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Comment by DoingIsLearning | Hacker News Reader

> or just lack the initiative, knowledge and internal motivation to work without external pressure and supervision

I will humbly raise my hand and admit to this.

As someone who has so far really enjoyed the lifestyle benefits of WFH but has struggled with this, what advice/tips/strategies/recommendations can you or other senior remote engineers provide on how to improve this specific aspect?

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I cannot recommend a co-working space enough.

My life improved so much since working from a co-working. I looked for a place that shared my work/life style and I've made friends, we share lunch, we've gone on trips, we usually share a friday drink, etc. And since everyone works on different things and/or companies it's quite interesting as well to get some other input that's not just work colleagues.

I also looked for a place 2min from my house so I still have most of the benefits of WFH

Reading this thread makes me realize that not everybody is currently in a lockdown. Co-working spaces where I am are closed (due to the virus) since ~October and won't reopen before a while :(

"Lockdown" is essentially a meaningless term. There may have been exceptions at one point but in the US, there were mostly never meaningful restrictions on leaving your home and certainly not enforced ones.

Ah, I started working at a co-working before the pandemic.

Where I am currently (Spain) there's been different levels of lockdown. The co-working is open, but with a lot of the usual activities heavily restricted.

Coffee shop patios are open here. Lots of folks working without masks there (socially distanced of course). Indoor spaces are still limited. I was going to go work at a coffee shop today but it’s a bit too cold

One potentially tricky thing is that larger companies may have rules against co-working.

My last BigCo employer had a lot of WFH (as exceptions and due to acquisitions or site closures, the overall policy was butts in seats, but still). If you actually read the security policies, you saw lots of things that would make co-working de facto a fireable offense.

But I doubt it was ever enforced, and I bet a lot of people did it. I had a proper home office instead.

It’s best to know what the co-working rules are at your employer.

O/T: Apple autocorrect thinks “coworking” should be “cowering” which is probably a worst-case version of my point...

Not saying I agree but I can see some logic in that kind of restriction. If you're in a traditional office most of the information you work with will be accessible (to some extent) to those around you and either way, they can be held to account as employees. If you're in a purely public location you're likely to be quite guarded about who has view of your screen and maybe you will avoid working on anything sensitive. But in a shared space it's potentially the worst of both worlds - you might be comfortable / friendly with those near you, but they have zero legal relationship with your employer.

Due to an extremely busy home-life, with a large family and many pets while juggling multiple contract clients - each with hours and hours of concalls/meetings, I rented a private/older office last July.

It has been worth every penny - it you are self-employed, I highly recommend doing so. My only regret, is not verifying the HVAC situation first... During summer months, I have a standalone AC unit, with window venting, and it cannot keep-up to our humid/hot days.

I think most people just don't want to pay that much extra for work, from their own pocket.

Routine is paramount. The old routine of commute to work, chat a bit, get a coffee, and log into your computer needs to be replicated. Wake up, shower, put on normal clothes, get coffee, talk a bit, then log on and do work. Then its a matter of not breaking the illusion by having random family members barging in and talking to you about non-work stuff.

So first of all, there are (or should be) a lot less interruptions when working from home. People tend to disturb folks that they see, it's a lot easier to give address someone at the other end of the room or across the corridor than it is to call, email or chat with someone. With these disturbances gone, you are more likely to be more productive from the start when working from home and so a little slacking off here and there probably does not make you less productive than what you were at work.

That said, self motivation and lack of external pressure can be a problem. When I feel I have a hard time to focus on something my last resort is the pomodoro timer. I sit down, set a timer at 25 minutes and force myself to no break focus during that time. Once the first period is over it's usually no problem to keep going since I've gotten into something by then.

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