Work from Home - How's it Work?

I work from home 90% of the time now. I like it but it is an adjustment, as I've done some work from home before but never for whole days at a time or multiple days in a row.

I know some of you work from home. What habits or actions do you use to help yourself be as productive as possible, besides "don't look at HuntTalk"? I just want to know what everyone has done to help themselves be efficient and disciplined.
Back to your comment and some specifics:
1. Regular schedule, my goal is always to get in a routine, for me starting early seems to help me be most productive
2. Like I said I struggle with stop times, also with being present and not checking my phone for emails. Goal is to put it away “after work”
3. Priories exercise, I find I need to do it at lunch or I will skip it.
4. Need a set workspace
5. Set boundaries with family, you are working, you’re not highly available.
6. Focusing on specific tasks to accomplish each day
7. I do the “work clothes” thing as well.
 
Back to your comment and some specifics:
1. Regular schedule, my goal is always to get in a routine, for me starting early seems to help me be most productive
2. Like I said I struggle with stop times, also with being present and not checking my phone for emails. Goal is to put it away “after work”
3. Priories exercise, I find I need to do it at lunch or I will skip it.
4. Need a set workspace
5. Set boundaries with family, you are working, you’re not highly available.
6. Focusing on specific tasks to accomplish each day
7. I do the “work clothes” thing as well.

These are all good points.

I’ve had a similar experience with doing exercise before lunch. (During the summer I’ll force myself to get out earlier if it’s going to be super hot)

I’ve also found that getting showered and dressed for work helps switch my brain into work mode, rather than just easing in. It also avoids embarrassing situations where I jump onto an unplanned video call forgetting I have bed head.

Additionally, I find doing a wrap up at the day helps me transition out of work. Regardless of one’s work setting, I think it’s a good idea to wrap up loose ends, review the day, and plan the next. The added benefit for me is that I can let go of the day more easily, and spend the evening with my family less distracted. There is a distinct difference on days when I’m cranking right up to end, I am noticeably less present with my family.
 
One thing I do that I did not see here, and I know it might be crazy, but I eat lunch standing up because I sit all day other than at lunch. I can't always get out for a walk...
 
I've gotten a little chuckle from all this. I've probably written 200,000 lines of code over the course of the last 2 years in nothing but my underwear. I roll out of bed, hit the coffee maker and get to work.
 
I work from home about 66% of the time averaged over a calendar year. The last couple of months have been closer to 50/50. That is only for weekdays. I can’t just unplug on the weekends so if you figure in weekends it skews more to the work from home column.

My issue is that I am too focused on work at home. Sometimes when fires are popping up, two phones ringing and chiming with texts, and Outlook sounding like a world class xylophone player, I look up and it is 2PM and I haven’t bothered to get out of my work spot since 6:30 A.M. The refrigerator is 10 feet away and I have neglected to eat or drink anything yet.

Or then there are days like yesterday when I attempt to take a step back and yet have to field phone calls from techs traveling in from out of State because one of the Sups that report to me is smarter than me and let his company phone lay on the counter while he went fishing…

Working at home is nice, but it ain’t as nice as what a lot of folks make it out to be.

My advice is make sure you don’t let the pendulum of productivity swing too far in either direction. Make sure you find some balance. It is very easy to neglect “home” when working from home.
 
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Im paid on a transactional basis and have been working outside the office for about 12 years. I still have a private office where the business is but rarely use it. This transition from office to remote or I should say mobile was made possible by tech advances. It gets easier and easier. Im one to get up and start working early and I have a flexible work schedule but you have to return calls, texts and emails promptly After receiving them. Still a job and you have to be responsible. I like a good income as I like to have money for the things I want to do so I stay on top of business. No slacking on the couch in my dirty tee shirt.
one thing I like to do is stay connected to other people in my industry. So I try and go to lunch with other business people about 3 days a week and on Fridays I eat lunch with the guys I work with.
 
My point is schedule control for the sake of schedule control is a dumb artifact of previous generations, and that seems to be what people get hung up on.

You like to get up early someone else likes to work at 3am… who gives a shit as long as the work gets done.

If you have to be available from 9-5 then you need to be available.

Lots of folks… @VikingsGuy… my sister, etc run multi-national teams business hours just become an irrelevant construct.
This, You might not find me working at my desk at any given time of the traditional 8 to 5 work day but you might find me working at 5 am or 8 pm. But if you contact me during the traditional work day , you will get a prompt return.
 
I have customers that require morning reports by 7am Central Time so my butt's at the computer by 5:30am Mountain Time. I can typically get all of my daily stuff done before kids wake up. Then I'm free to make breakfast and lunches and help the kiddos get ready for school. I even do drop offs occasionally. Once everyone is out the door, I can focus on work until it's time to do school pick ups. I've had to remind my wife many times that even though I'm here, I'm not really here, unless there's an emergency. If she wants to go shopping or get her nails done, she has to take the kids.

My biggest recommendation that hasn't already been mentioned is to get a good desk and a comfy chair. It's easier to roam around the house aimlessly when you can't sit at your desk any longer.
 
Just buy one of those things that mimic a mouse moving so you are always green on lync, then go fishing.
Shoot man we have these things called iPhones these days.

I've been lucky enough to work from home for pretty much the past 2 years. Sad news is that we are headed back to the office full-time next week. Honestly I am not sure how well I'm going to adjust to that again. I feel so much more productive at home in my office. Way to many distractions at the workplace.
We are going to get 1 day of teleworking a week permanently. Most people are super unhappy about that. My unit suits teleworking really well with the massive amounts of data we work with. We have already lost one team member and I suspect more to follow that will leave to take more remote jobs. I may end up there myself with 12 years in under uncle sam.
 
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Most people are super unhappy about that. My unit suits teleworking really well with the massive amounts of data we work with. We have already lost one team member and I suspect more to follow that will leave to take more remote jobs. I may end up there myself with 12 years in under uncle sam.

Smart companies will find a way to help the 21st century worker be happy so that those companies can retain qualified and good working staff.

The pandemic accelerated the great resignation, but with the Boomer generation heading into the sunset, the balance of power is shifting away from the corporate executives and back to the labor force. Labor's demands? Not a 30 hour work week or 6 weeks of paid time off: It's working in sweat pants & not showering. Because, we're American's damnit. We generally don't make sense.
 
Smart companies will find a way to help the 21st century worker be happy so that those companies can retain qualified and good working staff.
Absolutely, crusty old companies are going to/and are having some of there best staff poached by companies who have figured out how to run companies remote/have flexible policies.

Labor's demands? Not a 30 hour work week or 6 weeks of paid time off: It's working in sweat pants & not showering. Because, we're American's damnit. We generally don't make sense.
;) though for me, it's was/has been, "Ok so prior to the pandemic there was an expectation that I would have my phone on me constantly and expectation that on day one I would have a VPN and setup at my house... now I'm saying hey I want to exercise more agency in when I'm at each of those two 'work locations' and suddenly there is an issue?"

Obviously we can't go back in time and I prefer remote to office under 2022 conditions, but if the paradigm was when I leave the office at 5pm I don't have to work and/or work can't even contact me until I show up at 8am the next day... that when I went on vacation I was just gone for 10 days... hell in 10 years I've never gone more than... 6 days without answering a work email, including backcountry hunting trips.

I mean yeah, I'd 100% go back into the office under those circumstances.

You can't want 80s office environments with 2022 employee availability.
 
I have been working from home since switching jobs before Covid, here is a few things I do to help:

  • Wake up at the same time every day, get into the routine
  • Work out at some point in the day, I do MWF before I start work
  • Have a dedicated office, for me its one of my spare bedrooms
  • Keep the door open when focus isn't paramount, closed if I need to jam and don't want the dog to distract me
  • Take a break every hour, be it the bathroom, a snack, let the dog out, check the mail, etc.
  • Take a dedicated lunch every day. Don't sit at your desk while taking lunch. Disconnect from the office completely
  • Have phone calls with coworkers to maintain relationships in the work place
 
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