I've been working from home 1-2 days a week recently. It's been a great boon to my general productivity and happiness, but I've been experiencing difficulty "turning off" at the end of the day. I haven't been able to signal to my unconscious that it's okay, you can relax and stop working now.
For those of you who work remote full-time, or just occasionally, how do you "end" your day?
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I use separate work and fun computers for the most part. When I am done with work, I try moving rooms, starting a video game, or cooking dinner.
My current setup is a work laptop, a home laptop, and a home desktop. I set out goals for what I need to accomplish and break my time into chunks. I don't get on my desktop unless I am going to do something not work related.
I've been considering getting a desktop to help with this. Gonna go for it after reading your comment. Thanks!
Damn good call. I'm on my computer trying to read something or watch a show and VS Code is just calling my name sometimes.
Of course, it's easy to have the problem in the other direction, where Reddit is only a click away when you should be writing acceptance tests. π
Admittedly, I have it set up so I can work on my personal computer if need be (vpn, dev environment) but it is there in a pinch. I try to enforce the separation for work/life balance and mental health.
I know the problem of distraction rabbit holes well and I hate using website blocking software. RescueTime is one option. You can get more analytics on your website viewing habits or set a time limit for how long to spend on a task/site.
Even though I don't work remotely, I too find it hard to switch gears at the end of the day. I like the cooking dinner suggestion in particular, ymmv :)
Or, you can try using different browsers. I use Chrome for work, Chromium for freelance, and Firefox for everything else. If you don't have the spare cash for buying separate hardware, this can be a good way to go about it. :)
Using you suggestion, It could also use dual boot OS or dual user account, one for work, another for personal life.
My setup is like @Alyss, work laptop and personal desktop/laptop.
I do like 1/2 times week remote, and I'm a lot more productive and focused.
I don't have trouble disconnecting from work, what I do after finish is cooking or watching TV in living room.
Also, I work in my bedroom, is where I have my desk ;)
Have an office.
My office is in my basement (go π¨π¦) and when I come upstairs at the end of the day that's it. I also have 2 laptops as mentioned. Work laptop stays in the basement, other laptop stays upstairs.
Having separate physical spaces seems to help.
Something a client of mine did was walk around the block after work. Once the lap was done, work day was over.
I live in NYC where space is tight, so a separate office at home is tough β but I'll definitely be using the "walk around the block" trick.
The most redeeming part of my commute is the walk + podcast time + fresh air, so I can replicate that in a similar manner at the end of the day.
Cheers!
Given that the βseparate spaceβ approach is impractical for you, what a about changing what you wear or even which cup you drink from? As long as there is some clear separation somewhere, it might be enough for your subconscious to get the picture.
I can't turn off even when I work at the office. :) How do you do it?
Same here. I even get a call from office to cover up some stuff right when I just get home. It's really stressing πΆ
I've been working from home full time for over 8 years. The one thing I've found that makes the biggest difference is ensuring you use a separate user for work and for personal. When you decide you're ready to "turn off", switch users.
If you don't BYOD, then shutdown your work laptop.
This won't solve your problem, but it helps a lot...
I define spaces:
work spaces ( a room, table, corner, etc.)
everything else spaces (the rest of the place/house
I only work in work spaces during my work schedule and then don't go there for anything after work hours. Going out to exercise or anything helps to also break off the continuous feeling of being alone in a house.
Be very clear to yourself that you work at certain hours and dont do anything outside those hours. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. You don't go to the office to save some file do you? Then don't open your email client on your phone π
6pm. Close laptop. Take dog for walk. After walk, enjoy the evening with my SO.
While it's not always that easy, it is usually that easy.
If a wild inspiration strikes, I'll send an email from my phone to myself or write it in my work notebook.
If I'm in a super crunch time (like right now), I set a later stop-time, like 10pm. If I'm doing any work beyond that, I'm really hurting myself and my relationship; that's non-negotiable.
I don't enforce separation of spaces or devices like some of the other commenters -- my desktop is set up exactly for how I prefer to write code, so of course I'm going to use that when I can, and it's a desktop so I'm not about to move it around multiple times a day. But I keep my work laptop open on my desk during the day, and that's the only machine that has my work email and Slack up. At the end of the day, I close the laptop. Simple as that.
I simply never been a fan of working long hours, lol
I think you need to ask what you're trying to do when you "end" your day? You need a KPI. What aspect of your life is unfulfilled? I understand the need to "turn off" but a lot of the time my hobbies blend into work, so cognisantly deciding that boundary is not simple.
I have a work laptop, a personal laptop, and a personal PC. I do not have work email, VPN, or Slack on any of the personals. I do have work Slack on my phone, in case there's a π₯, but it's not something I open unless someone mentions or DMs me.
The work laptop gets closed at the end of the day, and with it, goes the office.