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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?

#221

Post by btgeekboy »

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 still wear a collared shirt and do my hair even though we're WFH. In addition to the above, it looks more professional when I'm on camera for work, which is also the only visual impression my team and managers have of me.

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

#222

Post by btgeekboy »

mindcrime wrote: post #133
madcol wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Funny, I've not even used my work backpack in months now. Last I remember I put my badge in one of the pockets. I assume it's still there...

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

#223

Post by HumblyTossed »

I've been working from home for some 6 or so years. Here are some general tips.

* Keep them separated. Never have work on your personal devices. Have a work phone and a personal phone. Have a work computer and a personal computer.

* Have a place to work. My SO and I have a dedicated office. If you don't have one, make a space somewhere that you can work at and work there consistently.

* Keep a schedule. This is tough. I'm several TZ away, so sometimes there are meetings at 9pm my time. I generally get a pass on those. But if I have to attend, I make up the time somewhere the rest of the week. I'll use that time to bank, clean, errands, etc. Generally, though, I can stay 8-5. I love having nearly half my day all to myself to do thought work before anyone else starts working.

* Have a daily transition plan. This allows you to transition into work and transition out of work. I usually leave an open task for me to start first thing in the morning. That helps me transition into my work day. For transitioning out, I am the chef of the family, so at 5 I start prepping the kitchen.

* Set boundaries. Don't let people expect you to be accessible all the time. During specified work hours, yes. But not all the time. Also, set boundaries with family. They're not allowed to take advantage of the fact that you work from home by asking you to run all the errands, do the laundry, make the calls, etc. This isn't a problem I have ever had, but some people I know do have it and well, it makes for stress and nobody needs more of that.

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

#224

Post by dmje »

chrisan wrote: post #58
dmje wrote: post #35

Home worker for a decade here. Biggest and best piece of advice: take work email off your phone. Better: put your smart phone upstairs on silent after end of working day and leave it there. Best: don't have a smartphone.

> Biggest and best piece of advice: take work email off your phone. Sometimes it is handy to have email. Unless you are in a huge corporation with 24/7 coverage by other employees there will come a time when something urgent needs your attention. I just disable push on my work account. I actually disable push and notifications on everything. The only way things get pushed to me are txt and calls, everything else requ…

My clients know my mobile number, so I know that if something urgent comes up they'll call me. No need for email...!

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

#225

Post by abdussamit »

hosh wrote: post #143
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…

It's not that strange. These are the kind of tricks I learned from NLP (neuro-linguistic programming) and helps orient the psychology. It is certainly why I make my daughter dress for school and change out of it after the school day is done, even if it is online school.

Can you please expand on how you learnt that from NLP? Did you do a degree? If yes, then in what and where from?

Also, would be great and I'd highly appreciate if you could share some resources to them, I'll also Google meanwhile. That stuff has also excited me!

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

#226

Post by ntlk »

I always keep my work and leisure devices separate. In The Before this discipline meant no work email or comms once I was out of the office for the day. These days I shut down the work laptop at 6 o’clock on the dot and I’m immediately in leisure mode.

In my spare time I will discuss my career with friends, or get advice on some trickier aspects of my job, but aside from that it’s not worth giving away my precious leisure time outside of working hours. It helps that I have a multitude of hobbies I enjoy doing just as much or more than work.

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

#227

Post by ketanhwr »

sixdimensional wrote: post #217
rcconf wrote: post #192

I watched a YouTube video and this person explained a really neat concept. Your life is like a game. In this game, you have different stats and you must increase each stat. For example, in a typical game you may have: - Health - Attack Level - Money - Magic Level In games, you try to increase each of these stats to create the best and strongest character. Life is very similar, but the stats are: - Work - Social Life…

Do you happen to have the link? This sounds really cool. I worked on something similar for fun as a side project, didn’t get far. It was sort of based on how the Sims game has these stats, but not a video game, more of self improvement tool.

I think this is what he's talking about: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snAhsXyO3Ck

Even if it isn't - this is a must watch video!

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

#228

Post by fokinsean »

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…

This is my hardest thing to do. My gaming setup is the same as my work desk. This usually results in me gaming less during the week, but some days I have literally spent 12+ hours at my desk.

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

#230

Post by another-dave »

rcconf wrote: post #192

I watched a YouTube video and this person explained a really neat concept. Your life is like a game. In this game, you have different stats and you must increase each stat. For example, in a typical game you may have: - Health - Attack Level - Money - Magic Level In games, you try to increase each of these stats to create the best and strongest character. Life is very similar, but the stats are: - Work - Social Life…

I don't think this would work for me — tracking time spent relaxing feels counterintuitive!

I have some hobbies with intrinsic goals outside work (sport / music) where I want to improve over time but I actively avoid trying to quantise too much & make it a different kind of work.

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