How to work from home without going insane (purple monkey dishwasher)
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How to work from home without going insane (purple monkey dishwasher)
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Re: How to work from home without going insane (purple monkey dishwasher)
#2Yay for the mention of the Pomodoro Method, it is quite effective and has gotten me through college.
Your reasoning however for learning to be interrupted in our life, is something I am not necesarily sure about. Are humans just simply bad at long stretches of focus? I am not sure but i am and thats why I use the pomodoro.
Re: How to work from home without going insane (purple monkey dishwasher)
#3I've personally found that I do not enjoy working from home. I think he hits the nail on the head with the "Crippling Depression" part. As a software engineer, I do my best work alone, in my head, but I need real-life interaction with my team for my work to feel meaningful.
Re: How to work from home without going insane (purple monkey dishwasher)
#4Just like moving out of your parents house, working from home is a big step towards autonomy. Less externally imposed structures and rules, and people to keep you (un)focused means you need to create your own system that works for your personality, goals and context. Definitely something to get used to.
Monthly/weekly/daily goals across some main areas of work (planning, production, strategy, promotion, etc) has been a super big help for me.
The biggest help for me is to have very specific overall goals to achieve. Being laser-focused on those makes a big difference towards making the small decisions that take you forward and keep you focused.
Re: How to work from home without going insane (purple monkey dishwasher)
#5I have been doing this for almost 3 years now and I surely agree that work from home is at the same time the best and worst in the world.
Its very nice because, as you said, you control everything. However it is also very bad because you do not have enough contact with other humans.
And I'm not saying this because there no one to chit-chat, but because there is no one to talk about work. As a developer, getting input from others, even if they tell you that what you are doing sucks or does not worth it, is very important because a) In case they say bad things it can help you improve it and b) If they are wrong, it reassures you of what you are doing, giving you confidence. When you do not have anyone to share work with, you can get stuck for hours even if you are writing the best code of your life.
Regarding interruptions I think I learned how to deal with them. I try not to fight myself so if I want to go watch some series or do some other stuff, I just do it. When I need to deliver something my brain naturally does not make me want do other stuff than work so I gave up trying to control this. Instead I use the energy that I get from not fighting my body in work when I really need to do it.
Re: How to work from home without going insane (purple monkey dishwasher)
#6I've personally found that I do not enjoy working from home. I think he hits the nail on the head with the "Crippling Depression" part. As a software engineer, I do my best work alone, in my head, but I need real-life interaction with my team for my work to feel meaningful.
Ditto, last year I worked from home for a few weeks a couple of times and it made my pre-existing depression measurably worse. As much as I like to work in my own head, it's going to be a long time before I could ever actually work alone again.
Re: How to work from home without going insane (purple monkey dishwasher)
#7I've worked from home on and off for the last 10 years. The best bit for me is definitely the freedom and watching your kids grow up.
I'm currently working on the sofa, dog curled up by my feet, watching TV :) Most days I take a bath at 2pm. Rock n roll!
(Funny sketch about working from home. Don't click if you get easily offended http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=co_DNpTMKXk )
Re: How to work from home without going insane (purple monkey dishwasher)
#8It is interesting...I had never heard of the Pomodoro technique but independently developed a method in which each "work unit" is: 25 minutes. I wonder how many others have also concluded that 25 minutes is short enough not to be scary (if you have to force yourself to do it) but long enough to get something done.
Re: How to work from home without going insane (purple monkey dishwasher)
#9I've worked from my home office for the past few years, and I've figured out it's the ideal solution for my work pattern.
I have a good work ethic, and stay very productive (better than when I'm in a client's offices.) And IM is a life-saver with the teams I'm on.
The biggest challenge to transitioning to WFH was not the kids. They respect my office as a workspace and really go out of their way not to interrupt me.
No, the biggest challenge was my wife. It took over a year -- a YEAR -- for her to recognize that I was working. For the longest time, I was "playing on my computer" or "surfing the Internet" or whatever the daily description might entail.
One day, she emotionally finally reached a conclusion: "I simply cannot count on you as being available to take care of things here at home while you're working." Bingo!
And that was the crux of it -- working at home didn't mean working while living life at home, it meant physically working from home. I explained how I was mentally at work, and not at home. As soon as she accepted the fact that I was earning a living while still being in our home, everything fell into place.
Re: How to work from home without going insane (purple monkey dishwasher)
#10I've worked from my home office for the past few years, and I've figured out it's the ideal solution for my work pattern. I have a good work ethic, and stay very productive (better than when I'm in a client's offices.) And IM is a life-saver with the teams I'm on. The biggest challenge to transitioning to WFH was not the kids. They respect my office as a workspace and really go out of their way not to interrupt me. N…
For me it's the opposite. Home life comes first, and work is a secondary thing. If my wife needs some help, or the kids want me to play with them on the wii, I usually do. If there's an 'emergency' at work, say a server has blown up or something, then sure, I lock myself away for a bit until it's fixed.
Work will still be there when they're in bed.
I'm not suggesting that either way is right, but just that those are my priorities and they work for me.
Also it may have some to do with my own ways of working - I intersperse work with playing games, browsing the net, doing DIY, playing games with kids, walking the dog etc. I don't have any "work" or "non work" times really (Or an office - I usually work on the sofa in the living room). When I get stuck on work I might play a game on the Wii, and solve the problem while I'm racing round a mario cart track. It works for me, but quite possibly not others...