I don't have a dedicated room and also not a dedicated desk so what works for me is just changing into dedicated work clothes. If I'm sitting around in sweat pants all day the difference would be too blurry for me.
Ask HN: How do you switch off from work, particularly when working from home?
141–150 of 318 posts
Re: Ask HN: How do you switch off from work, particularly when working from home?
#142This 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…
Routine and context change can make a big difference.
Re: Ask HN: How do you switch off from work, particularly when working from home?
#143This 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.
Re: Ask HN: How do you switch off from work, particularly when working from home?
#144Find a hobby and start doing it when you want to stop working. For me it's surfing, working out in our homemade gym, or Warzone.
Re: Ask HN: How do you switch off from work, particularly when working from home?
#145Clothing is a good way to trick your brain into “work mode” and “fun mode”, second only to having separate spaces (which you unfortunately don’t have). I change into tank tops or something similarly not work appropriate once EOD comes as part of my “I am no longer at work” process.
Re: Ask HN: How do you switch off from work, particularly when working from home?
#146I have a room I work in - you don't have this luxury, if I didn't I'd dedicate a space to the same purpose, even one end of a table or a corner of the living room. When my working period starts I dress for the office (not completely, I wear shorts and a T-shirt but due to Zoom meetings etc I clean up because I will be on camera) and when I go into that space, that's where I work, procrastination and fecklessness asid…
Yup. I do all of these things, and also put my phone on DND at the end of my day.
I still wear my normal "work shirts" (button down jos a bank clearance shirts, ftw!) and get tidied up since I spend a decent chunk of my day on WebEx.
I also sit at the "wrong" position of my dining table, OR sit in our spare bedroom / office, which I only use for work, and only do work on my work laptop.
The only thing that causes problems for me is my phone buzzing or alerting because of email / calendar / slack / texts from colleagues.
Between the "fuzzy" work day from COVID and a worldwide team, there's always stuff going on. I have to occasionally go on DND to really "unplug."
Re: Ask HN: How do you switch off from work, particularly when working from home?
#147This 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…
Plus dressing well for work gives a sense of confidence, even when you are not around other people. I wear nice shoes at my home desk even though I never walk outside.
Being comfortable is far better for confidence than "dressing well" in my experience. I would never wear shoes in my home and I work in pyjamas mostly.
However if shoes or clothes make you comfortable then by all means, but I doubt this makes a difference for everyone.
Re: Ask HN: How do you switch off from work, particularly when working from home?
#148Planned breaks. Plan to watch a movie or do something at a specific time for a specific duration.
Exercise of any kind will do it, but you need to Do It for at least 30 mins, imo. It takes a while for your brain to context switch completely.
Re: Ask HN: How do you switch off from work, particularly when working from home?
#149I honestly don't. Working from home increased my output very much and I've embraced this change to just do more. I work longer hours and do more side projects/freelancing.
I worry about long term effects (especially health) and efficiency of this approach, but for now only side effect is less time for other activities. I'm happy with this tradeoff for now.
Re: Ask HN: How do you switch off from work, particularly when working from home?
#150In my opinion, establishing habits - whatever works for you is best - to mark the start and end of you workday is the most helpful thing here. I have a dedicated home office but I also use that for private projects, but I think there are also room independent solutions - such as putting your laptop in a bag or a drawer once you are done.
Also: give yourself a reason to stop working in the evening. I almost naturally developed routines at the start and end of my workday: - Alarm rings every workday at same time
- Might slack a little off on Social media, then get up
- Get dressed appropriately for video calls
- Make breakfast, coffee, grab a bottle of water
- Take those things into Home office, start working
- Work throughout the day, get up from time to time to get coffe, water, have lunch, maybe throw some laundry into the washing machine - however, not more chores during that time!
- When it's time to stop working, close all programs, put Laptop to sleep or turn it off, turn of external monitor
- Get out of the home office
- Immediately after stopping to work, either do some chores or hit a workout (Reason to stop!)
- Done. Mind is off of work. Have dinner and/or do whatever is planned for other free time
EDIT: Formatting, wording