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Working from Bed

nytimes.com

141–150 of 232 posts

Re: Working from Bed

#141

I've wanted to work full-time from home for as long as I can remember. It took about a month in lockdown for me to realize I hated it. Turns out, my mental health is much better when I have an office to go to. 1h20 in commute (round-trip), no privacy, tons of distractions, and still I'm happier when I get to leave the house to go to work. I suspect it's mostly just a matter of getting out of the house. Those 4 walls…

> I suspect it's mostly just a matter of getting out of the house. Those 4 walls get pretty oppressive after a while.

They can be.

I'm fortunate to have enough space in my house that I can silo the different areas of the house. I have a few places I'm happy to work in, but I also have a basement that I never do work in.

Re: Working from Bed

#142

My WFH desk is in my bedroom because of space constraints. The fact that it's there doesn't bother me one bit and I have no desire to work from bed, curled around the 14" laptop I do my coding on, instead of the 43" 4K screen I have on the desk. But there are moments (once or twice a day) when I need to work on a specific piece of code that I don't mind center stage on the laptop display and I unplug everything and m…

>instead of the 43" 4K screen I have on the desk. I've been patiently waiting for a 32" 4k 144hz hdmi 2.1 ips display. I've noticed manufacturers seem to like making them in 27" (too small) and 43" (too big!) sizes. I have questions. How far away do you sit? How is a 43" screen for coding? Do you use a tiling window manager to allocate all that space? Do you use it for gaming at all? If so, how hard is it to keep tra…

I have a 49" 4k curved TV as a monitor. 43" is in no way too big. I'd say that 49" is slightly too large, but 43" would be about perfect.

Turning your head is a function of field of view, which is a function of screen size and distance. It is easy to change the distance with a keyboard tray or a monitor mount.

Re: Working from Bed

#143

On the opposite, I'd say it's a great way to destroy your sleep routine and habits. As a rule of thumb, your bed should be dedicated to sleep and cuddles with your significant other. "This study indicates that the use of computers and mobile telephones in the bedroom are related to poor sleep habits" https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1365-2869... "Computer use, TV viewing, and the presence of media i…

Nitpick: "are related"..."may reduce"...these are links, not causation.

I tested this myself and found A) my sleep did not get any worse when I worked from bed and B) if anything, it got better, especially during times of illness, because I was able to get some important things done at the higher-energy highs and this in turn helped me get better sleep later.

IMO the bed and laying down in general is a great place to do mental activities including work tasks. I continue to get great results from planning (incl. pseudocoding) while laying down.

Anecdata, but I'm noticing that a lot of people aren't testing this themselves, just trusting somebody else's bell curve, along which they may actually plot at any given point.

Re: Working from Bed

#144
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oohh look at these people with more than one room! (Ok it's valid for those.. but I'm still feeling a bit salty.)

I believe that even working on a small desk next to your bed would be better than working directly from the bed.

Have been working from home from my bedroom for the last year, got a small desk with a 27" monitor and a second hand high end office chair. At the least its significantly better ergonomics than using a laptop in bed. Downside is I can't use my camera in calls since my background looks like crap and usually has my bf sleeping behind me.

Re: Working from Bed

#145
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oohh look at these people with more than one room! (Ok it's valid for those.. but I'm still feeling a bit salty.)

Oohh look at these people with more than one room! I feel ya. Back when I was running a one-man startup, I had myself, my wife, and a cat in 450 square feet. Except when I was out gladhanding potential clients, I worked from my bed. At least back then, I could decamp for Starbucks if I got the crazies. But today's studio apartment dwellers are really screwed. Especially if you live somewhere hot, somewhere cold, or a…

>I had myself, my wife, and a cat in 450 square feet

So, like the average "family with 2 kids" size of house in most of the world :-)

Re: Working from Bed

#146

I've wanted to work full-time from home for as long as I can remember. It took about a month in lockdown for me to realize I hated it. Turns out, my mental health is much better when I have an office to go to. 1h20 in commute (round-trip), no privacy, tons of distractions, and still I'm happier when I get to leave the house to go to work. I suspect it's mostly just a matter of getting out of the house. Those 4 walls…

Everybody's different. I've been wfh since the pandemic started, and it's been one of the best times of my life. Even in school I didn't have the bliss of never having to leave my home. My health, exercise routine, diet, sleep routine, work productivity, social life, personal productivity, quality of life in pretty much every aspect have basically all been perfect. Even outside, people keep a little more distance. As…

>Unfortunately there is no compromise that can please everyone

We have started working Thursdays and Fridays in the office and the rest at home. Its nice to get out and do something different and still have all the time savings and time to think at home most of the week. It does still require you to live close to the office though.

Re: Working from Bed

#147
post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I keep a TV on in the background, out of sight (usually the weather channel). I don't know why, but it makes the house feel less empty all day. I think the world is split into people who really need a background soundtrack of some sort and those who hate it. Back when I sometimes had a roommate on group (non-work) trips, one of the things that drove me craziest was someone who just had to turn on the TV as soon as t…

I dream that one day I’ll be able to turn my ears on and off at will. Earplugs work alright, but complete silence would be fantastic (personal safety be damned)

>personal safety be damned

Apple is working on fixing that. There is a setting on ios 14 that can alert you when it hears things like a fire alarm, dogs barking, people yelling, etc.

Re: Working from Bed

#148
post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I haven't tried them yet, but to my understanding this is a key selling feature of AirPods. Any chance anyone knows how successful these are at noise cancellation (without the use of music to drown out said noise)?

All noise cancellation is much better at canceling low frequency noise (like the engine on a plane) than voices, for example, which it mostly just muffles. For example, I have music playing in my house right now. If I put in my AirPod Pros and turn them on, the music gets quieter but I can still clearly hear it.

I find that on my over ear headphones, the physical barrier of the headphones blocks out a lot of higher sounds to some amount and the anc kills the low sounds. I can still hear stuff while I'm not playing sound but when I turn on music I can't hear anything around me.

Re: Working from Bed

#149

On the opposite, I'd say it's a great way to destroy your sleep routine and habits. As a rule of thumb, your bed should be dedicated to sleep and cuddles with your significant other. "This study indicates that the use of computers and mobile telephones in the bedroom are related to poor sleep habits" https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1365-2869... "Computer use, TV viewing, and the presence of media i…

Having a seperate office for work helps significantly in seperating your habits. I would imagine a bed office might do the same, though obviously having health repercussions.

Re: Working from Bed

#150
post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All noise cancellation is much better at canceling low frequency noise (like the engine on a plane) than voices, for example, which it mostly just muffles. For example, I have music playing in my house right now. If I put in my AirPod Pros and turn them on, the music gets quieter but I can still clearly hear it.

I find that on my over ear headphones, the physical barrier of the headphones blocks out a lot of higher sounds to some amount and the anc kills the low sounds. I can still hear stuff while I'm not playing sound but when I turn on music I can't hear anything around me.

Yes. Closed back over ears are definitely the most effective way to block external noise. And I've heard of people wearing over the ear protection over noise canceling that works even better. For me, basically the only time I really care (or want to be that isolated) is on planes though and I travel really light so over the ear headphones is a non-starter.
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