Do you work from home or you have a separate office?

Hello!

This question is for all of you who work alone, without employees: Do you work in your house, or do you have any rented office?

Home. Separate room, with a lockable door to keep the toddlers out. I donā€™t tend to work out there enough because my laptop lets me work anywhere, which isnā€™t real great from a work/family balance perspective.

Separate room as well at grandmaā€™s which lives across the hall actualy, so its pretty quiet here.

@mpalmer You can always make your work space more efficient and put a monitor there or something that will lure you in :wink:

Home. Downstairs in the basement so Iā€™m a bit isolated from the house. Also the stairs are a good ā€œmoatā€ around the office. Harder for people to wander in or me to wander out.

I save at least 30m a day in commute time vs. even having an office across the street. (Thereā€™s overhead in just leaving the house for work :smile:
But Iā€™m pretty disciplined (or motivated I guess) for my work.

I know some people need the separation, which I can appreciate. Some folks even have a ritual of going outside and coming back in another door. Sort of analogous to an actor getting ā€œin characterā€ by putting on their characters clothes, shoes, hat, etc. Itā€™s sort of a physical shift to cause a mental shift.

-Clay

I used to work from home for many years, but this year Iā€™m trying the new approach to work in a separate apartment, 15 minutes walking distance from home.

There are pros:

  • walking is good before long time sitting in the front of the PC
  • isolation: no one will come in. This is a problem when working at home - people feel free to ask something, and while it can be something minor, it distracts and slows down a lot.
  • better productivity overall. Things are done really faster there.

and cons:

  • have to go there, take food from home or order somethig, then go back - this takes up to an hour each day

Oh, donā€™t worry, @michal_hantl ā€“ my work room is very nice. Big 27" monitor, laptop stand, sound system, mood lighting, awesome chair ā€“ itā€™s da bomb. Itā€™s just that for a while now Iā€™ve been travelling a lot for work, so itā€™s a minor hassle to get setup in there only to change out again the next day. In a month or so Iā€™ll be full-time at home again (yay!), so Iā€™ll take full advantage of the cave once again.

I used to work in a spare bedroom. But we bought a bigger house with a ā€˜summer houseā€™ at the bottom the garden and converted that to an office. It is much quieter with a lot more space than the old bedroom office. You can see my first office here:

That was real neat to see all the offices Andy.

Home. I work out of the 3rd bedroom with a simple standing desk. Eventually I will get kicked out as #4 is on the way. I like working from home, but also like going to a coworking place 1-2 times per week. I feel like its a good balance.

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Iā€™ve recently moved from a serviced office to a home office. Both were great, but the home office is much cheaper.

I moved to a new apartment last month, and part of my criteria for finding the ideal apartment was that there must be a well-lit, quiet room I could use as an office.

Work from home but looking for an office PDQ or maybe a garden office - kids and working from home (especially coding) just doesnā€™t work for me so I end up staying up half the night as 8pm to 4am seems to be the time when I get most of my work done which is far from ideal

Do you have a similar PC configuration in both places? For me, I like working using two screens, currently itā€™s 27" and 19" - at home I only have a 17" laptop on which I canā€™t do any serious work.

I mostly work from home, but like @scojo I work 1 day a week from a co-working space (the rather awesome Shot Tower in Derby https://www.connectderby.co.uk/shot-tower/) Definitely keeps me sane and toddler noise free for at least 1 day a week. Thinking about doing 2 days.

@Dmitry I just work on my laptop 100% of the time ok, at the Shot Tower they have two big macs at the back that nobody uses, Iā€™m guessing other co-working spaces might be able to provide some kit, could you just get a laptop with a big screen?

For the first 5 years that Cogeian Systems was in business, I worked from home.

Then we had our second child. After 16 months of keeping her crib at the foot of our bed in the master bedroom, I thought ā€œyeah, maybe itā€™s time to let this baby have a bedroomā€. I moved into dedicated office space shortly thereafter.

Itā€™s been interesting to see how my work habits have informed the way my kids see work and career.

At the time I moved into dedicated space, my son was 8 and his early perception of what ā€œworkā€ meant included Daddy being home all the time. He would sometimes just hang out in my home office as I worked, quietly drawing on the whiteboard, or coloring. Having me home all the time was normal, and he did a remarkably good job of respecting the fact that work time was work time. Hell, my wife was worse about violating my work boundaries than my 8-year-old-son was. When I moved out and got a real office, that was very exotic and exciting to him, and getting to visit ā€œthe officeā€ was a big treat.

Fast forward to today, and now my daughter is 8 years old. Her perception of what ā€œworkā€ means is completely different than what my sonā€™s was at that age. Sheā€™s never known a time when having Daddy work from home was normal; working from home is the exception, the begrudging last resort that happens only when thereā€™s no other way. To my daughter, visiting me at ā€œthe officeā€ is just-another-day type stuff; of course Dad is at the office, where else would he work? To her, the days when I work from home are exciting and exotic, a real event, just as the opposite was true for my son at her age.

I sometimes wonder how these two situations will impact my kids when itā€™s time for them to step into the world of work & career, if at all.

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Sorry @Dmitry, didnā€™t see this till now. I have 2 24" monitors at home. Itā€™s a pretty good setup. At the coworking space, I am not paying for a dedicated space, so itā€™s just me and my laptop. Usually itā€™s not a big inhibitor. Often, I find there are specific things that you can do on that day. And even use it to your advantage like getting specific weekly tasks done on that day since itā€™s a different environment.

However, at my coworking place they have started purchasing separate monitors for anyone to use. Iā€™d suggest that as a decent option as well to have a separate screen. A lot of places also have lockers available to store your own gear.

@scojo Too sad we do not yet have co-workings here in my city. Sounds like a nice experience.

Home - garden office. Provides good separation from daily life in the house (2 year old running around)! Previously had a rented office, but much preferring this and its is massively less expensive.

Iā€™m working from home since 2007, separate room (home office), reading all separate / garden back room, this seems to be a nice option I must admit.

I also work stand up for about 6-7 h per day, and on a chair for about 3-4 h. This is so good for the back, you may see my really cheap home-made stand up desk here: https://twitter.com/dominicstpierre

With door close and good headphone, Iā€™m completely isolated, even with our 2 daughters being home schooled, they are almost never at home, but 1-2 AM / week they are actually doing ā€œschoolā€, so, the headphone with outside noise reduction is enough.

Working from home, too ā€” a separate lockable room in the house which is called ā€œmomā€™s office.ā€ I cherish my big monitor & donā€™t work from a laptop. I also really, really like morning traffic eliminated from my life :smile:

Tried a different setup with the same ā€œofficeā€ being in another building, but it didnā€™t work out as comfortably. Itā€™s important for me to be able to catch up on work while the kids are sleeping (like a late-night podcast recording), even though I try not to pull all-nighters.

I just recently converted our laundry to a second home-office. I was sharing a desk with my wife but that just doesnā€™t work, you need to get out of the way and get in the zone. Also, sharing desk untidiness really doesnā€™t work. The ex-laundry is actually a good room, small but bright with 2 windows right in my eleyline and a west-facing view of the North Sydney CBD. It was totally wasted on a laundry. Thatā€™s downstairs in my ex-mancave. Yes, sacrifices.

It is also at the back corner of the house so I can hide in there when I need some space. I have 2x kids (4 & 1) so sometimes I need to listen out for them, other times I can shut myself away. I usually work in the evenings in there, Iā€™m at client sites 4-5 days /week presently and the kidsā€™ play room is right next to the office. Also, I like playing with my kids. My desk is an old school desk, complete with decades of graffiti carved into it. I sanded it back and oiled it. Itā€™s more shabby than chic but so am I.

Kit-wise I have 2x identical 15" laptops with SSDs & 32GB (donā€™t skimp on this, itā€™s your main tool), a sweeet 27" monitor and 2x 24" monitors (one in portrait), all on a desk 1.5m wide. Adding monitors to a laptop with DisplayLink USB-DVI works very well. The room is 1.55m wide (x 3m long). It is a small space but works surprisingly well. I also bought a decent Ergohuman chair - this made an even bigger difference than I expected and was totally worth it.

Iā€™ll post a pic when I remember.

pic of the home office - https://twitter.com/CADbloke/status/686346585471455232/photo/1