Like most others, I've answered emails and phone calls from work at home, but this is my first day actually working from home all day on what will be a regular schedule from now on.

Pretty fuckin' nice. I can get used to this.

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Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

It really does work provided the employee has a modicum of self discipline to get all their tasks done.

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Elections have consequences.

Well, fuck. Scratch that "on what will be a regular schedule from now on" from the OP

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

_________________
Elections have consequences.

Yes. It's really hard too.

My major recommendations.
1) Get ready every day. Keep your routine somewhat consistent like you were leaving for work. Don't roll out of bed dressed like you are about to board an airplane and start working.
2) Every morning, write down on a piece of paper what you are to get done for the day. This is less needed if your work dictates things being done on demand like answering phone calls/emails
3) Be sure that others understand right from the start that you are working from home. It's hard for people who go to an office to understand what working from home is like. They look at it basically as having a day off.
4) Find something to fill the room with background noise. I keep the tv on with the Dan Patrick show or other things with talking. You can get a little bit of cabin fever especially in the winter if you work from home every day.
5) Be sure you look productive to the people in the office. No one cares if you sit around looking at your fantasy team if you come into the office and are there for the required hours. Suddenly, you work from home, and you have to justify what you did every week.
6) Try and leave the house once a day. There was a time in the winter I realized on a Thursday that I hadn't left the house since last Sunday.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Had a friend that worked from home, and part of his routine was his morning trip to Dunkin Donuts for breakfast...said it helped immensely.

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Caller Bob approves.

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Make sure to call and converse with people outside of just a message board too.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

6 is good advice I probably wouldn't have thought of off the bat.

4 seems like pretty obvious advice, or it just depends on personality. I very rarely just hang out in silence at home.

Completely ignored 1 today, wearing sweatpants and a t shirt, but I can see that being good advice going forward.

2, 3, and 5 should be fairly achievable since I'm part of a pilot program and REALLY want this to become full time.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

When I worked like this years ago I would start early and get a lot of basic things done like the daily email/call stuff. Then from like 10-11 I went to the gym. Came back and finished up the day. Most employers know what happens in the work at home thing and just want the shit done.

_________________
Elections have consequences.

You got a problem with 6?



Taking a walk during a lunch break can be a good way to leave the house, clear your mind for a bit, and actually get recharged for the 2nd half of the day.

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My entire team is remote employees. I don't care what the hell they do if they get their work done. Some of them don't deal with it well, though... they start to feel isolated. I agree with the suggestions to get out and walk or go to a store or go to a bar or a strip joint.

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leahyourbillbrasky!

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What so you're like putting the grills together at home and then drive them to the store?

Don't dox me bro.

Pretty much just making sure everyone else put them together right plus a bunch of annoying other shit.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

I didnt even know if I remembered where you work, correctly. I took my shot.

Well, with 4, it's also important what you choose. For me, talking proved to be important. Pandora wasn't really making things any different. It's just a weird thing to not hear anyone else speak for 8 hours in a day(though that was rare as I am on the phone sometimes).

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

My wife and kids left for a few days and I was home by myself for extended periods of time working. It was bizarre how quiet it was. The dogs got tired of my voice that's for sure.

I work from home every Friday. It's why I poke around on here mostly on Fridays.

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Wong. Fuck planning. Shoot from the hip.

I have been working from home since February and it's fantastic. In order to stay productive, it's good to have a measure of how productive you were while in the office (however you can quantify that for your job) and just ensure that you are keeping pace with that while working from home.

As for being alone, it's a great idea to line up some great podcasts (PMT anyone?) as they will make for great background noise.

Whatever you do, don't have a radio tuned to 670.

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“When I walked in this morning, and saw the flag was at half mast, I thought 'alright another bureaucrat ate it.'" - Ron Swanson

Working from home is pretty awful and when I become a high powered CEO I will pretty much ban it. You lose all the comradery with remote working. The coffee pot conversations, eyeing the "talent" in the office. Two hour lunches to that great Thai place with your buddies. This is culture that drives successful organizations.

I had worked from home full time 20 years ago for about 5 years. Now my work arrangement has me working one full day from home if I'm not traveling that week, and five or six mornings a month for 2-3 hours but then I'm off the rest of the day other than a cursory check of email around 4pm. Some of those are weekend days.

The biggest challenge is starting the day right, which means getting enough sleep and having a routine. When I worked full time at home, I would head out every morning at 8:30 to the McDonald's over in Northlake near Sam's Club, because they had a kids room with real tables and at that time there were no kids there. I'd have my coffee and plan out my day, then drive for about 20 minutes listing to the Score and be back at 10 for my first call of the day.

I do something similar today at Starbucks a little on days I work from home, although I have detached it from breakfast because eating McBreakast 5 days a week for 5 years was not a good thing for me. I'll actually head out now after I finish this post, I found that if I didn't check social media and boards like this before I went to Starbucks I'd just spend the entire time there on that instead of on focusing on work. So now I usually go to Starbucks at 9:30 and am back for any 11am calls from my boss who is in Los Angeles.

The other thing is knowing which work activities you can't really do well at home. For me, that is editing somebody else's writing, or starting my own writing. Too many distractions. I need to do that out of the house.

I found that the Deep Focus playlist on Spotify was good for me, as well as coffitivity.com which gives you free ambient coffee shop noise.

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"When people want their version of the truth, they go find it, no matter how baseless their beliefs." -- Ken Rosenthal

I work from home 1 or 2 days/week. I get way more stuff done as I don't waste 2 hours in traffic and people aren't camped out in my office for impromptu meetings.

It's not much different from being in the office as there are days when I go in and realize about 2pm or 3pm that I've been camped at my computer and haven't walked outside my office all day.

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You know me like that.

There's definitely something to be said for that. It's a balance, and it depends on the size of the office.

We are having this cultural discussion right now, because I'm responsible for the development of about 25 millenials in our practice of about 80 people. I am frustrated because too many of our senior people my age work from home at the drop of a hat, even though they have an office. The point of paying rent is to give our people a place to learn from each other, and if the senior people aren't there to set an example, nobody's going to learn shit.

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"When people want their version of the truth, they go find it, no matter how baseless their beliefs." -- Ken Rosenthal

These young kids will never get to experience a great team lunch at Carmine's!

Did Carmine's re-open btw? Or is another name/owner?

Man, this is so fucking great when you're hungover and have no time deadlines on work throughout the day.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

An alternative for background noise: https://coffitivity.com/

On days I feel less productive at home I head to the library. For some reason I can get lots done there.

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"I honestly don't see a good bet on the board here."