Working from Home a Guide to Successfully Working from Home as a Engineer(engineering.kablamo.com.au)
engineering.kablamo.com.au
Working from Home a Guide to Successfully Working from Home as a Engineer
https://engineering.kablamo.com.au/posts/2019/successful-remote-work
12 comments
I’m in my 8th year wfh. I like it, but I think my mental health needs more human interaction at this point. I’m looking into coworking spaces, although I’m still scared about committing to monthly expenses (it’s only my second year of self-employment and my income fluctuates wildly).
I’m not going to lie though: there are days when rolling out of bed and picking up right away the problem left open the night before, without having to worry about anything else, feels super-productive.
I’m not going to lie though: there are days when rolling out of bed and picking up right away the problem left open the night before, without having to worry about anything else, feels super-productive.
As a 9-year home worker, to this I'd add:
- I don't wear work clothes. I much prefer to be super casual.
- Have a daily exercise routine, and stay out of the refrigerator.
- I don't wear work clothes. I much prefer to be super casual.
- Have a daily exercise routine, and stay out of the refrigerator.
> I don't wear work clothes. I much prefer to be super casual.
His second paragraph on "work clothes" makes what I think is the real point, which is not to wear what you slept in. I go pretty casual, too, except I wear gray shirts with a pocket for my phone. I put it on when I start working and take it off when I am done. I find it does help define when I am working.
(Every point in his article is something I've picekd up from HN over the years.)
His second paragraph on "work clothes" makes what I think is the real point, which is not to wear what you slept in. I go pretty casual, too, except I wear gray shirts with a pocket for my phone. I put it on when I start working and take it off when I am done. I find it does help define when I am working.
(Every point in his article is something I've picekd up from HN over the years.)
Very well written article! I'm in a position where I can work from home if I want to but I found out that it's not for me.
Firstly I'm way more productive in the office and no matter how much I tried I couldn't reach the same level of productivity at home.
When I worked from home many days in a row I realized I was missing a human contact. Even though I was with my girlfriend every evening, was around people in the shop and in the gym I felt quite depressed.
Strangely I had some weeks when I was the only one working in the coworking space and I didn't feel like this.
Firstly I'm way more productive in the office and no matter how much I tried I couldn't reach the same level of productivity at home.
When I worked from home many days in a row I realized I was missing a human contact. Even though I was with my girlfriend every evening, was around people in the shop and in the gym I felt quite depressed.
Strangely I had some weeks when I was the only one working in the coworking space and I didn't feel like this.
I've been working remotely as a contractor (low-level mobile and platform embedded development) for over two years now. I find that engaging in sports activities regularly in a group setting helps with mental well-being. Diversifying work locations also helps. My preferred places are the public library, and a local coffee shop.
I regularly work remotely (whenever I’m not at a client) and have occasionally had stints where I would be 3-4 full days in a row fully remote (usually around Summer or other holidays when clients take breaks), and every single one of the points in the article ring true:
- My home office is, by far, the most productive place I’ve ever worked in (large monitors, relative quiet, decent natural light, a desk and chair that suit me, etc.)
- Investing in a decent conferencing setup is a must (my iMac has excellent speakers and mics, but I added a 4K webcam because the one that ships with it is atrocious in low light). I also have a headset and a Plantronics portable speaker for when I decide to do a little work elsewhere.
- Time management and sticking to a schedule are critical. When I finish dressing for the day I switch on my machines, brew a cup and am at my desk and available at 9AM sharp (often earlier). I make it a point of taking proper lunch breaks (most of the time) and often leave the house to have lunch near (or with) my clients, which minimizes the hassles of dealing with traffic or the risk of being late.
- I always dress for leaving the house even if I don’t have scheduled appointments or do actual VC (most of my business conferences are actually audio and screen sharing). It’s both about setting the mood and also because I might have to leave and go to a client at a moment’s notice.
- Finishing work has to be a physical action. I shut down everything at the end of a working day, sit with the kids, have dinner and _then_ I might noodle about in the evenings (usually on my laptop and not the office).
- Even though I have a lot of hobbies and use my office for those as well, that only happens on weekends (unless I really need a bigger screen). Again, work, “play work” and pure play need to happen in different settings/contexts.
Big benefits for me:
- I have a very stable, ergonomic work setup (I need a higher desk than usual, love my dual monitors, have a decent keyboard and mouse, etc.)
- I am insanely more productive because interrupting me (via Teams, call, etc.) requires a lot more effort and requires forethought from other people.
- Meetings tend to be very focused (company culture in some parts is completely aligned in this point - great respect between teams since we all coordinate this way at some point)
(I’m at Microsoft, by the way, and work as an Azure Architect)
- I get to work and listen to music (a HUGE mood booster, especially Bach) without headphones (which give me headaches) whenever I want.
- When I’m really lucky, I am home when the kids return from school (disciplining them is also a big part of being able to work remotely after mid-afternoon, but entirely feasible).
Caveats:
- Some people (clients or your own peers) still think “being on-site” is the only way to show commitment or deliver quality work (especially old-school consulting and sales folk who prioritize “face time” and “touching the flesh”), and often there is no real way around that kind of charade.
- If you work remote in any capacity, you’re off a number of social loops. I minimize that by visiting the office regularly, having lunch or dinner with friends/colleagues and being available for questions (which invariably turn into chit chat) every now and then.
- My home office is, by far, the most productive place I’ve ever worked in (large monitors, relative quiet, decent natural light, a desk and chair that suit me, etc.)
- Investing in a decent conferencing setup is a must (my iMac has excellent speakers and mics, but I added a 4K webcam because the one that ships with it is atrocious in low light). I also have a headset and a Plantronics portable speaker for when I decide to do a little work elsewhere.
- Time management and sticking to a schedule are critical. When I finish dressing for the day I switch on my machines, brew a cup and am at my desk and available at 9AM sharp (often earlier). I make it a point of taking proper lunch breaks (most of the time) and often leave the house to have lunch near (or with) my clients, which minimizes the hassles of dealing with traffic or the risk of being late.
- I always dress for leaving the house even if I don’t have scheduled appointments or do actual VC (most of my business conferences are actually audio and screen sharing). It’s both about setting the mood and also because I might have to leave and go to a client at a moment’s notice.
- Finishing work has to be a physical action. I shut down everything at the end of a working day, sit with the kids, have dinner and _then_ I might noodle about in the evenings (usually on my laptop and not the office).
- Even though I have a lot of hobbies and use my office for those as well, that only happens on weekends (unless I really need a bigger screen). Again, work, “play work” and pure play need to happen in different settings/contexts.
Big benefits for me:
- I have a very stable, ergonomic work setup (I need a higher desk than usual, love my dual monitors, have a decent keyboard and mouse, etc.)
- I am insanely more productive because interrupting me (via Teams, call, etc.) requires a lot more effort and requires forethought from other people.
- Meetings tend to be very focused (company culture in some parts is completely aligned in this point - great respect between teams since we all coordinate this way at some point)
(I’m at Microsoft, by the way, and work as an Azure Architect)
- I get to work and listen to music (a HUGE mood booster, especially Bach) without headphones (which give me headaches) whenever I want.
- When I’m really lucky, I am home when the kids return from school (disciplining them is also a big part of being able to work remotely after mid-afternoon, but entirely feasible).
Caveats:
- Some people (clients or your own peers) still think “being on-site” is the only way to show commitment or deliver quality work (especially old-school consulting and sales folk who prioritize “face time” and “touching the flesh”), and often there is no real way around that kind of charade.
- If you work remote in any capacity, you’re off a number of social loops. I minimize that by visiting the office regularly, having lunch or dinner with friends/colleagues and being available for questions (which invariably turn into chit chat) every now and then.
Something I find useful, related to the "have a home office" point, is to shuffle up my working location occasionally even though I have that dedicated office -- work at a coffee shop for a week, or at the dining room table, or rearrange my office so the desk is in a different orientation, or whatever.
I find that this breaks up any accumulated association of a given work-space being a place where I've gotten distracted or procrastinated.
I pretty much agree with the rest of the points, though I'm sure some are a matter of taste.
I find that this breaks up any accumulated association of a given work-space being a place where I've gotten distracted or procrastinated.
I pretty much agree with the rest of the points, though I'm sure some are a matter of taste.
Also agree. My favourite places to work (most of which are strange): In the car (recharging my EV), in Macdonald's (breakfast combo is surprisingly good), travelling on the shinkansen here in Japan (though I can't really afford it ;-) ), at the hot springs (a few allow me to stay for only about $10 a day, bath included), sitting on my favourite rock at a particular shrine if the weather is nice.
Everyone is different, so it's always a good idea to test out a spot to see if you can work there or not before you do it for paid work. However, I will occasionally do something crazy like travel for a day on the train with my wife, stay overnight in a hotel and travel back. It is very surprisingly one of the most productive times for me.
I really miss the office, though. I'm half a world away so it is very rare that I have the opportunity to use it.
Everyone is different, so it's always a good idea to test out a spot to see if you can work there or not before you do it for paid work. However, I will occasionally do something crazy like travel for a day on the train with my wife, stay overnight in a hotel and travel back. It is very surprisingly one of the most productive times for me.
I really miss the office, though. I'm half a world away so it is very rare that I have the opportunity to use it.
I do similar but with an RV. Most of the time I work from my house, but I built out a network suitable for work and can effectively work from anywhere I choose to go. Sometimes I’m on cellular, other times I’m on satellite. No campground has ever had usable WiFi, sadly. Having some variation in location and scenery is helpful.
I've been working remotely for almost ~2 years now —amen for the coffeeshop.
There's a really good one by my place that I've been going to for years. I very rarely go there and don't become productive. There's something about just changing things up and working from a more limited setup (just my laptop).
There's a really good one by my place that I've been going to for years. I very rarely go there and don't become productive. There's something about just changing things up and working from a more limited setup (just my laptop).
Yep, to add to that. I find I re-arrange my home office at least every 6 months.
Sometimes it’s just adjusting little things, sometimes is a dramatic shift. When the room starts to feel stale, it a little change can really liven it back up.
Sometimes it’s just adjusting little things, sometimes is a dramatic shift. When the room starts to feel stale, it a little change can really liven it back up.
yeah I worked from home for years and you're totally right. I very rarely worked out of the house—but those times I did go down to a coffeeshop it was often when I needed some extra motivation and it worked really well.
Hate to admit it, but I'm a massive proponent of remote work (and other work/life balance-friendly initiatives), but my productivity on average is a lot lower than if I'm in an office.
I still wfh every day, but days where I work out of a coffee shop or anywhere public, I'm a LOT more productive. I think it's just the idea that at any time someone can see my screen, making me less likely to pull up Netflix or a game or something equally distracting.
I still wfh every day, but days where I work out of a coffee shop or anywhere public, I'm a LOT more productive. I think it's just the idea that at any time someone can see my screen, making me less likely to pull up Netflix or a game or something equally distracting.
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I've worked from home on a few gigs and largely agree with this article.
A couple things I would and/or modify are:
- Merge "HAVE A DEDICATED OFFICE" with "CLOSE THE DOORS TO THE ROOMS YOU'RE NOT USING". Once you are done with the workday, "close the door" to your work area just as you would by leaving an on-site office at the end of the day.
- "WEAR WORK CLOTHES" might be better described as "maintain the same morning routine you would have if going into an office." IMHO, "wearing work clothes" is much less important than the benefit of getting into the mindset of "going to work."
+ Take the same lunch break you would if at an office.
+ If you need to do an errand, let your coworkers know just as if you were in an office. Prefer to schedule it if possible.
+ Establish contact protocols as you would if on-site. For example, just because you might leave your laptop running should not imply 24x7 accessibility. If you need to be available (such as for production support), it should be no different than if you went into the office each day.
+ Keep a record of your start time, "leaving" for lunch, PTO (such as for errands), and "when you leave." This can be as simple as written notes or by way of a corporate time accounting system. I recommend keeping your own hand-written logs in addition to the latter.
+ Record work performed outside of the normal office hours as you would if called into the office.
A couple things I would and/or modify are:
- Merge "HAVE A DEDICATED OFFICE" with "CLOSE THE DOORS TO THE ROOMS YOU'RE NOT USING". Once you are done with the workday, "close the door" to your work area just as you would by leaving an on-site office at the end of the day.
- "WEAR WORK CLOTHES" might be better described as "maintain the same morning routine you would have if going into an office." IMHO, "wearing work clothes" is much less important than the benefit of getting into the mindset of "going to work."
+ Take the same lunch break you would if at an office.
+ If you need to do an errand, let your coworkers know just as if you were in an office. Prefer to schedule it if possible.
+ Establish contact protocols as you would if on-site. For example, just because you might leave your laptop running should not imply 24x7 accessibility. If you need to be available (such as for production support), it should be no different than if you went into the office each day.
+ Keep a record of your start time, "leaving" for lunch, PTO (such as for errands), and "when you leave." This can be as simple as written notes or by way of a corporate time accounting system. I recommend keeping your own hand-written logs in addition to the latter.
+ Record work performed outside of the normal office hours as you would if called into the office.
I did a brief stint as fully remote (~3 months) so I never got fully into it, but these are all fantastic points, many of which I did to great effect.
One additional routine I found most helpful was to have a "going to the office" routine. After my normal at-home morning routine, I would leave the house and go to a nearby coffee shop for some coffee, then return home to work. That was my "commute". Before it I was at home, after it I was working. When I was done working for the day, I'd leave the house, take a short walk, and go back home. It really sounds silly, but having those "commutes" really helped separate work time from home time, even if they were in the same space. It helped that it was over the summer so the weather was beautiful.
One additional routine I found most helpful was to have a "going to the office" routine. After my normal at-home morning routine, I would leave the house and go to a nearby coffee shop for some coffee, then return home to work. That was my "commute". Before it I was at home, after it I was working. When I was done working for the day, I'd leave the house, take a short walk, and go back home. It really sounds silly, but having those "commutes" really helped separate work time from home time, even if they were in the same space. It helped that it was over the summer so the weather was beautiful.
Add a point about your company culture and team communication. This may not apply if you are working by yourself as a contractor or sole developer. But if there's a "home office" (poor choice of words sorry) where all of your other coworkers are face to face, then you need to develop a culture of writing everything down. Build internal documentation of decisions and meetings. If your company is mostly remote or has several locations then it should have this culture anyway (if they're any good).
Author here. I'm planning a follow up post on company and team culture that enables remote work. It's a big enough topic to be tackled on its own.
I'm still talking to people with different experiences to me, to understand their perspective on what makes it successful. Thanks for your insight here, I agree with what you're saying.
I'm still talking to people with different experiences to me, to understand their perspective on what makes it successful. Thanks for your insight here, I agree with what you're saying.
I've always worked from home a few days a week and my productivity has always been above the average. Fast forward 2 years, and I am surrounded by 2 little babies and a cute toddler that likes to have her dad around. Unless I go to the office or work on night shifts, it's quite difficult to concentrate for too long. I felt that I needed to change habits to keep things on track.
I've got an intern to help me conduct some experiments that would demand too much time from me otherwise, and started to go to the office more often than before.
The nice side effect of going to the office is that I get to workout more (commuting by bike) and to conduct more side projects with colleagues. I keep choosing at least one day in the week to work from home, though.
Interestingly enough, there is a coffee shop right next door and yet I never worked from there. Sipping a coffee without bringing work with me has been pleasant so far, but maybe it is worth trying to find for how many hours I will be able to stay there focused on business related activities.
I've got an intern to help me conduct some experiments that would demand too much time from me otherwise, and started to go to the office more often than before.
The nice side effect of going to the office is that I get to workout more (commuting by bike) and to conduct more side projects with colleagues. I keep choosing at least one day in the week to work from home, though.
Interestingly enough, there is a coffee shop right next door and yet I never worked from there. Sipping a coffee without bringing work with me has been pleasant so far, but maybe it is worth trying to find for how many hours I will be able to stay there focused on business related activities.
Working from home is not for everyone, and that's not a judgement.
In fact, I would submit you have a clear separation between work and home life. And that's A Good Thing.
In fact, I would submit you have a clear separation between work and home life. And that's A Good Thing.
In talking to people about this, I found a number of people who just can’t work from home. Whether its not being as productive as they’d like, or something else.
If you’re working from home in a team, you definitely need to be aware of those who don’t operate the same as you. With good communication and respect this is an easy hurdle to get over.
If you’re working from home in a team, you definitely need to be aware of those who don’t operate the same as you. With good communication and respect this is an easy hurdle to get over.
> In talking to people about this, I found a number of people who just can’t work from home. Whether its not being as productive as they’d like, or something else.
Quite true. I worked with a friend of mine for years who almost never worked from home. The only time he did was during critical production failures experienced late at night.
He had two children and normally would be in the office in the pre-dawn hours.
I asked him why he got into work so early and he told me, "if I leave before my kids wake up, it's easier on them."
Hard to argue with that logic, IMHO.
Quite true. I worked with a friend of mine for years who almost never worked from home. The only time he did was during critical production failures experienced late at night.
He had two children and normally would be in the office in the pre-dawn hours.
I asked him why he got into work so early and he told me, "if I leave before my kids wake up, it's easier on them."
Hard to argue with that logic, IMHO.
I definitely find that routine helps, but over time, with discipline, you can adapt to different environments. The most important thing for me is my work system... not so much my work space.
I work on everything from full stack web, low level hardware and electronics, VR/AR, cloud infrastructure and database administration, video games, iOS/Android native, etc. I need something that is portable, powerful, and easily cross platform.
My latest system is a macbook pro with 32GB Ram and an external eGPU graphics card for VR development. I run Parallels as my primary VM allowing me to run a Bootcamp Windows partition as a VM. It is also the only solution that currently supports Metal for graphics intensive applications. I rarely need to hookup the headset, but when I do I can boot to Windows natively for that. I can do native iOS and Android easily from the mac OSX partition. I even run Ubuntu on the VM for testing server setups locally.
When I am home I work from just about any room with my laptop stand, however, in order to ZONE I do need to find a quite spot while the kids are around (or use headphones). I also often work in coffee shops, book stores, libraries, and grocery stores (those with a food court).
I typically spend the day on my day job and evenings when the kids are down I work on contract work, but for me it just seems like a hobby most of the time anyway.
I have slack and google meet installed on my phone and have my calendar and emails synced with my work accounts.
I LOVE GIT! I use git for all of my consulting and side projects and even when a client or day job uses perforce I can use git-p4 to create a much better offline flow.
I know this isn't for everyone and I have deviated in many cases from the points in the article, but it definitely has been working well for my life style thus far.