A lot of truths in this article. Thanks for sharing, at the very least it makes me feel sane for feeling like I'm going to go insane working at home all the time. Cheers.
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)
#32Without sounding completely mental, Twitter has been my work from home saviour this time around.
I worked from home a fair few years back, and by the time my housemate came home, I was bouncing off the walls with the excitement of someone to talk to. He, who had been in the office all day, just wanted to watch TV and talk to no-one.
I started working from home again earlier this year, this time with Twitter in my life. Twitter/Tweetdeck provides the perfect office banter for me. My friends chat, I join in if I want to. Industry contacts and peers discuss worky stuff - not only do I get to interact with them, but it also means I don't fall behind with what's happening.
I do still find I need to pencil 'go outside' into my diary every day, though...
Re: How to work from home without going insane (purple monkey dishwasher)
#33Btw, I've been using this app for my mac to implement the Pomodoro technique (didn't know it was called that though)
Re: How to work from home without going insane (purple monkey dishwasher)
#34[deleted]
Re: How to work from home without going insane (purple monkey dishwasher)
#35I'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.
Personally, I think the depression is just a side effect of dealing with how society moulds you to work in an office. I have worked full time in an office twice, and I went through depression (unofficially, as I don't want anything to do with those drugs) for several months after leaving.
Offices desensitize employees to lots of distractions, which seem to become addictive: phones ringing non-stop, colleagues interrupting, clients visiting, random music playing in the background, fitting in with certain rules etc. The silence of working from home is refreshing at first, but then the dark clouds kick in and you start to adapt. Exercise is the best cure to depression.
Re: How to work from home without going insane (purple monkey dishwasher)
#36I'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…
I had the same problem with my girlfriend. We used to work together then I quit to work for myself. Whenever she had a day off she thought I was just playing on the computer too and just couldn't wrap her mind around the idea that despite the fact that I worked from home, I had to get x, y, and z done before I could go out to dinner or lunch or whatever. Its almost a year now and she left me which sucks but as a twen…
The perceived "you're just playing around on the computer" attitude from people is annoying though. We have friends where the dad works at home too, in sales, and doesn't really need to work a full day, as long as he makes his calls and meets his quotas. As a developer, our work is never done and so I work a full day, and yet I'm "always working" as if that's a bad thing. Even though without 2 hours of commuting I'm usually there for breakfast, lunch and dinner where I rarely had those with my family when I worked in the office.
Re: How to work from home without going insane (purple monkey dishwasher)
#37I'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…
That sounds ideal but then how many hours in a day do you think you're working? sleeping? I'm not saying you need to reach some optimal number but don't you miss having a bit more structure?
Re: How to work from home without going insane (purple monkey dishwasher)
#38I'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 )
[deleted]
Re: How to work from home without going insane (purple monkey dishwasher)
#39I'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.
I notice that most of the people in this thread talking about how they do successfully work from home talk about their wives and children. Living alone and working alone sounds like a recipe for insanity. You've gotta have some time with other people, regardless of how much of an introvert you may be.
not as bad as working at home and living with bad roommates. I stopped leaving my room, it made me a total agoraphobic.
Re: How to work from home without going insane (purple monkey dishwasher)
#40I'm 4 months into my second working from home experience. First time I was in a room on the main floor with french doors right by the front door and in constant view of wife and kids. This time I'm in a basement, out of view, so that's helped maintain separation.
If you have kids, I came up with "Ticket Time" to help assuage the guilt over not hanging out with your kids while working and give them something to look forward to so they don't wander downstairs on a whim. It works best in the summer when they're not in school.
The kids get a playing card in the morning and they can use it to come down and spend 5 minutes with me. We'll throw or kick a ball around, play a quick game of UNO or something like that. They love it and its fun for me to have some time with them that I wouldn't have in the office.