

#137

Post by varispeed »

kissgyorgy wrote: post #94

This trick might sound strange, but it worked well for me: Just dress the same in the morning as you would if you would go into the office, and at the end of the day, take off the work clothes and dress as you would normally at home. Some makes this even further and go out for a walk around the block so they "arrive at the office" and walk again at the end of the day to "walk home". Really sounds strange and funny, b…

I have a lab coat with my name and company on it and I put it on in the morning and take it off after I close all work apps. Neat trick.

Re: Ask HN: How do you switch off from work, particularly when working from home?

#138

Post by calenti »

I have a room I work in - you don't have this luxury, if I didn't I'd dedicate a space to the same purpose, even one end of a table or a corner of the living room. When my working period starts I dress for the office (not completely, I wear shorts and a T-shirt but due to Zoom meetings etc I clean up because I will be on camera) and when I go into that space, that's where I work, procrastination and fecklessness aside.

Conversely, when I leave that space I am no longer working, pages aside. I do check in on email via phone if there are things that need to be checked on, but otherwise I try very hard to leave my work in that place.

I think the ritual is almost as important as the place, both for "clocking in" and "clocking out". Even if it's just open/closing a laptop or turning a monitor on/off, it's training yourself to see that as the gate for being "on" and being "off".

If your work laptop is your personal laptop, you might also need to have two accounts and sign out of your work account/into your personal account at the end of the day for Ycombinator time, personal use, etc.

Re: Ask HN: How do you switch off from work, particularly when working from home?

#139

Post by avoaja »

Get a personal laptop if you use your work machine for your regular internet surfing. I find that turning off my work pc and keeping it out of sight... in a drawer, helps me switch off after a while.

And every morning, I perform my morning rituals as if I’m commuting to work, before I pull out my laptop.

Re: Ask HN: How do you switch off from work, particularly when working from home?

#140

Post by hosh »

Years ago, back when I was living alone, a bachelor, and had no dependents, my main way is to shut the lid to my laptop. That told me it was not work time. (Conversely, I left it on during working hours). I also set Slack not to notify me during off work hours, but told people to text or phone me.

At some point, I started to tag some Slack messages with [async]. It meant that I did not require an immediate response. I tried to be conscious of people's local time. People started reciprocating the [async] tag with me.

These days, I have a family, and family time can also intrude into work life. So they tend to bleed together.

I also have a garden. Because I need to take advantage of the natural cycles, I work in the garden in the morning (at around 6) and in the evening (at around 5). There are chickens, dogs, cats, and rabbits, and they all have habits that go with the time of the day. That helps ground me into the daily cycles of the other members of the household.

The garden time helps shift me out of work time. If I still need to work in the evening, after dinner, it is something consciously chosen and I would inform my wife ahead of time.

You might not have gardens or pets, but you might have a non-work activity that you like doing after the working hours. I suggest some kind of physical activity, even if it is just a walk. It can also help if you change your clothes, from your "working" clothes to maybe something like your "workout" clothes. Those can signal to your subconscious mind that you're shifting into something else.

If you don't have a laptop, at least shut off the monitor or do something with the setup to visually indicate that the work day is done.

Finally, the human brain does something funny when it crosses a threshold into another room. It changes context. You can use that to help shift your context -- go do something physical outside, even if it is to go to the balcony.

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