On Working Remotely

Mon Dec 5 15:35:27 UTC 2011

I can not agree with this more.  I have been working from home for two years now and unfortunately live in a small apartment where I do not have a dedicated space to assign for "work".  My "workstation" is also my gaming machine and my servers sit right next to my game consoles.  It's impossible to get entirely in to a work mindset when your bed is literally two feet from where you sit.  This one's hard to solve when you don't have the space, I can certainly say there's a reason I have the most time put in to Skyrim out of all of my friends.

Another thing you might not think about is how much it can interfere with anything you consider part of a morning routine.  Where you used to get up at 8, shower, eat breakfast, get dressed, etc. before heading in to start work at 9 it doesn't take long before you realize you can instead wake up at 8:59, put on whatever pants might be within arm's reach, and sit down at your chair.  Next thing you know it's 6 PM and you haven't eaten or showered yet.  I've started setting an alarm and trying to work out in the morning to counter this and it works pretty well, but it took some effort.

tl;dr version: Working in an office provides structure that you may depend on without realizing it.  Be prepared to replicate as much of that structure as needed to remain productive and not turn in to a slob.
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Sean Harlow
sean at seanharlow.info

On Dec 5, 2011, at 10:09 AM, David Radcliffe wrote:

> I do have to say to anyone planning to work from home, make sure you have a 
> proper work space.  I have a computer room.  It contains a dozen systems, 
> electronics gear and parts (I used to have time for that hobby), and 
> comfortable and ergonomic work spaces.  There is no TV.  No reason for one 
> because this is the work room.  The mind set should be "I am now in the work 
> room, so I am at work."  Really works for me.