How to Work from Home Without Going Crazy
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Re: How to Work from Home Without Going Crazy
#2As someone who has worked from home for a year and half I can testify to the fact that wfh is not an easy thing to do. What I missed the most was whatever little interaction I had with colleagues. I used to get so frustrated at the end of the day that I just had to get out somwhere at the end of the day - be it to a coffee shop,just to see some people. Given a chance I wouldn't prefer to wfh again. I beleive the ideal combo is to work from office 3 days and wfh 2 days. That said, I know several folks who successfully wfh. I believe a lot depends on your personality.
Re: How to Work from Home Without Going Crazy
#3I've been working from home on and off for two years now, and I can tell you that sometimes there is just no substitute for physically being in the same room as the rest of your team. Meetings are so much easier, getting help is far more efficient, and there's the social interaction there as well.
Having said that, it's also nice to have the flexibility of being able to work from home.
Re: How to Work from Home Without Going Crazy
#4I find working from home (or somewhere other than the office) to be much easier than working at the office because I'm away from my co-workers. Great folks, but they don't seem to get that headphones, terse replies, and furious typing mean, "Go away, somebody is actually working here." lol. Doesn't help that I share an office (no door closing) with a non-programmer and nobody else writes code there either. :\
Re: How to Work from Home Without Going Crazy
#5As someone who has worked from home for a year and half I can testify to the fact that wfh is not an easy thing to do. What I missed the most was whatever little interaction I had with colleagues. I used to get so frustrated at the end of the day that I just had to get out somwhere at the end of the day - be it to a coffee shop,just to see some people. Given a chance I wouldn't prefer to wfh again. I beleive the idea…
Definitely depends on your personality. I work from home 3 days a week usually, but at the moment I've been doing 5 days a week from home. It has the upsides and the downsides.
The biggest upside for me is that you can get lots more done - if I'm in the office then someone can interrupt me physically. If I'm at home, the best they can do is MSN me (I can ignore), they can e-mail (I can ignore) and they can phone me (I can ignore that). If something is not urgent I will leave it for a couple of hours.
I also find these does actually help co-workers learn - if you're in the office and they ask you for help, they get it. If you can't respond right away, it often means they'll spend their time on their own trying to fix the problem and then they don't actually need you and they increase their knowledge.
The other massive upside is travel costs (depending on location of your office to your house). Fortunately my wife works from home a lot as well, so it means we only need 1 car (saves a fortune) and obviously spend far less in petrol. Even though we sit in the same room, we barely speak to each other all day a lot of the time - she is often on conference calls and I am coding, but at least if we want a bit of human interaction, we have it.
We've been doing this for 2+ years and we don't have any problems - I guess some couples might find it a strain but it works really well for us.
Re: How to Work from Home Without Going Crazy
#6As someone who has worked from home for a year and half I can testify to the fact that wfh is not an easy thing to do. What I missed the most was whatever little interaction I had with colleagues. I used to get so frustrated at the end of the day that I just had to get out somwhere at the end of the day - be it to a coffee shop,just to see some people. Given a chance I wouldn't prefer to wfh again. I beleive the idea…
I work at work 2days a week and from home 3 days, I too like this balance. It's great for focus when programming, and enough time for meetings. Takes a bit of discipline though. Working from home is great for having time to pick up the children from daycare without having to leave early too.
Re: How to Work from Home Without Going Crazy
#7I have worked from home off and on for years, and this is pretty good advice. The most important is the dedicated space with a door that closes. So you still "go to work", just with a very short commute. A few other things that I have found helpful:
- When you're in your office, you're at work, working.
- When you're not in your office, you're at home, not working.
- Work in 48 minute bursts, then take a break.
- Only check email & voice mail during your 12 minutes off.
- Put internet and work on 2 different machines (if possible).
- I prefer radio over pre-recorded music; it reminds me I'm not alone.
- Eat lunch out with a friend several times per week.
- Eat home meals away from your office.
- If you're local, go in to the office once per week.
- If you're not local, go to the office several days per month.
- Dinner with SO every night, no matter what you're working on.
- A regular schedule of sleep, meals, exercise, and work makes things easier.Re: How to Work from Home Without Going Crazy
#8As someone who has worked from home for a year and half I can testify to the fact that wfh is not an easy thing to do. What I missed the most was whatever little interaction I had with colleagues. I used to get so frustrated at the end of the day that I just had to get out somwhere at the end of the day - be it to a coffee shop,just to see some people. Given a chance I wouldn't prefer to wfh again. I beleive the idea…
I work at work 2days a week and from home 3 days, I too like this balance. It's great for focus when programming, and enough time for meetings. Takes a bit of discipline though. Working from home is great for having time to pick up the children from daycare without having to leave early too.
I think you've got the ideal setup there. 5 days a week in the office leads to too many distractions / meetings; but 5 days a week WFH leads to loneliness. I'm currently stuck only allowed to WFH when absolutely necessary. I'd love to sell this to my employer - was this a change that got implemented or was it that way from the start?
Re: How to Work from Home Without Going Crazy
#9For me, the hardest part about working from home (been doing it since late 2006) is dealing with unproductive days. Some days, try as I might, I just can't seem to get anything done. I end up feeling guilty about this, far worse than I ever felt about wasted days while in an office. The fact that productive days will (hopefully!) outweigh the bad ones should be consolation—but in practice it's not much of one.
Re: How to Work from Home Without Going Crazy
#10I have worked from home off and on for years, and this is pretty good advice. The most important is the dedicated space with a door that closes. So you still "go to work", just with a very short commute. A few other things that I have found helpful: - When you're in your office, you're at work, working. - When you're not in your office, you're at home, not working. - Work in 48 minute bursts, then take a break. - Onl…
>>I prefer radio over pre-recorded music; it reminds me I'm not alone
I used to keep the TV running in the background -- just to get a feeling that i'm not alone.