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How to work from home without going insane (purple monkey dishwasher)

blog.davidtate.org

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Re: How to work from home without going insane (purple monkey dishwasher)

#51

Post by bencpeters »

I've been working from home for about 6 months now, and relate to a lot of what's in this article. The scheduling can be super tough - it's way to easy to get distracted on the internet and blow an entire morning doing absolutely nothing.

Overall, the thing that I think has kept me both productive and sane is working hard to have external passions. For me, it's outdoor sports like rock climbing and mountain biking, and if you just decide that you're going to get out for a few hours every day and do some non-work thing that you love, then you have a justification for being productive during the portion of the day that you are actually working. I also find that doing these sports brings me into contact with other people beyond my girlfriend and house mate, which is definitely a very appreciated bonus after being cooped up in the house by yourself for so many hours a week.

Re: How to work from home without going insane (purple monkey dishwasher)

#52

Post by JoeAltmaier »

king_magic wrote: post #3

I'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 recommend Sococo. I work for Sococo, but I use it too. Work from home, interact with people in WA, CA, AZ, MN - they're just over the virtual cubicle wall.

Re: How to work from home without going insane (purple monkey dishwasher)

#53

Post by JoeAltmaier »

dennish00a wrote: post #8

It 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.

Works for most tasks, but recently I had to get my head inside 100 modules of crap (some open source stuff). Takes me several hours straight to 'get it'. Was very hard to find several hours in a row, working from home.

Re: How to work from home without going insane (purple monkey dishwasher)

#54

Post by berntb »

cageface wrote: post #49

I've been working from hotels in Europe and Asia for almost a year now. The freedom is exhilarating and terrifying at the same time. The best days are those when I somehow manage to write something in a day that would have taken me weeks of wading through office politics. The worst days are those when I feel like I haven't accomplished anything and can't stop thinking that nobody's holding a paycheck out for me at th…

Congratulations, we're many that are jealous. :-)

(If the girlfriend gets a sudden attack of sanity and dumps me, I'll try to organise living in Japan for a few years.)

Re: How to work from home without going insane (purple monkey dishwasher)

#55

Post by andyjenn »

maximusprime wrote: post #7

I'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 )

I watched that sketch with my wife and in-laws when I first started working from home... I think my silence was deafening

Re: How to work from home without going insane (purple monkey dishwasher)

#56

Post by kellishaver »

jroseattle wrote: post #9

I'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…

It took my husband a while to catch on to this, too, though he really was trying. He works 3 days a week (not that he works less, just that he does it all in 3 days). He's always respected the work I do, but it took him a while to adjust to the fact that I couldn't just rearrange my schedule at the drop of a hat to take the day off to go somewhere or go out to lunch or something.

I'm not so busy that I don't stop to eat lunch, so we would still go out on days where I didn't have quite so much to do and could afford the extra hour or so that eating somewhere other than my dining room requires, but then he would do things like remember he needed to stop somewhere else and could we just do that while we're out so he doesn't have to drive all the way back into town? (We live in a fairly rural area) So a trip out for lunch would turn into lunch, grocery store, his business (he owns a store here in town), bank, etc. and suddenly the hour and a half I'd planned to take off had turned into three or four.

I can't say I blame him. I enjoy spending the time with him and it's nice to get out and do some things together during the day while the kid's in school, but it just isn't practical most days. Now we very clearly plan what we're going to do when we go out on the days I'm working and he's not.

Re: How to work from home without going insane (purple monkey dishwasher)

#57

Post by cageface »

berntb wrote: post #54
cageface wrote: post #49

I've been working from hotels in Europe and Asia for almost a year now. The freedom is exhilarating and terrifying at the same time. The best days are those when I somehow manage to write something in a day that would have taken me weeks of wading through office politics. The worst days are those when I feel like I haven't accomplished anything and can't stop thinking that nobody's holding a paycheck out for me at th…

Congratulations, we're many that are jealous. :-) (If the girlfriend gets a sudden attack of sanity and dumps me, I'll try to organise living in Japan for a few years.)

Well, it remains to be seen if this is going to be a sustainable thing, so don't get jealous just yet.

Japan would be great. I'll head there too if things go well enough that I can afford it. I'm on more of a Vietnam budget at the moment.

Re: How to work from home without going insane (purple monkey dishwasher)

#59

Post by epoxyhockey »

jroseattle wrote: post #9

I'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'm currently going through this right now. My SO even went as far as to announce that "we can get a dog now because you are home to take care of it!" I would go grocery shopping during the day, pick up the mail, wash dishes, do laundry, etc, during my coding breaks while self-employed.

Now?

I leave the dishes in the sink, leave the mail in the mailbox, don't pick up the random stuff laying on the floor, etc. The result is that my SO comes home and there are a bunch of unresolved physical tasks that need to be done. It looks as though I had been at an office doing work and also just came home.

Kind of odd psychology going on, but it works for me right now.

Re: How to work from home without going insane (purple monkey dishwasher)

#60

Post by gcb »

rule #0, never assume you can spend one weekend working on your car or bike if you work from home.

it will drag over the week for sure, and will seem way too much more fun/important than work.

my stories are from a younger me, but include:

taking the engine of a motorcycle (a vintage honda trail) out to take it to a shop to redo some threads and get rid of an oil leak... ended up dismantling the entire bike to re-paint it.

taking one sunday to fix the horn of a car (a vintage bmw e34)... ended up dismantling the dashboard and rear firewall of engine compartment to fix/clean all the A/C components

bought an old bicycle on craigslist (bike had some 12yr) to get in shape while biking to work... ended up dismantling the whole thing and restoring it to brand new state. I even opened up the derailleurs and freewheel to properly restore it with original components.

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