I'll be working as a full-stack developer part-time for the next few months from home. It's a small team of about three or four devs that I've worked with before. It's a really nice company and I'm looking forward to going back to work for them. However, I'll be working from home for the vast majority of the foreseeable future, and this is my first time working from home. Any advice on what I can do (or not do) to maximize productivity, reduce distraction, and facilitate teamwork?
Ask HN: First time working from home; what to do or not do?
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Re: Ask HN: First time working from home; what to do or not do?
#2Yeah, I recently started working (full time) from home too (about 6 months ago). In my particular case I combined starting remote work with moving to another country which made one negative aspect of remote work more acute: social isolation. It should definitely not be underestimated and it is very helpful to build things into your life that involve you in others' lives directly. Additionally having a good routine, and being intentional about it, goes a really long way! Figure out what works for you and what does not. For me, I chose one room in my apartment where I work, and when I leave that room I avoid work.
On the plus side, I think working from home can bring you much closer to family - it is crazy to think I spent so much time at work!! 9+ hours of my waking life was away from the people closest to me. Working from home gives you _a lot_ more flexibility so make the most of that! Wanna work at a cafe today? Go for it! Wanna sleep in a bit? Go for it! (but do not do this at the cost of a healthy routine). Make it a treat yo' self kind of thing. Good luck and hope you can make the most of this new mode!
Re: Ask HN: First time working from home; what to do or not do?
#31. Have a dedicated area that you only perform work.
Don’t use kitchen table. It’s good for your mental health to have a dedicated area where you only work and when you’re not “at work” - don’t use that area.
2. Get dressed for “work”, including shoes.
Don’t make you’re comfortable as if you just rolled out of bed and wearing sleep clothes. Get up. Get dressed. Putting on shoes is important. It tricks your mind into thinking your not “at home”.
3. Treat your working time as work.
Just because you’re home, don’t go get the mail. Take out the quick trash. Or other small errands around the house.
You’re work time should be for work. And just because you’re at home, don’t let others (spouse) trick you into doing house hold tasks.
4. Remove distractions.
If you like to game during the day, literally disconnect your Xbox during working hours.
5. Leave for lunch.
You can very easily get cabin fever by staying at home all day and night. Go outside for lunch. Even if you just pack your lunch. It’s important to movement and to get outside.
6. Establish a strong social outlet.
Most people don’t realize that working from home is incredibly lonely. It’s easy to get depressed. Find an outlet to talk to people.
Re: Ask HN: First time working from home; what to do or not do?
#4One thing that really helped for me was "walking to work", I would walk to a coffee shop a few blocks away and then back home and go straight to my office. It really helped having a clear routine to delineate working time from home time.
Communication is the biggest challenge. Try to talk to your co-workers every day and overcommunicate even if it seems too much. Making quick screen recordings and narrating them for even little things is invaluable, it seemed like a hassle at first but soon you get the wrinkles out of the capturing side of it and people really appreciate it.
Re: Ask HN: First time working from home; what to do or not do?
#5Don't just have a dedicated area, make it a place you want to work from. It seems obvious, but once you're working from home, it's easy to just cobble together a workspace in a room and call it an "office". Your office should feel comfortable, a place you want to spend a good amount of time in, but is not distracting. At the end of the day, it should also be a place you leave in favor of living life. I wrote about my home office just in case you want some ideas, https://medium.com/@9bplus/my-home-office-f531f662fc51. Been working from home for 2 years now.
Re: Ask HN: First time working from home; what to do or not do?
#61. Have a dedicated area that you only perform work. Don’t use kitchen table. It’s good for your mental health to have a dedicated area where you only work and when you’re not “at work” - don’t use that area. 2. Get dressed for “work”, including shoes. Don’t make you’re comfortable as if you just rolled out of bed and wearing sleep clothes. Get up. Get dressed. Putting on shoes is important. It tricks your mind into…
Agree with all but 3 - why in the world work from home if you can’t tidy up on a break, or while thinking about some work task. Certainly don’t just go do these things anytime, but I find it’s better for overall space harmony to do them on breaks.
I’d add my #7: leave the house after being done for the day if you can’t mentally disconnect. I went to the gym after every workday so I get to walk back in the door. The hardest part for me was figuring out how to switch off.
Re: Ask HN: First time working from home; what to do or not do?
#7The advice here is good but it only confirms for me that I would much rather commute to and from an office every day than work from home.
Re: Ask HN: First time working from home; what to do or not do?
#81. Have a dedicated area that you only perform work. Don’t use kitchen table. It’s good for your mental health to have a dedicated area where you only work and when you’re not “at work” - don’t use that area. 2. Get dressed for “work”, including shoes. Don’t make you’re comfortable as if you just rolled out of bed and wearing sleep clothes. Get up. Get dressed. Putting on shoes is important. It tricks your mind into…
Good list. I'll add a couple. Develop and maintain good ergonomics. Invest in a good chair if you sit while working. A task chair is a really poor substitute for a good chair.
Re: Ask HN: First time working from home; what to do or not do?
#9I'll skip the pretty standard advice here that basically boils down to "put clear boundaries so your brain is tricked into thinking you are at an office".
This brain hack never worked for me so I'll give you mostly the reverse advices:
1. Make a very comfy work place at home. It can be at your gaming machine as long as you don't stop work to game or browse HN/Reddit/what-have-you.
2. To build discipline, you have to change your mindset to goal-oriented and not hours-oriented. It's not about putting your arse at the chair at 9:00 and getting up at 17:30. Not at all. It's about "I want to achieve X and Y today".
3. One thing from the other advices I do like is: make sure you get social and human contact every now and then. It's extremely easy to never talk to anyone ever again if you work and rest at the same real estate. Go out for coffee or to pack lunch. Do that to refresh your brain and to have an excuse to exchange a few phrases with people.
4. If you are not a person that has an exact work and rest schedule, that's quite fine; everybody has been telling me that I shouldn't work a minute outside the work hours but I never found this to be productive. I sometimes had days during which my work hours have been all a haze and then I got a power surge at midnight. As long as working at random hours does not depress you (it does depress many though, have that in mind!) then it's quite fine to do it.
5. Dressing for work is something that I, again, found optional. I am quite fine working in my pyjamas and I never felt lazy because of it. Dress comfy! I've spent days with pyjamas and a blanket on my legs.
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Truthfully, your biggest hurdle is NOT to think "I am at home, I can slack". There are multitude of ways to cope with that but mine was to switch to a goal-oriented mindset and not an hours-oriented one.
If you can overcome the laziness because you're at home and are not closely supervised then honestly, you'll be just fine.
Re: Ask HN: First time working from home; what to do or not do?
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