yoga, not even kidding
Ask HN: How do you switch off from work, particularly when working from home?
71–80 of 318 posts
Re: Ask HN: How do you switch off from work, particularly when working from home?
#72Easy, start drinking heavily before your work day is supposed to be done, and eventually you just can't work. Hah. I kid. I have a dedicated home office, so when I'm done I just leave the room and don't go back until the next day. But, you don't have that option, so that's not fun.
You need to stick to a schedule.
Don't work in pajamas. Do everything you'd normally do to get ready to go to a job and be on time (it's great that you have extra!) I just mean, shower and get dressed sort of thing. I won't do work attire though. Yuck. At least we toned down the business casual to jeans and stuff years ago. I can't stand that look, and those shirts. I've always rebelled. I'm not a Kohl's mannequin. I'm wearing shorts and a t-shirt.
At the end of the day:
If you work on a company laptop, pack that thing up. Shut it down, and put it in a backpack or whatever. The day is done.
I usually make myself leave (at least go outside) the house when I'm done. Sometimes I get in the car to just pick something up at a store. Or just drive for 10 minutes. I do like the peaceful drive of electric cars. Most of the time I say "hey" to the cats and get some belly rubs in, not like they haven't been bugging me throughout the day, and then go out in the friggin' sweltering heat for a bit. Just to shut my brain off from work stuff. I put in some earphones and listen to music, podcasts, audio books. Things to just get my mind off of things and switch. I try to not hit the couch, or I'll end up bingeing on some stupid show that I don't care about at all.
Plan on chatting with friends, family, or something at the end of the work day as well. Get into a social mode.
In the end, screw the 60+ hour work weeks you can get sucked into. Yuck! Might as well get a side gig instead.
Re: Ask HN: How do you switch off from work, particularly when working from home?
#73I've two PCs (one work and one personnal). At 5PM my work day is over and I go for a walk (4-5 km). This help me to clear my mind and also help me to not spend too much time on my personnal PC after.
While expensive for some this is a good idea. Another option would be to dual boot. Keep all work related code, apps, and accounts off your personal PC/boot so you aren't tempted to look or "check in" on things. I've been WFH for about 12 years now on a single PC, but that idea sounds good as I am guilty of checking in on things here and there.
Having different PC profiles/users is usually enough. After several years of that, I found that just having multiple desktops was enough (and a bit more convenient). For gaming though, I switch to another user profile.
Re: Ask HN: How do you switch off from work, particularly when working from home?
#74I leave the house for a walk or a bike ride for at least 15-20 minutes which is basically a "fake commute". When i come back it is like coming back home from work and i can easily switch off.
Whenever i don't, I have troubles to switch off from work.
Re: Ask HN: How do you switch off from work, particularly when working from home?
#75I close my work laptop at 5pm and put it away. I'm very glad I never had the workaholic-ism a lot of HN seems to suffer with.
If the weather is nice I go for a walk after.
Re: Ask HN: How do you switch off from work, particularly when working from home?
#76Dedicate 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.
Also, wear pants. They don't have robe fancy but don't sit around in your pajamas because then you're never really "at work" and you'll never stop being somewhere in the middle.
The people who suggest taking a walk are spot on too. You have a rather small space for being remote. Having a "going to work" routine helps you mentally prepare and the reverse does... well... the reverse. If you like beer/wine/pot/games/etc, getting your favorite at-home vice/hobby going after work is another good mental signal.
Good luck! Stay safe (mentally and physically)!
Re: Ask HN: How do you switch off from work, particularly when working from home?
#77I had to boil it down to the key indicators that mentally tell me that I am at work: shoes on and sitting at a separate computer. Therefore, each workday I get up at the regular time, shower, shave, etc. When I get dressed for work I make sure to put my shoes on and then walk down the hall to my office and sit at my work computer. At the end of the day I shut down the work computer, walk back down the hall, and take my shoes off. Everything during my workday is work-focused. Everything between workdays never touches that computer. I've been WFH full time for nearly 5 years and prior to the office jobs before that I was WFH full time for another 5 years. No, I am not due to change jobs. I will not go back to an office, ever.
Re: Ask HN: How do you switch off from work, particularly when working from home?
#78I generally go for a quick ride on a local mountain bike trail (or just ride around the city looking for interesting features if it's rained and the trails are closed), or play piano for a while. Just anything that doesn't involve a screen (even if it's personal work or video games or something that's not actual work).
Re: Ask HN: How do you switch off from work, particularly when working from home?
#79I close my work laptop at 5pm and put it away. I'm very glad I never had the workaholic-ism a lot of HN seems to suffer with. If the weather is nice I go for a walk after.
Yes, this is what I do as well. 5pm hits I shutdown the machine unless I'm just dead in the middle of something that I cannot step away from, which is extremely rare. Then I usually just go play with my kids or talk to the mrs. I found not checking your smartphone helps as well, just put it on the shelf somewhere and leave it on vibrate and don't check it again for 3-4hrs.
We work to live, not live to work. Shutdown the computer and go do something else and engage with your family (if you have one.) If you don't have your own family then I could see how this would be more difficult for some people.
Re: Ask HN: How do you switch off from work, particularly when working from home?
#80I works with the same laptop I live with and I also had some trouble separating life from works. What helped me, is to, at the end of the day:
* Write a quick note of what I did, eventually what I learned and hints on what I could do next.
* Close all work related programs. IDE, emulator, etc...
* Close all browser tabs. I was previously on the hundred of open tab camp, now I close all of them. It prevents me from reading doc during my off time. When I write my note at the end of the day, I review all my open tabs, copy paste those that may still be interesting afterwards either as a ref or for future reading and then close them.
* (this is also mean I have better documentation now)
What also helped was to learn no to take the business success to heart so much.