Ask HN: Anyone rather just be alone during work day?

Solo is great. But collaboration is the key to success.

Yes, I'd rather just be alone. Some weeks I manage to get as many as four days in a row working from home, but most I end up just taking Friday as a WFH day so I can focus on getting things done.

As I type this in my open plan office at 1:39 PM, there's a vacuum cleaner 20 feet away, three different conversations going on around me, the stairwell door at my back opening every minute, people walking in front, behind, and to the side of me, and the janitorial service emptying garbage cans. Every few days we'll get noisemakers, screaming, and clapping and cake for birthdays or work anniversaries.

When working from home, I get a good nine solid hours in with great focus and the occasional break to take pets out. From my, admittedly non-scientific reckoning, I get about three times as much done in one work day at home. I go into the office mostly just to be seen, to participate in social rituals, for physical meetings, and to be "available" for questions and drive-bys. It's not that I don't like my co-workers, it's that my office is noisy and distracting. And it's one of the quietest floors in the company.

When I worked for IBM and had a private, quiet office, it took some getting used to being alone. When I moved to full-time remote work, it was a really good balance for me: I could exercise during phone conferences, have a healthy and properly-proportioned lunch with my wife, and get a balanced amount of distraction and "away" time by taking the dogs out.

I like a mix of alone time and collaboration time. Ideally I’d work from home a couple days a week and be in the office the rest of those days.

Also - I invested in a “do not disturb” light that I flip on while on a call or while I need to focus on something. It seems to be pretty effective as most requests that would have been walk ups are now turning into emails.

I don't really have a 'team' as such these days (the joys of corporate silos) - I don't work in a vacuum, but the others that I interact with are spread out over the country, so I generally work from home 3-4 days a week. The office is open plan, and quite noisy on a 'busy' day, but a lot of my peers also work remotely several days a week, so most of the time its not too bad.

I absolutely love remote work. In fact, if I could not be bothered on slack by constant likes and rehashes of links I can go read and find on my own it would be even better. If I want a meeting of any kind it should be scheduled. I feel physical pain when my time is wasted.