My fiance often uses our spare room as a study and I’ve helped her set up a more permanent dual-monitor configuration because she does a lot of logistics and admin work, but it means I’ll be working from our kitchen table on a laptop.
How do people manage working in non-work spaces? Do you clear your work stuff out at the end of the day?
What do people recommend for keeping work out of home and leisure spaces, beyond logging off and taking proper breaks?
The “working in not-work spaces” is where the hard stop is really key. Once your hard stop hits, stop. Shut down your laptop and put it away. If you have some kind of laptop bag that you can put it in where you don’t have to look at it, so much the better. I’ll let someone who has more living space than I do handle the second set of questions.
I get one work from home day a week for the past few years now. And what I wouldn’t give for more. Not having to be face to face with my coworkers in that loud ass office, smelling their horrid greaseball lunches… It would be a dream come true.
Given the state of things currently there really isn’t any excuse for them to not have all of us working from home until this pandemic is lifted.
But they refuse to believe people can be productive when they’re not in the office.
This might be a good time to have a conversation with your manager about that (although manager mileage may vary). If your employer has the capacity to have everyone work from home simultaneously, in this environment, that’s exactly what they should be doing.
If you’re wondering how the other half is doing, I am now required to wipe down the handles of every single shopping cart I bring back to the store.
Every. Single. One.
If there’s something I can do to help this suck less (and this goes for everyone reading this), hit my DMs and let’s chat.
I’m working from home this weekend (the internet in my co-work space is busted for the week - otherwise, it’s usually empty because I work antisocial hours) BUT I worked from home for a solid year after my last office unceremoniously booted us out.
If you’re lucky enough to be able to work while self-isolating, I CANNOT stress how important it is to put on real clothes, wake up at a normal time, and find an excuse to go outside and get some air.
As per Rob on the last 'cast, maybe that isn’t going to a coffee shop right now. But try and get around the block or go to the park each morning. Creating a “false commute” helps put up a barrier between work time and home time. I’m super lucky in that I live right next a giant hill plonked in Edinburgh’s city centre.
I’ve never thought of it as a false commute, but this is definitely something I do. Sometimes it’s as simple as telling myself, I’m going to brush my teeth and then it’s time to get to work. That transition activity is really helpful for me. Going outside would probably be even better. I live in a studio apartment so having a work station isn’t really possible and the false commute helps put me in the right mindset.
I just got notification today my office is now mandatory work from home until we are told otherwise.
That’s a good feeling.
I’m going into the office tomorrow to work and then grab my computer to take home and work for the foreseeable future. I have asthma, so it’s not worth the risk to stay at my office for how little they pay me. I’ll still have to pop in twice a week to grab mail and such, but honestly it’ll be ok.
Stay safe out there, comrade.
I’m currently still working from the office, but the business has a plan should the pandemic get any worse - so I’m anticipating it may happen.
My advice for working at home:
Crank out the tunes or your favourite work specific music. Maybe you can’t work to music, in which case fine. I cannot function without it. At home I can crank through stereo which is better then headphones.
Give yourself some time and creativity to treat yourself to a flashy lunch. Not like a five course dinner but something like a really good sandwich. Something to look forward to. Also treat yourself to posh teas, have a different tea to reward yourself every other hour. Doesn’t have to be tea of course, whatever your work enabling poision is.
Think about getting a stranding desk or an adjustable desk. I can sit for some jobs and sit mostly when I’m at the office. I got a standing desk a while ago for home use. Standing for some tasks does change my mood and energy. Sometimes wish I could have the option in the office.
If you can, try and set up your workspace in a different room to your bedroom. Over a longer sustained time of working from home, you can start feeling a mild case of cabin fever. It can do your mental health no favours to work in the same place you sleep. I know this may be difficult if you live in rented accomodation, if you have the option to work from a laptop in another room - that’s a much better option. I’d also recommend share office spaces although the current state of the pandemic complicates that obviously.
Make plans to get out of the house. Go for a walk or do something out of working hours. Again whenever your house becomes too linked to the stress of work - it’s a bad thing which can have long term consequences.
Y’all, I am developing the worst quarantine hair. I am going to tip my barber so much when it’s okay to see them again. Thank goodness we don’t require video for remote meetings yet.
Requiring video on meetings is almost a worse offense than scheduling a Friday afternoon meeting.
I work pretty hard but also like to do stuff for laughs.
Found out our works laptops with other than built in webcams (as my laptop is put to the side so I can use a big screen). In doing so I realised I could webcam myself on a greenscreen using my gaming pc and its cam and throw some different backgrounds for laughs on that monitor and focus the laptops webcam on that.
Its not like my house is bad or anything, this is just for the lols.
anyone done anything like this?
I’ve been using Control wallpapers for my Zoom meetings for months, actually. I change it up to a different part of the Oldest House every other week or so.
I only have the one laptop, so I’m making work materials on it and then also entertaining myself on it. Because of that I’m finding it a lot harder to keep the boundary. Any advice would be appreciated. There’s also no specific system for accountability re: being online, my work is expecting me to report/hand in materials when WFH ends next Monday, after which I think I can extend it.
That makes things way harder. I guess the best advice I could offer you is that, if you have a particular project you need to get done, break that down into manageable chunks (preferably small enough that you can do at least one chunk in a day). Depending on how many chunks you have, pick a number that you can get done in a day and do them. Once your daily chunks are gone, stop.
EDIT: Upon further reflection, it seems like you have some pretty flexible hours. If your gig is anything like programming, you might find yourself in a situation where you are in the Productivity Zone. If you’re nearing the end of your work time but you’re in a productive spot and feel like you can keep going, feel free to keep going. But! Reclaim your time later. If you put in 10 hours on something, put in 6 the next day. Balance is key.
I’m bumping this thread because I’m moving which means I have the opportunity to redo my entire home office setup!
Does anyone have any advice on home office furniture? Right now I have one of those big L desks from IKEA and I’m trying to figure out what else I could possibly need in this room. Any and all advice welcome!
