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24 Comments

Raise your hand if you love working from home 🤚

I used to HATE working from home. But now I love it! 🏚👨🏾‍💻

I've always had this professional ideal of work - even when working in more "laid back" environments. Probably due to going through business school in large part where the goal was to prep your for the corporate world.

The idea of working from home 1) sucked when I tried it the first time several years ago and 2) makes me think of being less productive. Now I love it and feel way more productive and jubilant.

I mused some more thoughts on a Medium post - https://medium.com/@amiedema/i-used-to-hate-working-from-home-now-i-love-it-96af5193fc94.

Who here loves working from home? Who hates it? What does the future work setting look like? 🤔Work from space...??? 🚀🪐

  1. 4

    I love working from home and I find myself even more productive since it significantly reduces the office chatter. I mean, sure, I miss having coworkers I can chat with randomly in the hall, but having the freedom to live wherever I want to far outweighs the office life for me.

    Next phase is to work remotely while traveling (not in an RV though, since I need reliable wifi). We'll see how that goes!

    1. 2

      I was just thinking today that I'm probably twice as productive at home as I ever was in an office. I can really get in the zone when I'm coding because it's so quiet here. Also, as an extreme introvert I'm in my happy place. ;)

  2. 3

    I have massive respect for people who work from home.
    But got me a coworking space membership, I tend to slack off at home, given the cozy bed.
    I guess I'm one of the people who thrive on seeing other people hustle.

    1. 2

      There is that competitive piece of seeing people work you miss out on a bit...

  3. 3

    I love working from home. I did it for 2.5 years.

    Now I take this one step ahead.

    I am working from home for myself.

  4. 3

    Working for home is great, once you get your legs under you. It took me around 3-4 months to learn to separate home from work when I went remote 7 years ago. No commute? Idea at 2am? No problem! 🙃

    1. 1

      🌙💡👨🏾‍💻

    2. 1

      At 2am is when ideas come...love it.

  5. 2

    This is the dream for me!
    I have a job which is only a few miles commute, but it can still take 30 mins if the traffic is particularly bad. I think not enjoying the place in general is also a key factor here.

    Been looking for remote positions but they are pretty few and far between but yeah I think I would be much happier working from home. I have plenty of social activities each week with numerous friends for getting out of the house so that wouldn't be a worry.

    Of course the ultimate ideal would be working from home, for myself! But that's a longer term goal I guess!

  6. 2

    I work from home 90 % of the time. I love it!

  7. 2

    I love working from home but lot's of my relatives thinks that I'm not doing any work 🤣

  8. 2

    Nice article. For me, a bit of both, and I think a lot has depended on whether I’m loving the work I’m doing, and not so much the environment.

    That said, I’ve just started at home again and I’m definitely more productive and love my home environment. Days to the office were often frustrating, I’d get to the end of the day and feel like I’d hardly got anything done. It’s much harder to get into a flow at work with interruptions (especially when you’re trying to code which needs a period of concentration) - I ended up having my headphones on all day to cut out the noise.

    Interesting what you said about keeping up appearances, you feel at work you can’t really put up a sign that says “just leave me alone for the next 4 hours” because people might think you’re an a-hole.

    My first web job was at home for a few years and at the end of it I was quite isolated, I hadn’t made the effort to get out, and this had quite a negative impact at the time.

    My last job was in a WeWork which I have to say, unfortunately in London, was a bit depressing - for me, I didn’t find that communal collaborative environment they boasted in their IPO!

    But now I love being at home, but maybe it’s also because I’m working on something I’m totally into.

    My plan is to make sure I have one social thing a week and be a bit more proactive about getting out to socialise. Anyone fancy a lunch time coffee in London? ;)

    1. 2

      My co-founder and I make it a point to do a weekly activity - like hike or mountain bike. That's been helpful so far to ensure we get out at least once a week.

      Well - if I find myself in London some day then ☕️ is on the agenda!

  9. 2

    Is my goal to work as an "indie hacker" 100%, and actually I am on the way. Yesterday I registered my web design and development company.

    Taking into account that I couldn't code since late 2017,
    is just me, and I am only able to do front end I am taking it easy, and starting light while working full time.

    At the moment is just landing pages and web design. But in the future I also want to offer illustrations...and back end.

    All I can think is to work from our backyard....surrounded or trees.

    1. 1

      Awesome! I wish you luck on the path to 100% indie hacking. I'm working on a web-framework with my co-founder; there is plenty there to get you going on back-end-wise - try it out and join the slack group and we can help you out - https://alpas.dev/

  10. 2

    What does the future work setting look like?

    The future is complete mobility.

    We travel full time in an RV staying exclusively in remote locations on public land.

    1. 1

      Heck yea! I'm living in Idaho so got plenty of public lands for the RV! Just need 5G to spread coverage in rural Idaho - which is 90% of Idaho. 🤣

      1. 2

        Hah!! We've not been through Idaho yet, but planning that direction when Winter starts to make a retreat from the PNW.

        We have internet through two different carriers and so far we've never come across a place without at least enough Internet speed to work and stream Netflix/Hulu.

  11. 2

    Big fan of it and have done so off and on for the last decade (currently full-time remote as an engineer)

    For me, it really helps having a dedicated space vs. "work from couch" or "work from kitchen table".

    The autonomy of it is great, I'm notorious for taking walks to clear my head and have had it come up at least a few times in reviews at "in office" jobs, even though performance wasn't suffering.

    My home office is decked out exactly the way I want it to be, with the hardware that I want (computer, monitor, keyboard, desk, bar stocked with bourbon, etc) and the commute is on point.

    I know a lot of folks fall into the trap of wearing pajamas all day, or even worse, wearing the same clothes for days and days. That's not really my scene, I get up every day and treat it just like I'm going into an office.

    It's also helped me regiment my food intake, with pretty standard issue breakfast and lunch. Easy to save a buck when you're not going out every day with the "work crew" and easier to control caloric intake (which is easy to go off the rails on even with catered lunches).

    My office doesn't have a TV (granted, I have YouTube) but I don't fall into the other trap of "getting distracted" while working at home. Perhaps it's because I'm full time remote, and not just occasionally working from home.

    My wife would argue that I'm home too much and there's some difficulties there, but most days it's not an issue (and nobody complains about family lunch out on Fridays ;)

    1. 1

      Love it! Great pointers. I'm right there with you on the walks - for me they clear my head while letting my creative juices flow - something that doesn't happen the same way when 'in an office'. Sure I am away, and there is a certain stigma around that, but I feel refreshed, more creative, and more excited to get back to work that I don't otherwise get when staying put.

      1. 1

        Walks are fantastic. Pretty much all my greatest ideas have come just out of the blue walking in the woods next to the Haga Palace, where the crown princess of Sweden lives.
        I also make sure I don't bring any electronics on my walks. So there's no music or podcast etc. It's a form of walking meditation that is focused on my work. Can't recommend it enough.
        Another benefit is feeling refreshed when you get back.

  12. 2

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