Ask HN: What does your WFH day/routine look like?

No kids. I wake up at 7:30am, walk the dog, then exercise (choose one: 30 minute run, 60 minute walk, 60 minute lift weights). Quick shower, then breakfast/protein shake. First meeting between 9 and 9:30. Lunch at noon. I mix it up with leftovers, a PB&J sandwich, or walking to a nearby restaurant to get something.

In the afternoon, 1pm-5pm is usually back to back meetings. Right at 4:58pm my dog walks into my office and starts whining. 5pm-6pm is walking the dog with my partner and general just decompressing from work. 6-7pm is cooking dinner, and 7-10pm is whatever we want, usually binging whatever TV show we want. In bed by 10:30, read til 11:00-11:30, sleep.

My work schedule is usually pretty packed, so I'm very busy from 9am-5pm.

I like being busy, but this schedule does make me feel like I'm maxed out on time. I'd love to write a book or learn a new skill or take up a new hobby, but I can't really see a time to squeeze it in without giving up something else. (My 7-10pm is technically "free" time, but I really enjoy spending time with my partner, and if I give that up for another hobby or something, it just feels wrong to me.)

Some lifestyle facts: - Late 20s - Married - No kids (yet! :)) - No drugs or alcohol

- Awake hours: 6am - 9pm. - Gym MWF, 6-7am. - Work hours: 9am - 5pm - Any hours not listed are mine to do with as I please.

Wake at 9.30am or 10am, hit the on button on my laptop straight away. Quick skim of emails and chats. Then go greet my dog and family. Make a coffee and go back and reply to emails. 10.15am standup. That decides whether my day is spent helping other people or working on my own tasks. Work for about 2 hours (getting more coffee during that time) and then have lunch anywhere between 12pm - 2pm depending who has put in lunch hour meetings. Shower during lunch time if I need to. Go for a walk during lunch time if I have the time and the weather is agreeable.

Back at (or before) 2pm for more meetings and work. Get more tea or water throughout the day. Work until 5pm or 6pm depending on what I need to get done.

If you wish to pomodoro simultaneously with other remote workers (starting at the top of every hour) check out https://remoteyo.com , chatting is only allowed between pomodoros

Also a good way to find other remote workers

This looks interesting, thanks!

Single. Live alone. WFH since March 2020 and no intentions of going back into the office.

Wake up at 6. Get out of bed sometime between 6.15-6.30. Treadmill for the next 15-25 minutes. Shower. Breakfast. Meditate for 15 mins. Read or watch an episode of a 30 minute TV show. Log on to work at 8. Lunch break from 11.30-12.30. Work until 5. Eat. Watch a movie from 5.30 to whenever it's over. Read for the rest of the evening. In bed by 9. Asleep by 10.

Single dude living in SF bay area.. This is my schedule for work days -

- 05:55 wake up and get ready

- 06:30 to 08:00 work on my own biz

- 08:00 to 08:20 breakfast / coffee

- 08:30 to 17:00 work. If I crush a lot of work that day, sometimes I end around 16:00 since most of my team is East Coast and UK.

After work I prep for dinner, keep working on my projects, and then drive 5 min west to the beach right before sunset and sit in the back of my car writing in my notebook. This is my favorite time of the whole day, a solid 30 min break where I don't look at my phone or any screen.

I come back home, exercise a bit for 15 min, and then make and eat dinner.

Basically from 19:30 til 23:00, I work on my own biz again or work on whatever projects I am interested in. In bed by 23:45.

Unless I am on call that week (and even then, rarely since we're beasts) or we have something go really wrong, I'm lucky that I don't have work that carries on past like 16:00 most days.

Every 2 weeks on Sunday, I take one whole day off where I don't look at a phone or anything and instead go for a drive either to John Muir or somewhere around Pacifica and just am outside all day, away from noise and people. That helps me reset otherwise I will go nuts.

> After work I prep for dinner, keep working on my projects, and then drive 5 min west to the beach right before sunset and sit in the back of my car writing in my notebook. This is my favorite time of the whole day, a solid 30 min break where I don't look at my phone or any screen

Sounds like a wonderful time for unwinding. What would you be writing in those time?

Ideas, haikus, sketches. A long time ago a manager gave me a high end notebook as a end of year gift and since then I've really enjoyed writing with a lead pencil (I'm a mechanical pencil nerd) and my hi-poly eraser to erase mistakes :)

I think its the "process" of putting the pencil to the paper that I really enjoy, and seeing letters appear.

Haven't written on paper for a long time, almost forgotten how good it feels to write on one.

Get good paper and a good pen, it's great. Rhodia pads are great all around paper if you're not aware. I just scribble lists and notes tbh, but they're fantastic.

Hey thanks, I’m going to try this schedule. I also am 5 minutes from the beach and this sounds really relaxing after work

Wake up at six. Drink coffee, and have a morning cigarette.

At seven I walk to my wife's house, wake up our child, feed him and take him to school.

Back home around eight AM, drink another coffee, turn on the laptop about 08:30 and work until four. Take an hours lunch break and walk around the neighbourhood for some air, space, and more smoking.

Live alone.

Wake at 520am and go to gym. Showered and coffee by 730am when I logon. Work till 4ish. Maybe go for a walk or run. Maybe go shopping. Usually in bed around 9.

Married, 2 young kids.

Up at 6am. Breakfast with family, everybody getting ready and leaving the house around 7.30 for school.

Back a bit after 8am. Make my coffee, chat a bit with my wife and head to my home office around 8.30 to start the day. My days are usually made up of a lot of calls, but I always block 12pm-1am to have lunch with my wife, then back to work. I also try to include some short 15min breaks to go for a walk or something.

I stop around 4.30pm to take care of the kids bath, then early dinner (~5pm). Kids are in bed around 6pm, and then it depends. Sometimes it's an evening with my wife or sometimes it's video games or reading or side projects, whatever until 9.30pm. Then I read a bit and go to sleep around 10.

Wake at 10:00-10:30. Eat. Turn on computer by 11:00. Work. Go for lunch between 13:00-15:00. Return to desk within 60 minutes. Work. Finish at about 19:00. Eat. Return to computer. Leisure. Get in bed between 2:00 and 4:00.

Leave your house and go to the office, seriously!

I'm impressed with how few of you while away your slow hours playing video games.

I recently "retired" from a major position after nearly a decade of 14 hour days and even though I took a couple of months off (and I am starting two new projects), I still love the freedom to just slack off and play Elden Ring for a couple hours every now and then.

It's not the most productive time in my life but that's OK. I'm sure it won't last, but it is so damn nice to be able to relax again after several decades of stress and high performance.

PS - Mid-40's, divorced, teenage kids live with their mom, GF who also WFH, puppy

Wake up 8:50am. Start work at 9. After logging in and checking emails I usually go grab something to eat for breakfast. Then I don't eat anything else until around 2-3pm when my mom makes dinner. I work until 4pm then I take an hour break. I usually go for a walk at this time, or do some stuff I have to do like online shopping. At 5pm I have an hour long webmeeting. After that I am free. I usually browse internet and play videogames until late night. I go to bed around 1-2am.

Don't plan to go to the office ever. But it's not that I dislike offices, I just dislike the commute, which for me could easily be 1-1.5h one way.

1. Wake up 15 minutes before standup

2. Put on dress shirt over gym shorts

3. Write code until dark, try to eat/drink coffee when time allows (meetings)

4. Go to sleep

Married, no children

5:55am - Wake up and have a light breakfast

6:30am - Start the work day

11:30ish - Lunch

3:30pm - Finish work day; I cannot stress how great it is to start and end the work day early (I have to work during 3 "core hours" but my schedule is flexible beyond that). It is like I have my entire day left ahead of me to enjoy.

3:30pm - Take a walk; this is a somewhat new addition to the schedule and has become quite critical. It dawned on my how important my daily walk to-from work was to my health and how I had lost that, so I reinstated walking into the routine.

4:00pm - Finish up house chores (folding laundry, vacuuming, etc)

4:30pm - Play games for while to flush the day's work from my mind, then work on personal projects, before my wife gets home. If need be, I do external chores (grocery shopping, for example)

Exercise every other day in the evening.

Someone asked about meetings, and to tell the truth I tend to have shockingly few meetings. Big group meetings (all staff, all engineers, all team) are relatively rare. Beyond those, I have almost nothing. For example, this week I have one (1) 30-minute meeting. Next week I have three (3) meetings, totaling four (4) hours.

I have two daily meetings that often go to 1hr, and at least two other meetings each day. Then, twice a week we have an "all hands" meeting. Crazy.

Yeah, I'd say even within my current company I'm a bit of an outlier. I'll be looking for a new job in the semi-near future and these meeting-free glory days will likely come to an end.

Wake up at 8:15am, get up slowly with a shower and aim to clock in for 9am. 9-10am is the time I use to 'set the tone' for the day; I'll get acquainted with my tasks for the day, follow up on Slack/GitHub notifications, or push some quick changes before standup. 10am standup, and usually some meetings littered around the morning. Depending on the day it might be 10:45-11am before I start some deeper focused work. I usually take a 12:15 lunch, but depends on meetings. I like taking a walk during lunch, but its not always feasible with the weather or time. 1:30pm onwards is just cracking through work, until I clock out—usually 6-7pm depending on what I need to get done.

Evenings are usually reserved for catching up with family (single, living at home) and friends, as well as putting some hours into hobbies and relaxing. I'll usually head to bed at 11pm to do some reading or watch something, aiming to actually sleep at 12:30am.

Wake up (time varies). Have breakfast, coffee, work until done. Of course I have lunch in between (at home). Sometimes I run errands during the day.

If I’m feeling up to it I’ll play golf before or after work. Sometimes I will do a workout (home gym).

Overall I love the flexibility and ability to get more done professionally and personally in the same or less time.

Also no kids. I live CST but work on a EST schedule to stay in line with the majority of my time.

6:30 Wake up, dogs out, straight to making some coffee.

6:45 - 7:15ish Walk dogs

7:15ish - 8:00 Free time (play a video game, read, watch YouTube etc)

8:00 - 8:30 Morning admin (emails, check calendar) stuff before stand up

8:30 stand up

8:30 - 11:00 Focused work. Do no disturb on Slack and notifications off on email. Probably get 70% of my work each day done in this block

11:00-12:00 Lunch hour

12:00 - 4:00 Remaining work for the day. Try to do less intense work in this block. Emails, documentation, notes for the day, and plan for tomorrow

4:00 - 6:00 Free time. Walk dogs again, video games, reading, etc.

6:00 - 8:00 Exercise or even more free time if I'm resting. I'll usually rock climb

8:30 - 10:00 Make dinner and relax with my SO or have more time to my self.

I live alone, in my 40s. I work for a tech company.

I wake up around 6:30 am, twitter, some reading, there is always something to do around the house. Coffee and podcast or South-American radios on Radio Garden (great app) for 30 minutes.

Work starts at 9 am. Multiple coffees. Three times a week, I go to the gym at 11:30 am until 1 pm. Or I go for a run. I stop working around 3:30 pm. At 5 or 6 pm, I either go to bjj or the gym (if I did not go earlier) or to kickboxing. When I don't go out at night, dinner is between 8 and 9 pm. After that, I either write, watch a movie/tv show, or I read. Good night.

Single, no kids, live alone.

I wake up at 6 (ideally, but I struggle sometimes), meditation, make coffee and go to my office, check Slack, Email, PRs, then continue workinng from where I paused previous evening. 10am stand-up, pair up with someone if anyone needs my help or if I need someone's help. Continue work until 3 (hard stop 8 hours after I start, whenever that is).

Recently been doing my bachelor's online, almost done, so I usually work on that during evenings and weekends. Before that, I'd play video games or work on side projects.

I try to cook my own meals, I eat once a day, most of the time dinner.

Married, no kids. Wake up, no alarm, between 6:30 and 7:30. Oatmeal w/ banana, coffee. Work until about 11. Get lunch. Sometimes I'll do my afternoon walk post-lunch or after work, depending on what's going on at work, or if I feel like I need a break. Work until about 3:00-4:30, depending on when I got my start. Play guitar, play video games, other hobbies, etc., until about dinner time. Eat dinner with wife, watch TV with wife, get ready for bed. Read in bed. Repeat!

I've shared several untraditional remote work day routines (including my own) here: https://www.remoteworkprep.com/workday-design#workstyle

Hope it helps you with ideas!

No kids either.

7:45 Fall out of bed thanks to multiple alarm clocks and a DIY daylight alarm

8:00 Join our team standup meeting

8:30 Get breakfast, a cup of tea and make the plan for the day

8:45 Start with my plan

12:15 - 13:00 Lunch break

13:00 - 15:45 Rest of the work day

15:45 - 17:00 Try to get some sunlight and relax

17:00 - 20:00 Try to work through university assignments (part time student)

After 20:00 work on a sideproject or spend time with gf watching netflix, playing boardgames or going out (summer)

hey, I like the idea of the DIY daylight alarm, do you have any more info on that?

Sorry, I totally missed your reply. Most of my lights are smart LEDs connected to my HomeAssistant server. From there its just a simple automation that increases the lights brightness over a five minute interval before triggering an acoustic alarm

Not OP but it’s probably this

Philips Wake-up Light, Sunrise Simulation, Bedside Lamp, Tap to Snooze, HF3500/60 https://a.co/d/4KIfD6C

I’ve heard good things about these.

How many hours of meetings do you guys tend to have per day/per week? I want to see if my schedule is highly unusual or not.

According to my Microsofts Viva, at my last job I spent roughly 40% of my time in meetings. Which was soul sucking, almost no work got done due to the overhead of attending / preparing for the meetings.

At my current role (checking Viva again), I average 6.2hr of meetings each week. The difference that has made is astounding. I'm much more excited to engage with work.

about 1 hour per week but I doubt that is usual

mid 30s male. no kids or gf. live alone.

Wake up at 8. Coffee, possibly oatmeal/toast or other simple breakfast. Daily standup at 9 or 930 depending on the day of the week. Shower. Walk to cafe or drive to library. Start work around 10 or 1030. Lunch break around 1230 or 1. Work until 5pm or so. It's a bit flexible depending on workload.

assuming since you do a stand up that you write code?

Do you work in the library/cafe?

Do you socialize with other people there?

Do you have some agreement with the local cafe that you are working etc?

I am remote and would love to do this.

I also struggle because my home office is great (multiple monitors, proper keyboard and mouse , big desk) do you not miss some creature comforts?

Yep, software developer.

- I do most of my work from library/cafe-- usually 1-2 hours at home, 4-6 hours at cafe/library.

- I don't socialize much-- Occasionally chat with barista to get to know them. Or occasionally with other patrons.

- Nah, I've never had an issue with cafes letting me sit for hours and work-- I always buy coffee and/or food. If I didn't buy anything, I imagine it would eventually piss off the barista/manager/owner a bit. Sometimes I have too much coffee and get drowsy or jittery

- Nah, I don't miss the creature comfort of big desk & 27" screen-- I trade it for the opportunity to get out into social spaces. Otherwise I'd be lonely at home. If I am under pressure to get something done fast, sometimes it's easier at home. Currently my "home" is a studio apartment ($800/month, all bills paid except internet).

I think if I had roommates or lived in a more communal place (Such as housing coop) I'd be more interested in spending more time working from home. But since I am alone there, it feels too lonely.

Married with kids. My work day is usually 4-6 hours of meetings, but it varies. I take about an hour break to walk the dog and eat something.

6:30 am wake up, check email, drink coffee, browse internet feeds

7:00 am shower

7:30 am take kids to school

8:30 am begin workday

1:00 pm take dog for walk and listen to a podcast

2:00 pm back to work

5:30 pm finish work day

6:00 pm dinner

7:00 pm kids bath time

8:00 pm more work or gym or TV/video games / browse internet

11:00 pm bed

married (wife on maternity leave), 2 kids (2 year old, 3 month old), 2 dogs

- 7:00am - 8:00am wake up with toddler, get him ready and walk him to school

- 8:15am - 9:00am walk dogs

- 9:00am - 9:15am make breakfast

- 9:15am - 5:30pm work (day is mostly meetings, eat breakfast and lunch at desk)

- 5:30pm - 6:15pm pickup toddler from school

- 6:15pm - 7:15pm hang out with toddler or prep dinner

- 7:15pm - 7:45pm dinner

- 8:00pm - 10:00pm get toddler ready for bed (bath time, playing some more, reading)

- 10:00pm - 10:30pm clean up the house / kitchen / dinner

- 10:30pm - 1:30am depending on the day, mix of free time or back to work

- 1:30am sleep

Married, 4 kids.

8:30 awake and get oldest to virtual school

8:35 caffeine

8:40 skim teams/emails.

9-2pm switch between helping with 1st grade work and working.

2-4 hammer out work

4-5 I'm "at work" but normally spend my last hour on personal development

Anything you’re learning lately for personal development that has been fun?

I get up around seven; get outta bed around nine.

no kids/majority of team PST

7am = wake up

730-845am = train

9am-12pm = deep work (no meetings)

12pm-2pm = stand-ups/all hands/unblock teammates or focus if everyone is good

2-4pm = focus work (no meetings)

4-830pm = help team or auto-pilot work that doesn't require clear mind (otherwise hard tasks if energy left)

830-10:30pm = game/read/try to convince gf to not break up with me

7:30am - wake up, shower, eat something small (fruit, etc.)

7:40am - start work

9:00am - coffee

10:00am - stand-up

10:30am - resume work

11:30am - gym

12:30pm - lunch

1:00pm - resume work

4:00pm-5:00pm - finish work, depending on day

the "m" in pomofocus.io really looks like an "rn" sometimes.

I'm impressed with how diligent others comments are with waking up early - especially during winter months.

4 kids, wife

Wake up at 5:40

Kid prep, school buses etc

7:30 go to my office, write down my todo, journal

7:45 yoga or gym

8:30 cardio + read email, chats, reply to emails

9:00 write code

10 standup

10:30 write code

11:30 lunch

12:00-5:00 work