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 donāt tend to work out there enough because my laptop lets me work anywhere, which isnāt real great from a work/family balance perspective.
Separate room as well at grandmaās 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 
Home. Downstairs in the basement so Iām a bit isolated from the house. Also the stairs are a good āmoatā 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. (Thereās overhead in just leaving the house for work 
But Iām 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 āin characterā by putting on their characters clothes, shoes, hat, etc. Itās sort of a physical shift to cause a mental shift.
-Clay
I used to work from home for many years, but this year Iām 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, donāt worry, @michal_hantl ā my work room is very nice. Big 27" monitor, laptop stand, sound system, mood lighting, awesome chair ā itās da bomb. Itās just that for a while now Iāve been travelling a lot for work, so itās a minor hassle to get setup in there only to change out again the next day. In a month or so Iāll be full-time at home again (yay!), so Iāll take full advantage of the cave once again.
I used to work in a spare bedroom. But we bought a bigger house with a āsummer 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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Iāve 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 doesnāt 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 itās 27" and 19" - at home I only have a 17" laptop on which I canāt 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, Iām 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 āyeah, maybe itās time to let this baby have a bedroomā. I moved into dedicated office space shortly thereafter.
Itās 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 āworkā 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 āthe officeā was a big treat.
Fast forward to today, and now my daughter is 8 years old. Her perception of what āworkā means is completely different than what my sonās was at that age. Sheās 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 thereās no other way. To my daughter, visiting me at āthe 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 itās time for them to step into the world of work & career, if at all.
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Sorry @Dmitry, didnāt see this till now. I have 2 24" monitors at home. Itās a pretty good setup. At the coworking space, I am not paying for a dedicated space, so itās just me and my laptop. Usually itās 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 itās a different environment.
However, at my coworking place they have started purchasing separate monitors for anyone to use. Iād 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.
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.
Iām 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, Iām 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 āschoolā, so, the headphone with outside noise reduction is enough.
Working from home, too ā a separate lockable room in the house which is called āmomās office.ā I cherish my big monitor & donāt work from a laptop. I also really, really like morning traffic eliminated from my life
Tried a different setup with the same āofficeā being in another building, but it didnāt work out as comfortably. Itās 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 doesnāt work, you need to get out of the way and get in the zone. Also, sharing desk untidiness really doesnāt 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. Thatās 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, Iām 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. Itās more shabby than chic but so am I.
Kit-wise I have 2x identical 15" laptops with SSDs & 32GB (donāt skimp on this, itās 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.
Iāll post a pic when I remember.