"You work from home? Oh, you are sooooo lucky!"
I hear this a lot, and don't get me wrong, it's true; I did hit the commuting jackpot. However, it's not without it's pitfalls for the unsuspecting. The following is what I like to call 'The Big Three Problems'...
Problem 1: Where does work time end and personal time begin?
Problem 2: Lack of communication with the world outside your window.
Problem 3: Sedentary no longer adequately describes your lifestyle.
Let's look at each problem a little more closely. I'll then give my personal solution and/or the solution that makeuseof.com helpfully suggests.
Where does work time end and personal time begin?
Working from home full time makes it ludicrously simple to bleed work into your evening (as Mrs the Geek will readily attest to!). The thought process goes like this "It's 6 o'clock and Mrs the Geek is cooking. I'd better finish up now." So far, so good... "But this sprint test report isn't going to write itself and Johnson is going to need it for the client meeting tomorrow. I'd better take my laptop downstairs with me. I can talk to the missus while I type." Hmmm. Not so good, but the report is almost finished. 30 minutes later, just as the report is finished and Mrs the Geek hands you a glass of wine... *ping* "Oh, Skype message. Smith just finished that new piece of functionality and wants me to run some automation against it before he goes to the pub. Why not? It's only running a few commands and leaving the laptop open on the coffee table." Before you know it, it's 12:30, Mrs the Geek is already in bed and you realise the Blue Ray player has looped the menu music so many times you are mindlessly humming it while hacking out that new page object.
Solution: Create a work schedule. Set time periods that are dedicated to work and work only. You don’t have to work the typical 9-5 job because telecommuters have the freedom to set their own schedules, so if you’re most productive at midnight, go ahead and set your work hours at that time. But either way, set work hours. Also, telecommuting is a real job, so treat it like one! When you wake up, go take a shower and get dressed. You don’t have to wear a suit and tie but you’ll feel a huge difference just by slipping into a pair of jeans and a comfortable shirt – wear anything but your pajamas.
Lack of communication with the world outside your window
I'm a man that enjoys his own company, and sometimes solitude allows me to really focus. But telecommuting can be a lonely world, a really lonely world. Cabin fever is alive and well and strikes without warning after the third day where your only contact with the outside world was 15 minutes of technical updates from coworkers at the standup. But even worse than that is how easy it is to lose touch with your friends. It's devilishly simple to slip into an insular daily routine without even realising it; Wake up, radio on, shower, dress, eat cereal, turn on laptop, work until falling asleep, eat and drink occasionally, turn off laptop and radio, sleep. Repeat ad infinitum. As you can see, there was no social time in that routine. No 'drinks with Martinez from DevOps'. No 'lunch with Yvette from HR'. Not even 'meet up with Tom for a run after work' (more on this is in problem 3). You'll soon find that weeks have passed by and you didn't even notice. This is bad and needs to be rectified, hopefully before you consider the Amazon delivery man your best friend.
Solution: Video calls (Skype, FaceTime, Google Hangouts, etc), social media (Twitter, Facebook, Yammer, etc), texting, picture messaging, phone calls. Anything that involves contact with another human being, preferably involving seeing their face, is key here. I'm lucky that my current employer has a policy of "No matter what you're trying to communicate, a video call is almost certainly the right way to do it". And work extra hard to keep in touch with your friends through social media and your phone, as the usual channels of communication are limited to you when you only leave your house to buy more coffee.
Solution: Video calls (Skype, FaceTime, Google Hangouts, etc), social media (Twitter, Facebook, Yammer, etc), texting, picture messaging, phone calls. Anything that involves contact with another human being, preferably involving seeing their face, is key here. I'm lucky that my current employer has a policy of "No matter what you're trying to communicate, a video call is almost certainly the right way to do it". And work extra hard to keep in touch with your friends through social media and your phone, as the usual channels of communication are limited to you when you only leave your house to buy more coffee.
Sedentary no longer adequately describes your lifestyle
The definition of being sedentary or physically inactive is;
Expending less than 1.5 kcal/kg/day in leisure physical activities, according to the National Population Health Surveys of Canada. This is the equivalent of walking a little over two kilometers or 1.3 miles, or approximately 3000 steps. For most people, that is a walk of 25 minutes or less.
3000 steps a day! There have been times when I could have walked less than that in a week! And it's easy to see how this happens. I wake up and walk to the bathroom (11 steps), I then walk to the kitchen and make coffee and toast (24 steps), back to the bedroom to get dressed (35 steps), walk to the office (7 steps), and that's where I could stay for upwards of 8 hours sat in my office chair, Mrs the Geek occasionally bringing me hot drinks and snacks. Finish work and walk to the sofa (20 steps), hire a movie from Netflix, order a pizza using the phone in my pocket, and that's my day done. I could have walked as little as 97 steps that day, a mere 3.2% of what is considered medical inactivity.
Solution: I have a standing desk at home. Not only will your back thank you 1000 times over, you can combine it with walking on the spot or a treadmill to hit your daily steps. I go for a long walk to the other side of my village and back on 2 of my 5 weekday lunches, I do my best to fit in a 30 minute workout everyday (I use my Wii for this, so it hardly seems like a workout at all) and I Geocache and hike with the family on the weekend. These are just a few things I do personally, all of which I got the inspiration for from Nerd Fitness, a site I cannot recommend highly enough for anything fitness or diet related.
I hope this article helps anyone out there suffering from the Big Three Problems of telecommuting, and maybe helps people to understand that while working from home full time is an amazing benefit, and one I would fight tooth and nail to retain, there are very real pitfalls to it unless you are careful.
Solution: I have a standing desk at home. Not only will your back thank you 1000 times over, you can combine it with walking on the spot or a treadmill to hit your daily steps. I go for a long walk to the other side of my village and back on 2 of my 5 weekday lunches, I do my best to fit in a 30 minute workout everyday (I use my Wii for this, so it hardly seems like a workout at all) and I Geocache and hike with the family on the weekend. These are just a few things I do personally, all of which I got the inspiration for from Nerd Fitness, a site I cannot recommend highly enough for anything fitness or diet related.
I hope this article helps anyone out there suffering from the Big Three Problems of telecommuting, and maybe helps people to understand that while working from home full time is an amazing benefit, and one I would fight tooth and nail to retain, there are very real pitfalls to it unless you are careful.
Post inspired by: 5 Tips & Advice To Help You Become A Successful Telecommuter
Pictures: Bed Working, Window Man
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