Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Why are some people better at working from home than others?

bbc.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 170 posts

Re: Why are some people better at working from home than others?

#61

Post by xyse53 »

Xcelerate wrote: post #57
amrrs wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually it's the opposite for me, I've started taking so much junk snacks (which wasn't available at Office), Less Walks and No proper schedule. Sleeps off the time. Many a days just getting up and jumping into calls. On the positive side, it's more quality time with family but I'm still wondering how to fix the health part.

> I've started taking so much junk snacks (which wasn't available at Office) What I've found helps is to not buy snacks. I eat junk if it's available, but if nothing is nearby, then I can't be bothered to go out and purchase it, so I'll eat a grapefruit instead. Another thing that I have found helps is to order a community supported agriculture (CSA) produce box. A lot of farmers that supply restaurants are losing a…

One of my mottos: Good eating starts in the supermarket, not in the kitchen.

I can easily not buy potato chips. I don't even pretend like I'll control myself and not eat a whole bag in one night if it's in the house.

Re: Why are some people better at working from home than others?

#62

Post by laumars »

chrisseaton wrote: post #46
laumars wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What workouts are they that cannot be done without access to a gym? For me it’s the variety of city food I miss the most. I live quite a way out from where I work and while there are still a few open takeaways, they’re pretty average in quality and lacking in variety. However there are larger and mostly well stocked supermarkets so buying fresh food to last the week hasn’t been a problem (most veg will last a week al…

> What workouts are they that cannot be done without access to a gym? Anything needing special equipment or terrain, for example. If you want to do a climbing workout you're going out of luck without a rockface in your back garden or your own climbing wall, aren't you. > I guess the biggest change is where we used to order it online and have it delivered, now we are driving to the store and picking the items ourselve…

> Anything needing special equipment or terrain, for example. If you want to do a climbing workout you're going out of luck without a rockface in your back garden or your own climbing wall, aren't you.

In theory you’d be right but I the reason I asked is because there’s usually workouts you can still do at home to keep at least some of those muscles in shape even if you can’t do your usual training routines without using any specialist equipment. Granted sometimes you have to get a little creative but it’s certainly doable for most gym exercises that immediately sprint to mind.

Take the rock climbing example: I used to train at home doing pull ups on door frames on the weeks I couldn’t make it to an indoor climbing wall (though that was quite a few years ago now).

> This seems like the opposite of what you'd want to do - why are you doing this?

I agree and it’s not through choice I do it. The problem is everyone else agrees too and thus it has become impossible to book delivery slots due to the volume of demand.

Re: Why are some people better at working from home than others?

#63

Post by tayo42 »

laumars wrote: post #38
tayo42 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm coming out of the this less fit, mostly because my workouts depended on being out of the house. gyms being open. Or freedom to travel to somewhere. Im also not eating as fresh as I normally do. I can usually get fish and vegetables and cook the day of. Now I gotta stock up on groceries for the week to reduce shopping frequency.

What workouts are they that cannot be done without access to a gym? For me it’s the variety of city food I miss the most. I live quite a way out from where I work and while there are still a few open takeaways, they’re pretty average in quality and lacking in variety. However there are larger and mostly well stocked supermarkets so buying fresh food to last the week hasn’t been a problem (most veg will last a week al…

Jiu-jitsu classes need a gym. It's hard to replace those workouts. Idk if it would even be safe for me to run for 2-3 hours I'd need to spend time working up to that and not ruin my legs or knees. That's a whole 2-3 hour work out few times a week. Plus board sports is my other workout. Ski resorts shut down and cities are restricting travel make it hard to drive for surf.

I'm doing what I can but working out intentionally like that sucks when it used to just be fun. Heh

Re: Why are some people better at working from home than others?

#64

Post by tayo42 »

idonotknowwhy wrote: post #47
tayo42 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm coming out of the this less fit, mostly because my workouts depended on being out of the house. gyms being open. Or freedom to travel to somewhere. Im also not eating as fresh as I normally do. I can usually get fish and vegetables and cook the day of. Now I gotta stock up on groceries for the week to reduce shopping frequency.

I'm in the same boat. I was lifting heavy at the gym, now I'm limited to kettlebells and can't even do pull ups. We'll be fine once this is over and we can get back to our old routines.

Yeah sucks though to have it disrupted. My yoga is getting pretty good though

Re: Why are some people better at working from home than others?

#65

Post by laumars »

idonotknowwhy wrote: post #47
tayo42 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm coming out of the this less fit, mostly because my workouts depended on being out of the house. gyms being open. Or freedom to travel to somewhere. Im also not eating as fresh as I normally do. I can usually get fish and vegetables and cook the day of. Now I gotta stock up on groceries for the week to reduce shopping frequency.

I'm in the same boat. I was lifting heavy at the gym, now I'm limited to kettlebells and can't even do pull ups. We'll be fine once this is over and we can get back to our old routines.

Is there nothing around that you can use as makeshift weights? When I was at high school and couldn’t afford a gym membership I used a bunch of old telephone directories as makeshift weights.

It wasn’t ideal but it worked for a few months until I got my first job.

Pull ups are one of the easier problems to solve at home. You can get bars for your doorway that extend out like stair gates. Or if you have a fat enough door frame and strong enough fingers you could pull up directly from the frame (I used to do this too).

Obviously you know your situation better than I do so I’m not meaning any of the above to sound preachy. I also get that proper equipment makes a world of difference and using improper equipment can add an element of risk.

Re: Why are some people better at working from home than others?

#66

Post by laumars »

tayo42 wrote: post #63
laumars wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What workouts are they that cannot be done without access to a gym? For me it’s the variety of city food I miss the most. I live quite a way out from where I work and while there are still a few open takeaways, they’re pretty average in quality and lacking in variety. However there are larger and mostly well stocked supermarkets so buying fresh food to last the week hasn’t been a problem (most veg will last a week al…

Jiu-jitsu classes need a gym. It's hard to replace those workouts. Idk if it would even be safe for me to run for 2-3 hours I'd need to spend time working up to that and not ruin my legs or knees. That's a whole 2-3 hour work out few times a week. Plus board sports is my other workout. Ski resorts shut down and cities are restricting travel make it hard to drive for surf. I'm doing what I can but working out intentio…

I’m not familiar with Jiu-Jitsu specifically but I have trained in a few martial arts, Japanese and western, and they usually have routines you can practice on your own. Is the same not true for Jiu-jitsu?

With the bored sports, while you obviously couldn’t train your board skills, you could still keep working on those muscles and stamina at home through different training exercises.

I agree none of this is the same as going to your gym et al, but my point wasn’t that you could do identical training at home. It was that you could do something similar to at least keep yourself reasonably sharp.

Re: Why are some people better at working from home than others?

#67

Post by tiew9Vii »

xyse53 wrote: post #61
Xcelerate wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I've started taking so much junk snacks (which wasn't available at Office) What I've found helps is to not buy snacks. I eat junk if it's available, but if nothing is nearby, then I can't be bothered to go out and purchase it, so I'll eat a grapefruit instead. Another thing that I have found helps is to order a community supported agriculture (CSA) produce box. A lot of farmers that supply restaurants are losing a…

One of my mottos: Good eating starts in the supermarket, not in the kitchen. I can easily not buy potato chips. I don't even pretend like I'll control myself and not eat a whole bag in one night if it's in the house.

You don’t even have to go to the supermarket for food these days so can avoid the temptations completely.

With online shopping it’s easy to set up a weekly shopping list so easier to stay in track, no chocolate bars or soft drinks at the check outs. Likewise if you walk to a butchers or green grocers vs a supermarket it’s easier to avoid temptations.

Re: Why are some people better at working from home than others?

#68

Post by chrisseaton »

laumars wrote: post #62
chrisseaton wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What workouts are they that cannot be done without access to a gym? Anything needing special equipment or terrain, for example. If you want to do a climbing workout you're going out of luck without a rockface in your back garden or your own climbing wall, aren't you. > I guess the biggest change is where we used to order it online and have it delivered, now we are driving to the store and picking the items ourselve…

> Anything needing special equipment or terrain, for example. If you want to do a climbing workout you're going out of luck without a rockface in your back garden or your own climbing wall, aren't you. In theory you’d be right but I the reason I asked is because there’s usually workouts you can still do at home to keep at least some of those muscles in shape even if you can’t do your usual training routines without u…

> In theory you’d be right but I the reason I asked is because there’s usually workouts you can still do at home to keep at least some of those muscles in shape

Right, but you asked 'what workouts are they that cannot be done without access to a gym' and you're suggesting other workouts to keep the same muscles working. Yeah fine, but that's not the same workout, which is what you asked.

Re: Why are some people better at working from home than others?

#69

Post by pier25 »

lucb1e wrote: post #56
pier25 wrote: post #48

I've been working from home for the past 10 years and I don't think I could go back to a regular office. - I can work at my own natural pace whenever I want. Some days I work 4 hours. Some days I work 12 hours until 1-2 am. - If I need to buy something I just do it. I can go to the supermarket at the best times. - I can eat home made food and follow any schedule I wish. My SO also works at home and we're doing interm…

> Some days I work 4 hours. Some days I work 12 hours until 1-2 am. Do you track those hours to make sure you don't think you worked enough but in fact consistently work too little or too much? Wondering because I had that problem (working slightly too much every week).

I've never measured it but I've learned to work as much as I can without getting into burnout territory. On average I think I now work 50-60 hours per week.

Most of these 10 years I've been working as a freelancer or now building my thing. Even when I was working for a company for a couple of years I was completely independent as far as time management goes.

Re: Why are some people better at working from home than others?

#70

Post by tiew9Vii »

tayo42 wrote: post #26
chrisseaton wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> One really positive thing I have found for myself in the WFH life is that I am taking MUCH better care of myself. I think people are going to come out of this one of two ways - half will come out fitter, mentally and physically, more positive, with new interests and skills and stronger relationships, and the other half are going to come out a mess (understandably.)

I'm coming out of the this less fit, mostly because my workouts depended on being out of the house. gyms being open. Or freedom to travel to somewhere. Im also not eating as fresh as I normally do. I can usually get fish and vegetables and cook the day of. Now I gotta stock up on groceries for the week to reduce shopping frequency.

Kind of similar.

My food has been pretty much perfect. I’ve reduced calories to match reduced activity but what I eat is still proportioned correctly, lean meats, vegetables, rice/potatoes.

What I have noticed though is due to isolation only going out when necessary, not lifting weights four days a week, no general daily walking about and no cardio is that now walking up the four flights of stairs to my apartment I’m getting slightly out of breath when I shouldn’t. I’m getting cardiovascular unfit when at the start of the year I was the fittest I’ve ever been.

I’ve also noticed body composition changes. I’ve lost 1-2 kilo, looking a lot less muscular / smaller. As food has been good I don’t think there’s an increase in body fat I just have less mass overall. When you’ve been training hard it’s demotivating.

Things are starting to relax as where I am the numbers are very good so am going to start going for runs to get my cardio back even though I’m not a runner. That’ll again make body composition less muscular as burn off more calories.

For the gym to do my weight training, unfortunately they will be the last to open and it’s a huge mental down knowing I’ll essentially need to start from the very beginning again.

Post reply on HN