Comment by NikolaNovak | Hacker News Reader

Comment by NikolaNovak | Hacker News Reader

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That is impressive; I could not possibly work like that though :<

1. Never mind posturing, it's the posture - I get back and neck pain just thinking of working from a couch or floor :(

2. I like my multiple 27" monitors. Going back to just a single 14" feels like a huge productivity hit.

3. Same thing with proper keyboard + mouse, vs just a touchpad or even the trackpoint.

So I'll agree that there's a lot of posturing and professional front in this and many professions; but even without that, I've always far far preferred my home office to either proper office, or working from living areas.

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The other aspects are more age dependent (though I believe so is the posture / back pain;). It helps to distinguish "working area" and "non-working area", triply so once you have family. There's a million things that I do better at when I'm "in the zone" - ingested the background, focused on the problem at hand. Distractions reset that counter - I love my kid, I love my wife, but there are aspects of my work that don't benefit from their presence :-). This is probably part of why my personal most productive times tended to be late at night when the world has settled down and distractions are at a minimum...

This is a problem I have too. I don’t have a home office so I have to work from the couch hunched over my laptop. It hurts. I’ve been doing it for a month. I get tingles in my pinkie after a couple hours they last for the day (ulnar nerve compression I think)

I don’t know how to cope. I can’t take the time off and not work for another month, but I also don’t want to wear my body down and have pain all day every day. I hated working in my office because it’s open space and noisy but I’d love to go now that it’s deserted. I have two large displays there, a mouse, a keyboard.

Unless you are super cash strapped you can get a second monitor, mouse and keyboard + some basic chair and desk for I'm guessing 300$ if you are resourceful. Buying used is risky now otherwise you could probably get even cheaper

Even if you can't afford to buy those, I'm sure you could talk to your manager/company and ask to borrow the ones you use in the office till you are able to go back to work. In a situation like this, I think they'll understand.

It sounds like you have trigger points building up. Stretch your arms, shoulders, and back everyday. I recommend arm stretches for doing handstands. Also, make sure your arms and upper body are warm, borderline hot. I wear winter cycling sleeves because they are thin and don’t get in the way. Also wear a thin smartwool sweater, and the heat is on 76. Completely reversed the pain and discomfort I had been experiencing for years by doing the above daily.

I’m sweating just thinking about wearing a wool sweater with the heat on 76!

do you have something you can put your feet up on? because that can help you to stop hunching over slightly

Most people have a completely incorrect angle between keyboard, wrist and arm. Working from couch typically increases this angle even further. You should see a significant improvement if you reduce that angle. Basically, you don't want your hand to be going "up" at the wrist. Inasmuch as possible strive to have your hand flat through the wrist, or even fall down slightly.

If you don't have room for a mouse, get a trackball. They're relatively cheap and not having expensive health issues is worth it.

Be inventive in changing up the posture. If you genuinely don't have any other surface (dining room table, kitchen counter etc), switch it up - put laptop on couch and sit on the floor. Sit on couch with laptop on your knees, lie down with laptop on your lap or chest, put the laptop on window sill or fridge or counter or shelf and work standing, etc. NONE of these are ideal, but changing is important.

> 2. I like my multiple 27" monitors. Going back to just a single 14" feels like huge productivity hit.

> 3. Same thing with proper keyboard + mouse, vs just a touchpad or even the trackpoint.

Just curious. Does your company not allow you to bring your work equipment at home?

Mine do, and it doesn't help. I only have 1 desk in my apartment where 2 27" monitors can be placed and it's my personal desk. So now I'm working from my wife's desk that she doesn't use right now (and I can restore it easily), it has space for 1 monitor + laptop. It's not perfect, but I'm not complaining. And I am indeed lucky to even have 2 desks in 70m2 apartment and a dedicated office. (No kids).

Hi - I was in fact talking about my home office. I don't have ANY of this in the office proper.

My point is that I've been remote 50% for years, and remote 100% now, and in either scenario cannot imagine working from couch.

Well I mean, I can, I've done it... it sucked :S

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