I've been working from home for 10 years now and love it. It's not for everybody, though. To add to the points from the article, here are a few things I've learned over the years:
- Your office chair is the most important piece of equipment in your office. You're in contact with it most of the day. Buy a good one and it will last you for years. Buy a bad one and it will give you back problems for years.
- If you can, join a CrossFit (or similar) gym. Not only will you get in great shape, they become a social outlet and because they're time boxed, you're in and out in an hour.
- Whether you like it or not, your spouse/significant other's days off become your days off so plan accordingly.
- Enjoy the flexibility of working from home. While you don't want to plunk down and watch TV when you should be working, you can do things like meet a plumber at your house without taking time off.
- Build in a hard stop at the end of your day so you don't blur lines between the workday and personal time. For me, I have a rule that I never work while the kids are home and awake. My wife texts me when they're leaving daycare and that gives me about 15 minutes to save what I'm working on and shift from work mode to home mode.
We're moving from Seattle to the Tokyo suburbs next month. The time zone shift + foreign country are going to add a new layer of complexity to working from home. At least I get to bring my chair.
- Your office chair is the most important piece of equipment in your office. You're in contact with it most of the day. Buy a good one and it will last you for years. Buy a bad one and it will give you back problems for years.
- If you can, join a CrossFit (or similar) gym. Not only will you get in great shape, they become a social outlet and because they're time boxed, you're in and out in an hour.
- Whether you like it or not, your spouse/significant other's days off become your days off so plan accordingly.
- Enjoy the flexibility of working from home. While you don't want to plunk down and watch TV when you should be working, you can do things like meet a plumber at your house without taking time off.
- Build in a hard stop at the end of your day so you don't blur lines between the workday and personal time. For me, I have a rule that I never work while the kids are home and awake. My wife texts me when they're leaving daycare and that gives me about 15 minutes to save what I'm working on and shift from work mode to home mode.
We're moving from Seattle to the Tokyo suburbs next month. The time zone shift + foreign country are going to add a new layer of complexity to working from home. At least I get to bring my chair.