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One really positive thing I have found for myself in the WFH life is that I am taking MUCH better care of myself. So far I have lost weight, started a bodywei

One really positive thing I have found for myself in the WFH life is that I am taking MUCH better care of myself. So far I have lost weight, started a bodyweight workout routine, which I do in between meetings/calls/other work, and have gained back 2 hours of my day by not taking transit into the city. That's 2 more hours every day that I get to relax, work on a personal project, hang out with my SO, or even crush out some work-related interest if I am feeling motivated. It has also been a fantastic motivator and resource for cooking — I can start dinner before my workday is over, cook myself lunch, meal plan... I also pay thousands of dollars to live in a cool place, and now I am finally getting to enjoy it, and enjoy it with my SO. At the end of the day, maybe I am less "productive", by normal standards, but maybe I didn't need to be in an office for 8+ hours every day to get the parts of my job done that need getting done. There surely are parts of this that I want to change or can't wait to change, but at the end of the day I am grateful for the forcing function to working from home full-time.

greggman3 6y ago
Opposite for me. I gained weight because I no longer walk to work (walk to station, take subway, walk from office). And, I'm only a few feet from my kitchen so can eat. I have no S.O. so much lonelier not having co-workers to talk to, eat lunch with, etc...
chrisseaton 6y ago
> One really positive thing I have found for myself in the WFH life is that I am taking MUCH better care of myself. I think people are going to come out of this one of two ways - half will come out fitter, mentally and physically, more positive, with new interests and skills and stronger relationships, and the other half are going to come out a mess (understandably.)
- tayo42 6y ago
  I'm coming out of the this less fit, mostly because my workouts depended on being out of the house. gyms being open. Or freedom to travel to somewhere. Im also not eating as fresh as I normally do. I can usually get fish and vegetables and cook the day of. Now I gotta stock up on groceries for the week to reduce shopping frequency.
  - laumars 6y ago
    What workouts are they that cannot be done without access to a gym? For me it’s the variety of city food I miss the most. I live quite a way out from where I work and while there are still a few open takeaways, they’re pretty average in quality and lacking in variety. However there are larger and mostly well stocked supermarkets so buying fresh food to last the week hasn’t been a problem (most veg will last a week albeit some items will need to be refrigerated). However I definitely feel your pain about fish. To be honest very little has changed with regards to shopping for me because i have two young kids and my wife works full time as well, so we are used to doing big weekly shops since that’s the most practical way for us to shop even pre-COVID19. I guess the biggest change is where we used to order it online and have it delivered, now we are driving to the store and picking the items ourselves.
    - chrisseaton 6y ago
      > What workouts are they that cannot be done without access to a gym? Anything needing special equipment or terrain, for example. If you want to do a climbing workout you're going out of luck without a rockface in your back garden or your own climbing wall, aren't you. > I guess the biggest change is where we used to order it online and have it delivered, now we are driving to the store and picking the items ourselves. This seems like the opposite of what you'd want to do - why are you doing this?
      - laumars 6y ago
        > Anything needing special equipment or terrain, for example. If you want to do a climbing workout you're going out of luck without a rockface in your back garden or your own climbing wall, aren't you. In theory you’d be right but I the reason I asked is because there’s usually workouts you can still do at home to keep at least some of those muscles in shape even if you can’t do your usual training routines without using any specialist equipment. Granted sometimes you have to get a little creative but it’s certainly doable for most gym exercises that immediately sprint to mind. Take the rock climbing example: I used to train at home doing pull ups on door frames on the weeks I couldn’t make it to an indoor climbing wall (though that was quite a few years ago now). > This seems like the opposite of what you'd want to do - why are you doing this? I agree and it’s not through choice I do it. The problem is everyone else agrees too and thus it has become impossible to book delivery slots due to the volume of demand.
- closeparen 6y ago
  >half will come out fitter, mentally and physically, more positive, with new interests and skills and stronger relationships With you until the last part. This is an inward period. People are getting to know themselves, improving themselves, learning to be more independent, etc. because the space previously occupied by other people has been freed. Unless you're talking about cohabitants? Seems to me that excessive contact would ruin the strongest relationships even faster than no contact would.
  - abnercoimbre 6y ago
    > Seems to me that excessive contact would ruin the strongest relationships even faster than no contact would. Fair assumption, but my fiancé and I are doing just fine. If anything this proved for sure that we can go ahead and get married. What COVID-19 lockdown has revealed, imo: relationships that were on shaky ground accelerate their demise [0]. Those that were "meant to be" come out more intimate. [0] Breaking up after realizing you can't survive 24/7 together is not necessarily a bad thing.
  - mpfundstein 6y ago
    spot on. also the lack of bars and clubs forces people to be more with themselves. seems to be pretty hard for some folks. i personally enjoy this period and wouldn't mind if the lockdown stays up for a few more months/years lol
  - JohnBooty 6y ago
    Unless you're talking about cohabitants? Seems to me that excessive contact would ruin the strongest relationships even faster than no contact would. Yeah. Depends on living situation, really, right? Folks cohabitating in cramped living conditions 24/7, particularly in the city where they can't just easily go outside and enjoy some fresh air and open space? Yikes. I mean, even in prison they give ya outdoor time and you get to mingle in the yard. At the opposite end of the spectrum you have people living out in the country or the suburbs in houses with multiple rooms. My partner and I fall into this category. We each have our own work spaces and outside of work hours we can spend time together or we have plenty of space in which to avoid each other. Plus we can go for walks and get fresh air and some minimal social interaction with neighbors and fellow dog walkers from a safe distance. I call this "social distancing on easy mode." Our relationship is doing okay.
- jdpigeon 6y ago
  I think it's context dependent. I did two months of quarantine isolated in a 500sqft apartment and experienced slowly deteriorating mental health culminating in a mental breakdown. Now, I'm in a 1200sqft apartment with two close friends, a patio, and a dog. I am happy as ever and crushing work from home now that I was able to find a sustaining environment.
amrrs 6y ago
Actually it's the opposite for me, I've started taking so much junk snacks (which wasn't available at Office), Less Walks and No proper schedule. Sleeps off the time. Many a days just getting up and jumping into calls. On the positive side, it's more quality time with family but I'm still wondering how to fix the health part.
- hn_throwaway_99 6y ago
  Yeah, I'm exactly the same. I'm definitely a creature of schedule, and in "normal" times I go to the gym regularly, am more efficient at work, etc. Now everything just kind of "melds together" for me and even with more time without the commute I find my energy levels are consistently way, way lower.
- cmdshiftf4 6y ago
  >I'm still wondering how to fix the health part. Everything you've mentioned is entirely in your own hands i.e. it's entirely self-control. You don't need an office, or the boss watching, to get up with time to spare, to not eat crap or get out for some fresh air. With the above being said, don't beat yourself up too much. We're in a situation whereby we're all experiencing a sense of loss of control and total uncertainty about the future, combined with many other factors to worry about, so it's not surprising that it may propagate itself to affect the control you exercise over your own life. If you're comfortable with it, just look at it as accumulating debt much like tech debt. Not tackling these things now might be fine but eventually you'll have to pay some of it down in the near future, and that may be a conscious trade-off yourself, and indeed many others, are happy to make right now.
- mydongle 6y ago
  You'll get over it over time. You're still adjusting, but eventually you'll get tired of wasting your day sleeping off or eating junk food that makes you feel bad. Then you'll be able to make your own schedule. I believe in you, but it's even more crucial that you believe in yourself.
- Xcelerate 6y ago
  > I've started taking so much junk snacks (which wasn't available at Office) What I've found helps is to not buy snacks. I eat junk if it's available, but if nothing is nearby, then I can't be bothered to go out and purchase it, so I'll eat a grapefruit instead. Another thing that I have found helps is to order a community supported agriculture (CSA) produce box. A lot of farmers that supply restaurants are losing a lot of business lately, and at least in the Bay Area, many are starting to sell directly to consumers. I'm on a weekly schedule now where every Wednesday I pick up a box of restaurant quality vegetables in SF, and it's pretty fun because a lot of these vegetables are ones I've never even heard of before. It has become a hobby to come up with new types of meals, and it also gives my wife and I a nice break from the monotony to go for our vegetable pickup excursion.
ck425 6y ago
I was the same until about 5 weeks in, then the isolation got to me and I reverted to food and sleep to manage my emotions and I wiped out all my progress in two weeks. It's important to remember that this is not a normal state of affairs, this doesn't accurately reflect WFH. I'm personally curious ot try WFH more once we return to 'normal'.
- 101404 6y ago
  Isolation? I think the name "social distancing" isn't a good choice. It should be called physical distancing. Because socially, you can be as close as ever, just use video chat. Whereby, Zoom, Skype, etc. to hang out with groups of people (be it friends, colleagues, etc.)
  - ck425 6y ago
    Video chat isn't the same. I've been using it a lot and it's isolating. There are plenty of studies showing that biologically it's inferior. Also my main hobby is musical theatre, most of which only works in person, so the things that bring me joy in life are all postponed.
lonelappde 6y ago
> maybe I am less "productive", by normal standards What are normal standards?
otakucode 6y ago
You would be atypical if you were less productive by normal standards. Most studies I have seen on the topic usually show a marked increase in worker productivity in working from home. There is a bit of a confounding variable, however... Homes are not open floor plan for the most part. And we know from over 1,000 studies that open floor plan offices massacre productivity to a huge degree. So it might just be the benefit of not having all of the kneecapping and hamstringing taken away that is usually inflicted by business on their workers through open floor plans.
- lazyasciiart 6y ago
  They would not be atypical, because they are working during a pandemic, which is in itself a massive confounding variable. Even people who normally work from home are writing about being less productive than usual right now. This is not a good way to assess "working from home" vs "working in the office", any more than it would be to measure productivity of someone who was suddenly housebound with a broken leg.
Joof 6y ago
Opposite. I got lonely, so I went to Houston to visit family. I typically eat super healthy, exercise daily and do strenuous 16+ hour outdoors adventures on weekend days. Now, I just eat a lot, drink beer and watch TV. I lost all my fun outdoor activities, inspiration and what I do for stress relief. More to do with being on lockdown than WFH.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- saiya-jin 6y ago
  This so much. If you were active outdoorsy person with pretty cool active life, WFH and all related can be a bit of a disaster. We can still go out, but doing anything with real risks is supremely selfish now. As in Europe, we can't travel in other countries. Being in place surrounded with beautiful France and having Italy within 1 hour drive, this severely restricts where we can go. Also, I've been previously hitting gym 4-5 times a week on top of that, WFH can only go down in such scenario - I still try to motivate myself with some basic weights I have found at home, but it ain't the same as using ie squat rack with proper weights for example. At least running is +-same. Human interaction is a topic on its own, I feel sorry for many single folks or those in relationships that aren't living together. In many cases it must be stressful.
  - scns 6y ago
    You could switch to bodyweight exercises and work towards onearm pushups/pullups and pistols if you want a challenge
    - godelski 6y ago
      I got into climbing because it was the only way I could get myself excited to go to the gym and keep a routine. It is just prep so I can climb cool stuff outside. Working out at home just isn't the same. It is also less social. I'm not a big social person, but I need something besides my roommates and getting outside. I know some people can just go to the gym every day and lift weights, but I've tried so many times.
Asooka 6y ago
Same. I feel the positive effects are actually making me more productive, not less. I do end up writing code at midnight some days, but having a floating schedule fits me so much better. Meeting face to face for some things is nice, but it's not worth all the downsides. I honestly dread when I'll be forced back in the office - even though this has shown we can work from home for extended periods, I don't see my company allowing us to do so after they don't have to.

greggman3 6y ago

Opposite for me. I gained weight because I no longer walk to work (walk to station, take subway, walk from office). And, I'm only a few feet from my kitchen so can eat. I have no S.O. so much lonelier not having co-workers to talk to, eat lunch with, etc...

chrisseaton 6y ago

> One really positive thing I have found for myself in the WFH life is that I am taking MUCH better care of myself. I think people are going to come out of this one of two ways - half will come out fitter, mentally and physically, more positive, with new interests and skills and stronger relationships, and the other half are going to come out a mess (understandably.)

tayo42 6y ago
I'm coming out of the this less fit, mostly because my workouts depended on being out of the house. gyms being open. Or freedom to travel to somewhere. Im also not eating as fresh as I normally do. I can usually get fish and vegetables and cook the day of. Now I gotta stock up on groceries for the week to reduce shopping frequency.
- laumars 6y ago
  What workouts are they that cannot be done without access to a gym? For me it’s the variety of city food I miss the most. I live quite a way out from where I work and while there are still a few open takeaways, they’re pretty average in quality and lacking in variety. However there are larger and mostly well stocked supermarkets so buying fresh food to last the week hasn’t been a problem (most veg will last a week albeit some items will need to be refrigerated). However I definitely feel your pain about fish. To be honest very little has changed with regards to shopping for me because i have two young kids and my wife works full time as well, so we are used to doing big weekly shops since that’s the most practical way for us to shop even pre-COVID19. I guess the biggest change is where we used to order it online and have it delivered, now we are driving to the store and picking the items ourselves.
  - chrisseaton 6y ago
    > What workouts are they that cannot be done without access to a gym? Anything needing special equipment or terrain, for example. If you want to do a climbing workout you're going out of luck without a rockface in your back garden or your own climbing wall, aren't you. > I guess the biggest change is where we used to order it online and have it delivered, now we are driving to the store and picking the items ourselves. This seems like the opposite of what you'd want to do - why are you doing this?
    - laumars 6y ago
      > Anything needing special equipment or terrain, for example. If you want to do a climbing workout you're going out of luck without a rockface in your back garden or your own climbing wall, aren't you. In theory you’d be right but I the reason I asked is because there’s usually workouts you can still do at home to keep at least some of those muscles in shape even if you can’t do your usual training routines without using any specialist equipment. Granted sometimes you have to get a little creative but it’s certainly doable for most gym exercises that immediately sprint to mind. Take the rock climbing example: I used to train at home doing pull ups on door frames on the weeks I couldn’t make it to an indoor climbing wall (though that was quite a few years ago now). > This seems like the opposite of what you'd want to do - why are you doing this? I agree and it’s not through choice I do it. The problem is everyone else agrees too and thus it has become impossible to book delivery slots due to the volume of demand.
closeparen 6y ago
>half will come out fitter, mentally and physically, more positive, with new interests and skills and stronger relationships With you until the last part. This is an inward period. People are getting to know themselves, improving themselves, learning to be more independent, etc. because the space previously occupied by other people has been freed. Unless you're talking about cohabitants? Seems to me that excessive contact would ruin the strongest relationships even faster than no contact would.
- abnercoimbre 6y ago
  > Seems to me that excessive contact would ruin the strongest relationships even faster than no contact would. Fair assumption, but my fiancé and I are doing just fine. If anything this proved for sure that we can go ahead and get married. What COVID-19 lockdown has revealed, imo: relationships that were on shaky ground accelerate their demise [0]. Those that were "meant to be" come out more intimate. [0] Breaking up after realizing you can't survive 24/7 together is not necessarily a bad thing.
- mpfundstein 6y ago
  spot on. also the lack of bars and clubs forces people to be more with themselves. seems to be pretty hard for some folks. i personally enjoy this period and wouldn't mind if the lockdown stays up for a few more months/years lol
- JohnBooty 6y ago
  Unless you're talking about cohabitants? Seems to me that excessive contact would ruin the strongest relationships even faster than no contact would. Yeah. Depends on living situation, really, right? Folks cohabitating in cramped living conditions 24/7, particularly in the city where they can't just easily go outside and enjoy some fresh air and open space? Yikes. I mean, even in prison they give ya outdoor time and you get to mingle in the yard. At the opposite end of the spectrum you have people living out in the country or the suburbs in houses with multiple rooms. My partner and I fall into this category. We each have our own work spaces and outside of work hours we can spend time together or we have plenty of space in which to avoid each other. Plus we can go for walks and get fresh air and some minimal social interaction with neighbors and fellow dog walkers from a safe distance. I call this "social distancing on easy mode." Our relationship is doing okay.
jdpigeon 6y ago
I think it's context dependent. I did two months of quarantine isolated in a 500sqft apartment and experienced slowly deteriorating mental health culminating in a mental breakdown. Now, I'm in a 1200sqft apartment with two close friends, a patio, and a dog. I am happy as ever and crushing work from home now that I was able to find a sustaining environment.

amrrs 6y ago

Actually it's the opposite for me, I've started taking so much junk snacks (which wasn't available at Office), Less Walks and No proper schedule. Sleeps off the time. Many a days just getting up and jumping into calls. On the positive side, it's more quality time with family but I'm still wondering how to fix the health part.

hn_throwaway_99 6y ago
Yeah, I'm exactly the same. I'm definitely a creature of schedule, and in "normal" times I go to the gym regularly, am more efficient at work, etc. Now everything just kind of "melds together" for me and even with more time without the commute I find my energy levels are consistently way, way lower.
cmdshiftf4 6y ago
>I'm still wondering how to fix the health part. Everything you've mentioned is entirely in your own hands i.e. it's entirely self-control. You don't need an office, or the boss watching, to get up with time to spare, to not eat crap or get out for some fresh air. With the above being said, don't beat yourself up too much. We're in a situation whereby we're all experiencing a sense of loss of control and total uncertainty about the future, combined with many other factors to worry about, so it's not surprising that it may propagate itself to affect the control you exercise over your own life. If you're comfortable with it, just look at it as accumulating debt much like tech debt. Not tackling these things now might be fine but eventually you'll have to pay some of it down in the near future, and that may be a conscious trade-off yourself, and indeed many others, are happy to make right now.
mydongle 6y ago
You'll get over it over time. You're still adjusting, but eventually you'll get tired of wasting your day sleeping off or eating junk food that makes you feel bad. Then you'll be able to make your own schedule. I believe in you, but it's even more crucial that you believe in yourself.
Xcelerate 6y ago
> I've started taking so much junk snacks (which wasn't available at Office) What I've found helps is to not buy snacks. I eat junk if it's available, but if nothing is nearby, then I can't be bothered to go out and purchase it, so I'll eat a grapefruit instead. Another thing that I have found helps is to order a community supported agriculture (CSA) produce box. A lot of farmers that supply restaurants are losing a lot of business lately, and at least in the Bay Area, many are starting to sell directly to consumers. I'm on a weekly schedule now where every Wednesday I pick up a box of restaurant quality vegetables in SF, and it's pretty fun because a lot of these vegetables are ones I've never even heard of before. It has become a hobby to come up with new types of meals, and it also gives my wife and I a nice break from the monotony to go for our vegetable pickup excursion.

ck425 6y ago

I was the same until about 5 weeks in, then the isolation got to me and I reverted to food and sleep to manage my emotions and I wiped out all my progress in two weeks. It's important to remember that this is not a normal state of affairs, this doesn't accurately reflect WFH. I'm personally curious ot try WFH more once we return to 'normal'.

101404 6y ago
Isolation? I think the name "social distancing" isn't a good choice. It should be called physical distancing. Because socially, you can be as close as ever, just use video chat. Whereby, Zoom, Skype, etc. to hang out with groups of people (be it friends, colleagues, etc.)
- ck425 6y ago
  Video chat isn't the same. I've been using it a lot and it's isolating. There are plenty of studies showing that biologically it's inferior. Also my main hobby is musical theatre, most of which only works in person, so the things that bring me joy in life are all postponed.

lonelappde 6y ago

> maybe I am less "productive", by normal standards What are normal standards?

otakucode 6y ago

You would be atypical if you were less productive by normal standards. Most studies I have seen on the topic usually show a marked increase in worker productivity in working from home. There is a bit of a confounding variable, however... Homes are not open floor plan for the most part. And we know from over 1,000 studies that open floor plan offices massacre productivity to a huge degree. So it might just be the benefit of not having all of the kneecapping and hamstringing taken away that is usually inflicted by business on their workers through open floor plans.

lazyasciiart 6y ago
They would not be atypical, because they are working during a pandemic, which is in itself a massive confounding variable. Even people who normally work from home are writing about being less productive than usual right now. This is not a good way to assess "working from home" vs "working in the office", any more than it would be to measure productivity of someone who was suddenly housebound with a broken leg.

Joof 6y ago

Opposite. I got lonely, so I went to Houston to visit family. I typically eat super healthy, exercise daily and do strenuous 16+ hour outdoors adventures on weekend days. Now, I just eat a lot, drink beer and watch TV. I lost all my fun outdoor activities, inspiration and what I do for stress relief. More to do with being on lockdown than WFH.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
saiya-jin 6y ago
This so much. If you were active outdoorsy person with pretty cool active life, WFH and all related can be a bit of a disaster. We can still go out, but doing anything with real risks is supremely selfish now. As in Europe, we can't travel in other countries. Being in place surrounded with beautiful France and having Italy within 1 hour drive, this severely restricts where we can go. Also, I've been previously hitting gym 4-5 times a week on top of that, WFH can only go down in such scenario - I still try to motivate myself with some basic weights I have found at home, but it ain't the same as using ie squat rack with proper weights for example. At least running is +-same. Human interaction is a topic on its own, I feel sorry for many single folks or those in relationships that aren't living together. In many cases it must be stressful.
- scns 6y ago
  You could switch to bodyweight exercises and work towards onearm pushups/pullups and pistols if you want a challenge
  - godelski 6y ago
    I got into climbing because it was the only way I could get myself excited to go to the gym and keep a routine. It is just prep so I can climb cool stuff outside. Working out at home just isn't the same. It is also less social. I'm not a big social person, but I need something besides my roommates and getting outside. I know some people can just go to the gym every day and lift weights, but I've tried so many times.

Asooka 6y ago

Same. I feel the positive effects are actually making me more productive, not less. I do end up writing code at midnight some days, but having a floating schedule fits me so much better. Meeting face to face for some things is nice, but it's not worth all the downsides. I honestly dread when I'll be forced back in the office - even though this has shown we can work from home for extended periods, I don't see my company allowing us to do so after they don't have to.