How To Work From Home Like You Mean It

I've been working from home for many years now.<p>What gets me trough:<p>- Wake up at the same time everyday.<p>- Shower and change!<p>- Have breakfast.<p>- After lunch try to go work from a cafe or a public space where you have some "humanity" noise. Keeps you sane.<p>- Make work dates, we are social.<p>- Make sure you leave the house at least a couple times a day (even in the winter).<p>- Stay away from having a tab open with Social Media, block it on your main browser :P<p>- Learn to love podcasts.<p>- Invest in a very expensive espresso/coffee machine.<p>- Invest in Tea and a very large teapot.<p>- Learn how to cook, it's a good break too.<p>- Live downtown, so that you have things and ppl close by.<p>- Have a place with at least a balcony so that you can get some air and work from there too.<p>- Get a laptop, if you are going to not be in a office, don't replicate a cubicle in your house. Change up where you work, dinning table, sofa, desk, floor, etc...<p>- Buy a bike, and bike to the cafe in the afternoon.<p>- Make friends with other telecommuters/freelancer/artists/etc...<p>- Keep your place organized and clean, you spend a lot of time there.<p>- Meet close by ex-coworkers/friends for lunch.<p>- Stop working everyday at the same time.<p>Remember, it's not a vacation! But it's not an office setting either! Focus on getting the best out of each. You have a blank slate for you to create <i>your</i> best work environment now. Don't be afraid of trying different stuff and routines. You worked in offices for many years (school is part of that) it will take some time to get use to the new environment with lack of "forced" structure. You will be amazed about how much more you get done.<p>Happy working!<p>(edited for formatting, excuse any grammar erros and typos)

I've been working from home for the last four years, and maybe I'm an outlier but I literally have no issues with it. I am productive, I have a good separation between my work and personal lives, I never have an issue getting motivated, and I don't feel lonely.<p>It probably helps that I love my work, but I don't have any issues with distractions. I actually appreciate the fact that there are distractions around home, because if I need a break from work it's as easy and heading to the living room to play some games or kick back and relax to some tv on my comfy couch. When I need a change of scenery or human interaction, I just head to a coffeeshop to hang out and work alongside a friend or two who have also flexible work situations, or I go to a co-location workspace in the city.<p>I waste no time commuting, my workstation is setup exactly how I want it to be (complete with a Geekdesk and two 27" cinema displays), and I control the temperature. And if I need to "stay late at the office" it's not hard on my wife because she knows I'm just downstairs. Heck, she can even hang out in my "office" and read or do whatever while I work.<p>Every 6 weeks or so I will fly to the offices of my current contract to work on location, so it's interesting to compare that experience. I do end up getting into sync with the rest of the team a <i>little</i> better when I'm physically there, but not by too much since we heavily utilize collaborative tools like skype and join.me to great effect. What I do find is that I get pulled aside WAY more when I'm on location and my workflow constantly gets interrupted; I'm way less productive. I always end up with back-pain issues too because I'm working at a substandard workstation. I do admit it's fun to BS with my cohorts though, but I don't know how important that is to the project.<p>I know there are benefits to working on location, but honestly in my opinion working from home is better on almost all fronts.

These seem like pretty obvious details, right? I've never understood why someone wants to sit around in pajamas all day or waste time playing games/watching tv all day (don't get me wrong, I love doing those things, but I'd much rather get my work out of the way and then hang out). Just because working from home is an option, doesn't mean you're suited for the gig. A lot of people derive structure for their day from the physical act of going to and being at work. There needn't be any "hacks" or "fixes," you'll know almost immediately whether or not the lifestyle is appropriate for your working situation.

He doesn't mention flow, as in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_(psychology)" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_(psychology)</a>. Without it, you're pretty much wasting time whether you're at home or at the office. It might be easier to force yourself to do some menial tasks at the office, but it's much easier to get into the flow in peace at home, and then you'll be 10x more productive and able to do real work.

Discipline.<p>This entire article is about building one core skill, entirely summed up in one word. This core skill helps create all other required skills.<p>That's it.<p>Sadly it seems to dance around discipline, like we may, avoiding saying it to not to hurt anyones feelings.<p>Discipline forms habits. Discipline keeps habits. Poor discipline, poor habits.<p>Not having and always working on your discipline makes it hard to work from home.<p>Fast Company; I'm available for hire.

I have worked from home most of my working life and these things are important, however, I discovered that, at least for me, I have to like the work i'm doing even more than I have to like it in 'an office'. For me it's much easier to procrastinate when I don't like what i'm doing/don't believe in. And really, procrastination can make you hate yourself, so it makes me drift towards things I like and believe in, much more than towards money. This has been working for me for over 20 years now up to a point were I really don't understand anyone doing it differently (most notably, people going to jobs they don't like for the money, as most people do <a href="http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/poll_most_in_us_don_like_their_jobs_4iRFvxrVqLk3mxtMVmCULO" rel="nofollow">http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/poll_most_in_us_don_li...</a> (there are similar polls in EU countries)). Life is too short for that.

I have worked from home for the past 2.5 years. The freedom is great, but the downside is that I found I work a lot more. There just ends up being so little separation between work and home that is all just blends into the same thing.<p>I'm taking a job soon where I'll need to go into an office and I'm excited. Now that I have done years in an office and out, I think the best solution for <i>me</i> is an office job that has flexibility to show up in a time window (been 8am and 10am for example) and the option to work from home when needed.

One of the hardest things from working from home is if you share your living space with people who are unemployed and stay home most of the day.<p>Much more difficult to stay motivated when your house is full of people in pajamas who are surfing facebook , playing guitar hero and smoking pot.

Thank God for our detached garage. I walk out there in the morning (my commute, 2 days a week), and I am "at work".<p>I have to take frequent early morning calls (I am in California, everybody else in my working group on the East Coast or offshore), so I usually barely make it, but I do make it, and grab breakfast later. This is a bit awkward, but it works for me, and I usually finish the day at a decent time, even if I start the first hour or two in my sweats. I'm violating the preconception of wearing the costume and being ready first thing, but if I had to eat breakfast at 6:00 in the morning, I would be sick. Ugh. TMTOWTDI. (I don't have the luxury of starting at 9:00)

I've been working from home since 2003. Holy crap, I just read back that sentence...<p>Lately I've been thinking that I can't do this forever. But like all things that people do for a long time it's hard to find a way out.<p>Despite the fact that I can easily not leave the house for days at a time (and worse - not even notice) I'm a happy, social person. I have a wife, daughter, lots of friends around.<p>However, this year I've decided not to be such a hermit and mix it up with new people. So I've booked myself some conferences (inc sxsw) and local get-togethers and see what it leads to.<p>Nothing worse than getting into your own safe little world - one day you'll be too scared to leave it...

In art form, for the aspiring home-worker:<p><a href="http://theoatmeal.com/comics/working_home" rel="nofollow">http://theoatmeal.com/comics/working_home</a><p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=co_DNpTMKXk" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=co_DNpTMKXk</a><p>It's amazing how efficient working from home can become. What's even more amazing is when you realize how much time goes wasted in an office environment due to constant interruptions. The downside is that you end up with a lot of empty time to fill in.<p>Word of advice: Get a second part-time job/education/daily activity. Have a cuckoo clock on your PC (helps to bring you back to reality)

What I've found has helped the most is moving into a house with a real office in it and only working in there.<p>My condo was a work free-for-all. Working variously in the kitchen, bedroom and living room imbued the entire place with an emotional vibe that made it feel like I was always at work, even on weekends.<p>Also: Laying down the law and getting family to respect that you are at work when those office doors close. No requests for chores, no constant pop-ins for idle chit chat or (much worse) picking fights.<p>I've found these things work whether I'm in my underwear or not.

IRC.<p>I worked for home for 18 months. What made the most difference for me was having an IRC session open all the time with my 8-9 colleagues. We only talked about work issues there (more-or-less). It gave me what I missed, which was:<p>- the casual non-formal interaction mechanisms with my colleagues (like just popping over to their desk to ask something),<p>- it made me feel less alone<p>- gave me a reason to get up and start work in the morning (as others would see when I logged in, a bit like when others see when you get to the office in the morning)<p>- it made me feel part of the team.

&#62; ..."arriving" on time, eating lunch on a rigid schedule, shaving, brushing, and so on seems pointless at first.<p>It did seem pointless to me at first. And then I tried it for a while and learned how to have a healthy separation between work and the rest of my life at home. And now I realize that most of these things are pointless for me when I work at home.

Been working from home since early 2008, and found one of the most critical things to do is to separate your work space from the rest of your "normal" life. For a while, I was waking up 24" from my laptop. I'd work non-stop all day, and much of the night. There was no separation, no respite even in my dreams. I don't care how awesome your project/business/start-up is, you need to occasionally come up for air.<p>Having a separate work space I could leave and return to was great. When I was "at work", I got stuff done. When I needed a break or was spending time with my family, I wasn't sucked in by work laptop screen within sight and was able to be, for the most part, fully present.<p>The best of both worlds.....

Why is "working" in quotes?

What seems to work best for me is to have a todo list. I write this list at the end of the day for the next day. Not only gives it me something to focus on the next day, it also allows me to start thinking about the potential problems I might need to solve so that when I sit down at the keyboard things sorta flow better.<p><a href="http://www.lukeschreur.com/posts/productivity" rel="nofollow">http://www.lukeschreur.com/posts/productivity</a>

I found very productive to split my working time into slots called pomodoro, the famous pomodoro technique. I built a tool to help me getting things done and don't waste time called Tomatoes [1].<p>[1] <a href="http://tomatoes.heroku.com" rel="nofollow">http://tomatoes.heroku.com</a>

Amazing how people who directly link to Neven Mrgan's blog still manage to add vowels to his last name.

I've been working from home since August 2010.<p>The part where you get up on time, shower, shave, dress well, etc, is very important, as the author says. It's psychological - you're gearing yourself up for a day of work. If there is no physical differentiation between a work day and an off-day, the two will start to blend together in icky ways. For this reason, even though in general I am a very lazy person, I always do this. I always clean up, always dress properly, and have a part of my home I only use for work. I also have meetings every day on Skype, so if I look like a hobo people will know about it.<p>On the other hand, I do clean and sometimes cook during the work day. I make sure to get my work done, but since I'm at home I try to get some mundane things done so I don't have to do them when I'm off. I work for a place that encourages a balance of life and work, so this is more in line with what others at my workplace are doing (ie, I'm not slacking relative to my coworkers).<p>Being social is still something I am struggling with. Since I work alone and I don't have nerd friends, having someone to talk tech with is kinda missing from my life right now. The tech scene in my city is good but I just haven't been taking advantage of it by going to events and meeting people. In general, being around people is less frequent now, so it's more distracting when it happens. I have been sort of letting this happen rather than trying to fix it.