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Comment by mgkimsal | Hacker News Reader

I go to a coworking space. Having some semblance of separating home from 'work' (even though I do sometimes 'work' from home) helps. I did total 'work from home' - working out of a converted bedroom - for years, and... it's functional, but the process/ritual of leaving and coming back does help me.

I still 'work remote', as a freelancer. I have had engagements where I go to a client's offices, sometimes for somewhat extended periods of time. I will travel if needed.

But the majority of work I do is still done on terms I have some control over, which, ultimately, I think is the key part of the whole discussion. Where I work, what equipment, what hours, when/where I travel, what I wear, etc - things you were mentioning above - having control over those is key, regardless of whether you want to work from home or in an office or somewhere in between.

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My neighbor commutes to "work" in the morning by taking a 20 minute bike ride, and commutes "home" by doing the same route in reverse.

Ha! That’s a genius idea! I might start going on morning/evening “commute” walks too.

I think it's interesting how "the ritual" of going to or leaving work. Is such a big part of the discussion around working from home.

I felt it myself at first. I had to do something to break up the day into work and not work. At first I'd pretty much just walk to the bus stop and go home from there. Basically pretend I took the bus. After a month or two I think I stopped. The walk was the new commute. The ritual part just became moving all cables back to my own computer from the work laptop dock. A quick minute and it's over. Work has ended and all is well.

I have a similar thing with my laptop. I have lots of variance though, I have co-working space I can go to, and I often take my laptop to various places around the city just for the wander and to feel connected again. (The pandemic hasn't really affected my city in Aus)

The reality is that working from home means I end up spending almost all my time at home. Almost all 24 hours of it. I think about how quickly life goes by, how much I've already spent behind a computer, and realize that's not going to work for me long term. I will be very disappointed if I look back on my life and saw that it almost entirely occurred behind a computer in the one spot.

I need to separate work from home and home from work. My home is filled with distractions and the first couple of months of the pandemic were horrible becuase I couldn't get anything done. I started going back in to work in the summer (2-3 minute commute depending on the single traffic light along the route) and my productivity went back to normal. It was actually better than normal because work was mostly empty, so I had a big office building designed for 600 workers mostly to myself. Now, unfortunately starting today we are all back in the office, so I'm having the same transition issues as all the WFH people, but because my nice empty office building is now filled with people.

That's the key for me. I think every remote company should pay for co-working space for their employees if they choose to. Also, it's important that co-working spaces design it to be more like a quiet office with stations with big screens etc. Not like the old co-working concept where it's like a cafe, cramping multiple people together.

I recall once interviewing at a startup. Their office was in a co-working space. When I arrived in the morning I knew after 5 minutes that I'm not going to work there. The entire team of 4 people, including the CTO who was supposed to be my manager, were sitting together in a tiny room with zero privacy.

I would never use a co-working space. I want to be home, not in some pseudo office.

I also wonder how the end of pandemic norms will effect people who claim they want to be in the office. If they can get their socialization outside the office, we could see a resurgence of neighborhood clubs.

I hope we do see a resurgence in local clubs and venues. Modern communities can be so isolating, it's no wonder people get most of their socializing done at work.

Different strokes, but personally, having worked remotely for several years, I like having it as an option. There's a space not too far from my house with a reasonable day-of hot desk rate, with a nice view and the usual amenities. I like working from my house, but a different scene once or twice a month (that isn't a coffee shop) is refreshing for me. It's also good to have the escape if something noisy turns up in the neighborhood and I need to get away. :)

Our space is pretty small. Main room has seating for.. perhaps 8, and a separate conference room and a separate smaller 'single desk' space. There's usually only 2-3 people in at any one time - 5 is a big day, and for most people, it's a "part time" thing to get them out of the house.

It's not 100% the same thing as 100% total privacy, but it's generally not very noisy, and there's enough quiet to concentrate and focus when needed. There are some larger spaces in the area I've been to that are nice looking, and conducive to group work/meetings/collaboration, but don't work well for "I need solo time to think/work".

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