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Comment by ishi | Hacker News Reader

My experience is that it's difficult to stay productive at home, since there are too many temptations luring you away from work. And when the kids come back from school, it becomes nearly impossible to do anything useful.

This funny piece by the New Yorker describes it pretty well: http://www.newyorker.com/humor/daily-shouts/i-work-from-home

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I've found the key is to have a dedicated office. Being able to enter a room and enter work mode and then also being able to close that door at the end of the day is really helpful.

I trued working from home once where my desk was in my bedroom and it was awful because I was never _at_ work while simultaneously never being away from work.

If your remote position is for the convenience of your employer (no desk available in an office somewhere) you can calculate the percentage of your home taken by the office, multiply that by your rent, and deduct that when tax season comes which can help justify a slightly higher rent.

+1 on dedicated office.

I did the tax calculation for home office and it ended up being wiped out by my total income(if I remember it scales for every $10k you take home) so it's not a freebie.

One of my handy co-workers set up an automated hook to the Google Hangouts API so that an IoT deadbolt clinks shut when he's on an active hangout: handy for preventing the random toddler intrusion, reduction in "pro" ish ness...

Random toddler intrusion can make you a social media sensation though!

I am relying on the fact that I was a homemaker for many years to make a work-from-home situation more tolerable, though I loved the piece you linked to and upvoted you specifically because of it.

Homemakers get no respect, but you have to organize a lot of work yourself and make sure things happen, on time, on budget, etc. It is vastly more challenging to do it well than my corporate job was and everyone oohed and aahed at me when I mentioned the name of my employer. I had co-workers who had spent years trying to qualify for a job there and just having a job there was considered to be a feather in your cap by basically anyone in town.

Indeed: as kids grew from babies to a more active age, I started to see an office, even an open-plan office, as a place to get some calm and concentration. As kids hit the high-school age, the effect waned.

I'm not sure that office-mates aren't as disruptive as kids. I've worked both ways. In the office, I only far more done when everybody else was off to lunch, or by staying after 5.

Vs working from home, where every hour I bill (I'm a contractor) is a work hour, when I'm making progress on my client's problem. More efficient for everybody.

I don't have this problem at all, but my children are teen aged, and I set soft boundaries while working at home.

"OK Ill make you a second lunch"

"No, you need to take the dog out - I am working"

"Ill just watch thi one segment of 'X'"

"Just a short nap to clear my mind"

There are far too many temptations to do other things at home - Each child is a 10x multiplier.

I have 2 kids, and working from home has only been positive for me - I think the key is having a dedicated office room with a door. When I'm working, I'm working. I'm upstairs in my office, my wife and kids are downstairs, so noise isn't a problem.

I don't have to commute, so I save money, get to have breakfast and lunch with my wife and kids (and help out), and after work I have time to cook us a healthy meal from scratch (I actually enjoy cooking too).

I have a fiber internet connection, so no issues on that front.

I honestly have far more distractions on the 1 day a week I go into the office (which is open plan and includes a co-worker who does little but chat all day...).

Yeah... it's different for each. :-)

Personally even when working remote, I need to go to a cafe... I like being around people but none of them can interrupt me, no TV or couch or bed or fridge or pet or yard or porch in nice weather to distract me.

But I've worked with people who have been WFHing for decades. I envy their ability to do so.

You need to set expectations. When you are working at home, you are not daycare, dogsitter, handyman or generally at leisure. I have worked at home for eight years now, and my family generally understands this.

As someone who now manages a remote team, it can be tricky to help people adjust to working from home. Some people just have to have that physical partition because they or their family won't adapt. I recommend a co-working space for those people; that partition can be essential for keeping them productive and happy.

The other side of this coin is making sure you set that time aside for your family and personal recovery. If you had a coworker who never left the office, you should worry about ingrowth and their health. The same is true for a remote worker who seems to be always online and always working.

>There are far too many temptations to do other things at home - Each child is a 10x multiplier.

You wouldn't be doing those things for your kids if you were at remote work (because it would be physically impossible as you'd be elsewhere). So why do them when working from home? Just because you can? No, close the office door and/or set clear boundaries.

The difference -- and the great benefit -- with working from home is that for the far fewer things that DO matter, you will be there for your children.

You don't count all the distractions at work because as long as you are in the office you are supposedly "being productive".

The meetings, the chats, the endless browsing

>And when the kids come back from school, it becomes nearly impossible to do anything useful.

If you work in the living room, yes. If you work in a dedicated office that's off limits, no.

Indeed. Even my two-year old knows which room is my office and not a playroom.

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