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My two cents:
1) Excellent chair. Go for office chairs with lumbar support, neck support and possibly extensible leg support.
2) Good monitor, keyboard and mouse. Do not, I repeat, do not work on your laptop.
3) Check the lighting and window positions, adjust with obscurants if needed.
4) Clean and ordered desk and cable management. This is incredibly important for home office productivity.
GCS/GE d--(d) s-/+ a C+++ U+++ P-- L+@ E-- W+++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- r+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
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Yes, what he said. I would only add Time management as a major component. Hardware is the easy part. Starting at a specific time, taking an actual lunch break, and quitting at a designated time, is the hardest part for me.
Act just like you are used to time wise. Start working when you normally do, stop working when you usually do. It is very easy to think of 5:00 as just a number on the clock but putting in 14 hour days can sneak up on you and will burn you out.
I know this as a fact. I also know you can recover from burn out (most folks do) but it's not fun.
Other than that and the suggestions above you really should enjoy the extra time you have and you will find you can have a productive day and 5 meetings without missing a beat!
It only takes a couple of min. to set up a teams meeting and if you have an agenda for them they are usually very productive.
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Personally time management is the least of my issues, it allows me to work better. I usually shift evrything by an hour, doing 10 - 18, as it's my most productive time range.
And while I occasionally worked overtime it had the same frequency of when I work in the office, epsecially considering how in no company I ever worked with overtime is allowed unless preemptively authorized by the boss for each instance and a set duration, plus the law fixes maximum overtime caps daily, weekly and yearly.
GCS/GE d--(d) s-/+ a C+++ U+++ P-- L+@ E-- W+++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- r+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
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It depends. @OriginalGriff covered most of the high points, but the "depends" is what are your employers expectations of you working at home.
I moved from full-time office to full-time at home during Covid. My hours were 7:30 to 4:30 and it was expected that I be available during that time. I basically got up the same time as I had, not taking credit for the 15min commute difference. I got dressed for the most part as if I were going to the office, though I went more for jeans and sneakers with a casual dress shirt. During that time, my productivity increased; I had less interruptions at home, and my family understood that work was work, and left me alone. The dog, not so much, but really wasn't a bother. I actually lost weight since there were no sugary office snacks and I could make better lunches. It wasn't unusual to stretch the day a bit at the end, as there was no incentive to follow the herd out the door at 4:30.
Early last year, I semi-retired and began working as a consultant for my employer and another organization. I trade off hours as I want. I was able to escape this winter and work remotely with an endless summer. There are still things I need to do during working hours some days, but if I want to work at 6am or 6pm, I generally can.
That really goes to the 'depends' as well. If the company just wants productivity and isn't concerned about availability, logging the 40 hours a week can be super-productive. It takes a mindset to do that. Even after retiring, it took a while to not feel guilty about mowing the lawn on Tuesday morning or using a nice day to have some fun. But that's a different world.
Two quick tips I'd add. Get the best internet connection you can. If fiber is available at a higher cost, it's a tradeoff for your commuting cost. And have a data plan on your cell phone just in case. Didn't happen often, but my primary connection with Comcast had issues at times and I had to tether the phone.
The second one is desk location if you need to do zoom meetings. Don't worry about the background, you can use a background image and the latest versions of those work well. But lighting can be a factor. Having a window behind you can be a challenge to get the light right and it varies depending on the time of day.
Enjoy it and if you miss the office, you can always venture in a day a week or whatever.
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When my company did an office change that required most of the staff to begin to work from home, they sent us with our own chairs, monitors, etc, in addition to our laptops. Still, I much prefer my own monitor, keyboard and mouse to those provided, so my work space is shared with my home office space (I just move the accessories over to my personal laptop).
You need a definite workspace with a good office chair and a desk expansive enough to hold everything you need. The rest is all dependent on your own discipline and practices. Log on at the same time every day and work through as you would at the office, taking only the same breaks you would there. When you are finished for the day, shut your laptop and leave the room even if, like my your home office is in the same space. Walk away from the screen for a while at least; interact with the other people in your home; go to the gym.
Enjoy your extra time from no longer commuting.
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I read most of the replies, especially OG and DerekT-P.
I’d only add that your equipment (computer and peripherals) should be at least on par with business supplies items. And your internet connection be fast and stable. The cost is offset by reduced commute costs.
Cheers,
Time is the differentiation of eternity devised by man to measure the passage of human events.
- Manly P. Hall
Mark
Just another cog in the wheel
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I have two chairs in my home office - one for me and one for my cat.
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@OriginalGriff nailed.
I've been working from home for 3 years which started with Covid lockdown. I already had an office/man-cave with a decent desk an office chair. I continue to work the same hours and only work in pyjamas if there been a problem and I'm firefighting. The cats aren't allowed it and the wife knock before entering in case I'm on a video call.
I don't miss the commute, but have found its sometimes difficult to stop and the end of the day, when the janitor would have evicted me from the office because he wanted to lock up!
I'd also recommend making sure to walk away from the desk (preferebly going outside) at lunchtime. It's far to easy to end up working and eating at your desk when it's at home!
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- Getting a really good office chair is very important. After using crappy chairs for a couple of years I invested in a really nice (Aeron) chair that cost about $900 at the time. Best investment ever.
- If you have kids, you need a door, and you will need to spend time training the kids ("When dad is in the office, it's like he is not at home. You can come in for a hug and a kiss, but then you gotta go.") That worked for me, they could come in, solving the forbidden place problem, but they couldn't stay.
- I agree that getting dressed like for the office is important. Of course, if you wear jeans and a t-shirt to the office, that shouldn't be much of a problem.
- You'll have to push yourself to get up reasonably early, maybe split the morning commute time between sleeping in and extra productivity. Keeping a schedule will make it easier to start work.
- It's really easy to lose track of time when you're working in the quiet of your home. Be sure to get up and move around, take a walk, or exercise. Eat your lunch away from work stuff, even if you're surfing the web or watching a video.
- I got "mouse elbow" from too many hours at the desk. I solved it with a "vertical mouse". I'll never go back.
- Music is a partial cure for loneliness and isolation, but it shouldn't be music with words. There is endless "focus music" on youtube. A lot of classical music is a good choice. There are also endless tracks of "ambient sounds" like birds chirping and water flowing.
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My advice would be only share your recovered travelling dead time with your employer - don't hand it all over . .
I long ago realised I'm a workaholic - which wasn't so much of an issue in my thirties when I was fitter, freelance, and paid by the hour - now I'm in my sixties and salaried again I have to really hard to stop myself working beyond my hours when I work from home.
I have kept a room in my house as an actual office for the last 30 years or so, but these days I prefer to commute for around 2 hours a day in exchange for more rigid start and end times . .
I still believe it's a mortal sin to quit when you are "on a roll", but I temper that with how much it is appreciated in the form of Overtime pay enhancement or Time off in Lieu; if you don't get overtime, I believe you have to think of it as underpay and judge your employer accordingly . .
Your mileage may vary of course, but that's my two cents-worth generally . .
A few are great.
I am small.
Together we are the Universe.
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The stuff everyone else has said. Plus, if you can, make the office on a different floor than the kitchen and several doors.
The more the effort to get to the food the less likely you are to go get some.
I’ve given up trying to be calm. However, I am open to feeling slightly less agitated.
I’m begging you for the benefit of everyone, don’t be STUPID.
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Kornfeld Eliyahu Peter wrote: what are the important things for a productive home office?
1. Have a dedicated workspace, so it still feels like you're going to work or an office. If you mix your play location with your work location, you'll start mixing the two and that's bad juju.
2. You'll need to be extra vigilant about communication with your coworkers. When devs tend to WFH, sometimes getting ahold of them is difficult.
If you find yourself getting lonely but don't want a long commute, you can always rent co-location workspace to get out of the house with.
Jeremy Falcon
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#Worldle #407 1/6 (100%)
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🎉
https://worldle.teuteuf.fr
easy
"A little time, a little trouble, your better day"
Badfinger
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My country. Have you visited?
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I have not.
But I have many close friends from there.
My grand kids love India food. Go figure.
"A little time, a little trouble, your better day"
Badfinger
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"A little time, a little trouble, your better day"
Badfinger
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Wordle 624 3/6
🟨⬛⬛⬛⬛
🟨⬛🟨🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
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Wordle 624 4/6
⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜
⬜🟨⬜⬜🟨
🟩🟩⬜🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
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Wordle 624 3/6*
⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜
⬜🟩⬜⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Wordle 624 3/6
⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜
⬜🟩⬜🟨⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
Software rusts. Simon Stephenson, ca 1994. So does this signature. me, 2012
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🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜⬜🟩🟩
⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
In a closed society where everybody's guilty, the only crime is getting caught. In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity. - Hunter S Thompson - RIP
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Wordle 624 5/6
⬛⬛🟨⬛⬛
⬛⬛🟨⬛⬛
🟩🟩⬛🟨⬛
🟩🟩⬛🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
Get me coffee and no one gets hurt!
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Wordle 624 3/6
⬜🟩🟨🟨⬜
⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
"A little time, a little trouble, your better day"
Badfinger
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Not invented here - Wikipedia[^]
I've posted my dependency trees at the end of this post to give you an idea of my ecosystem, and how much of it is my code. Anything prefixed with "htcw_" is mine
I wrote most of the code I touch day to day. That's a good feeling, and it makes me efficient. I think most people here know what a prolific coder I am by this point, and the fact that I'm building with an utterly familiar, self-consistent, and interoperable base is a big part of why that is.
I feel like a metal worker who spent a decade putting their own shop together just the way they like it, with the tools, jig tables, hoists, and all that all cut and welded to personal spec, bespoke like, for maximum workflow efficiency.
I feel like PIEBALDconsult can appreciate this.
I understand all the reasons not to fall into NIH. Intimately, as I've been on sharp business end of trying to get up to speed with a framework developed by someone else on their own over a decade. It's daunting, no matter how well commented it is.
But gosh, it makes coding so nice when you've got your own ecosystem to work with.
Here's my dependency tree for my current UIX iteration (still in development)
Dependency Graph
|-- htcw_gfx @ 1.4.1
| |-- htcw_bits @ 1.0.6
| |-- htcw_data @ 1.0.7
| |-- htcw_io @ 1.1.3
| | |-- htcw_bits @ 1.0.6
| |-- htcw_ml
And that's just my portable non-hardware specific code.
Here's one for an ESP32 under Arduino
Dependency Graph
|-- htcw_gfx @ 1.4.4
| |-- htcw_bits @ 1.0.6
| |-- htcw_data @ 1.0.7
| |-- htcw_io @ 1.1.4
| | |-- htcw_bits @ 1.0.6
| | |-- FS @ 2.0.0
| | |-- SD @ 2.0.0
| | | |-- FS @ 2.0.0
| | | |-- SPI @ 2.0.0
| |-- htcw_ml @ 0.1.2
| | |-- htcw_io @ 1.1.4
| | | |-- htcw_bits @ 1.0.6
| | | |-- FS @ 2.0.0
| | | |-- SD @ 2.0.0
| | | | |-- FS @ 2.0.0
| | | | |-- SPI @ 2.0.0
|-- htcw_ft6236 @ 0.1.1
|-- lcd_controller (also mine)
|-- htcw_uix @ 0.1.0
| |-- htcw_gfx @ 1.4.4
| | |-- htcw_bits @ 1.0.6
| | |-- htcw_data @ 1.0.7
| | |-- htcw_io @ 1.1.4
| | | |-- htcw_bits @ 1.0.6
| | | |-- FS @ 2.0.0
| | | |-- SD @ 2.0.0
| | | | |-- FS @ 2.0.0
| | | | |-- SPI @ 2.0.0
| | |-- htcw_ml @ 0.1.2
| | | |-- htcw_io @ 1.1.4
| | | | |-- htcw_bits @ 1.0.6
| | | | |-- FS @ 2.0.0
| | | | |-- SD @ 2.0.0
| | | | | |-- FS @ 2.0.0
| | | | | |-- SPI @ 2.0.0
| |-- htcw_bits @ 1.0.6
| |-- htcw_data @ 1.0.7
| |-- htcw_io @ 1.1.4
| | |-- htcw_bits @ 1.0.6
| | |-- FS @ 2.0.0
| | |-- SD @ 2.0.0
| | | |-- FS @ 2.0.0
| | | |-- SPI @ 2.0.0
|-- Wire @ 2.0.0
To err is human. Fortune favors the monsters.
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