Ever wondered what it's like to work from home everyday?
- External Resources
- Pros
- Cons
- Suggestions
- Tools
Amusing:
The Oatmeal: Working from Home
Serious:
"Even if someone has not exhibited symptoms of social anxiety in the past, living in isolation can tip the balance if they begin to feel lonely, uncertain of others’ behaviors and motivations, and unfamiliar with their own ability to interact. Without positive interactions and relationships, it becomes easy to question one’s self-worth and purpose in society." - source
7 Things Nobody Tells You About Working Remotely
You can work from literally anywhere with an internet connection.
No set schedule.
No distracting co-workers.
If you're not feeling productive, you can take a break and come back later.
You can also be done when you're done. No need to sit at your desk with the appearance of productivity.
You can dance if you want to (or sing, or lip-sync, or talk to yourself, fidget, perfect desk drumming, WHATEVER)
You can totally do laundry or other small chores during the day
You can cook your lunch if you want to
You can hang out with your pets, or other people's pets.
You (potentially) get to travel to cool places for company meetings
No commute.
You can schedule appointments during timeslots no one else will.
The amount you make can be based on how fast you work
Leadership or total ownership of projects (sometimes)
Rewards self-direction
Since you're communicating everything online, you get the bonus of automatically codified communication
No set schedule
No distracting co-workers
If you're not feeling productive, you can take a break and come back later.
No social pressure to prevent distraction
No social pressure to groom, or take care of basic human needs
Decreased human interaction means increased social anxiety
Some of your loved ones may not understand that you're working
It is not for everyone, and that's ok.
Communication is tough
Asyncronous productivity
Random learning from peers is limited
Mentorship can be hard
Always working. You may not understand that you're not working.
Easy to overbook yourself for more than you can handle.
Even though you don't have to commute, and you don't have strict office hours, it's still helpful to establish a schedule.
- Get up around the same time.
- Put on clothes that are different from what you slept in (even if it's just a different pair of yoga pants).
- "Go to your office" - Leave your house.
- Shower regularly.
- Eat breakfast.
- Eat lunch.
- When your work day is done, be done.
- Go to bed around the same time.
You might see this list and think "my god that's gross, why would I ever stop doing these basic human things", but take it from someone who thought the same thing: you will.
Because you're never technically "out of office", it's easy to just "do some work real quick" at any and all hours.
- Set clear hours with your co-workers about when you will be online. If that schedule changes, let them know.
- If someone messages you outside of those hours, either ignore it, or let them know you'll take a look tomorrow because it's dinner time or whatever. This is especially important with co-workers in different timezones. (Only exception is if something is literally on fire.)
- Find an area of your home/apartment that you can designate as your "office". If that's an actually office, fantastic. If it's a corner of the room with a desk, also great.
- Do NOT, I repeat, DO NOT work from your bed. Unless your bed is your apartment. Get up, get dressed, and go to a designated area before settling in. Be intentional. If you start checking your email from bed, and then grab your computer to do something real quick, it'll be 3:00pm before you realize you never got up, and never ate. It'll also royally mess with your sleep patterns. Don't do it.
- Take breaks. It's ok. You don't have to always be productive.
- Eat lunch away from your desk when possible.
- Find free places to sit that aren't your house.
- If you're not being productive at home, try somewhere else
When you first transition to working from home, it will be an adjustment period for everyone. People that are used to you being available whenever you are home will go through the same adjustments that you do. Be patient, but firm.
- This is where having a defined area of work, and set hours comes in handy. If the door is closed || your headphones are on || you're wearing a Do Not Disturb sign, that's an indication not to bother you right now.
- Something I ran into quite a lot: if you decide to take a working vacation so you can visit family members, try and establish the same set of boundaries. Find an area that you can shut yourself off in. Go work in a cafe. Whatever you need to do. If people try to schedule activities or events during the time you're supposed to be working, be gentle but firm in reminding them of your work schedule.
- Investigate your Do Not Disturb options
If you can and are able to, absolutely invest in your space.
- Buy a nice office chair
- Set up your desk to be ergonomically friendly, etc.
- Keep your area clean and distraction free.
- Decorate so that you enjoy being in the space.
- Get an air filter (it's just a nice perk).
- Open your window!
- If you don't like home, find a co-working space
- Get decent wifi!
- Write this stuff off on your taxes!
- Get a nice monitor
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>When you work from home, and you finally fix a bug that's been the bane of your existence, and there's no one to tell. pic.twitter.com/G5EZCC0w8C
— Linz Jax (@LinzJax) November 12, 2018
When you work from home, no one can hear you cheer. Be your own cheerleader. Get excited about your victories. Tell your teammates. Do a little dance.
Do the same when you're frustrated. Typing out the issue to co-workers is the best way to rubber duck. Sometimes you don't even have to send the message.
The internet is distracting. There's so social pressure from co-workers. You can just work a couple hours later… right? No! Set limits. Install the apps. Keep yourself responsible. Do whatever you have to do.
- RescueTime
- Freedom.to
- TimeKeeper
- LeechBlock - firefox
- Pomodoro timers
- Toggle
- MindTheTime - Recurser made!
- Think about why your defaulting to these distractions. What are you actually trying to solve?
Get a good nights sleep
- Blocking things at night so you can get to sleep, and block them in the morning so you get out of bed
- Lights off, no screens at night
- Sleep mask :)
Something to keep in mind: These apps will work for a little while. You'll inevitably forget about them, fight them, or ignore them. That's ok. Don't take it as a sign that you've failed. Just try a new system. Find a way to shake things up.
You don't have the benefit of daily interactions with other humans. Humans are inherently social creatures, and isolation can cause and exaserbate social anxiety (which is a super fun feedback loop).
- Sign up for classes that occure regularly
- Join a social league of some sort
- Have a regular weekly meetup with friends/family
- Find a bar and talk to the bartender
- Find a way to replace "water cooler conversation". Some workplaces are good about scheduling one-on-one calls to talk about things other than work. Some are less good. I would highly recommend pushing for this (especially if your workplace is not prone to chattiness). If your workplace is just not into it, put together a slack channel with friends at other work places.
It's easy to take "working" holidays because you can work from anywhere, but make sure you actually take time off. In the same way that unlimited vacation means you don't actually take vacation, "working vacations" allow for unlimited possibilities, but equal amounts of burnout.
- Zoom
- Google Hangouts
- Slack
- BaseCamp
- Teletype
- Floobits
- Freedom.to
- RescueTime
- StayFocusd
- Pomodoro timers
- Desk Yogi