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

Same. Two people in the house each with only one desk for work and personal use.

I work 9-5. I close my work laptop at 5pm, and ignore all notifications outside that time.

There are a few things that help, I guess:

1. I have no real motivation to work into the evening. It's not like making yet another CRUD app is that interesting. But, there's also no pressure from my job to work long hours.

2. There's tons of stuff I want to get to outside of work, whether it's exercise, video games, TV, reading, cooking/baking, napping, personal projects, or whatever

3. My GF and I always eat dinner at the table together, which helps keep us accountable.

I generally don't have this problem (I've been working mostly from home for 3 or 4 years now), but here are some things that can be helpful. You'll probably note a theme of "boundaries". This isn't all that different conceptually from setting healthy boundaries in order to maintain a work/life balance in normal office-going times, but some of the specifics can change when you're working and living in the same space.

* Have a separate computer for work and personal stuff. Don't have your work email/Slack/whatever signed in and loaded on your personal computer.

* Delete work apps/accounts (Slack, work email) from your phone. Especially now since you're home nearly all the time, you don't need them on your phone anyway. If you're signed into any web apps on your phone, sign out of them.

* Set yourself time limits. You work between X:00 and Y:00 every day. When Y:00 comes, you shut down the work computer and do something else. If this is too inflexible, set yourself a 30-60 minute range, and when you hit the beginning of that range -- set an alarm if you need it -- be mindful of what you're working on and make sure you can wind it down by the end of the time period. You can also try to schedule phone/video calls or other socially-distant activities for right around your stop time to force you to stop and get into another mindset.

* When work is done, put everything work-related away. If you tend to keep paper notes or use a whiteboard, find a place to put them so you can't see them.

* When you stop working, go outside and go for a walk. It doesn't have to be long; just 30 or even 15 minutes is fine. Don't be on your phone while you walk. Just walk around outside and take in the atmosphere. (Obviously if you are in a COVID-vulnerable group, be careful, and don't go out if you don't feel comfortable with it.)

* Wear different clothes when you're working vs. not.

* I get that you have a relatively small space overall, but if you can keep a consistent work area (that you don't generally use for other non-work things all that much), try to keep to your workspace while working, and keep out of it while not working.

* In your free time, adopt activities that occupy your mind. Whether that's reading a book, learning a language, or whatever, it's up to you. Mindless web browsing will make it easy for your brain to drift back to work, but if you're doing something mentally engaging, it's more likely work thoughts won't intrude.

ok, so then hyper-specialize then reproduce at age 85.

My friends are definitely not wealthy, many of them are struggling, but I guess my city is cheaper and people have more living space, most (not all) people I know have enough room to put a chair and small desk/table big enough for laptop use in the corner of a bedroom or living room. (I do not live in NYC. It's also true that most of my friends don't have children, which may be relevant to available space. I don't know about OP, or you).

I don't know about "two desks", nobody I know uses a home desk for anything BUT work. If you have one desk, you could designate it for work, and not do other things there. Don't do work on the couch or where you eat your meals (if that's somewhere other than a couch), only do it at the desk, and don't do other things there (pay your bills or whatever on the couch or whatever). Is what I was suggesting.

I see now that many other comments on this thread also suggest finding a way to have a dedicated workspace, so it's not just me.

If you do have room for a desk, but can't avoid using it for things other than work too, perhaps it would be helpful to keep all non-work things off the desk when you are working, and all work things off the desk when you are not, to help separate it.

But I'm sorry my ideas were inapplicable to your situation and thus offensive to you.

>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

Tech bro problems: These are the exact same things for me