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Why I Decided to Spend More Time Working from Home

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Re: Why I Decided to Spend More Time Working from Home

#21

Post by dorkrawk »

jinushaun wrote: post #6

The problem with working from home is not getting no work done because you're too busy drinking beer and playing xbox. It's sticking to an 8 hr work day instead of working all day around the clock. It's putting the mouse down and spending time with your family. It's stopping yourself from returning to work after dinner.

Whenever I work from home I make sure that I set a cutoff time or clear stopping point near the end of what I want to be my "work day". Then I remove myself from my computer, take a walk or cook dinner or watch a movie or do anything that isn't code/work. Then if I have other work to do at night (for my job or for my own projects) it feels separate.

Re: Why I Decided to Spend More Time Working from Home

#22

Post by famousactress »

DigitalJack wrote: post #19
famousactress wrote: post #16

I've worked at home full time for the last 2.25 years or so, and it's been the most productive working experience of my 15 year career. I think there are some misconceptions and hidden benefits that I held before being in a long full-time WFH situation that I'm sure others hold also. I've been meaning to write up a longish post on my thoughts/experience, but here are some brief notes off the top of my head: 1. I thin…

I've been working from home now for 6 years. I agree with all that you have said, but I do see negatives more prominently, so I'll list those as a balance point. Keep in mind as you read these that I live more than a day away from where I work, so that adds an isolation factor that not all home-workers will suffer. 1. Probably the biggest thing I miss is the informal conversations. The hallway conversations. I've bec…

I did fail to mention I visit the office (a 2hr flight from home) for a week out of every six or so.. which helps me with some of the things you mentioned. I do have random conversations when I'm up there over beers or dinner that wouldn't likely happen via phone calls or on Skype. It's definitely nice.

Another downside that gets me sometimes is that I miss shared whiteboards. I'm a pretty visual/physical thinker. It's nice to have a whiteboard you can both see. We mostly supplement w/ screen sharing or SMSing iphone images of sketches. It works but it's not ideal. One of the things I'd love to work on someday is tools to make remote-work better/easier. For instance, I think it's rad that many of the 37signals folks work remotely and build tools that scratch that particular itch.

Re: Why I Decided to Spend More Time Working from Home

#24

Post by DigitalJack »

famousactress wrote: post #22
DigitalJack wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been working from home now for 6 years. I agree with all that you have said, but I do see negatives more prominently, so I'll list those as a balance point. Keep in mind as you read these that I live more than a day away from where I work, so that adds an isolation factor that not all home-workers will suffer. 1. Probably the biggest thing I miss is the informal conversations. The hallway conversations. I've bec…

I did fail to mention I visit the office (a 2hr flight from home) for a week out of every six or so.. which helps me with some of the things you mentioned. I do have random conversations when I'm up there over beers or dinner that wouldn't likely happen via phone calls or on Skype. It's definitely nice. Another downside that gets me sometimes is that I miss shared whiteboards. I'm a pretty visual/physical thinker. It…

I make extensive use of screen sharing, OneNote, and a wacom tablet. It works out pretty well, but you are right, it's not as nice as a whiteboard.

I've toyed around with the whole wiimote / projector idea as a cheap collaborative whiteboard. Sadly my company is not as open to "out of the box / off the wall" ideas as I am. It wouldn't be as useful if the other side didn't participate in the same way.

Perhaps there is a product / startup idea here. A projector with a camera built in, or something like that.

The HP Touchsmart computers would probably be an easier way to go. It would be nice if somebody marketed touch capabilities as an augmentation to traditional computer interaction rather than as a primary interface.

Re: Why I Decided to Spend More Time Working from Home

#25

Post by pyre »

I've found that some people are perfectly fine working from home without a separate 'work' space, and some aren't. It definitely feels like something that varies from person to person and situation to situation. For example, working at home when you live by yourself is different than if you live with your wife (stay-at-home mom) and child.

I've found that I need to be in a certain mindset to really focus on work, and sometimes that's hard to achieve at home. I found myself really forcing myself to work against my focus, and that tended to cause stress. (Though it's also possible it was just an indicator that I needed to find another job)

I also think that working remotely without much physical contact with 'the office' is definitely a detriment. Going to 'the office' once every couple of months can help you feel more in-touch with your team/co-workers.

Re: Why I Decided to Spend More Time Working from Home

#26

Post by DigitalJack »

peacemaker wrote: post #17

Where are people finding all these 100% work from home jobs? Whenever I suggest it to HR/recruiters they just aren't interested. Most places will only allow a day or two working from home, if that.

My job didn't start as a remote working deal. I worked at my company for 8 years in the office. Then I got married and was going to move. I was fully prepared to get a new job though. At the time it wouldn't have taken long. But I liked my job and was good at it, so I said I'd like to continue remotely. After discussing for a few months we decided it was worth trying.

It's been working well for 6 years now.

Re: Why I Decided to Spend More Time Working from Home

#27

Post by pyre »

ryanmolden wrote: post #9

The fact that working from home is still, relatively, rare in 2012 is baffling to me. When I think how many useful team interactions I have in a day vs. the amount of waste on meetings that either aren't necessary at all or could be more easily done via IM / e-mail it always surprises me. Of course this relies on self-managing, responsible individuals and a team with a good level of trust / communication, so perhaps…

There is something to be said about work-life balance too. When you work from home, it's really easy to let other things distract you, because "it's ok, I'll just work more latter to make it up." Then you end up working 12 hours, because of all of the interspersed distractions. If this happens too often, then you run into issues with the barrier between work and home breaking down.

I've personally, experienced this, and I've seen people comment on HN about having experienced it too, so this isn't just a hypothetical situation.

That said, I know people that successfully work from home, and do things like have a separate office that is only for work. I was just talking with someone over the weekend about how he took a bunch of time off of work, and at the end realized that he hadn't even entered that room the entire time (emphasizing how much of a separate "I'm at work" space it was).

Re: Why I Decided to Spend More Time Working from Home

#28

Post by pyre »

ericdykstra wrote: post #12

For me, the best place to work is where I can be in a "work" environment, but without worrying about anyone disturbing what I'm working on. Living in a studio and a half apartment means I'm either in the room I sleep in or the room I do everything else in. It's not a good environment for me to work, and I really don't like bringing work into that environment, either. Working in an office with a certain kind of cultur…

I have to agree with the idea of being in a place where you can be isolated to focus on work. When working in an office, I've often found that the best times to work are either early in the morning or late at night when the office is basically empty[1].

That said, I think that if you are disciplined enough, you could work in the same place that you live (even as someone that finds it difficult to keep work/home from blending). If you set up a routine that you do when you wake up on a work day, and stick to the routine, you could 'trick' your brain into differentiating the space based on what you are doing. The thing is that you would need to have a certain level of discipline to pull this off.

[1]: It also helps that I find the sound of an empty space with just the HVAC noises as background sort of soothing. I liked just stalking empty classrooms, etc at university too.

Re: Why I Decided to Spend More Time Working from Home

#29

Post by sak84 »

inthewoods wrote: post #4

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Re: Why I Decided to Spend More Time Working from Home

#30

Post by pyre »

wallflower wrote: post #11

Most organizations spend an enormous amount of money on offices. Offices can be argued are temperature-controlled, resource-hogging (if not LEED certified), calibrated, noise-attenuated (sometimes), free of most distractions (possibly pre-Facebook [1]), constrained, regimented environments with strategic floor layouts designed precisely to get people who are paid a salary to focus and produce value for their company.…

  > witness the backlash against home schooling
Not to de-rail the thread, but what is the backlash against home-schooling? I know that it's become more popular in recent years, but people did home-schooling in decades past.
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