22 ms·

Working from Bed

161 points by edward 6y ago

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
wasdfff 6y ago
Speaking as someone who goes from bed to couch to bed during this pandemic due to a lack of desk space in my crampt apartment, I would murder someone if it meant I could claim their chair and desk and have actual lumbar support again.
- jolmg 6y ago
  There are sit-up pillows[1] that can provide this support, if you're interested. Personally speaking, I think lumbar support from my sit-up pillow is better than that of my office chair at work. YMMV. You may want to look for one that's of a good size and firm. Not all are. [1] https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=sit-up+pillow&iax=images&ia=images&iai=http%3A%2F%2Fhomesfeed.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2015%2F09%2Fcomfortable-brown-sit-up-pillow-design-made-of-velvet-fabirc-with-smooth-touch-and-bold.jpg https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=sit-up+pillow&iax=images&ia...
- derekp7 6y ago
  Have you considered (or able to install) an adult loft bed so you can put an office underneath?
- tartoran 6y ago
  Lumbar support is a false friend. I used to rely on this until I learned proper posture and did exercises to strenghten and relearn to use skeletal musculature correctly. I need not rest my back on anything now and my general health couldn’t be better. Unless you had a recent surgery and the body is weakened or you have a serious condition (torn discs, etc) I’d advise to try to ditch all these crutches which end up weakening us up in the long term. However, I admit they could be very useful and help with back pain. I used to not be able to concentrate because of backpain and lumbar support did help at the time.
  - fastball 6y ago
    Link?
    - tartoran 6y ago
      https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25634546 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25634546
      - fastball 6y ago
        I kinda meant a link to information about the proper posture and exercises you mention.
  - aicioara 6y ago
    Also curious
    - tartoran 6y ago
      Curious about what? Proper posture?
  - c0nsumer 6y ago
    I recently was shopping for a new chair for home, and realized that... I don't actually need anything special because I habitually sit on the front half of the chair and don't rest my back against the back. So I just got one of the low-tier Steelcase chairs we have at the office and it's great! It'll last, and it's just... fine. I tried sitting on a yoga ball for a while, but realized that it's not doing anything more for my back (because of how I already sit), but it's difficult to turn between my three laptops because the ball sticks to the floor and my clothes. So I went back to the chair. <shrug>
    - tartoran 6y ago
      Yes, the yoga ball helps somewhat but it is a training tool not a permanent solution as it is quite awkward to sit on. I've been there long time ago, it was recommended by a chiropractor. I used to have bad issues and was seeing a chiropractor 20 years ago but am doing really well now. As a matter of fact I'm in much better shape in my 40s than I was in my 20s and I don't work out like crazy. It was all about fixing sitting/standing and walking postures then the benefits became apparent. You seem like you're on the right path or even are in good shape yourself. Leaning on the back of the chair or supporting on the armrests teaches us to sit wrong and while maybe comfortable at the time it will soon start to mess up with the sitting posture. And sitting on the front side of the chair is a good way to sit. Also I find that bringing the keyboard as close as possible to the lap and the body (desk or keyboard extender) promotes good posture. (elbows close to the torso and body straight, head above torso not sticking out front, adjusting the screen at eye level helps with that).
- tzs 6y ago
  Have you considered the floor? When I was young (late teens to early 30s) I found that laying on the carpeted floor on my stomach, with a pillow under my chest, and my head tilted back (think of Superman flying and you'll get the picture) with my computer in front of me worked great. This probably wouldn't work out well nowadays with a desktop computer because desktop monitor sizes are usually way bigger than they were back then so you would have tilt your head too far, but it might still be fine with a laptop.
  - soared 6y ago
    I sit on my floor, back up against the wall/bed, for like 6 hours a day. Big fan.
ShaneMcGowan 6y ago
R.I.P the author's back
mikestew 6y ago
I did it on the rare snow day in Seattle a few times. I’m not one to be particular about my workspace, but what few things I am particular about went out the window in bed. It’s fun for an occasional break, but not for productive output. But TFA is rife with counterexamples, so what do I know versus Marcel Proust?
- p_l 6y ago
  Every time I end up working from bed I'm angry within 30 minutes about typing experience - and that's assuming I remembered to grab trackball to not be angry at touchpad experience! Seriously, f*ck bed work :|
Thaxll 6y ago
Bed should only be using for sleeping, no tv in room etc ...
- unnouinceput 6y ago
  And you can turn off said TV when going to sleep
- rozab 6y ago
  Glad I can tick off 'comment that rephrases first sentence of the article' from todays HN bingo
egypturnash 6y ago
Personally I find that me staying in bed all day tends to be a sign that I am either very cold, very depressed, or both. Even if I manage to get shit done.
diveanon 6y ago
Author is fairly young. This will destroy your back after even a short amount of time.
- devilduck 6y ago
  I've been doing this for years, my back is fine, and I'm 40. Cut this nonsense out.
- racl101 6y ago
  So fast. Ugh, I'm 27 and even just looking at these pics makes me cringe.
- hinkley 6y ago
  Not to mention muscle atrophy, including cardiac output.
- squeaky-clean 6y ago
  My back hurts just looking at the 4 images at the top of the article. Also the positions in the upper-left, upper-right, and image further down the page cause lots of elbow strain. I had several months of numbness in my hands from spending too much time resting on my elbows like these photos.
- saagarjha 6y ago
  I'm 21 and enjoy working from bed. I did it for a week or two when I was at my parent's house for break once and it totally destroyed my back. These days I only do it when it's especially cold out.
nxpnsv 6y ago
My lower back wishes to dispute posted title...
eljimmy 6y ago
I couldn’t bring myself to work from bed. More due to the mental separation of being “at work” vs at home. I find it’s beneficial for me to have an exclusive area otherwise I’ll mentally feel like I’m always working.
nevinera 6y ago
Ergonomically speaking, it can be, but that requires some tooling and experimentation. I have put together a setup that works pretty well, but I rarely use it because extricating myself from it takes too much work. The pictures in the article do not demonstrate a viable way to work from bed for long periods (though shifting positions frequently enough can offset the postural problems quite a bit).
agumonkey 6y ago
Who does a compromise of that, like on a zen cushion ?
cm2012 6y ago
I have a dedicated room for an office in my house with everything I need for productivity. Yet sometimes I feel more productive with a laptop on the couch or bed. I wonder why.
racl101 6y ago
I could never do this. 1) My back would hurt after a half hour of this. 2) My brain would not be engaged in a state of too much comfort. (i.e. I'd get sleepy). In fact, I even keep my work room in the house kinda cold (by not putting in a heater) so I can be more alert. 3) I'm a developer so I need a full keyboard and multiple screens. 4) Most importantly, I need a clear separation or line of delineation between work and rest. I don't want to mix the two together. The thought is as perverse to me as eating while taking a shit.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- pottertheotter 6y ago
  I'm the same. I've been WFH for a while and I need to get up, take a shower, get dressed, and go to my desk or I never really get going. Sometimes I'll do some work on a laptop on the couch, but it's the type of work where I'm more casually looking up information. Or I'll print out something I need to read and go to the couch. Otherwise, I'm so much more productive and engaged when I'm at my desk with keyboard, mouse, and monitor. My wife is the polar opposite. We're lucky to be in a situation where we can both have dedicated home offices at this time. We already had a desk for her, but her work let her take home a good chair, and two monitors with a stand. We set up a really nice office for her, but I'd say that she works from bed or the couch 95% of the time. In fact, the only time she uses her office is when she has an important video call. I don't know how she does it, and I still believe that she would be more productive/efficient at a desk. For me, just having the extra screen real estate and a keyboard and mouse are enough for me to want to be at my desk.
geocrasher 6y ago
I've been WFH full time since 2011. I could not even finish this article. Anyone who thinks that working from bed is good in any way, shape, or form, is deluding themselves. It's an ergonomic nightmare that is unsustainable. It's lack of separation between Life and Work. It's everything WFH should NOT be. In a year, there will be another article that says "Working from Bed: Maybe not so much"
- andybak 6y ago
  > Anyone who thinks that working from bed is good in any way, shape, or form, is deluding themselves. I do love being told I'm deluded.
- jrockway 6y ago
  I think it must depend on what kind of work people do. I really have no idea what non-engineering jobs are like, but I feel like they probably require less screen real-estate and text entry, and so don't demand the same ergonomics that writing software (or doing CAD modeling, etc.) requires. I can tell you that I personally hate being away from my desktop. I like the feeling of the office chair, I like my ergonomic keyboard, I like having a ton of monitors to organize my triple-wide Emacs window, some terminals, some browsers for documentation, Slack, Discord, a music player, etc. But... other people probably don't do as much I/O with their computer, and can probably lay in bed and get stuff done. When I worked at Google I always saw people sitting on bouncy balls typing away on their laptops, and I guess they got stuff done doing that, so I just chalk it up as "I don't personally understand it". I like my desk, but I see no reason to require people to sit at desks all day if they'd prefer to be in bed. If it doesn't work for them, they'll probably stop doing it.
- merpnderp 6y ago
  When my team was sent home because of COVID we were told to set up home offices and offered equipment if we needed it and told we had to have an office space, even if just a desk by our bed because the consultants had shown how bad it was for your physical and mental health to work from a bed. I can't imagine anyone thinking being hunched over all day with your neck leaning forward could somehow magically be good for their back and neck alignment, or that lying down all day would be a positive of your cardio health. You'd think they'd be convinced when they went to look for any research backing their bizarre claims and couldn't find any.
Raphmedia 6y ago
On the opposite, I'd say it's a great way to destroy your sleep routine and habits. As a rule of thumb, your bed should be dedicated to sleep and cuddles with your significant other. "This study indicates that the use of computers and mobile telephones in the bedroom are related to poor sleep habits" https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1365-2869.2011.00913.x https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1365-2869... "Computer use, TV viewing, and the presence of media in children's bedrooms may reduce sleep duration, and delay bedtimes." https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23886318/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23886318/
- mhh__ 6y ago
  What if my significant other is a copy of Misner, Thorne, and Wheeler?
  - jedimastert 6y ago
    We can't change who or how we love
  - slowmovintarget 6y ago
    The gravitational time dilation from proximity to the book does not work in your favor, better to leave it on the shelf while you sleep.
    - ISL 6y ago
      The book helps -- clocks deeper in a gravitational potential run slow relative to those higher in the potential. As I recall from Hartle, to paraphrase: "The experimentalists in the basement live longer than the theorists upstairs, but the view is worth it." My recollection from the associated problem is that the difference, over a lifetime, is microseconds. MTW won't give even that much aid :). Good luck with your studies; there's a lot to learn.
      - AnHonestComment 6y ago
        You have gravity right, but the impact reversed. By being lower in the gravity well, you get less sleep than if your clock had run faster.
0dmethz 6y ago
This article kind of feels like people are working really hard to rationalize working from bed? Personally I just find it extremely uncomfortable, and I just can't be productive that way. Plus you have to wonder what the long term effects are, it doesn't seem very ergonomic.
- trinix912 6y ago
  I've tried it once and it just didn't feel right. It didn't feel like I'm working, it felt more like staying in bed while sick. Also, my back started hurting after a few hours. I can't imagine someone doing it for more than a few days.
- qwertox 6y ago
  I never understood people who have no issue with typing on a laptop while sitting or laying in bed. Or outside on the grass. It just doesn't work for me. I need a keyboard on a table and sit in a chair in front of it, or stand in front of it if it is height-adjustable. I need space to put things nearby, like a glass of water, without having to care if it will fall and spill. But I'm ok with having a tablet in bed to browse HN or Reddit or listen to something on YouTube until I fall asleep.
pmiller2 6y ago
For those who don't want to sign up with NYTimes.com: https://archive.is/3AZmg https://archive.is/3AZmg
neom 6y ago
I'm a 35 year old who internetted/"worked" from bed all the time in my teens and 20s, I really believe doing this: - Removed the sanctity of bed. The bed is a great place to train yourself to decompress and unwind. - Absolutely destroyed my back. I'd build pillow forts around myself to compensate for increasing weak muscles. - Hindered the ability to notice shifts in my mood/difficulties in my routine. Eg: I struggle to get out of bed these days.
- user_501238901 6y ago
  Idk how you can destroy your back working from your bed, unless you do some idiotic posture. Just lay down, face up, back to the bed, computer on top of your stomach. Know a person with an actual destroyed back who can't even drive a car, but is able to work from bed.
  - JimBlackwood 6y ago
    Muscle atrophy will do that for you. Things get harder and you do it less. It’ll be a challenge to get your muscles back to where they were.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- proverbialbunny 6y ago
  >Absolutely destroyed my back. I'd build pillow forts around myself to compensate for increasing weak muscles. Yep. I had to learn muscle building exercises to get out of that situation. It's totally worth it.
  - whitepoplar 6y ago
    Could you share some of these techniques? I'm in the same boat.
    - proverbialbunny 6y ago
ateng 6y ago
The fantastic educational YouTuber CGP Grey did a video detailing why working from bed is a terrible idea https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=snAhsXyO3Ck https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=snAhsXyO3Ck
screye 6y ago
Working for bedroom is already is nightmare. I can't imagine the kind of destruction working-from-bed is capable of. Strong physical separation between distinct aspects of life is critical for me to get anything done. Covid has disrupted things enough as it is.
nickelcitymario 6y ago
I've wanted to work full-time from home for as long as I can remember. It took about a month in lockdown for me to realize I hated it. Turns out, my mental health is much better when I have an office to go to. 1h20 in commute (round-trip), no privacy, tons of distractions, and still I'm happier when I get to leave the house to go to work. I suspect it's mostly just a matter of getting out of the house. Those 4 walls get pretty oppressive after a while. I, too, found myself working from bed. It was not an improvement, and ended up being the last step towards a crippling depression that wouldn't let me get out of bed in the first place. So, for me at least, working from bed is awful. Ergonomically, emotionally, spiritually just f---ing draining.
- trinix912 6y ago
  > Turns out, my mental health is much better when I have an office to go to. 1h20 in commute (round-trip), no privacy, tons of distractions, and still I'm happier when I get to leave the house to go to work. This is very important to me. It helps me forget about work when heading home and vice versa. I also like talking to people in person at the office more than relying on Zoom watercooler rooms.
  - nickelcitymario 6y ago
    That commute turns out to be one of my favourite parts of the day. In the mornings, I leave early to workout at the company gym. (Not true at the moment, because all gyms are closed in my area right now.) That commute gives me time to wake up and get into the gym mindset. After work, it gives me time to unwind, let go of the stress for the day, and get into my dad-of-4 mindset. Without it, everything blends together. My work days would never really start and never really end.
    - nucleardog 6y ago
      What's your commute like? The common thread I'm finding in the people that don't mind their commute is generally that... their commute isn't terrible. Mine's 45m-1h to work, and 1h-2h home in a city with notoriously awful traffic design and flow. It's basically just 5 miles of gridlock. In the heavy urban traffic I find it actually _adds_ a lot of stress to my day--it definitely feels like a mad max style survival adventure more than anything. I used to commute 45 minutes each way on a nice dual line divided highway with very light traffic. Barring the odd blizzard, I found it like you describe... A great chance to let my mind switch states between home/work. And it was nice to have an hour and a half every day where I _couldn't_ beat up on myself for not being productive and could actually just truly sit and enjoy listening to a podcast or something.
eric_b 6y ago
Working from bed is great? What? Who at the NYT thought this was worth publishing? This is a great way to increase mental health issues, decrease physical health and hygiene and generally make everything worse. Maybe in the future when morbidly obese humans float around in hover beds and purchase things only from Buy-N-Large this will be "great" - but this reeks of a strange "pro COVID lockdown" narrative I've been seeing lately.
- TimTheTinker 6y ago
  > but this reeks of a strange "pro COVID lockdown" narrative I've been seeing lately. Along with phrases like "the new normal" and such. There does seem to be a push to keep people from wanting and expecting to go back to the real normal anytime soon. Though who stands to gain from this alternate reality? It would seem the liberal left wants to normalize it (even post-vaccine), but I don't understand why.
  - eric_b 6y ago
    Agreed - it's certainly a left-leaning narrative. I don't understand the "why" of any of it anymore. The far-left folks are pro lockdown but also want to help the underprivileged. No one is hurt worse by lockdowns. They want to defund the police, and yet by now even the hardened ideologue can admit that less police is maybe not a great plan. The left is anti-authoritarian but engages in almost textbook authoritarian behavior. (Cancel culture, democratic governors having emergency powers for 9+ months now etc etc) They hate capitalism but enjoy the byproducts (my most socialist friends can't get enough of Amazon prime - the irony is completely lost on them). There is just no way to reconcile the platform. It is completely incoherent.
    - TimTheTinker 6y ago
      I’ve thought some more about this, and I think their platform is coherent if you assume their goal is power. Economic trouble and poverty help the left by making them the savior upon whom everyone is dependent. After all, it was the Great Depression that gave FDR’s New Deal a free pass in the first place — and that really was the beginning of the modern Democratic Party’s economic platform. They want people to be poor. That’s how they get the majority of their votes.
Consultant32452 6y ago
This is deliciously tone deaf on the part of NYT. People are dying all over the place, the meager wealth and incomes of working class people are being destroyed, even unemployment benefits are completely dysfunctional in many states. Maybe it's not the best time to talk about how great it is to be able to maintain your income without even having to leave bed.
timdaub 6y ago
> Working from Bed is Great Article goes on to say that anecdotal evidence from people that work in bed since COVID-19 pandemic are doing fine. What I can say myself about this is that since I've started working full-time from home in 2018, there were many "great" things I started doing during work. It was a bit like finally having the chance to be "free" and working how I wanted - and not my employer. Three years later I'm now convinced that there's reasons why people go to offices and why there's certain rules in those. Anyways, technically speaking "I'm not working from home anymore". I rented out an office space. It's as comfy as home (still, there's no bed). But having a dedicated space to work and face challenges is great, because afterwise I can drive home - and when I'm exhausted, fall into my bed.
- alisonkisk 6y ago
  NYT "lifestyle" articles are (usually young) writers on deadline filling space with apps from their friends.
wtf_is_up 6y ago
Wow, NYT will publish anything.
jkire 6y ago
The main thing I found interesting about this is the idea of trying to break the taboo of working from bed, especially for those who have a disability that make it hard/impossible to get out of bed some days. After all, this is the reality for a lot of people long before the pandemic. Yes, fine, maybe it's bad for your back or sleep schedule (I personally hate even reading in bed), but it's up to the individual to figure out what works for them. I really hope that one thing we get from this pandemic is not just that remote work is more accepted, but that there's more understanding and flexibility over people's individual situations (without them having to try and justify themselves). This would help so many people, whether they're disabled, or juggling childcare, or whatever.
FpUser 6y ago
Was working from home for the last 20 years except for occasional visits to clients / shareholders meetings. So far enjoying the freedom of not being stuck in the office environment that I do not appreciate at all and not wasting my time on commute. With that I can't even remotely imagine myself working from bed. I do exactly 2 things in bed - 1) sleep, 2) wild guess here
emptyparadise 6y ago
Working from bed is great when you're too depressed to get out of bed. I'd rather nor do it otherwise, but I appreciate the flexibility of being able to do it.
sfteus 6y ago
I've been WFH for nearly 6 years now. The one constant I've found that hampers my productivity is working from a "shared" space. Working out of a space like the living room or bed room, where you would normally relax, tends to make me slack off, get distracted easily, etc. I have noticed though that your work space doesn't need to be fully dedicated though, it just needs to not be a leisure room. We adopted a Belgian Mal mix in February that needed supervision throughout the day, so I transitioned from my office to my dining room. We don't use that outside of the occasional game night or other gathering, and the table makes a nice makeshift desk with a laptop. I found working from there comparable to working from my office.
Toutouxc 6y ago
My WFH desk is in my bedroom because of space constraints. The fact that it's there doesn't bother me one bit and I have no desire to work from bed, curled around the 14" laptop I do my coding on, instead of the 43" 4K screen I have on the desk. But there are moments (once or twice a day) when I need to work on a specific piece of code that I don't mind center stage on the laptop display and I unplug everything and move to the bed for 20 minutes just for the calm, cozy feeling and a little bit of extra concentration.
- wing-_-nuts 6y ago
  >instead of the 43" 4K screen I have on the desk. I've been patiently waiting for a 32" 4k 144hz hdmi 2.1 ips display. I've noticed manufacturers seem to like making them in 27" (too small) and 43" (too big!) sizes. I have questions. How far away do you sit? How is a 43" screen for coding? Do you use a tiling window manager to allocate all that space? Do you use it for gaming at all? If so, how hard is it to keep track of everything on the display? Do you find yourself having to turn your head to keep track of everything?
  - michaelt 6y ago
    Not the OP, but I use a 40" 4k screen. > How far away do you sit? 70cm - closer than a TV, further than a smaller monitor. I have it wall-mounted on an arm, so I can adjust the distance if I feel the need (which is rare) Browsers and IDEs and terminals all let you scale the fonts, and I apply a modest amount of zoom. > How is a 43" screen for coding? I like my 40" screen, and I'd recommend one to anyone with the space. I chose a single large screen in preference to a multi-monitor setup. I'd probably have liked it even more when I was a teen with great eyesight. > Do you use a tiling window manager to allocate all that space? No, but you will often want to use multiple windows - CAD software and things you might still fullscreen, but webpages and suchlike don't generally benefit from it. When I got it, Ubuntu let you tile windows with Ctrl+Alt+Numpad - alas they dumped that feature, so now I have to resize my windows manually. > Do you use it for gaming at all? If so, how hard is it to keep track of everything on the display? Yes, but I generally play slow-paced games like Civilization. Many games scale up the entire UI with screen resolution, and you can always move your chair back if you want the small-screen experience. Obviously, if you want to play fast-paced games like FPSes in 4K you'll need a $$$ graphics card; initially, I had a "4K capable" GPUs and it would run spreadsheets and web browsing and 4K video no problem - but not a triple-A FPS. > Do you find yourself having to turn your head to keep track of everything? With my seating I move my eyes rather than my head.
devilduck 6y ago
It would be really nice if everyone in this thread would stop trying to turn their personal feelings about this into universal truth. How many times to we have to hear about the negative effects of this from someone who misses going into an office?
panzagl 6y ago
Further proof Douglas Adams was right about the origins of humans on Earth...
andybak 6y ago
I spend 90% of my working day horizontal - bed, sofa and even the bath. I don't admit to it often but there you go.
- sgt 6y ago
  It's not good for you long term. I recommend taking one of the bedrooms in your house and converting into a proper home office. And wear slightly more formal clothing than pyjamas. It does wonders to productivity and discipline.
  - devilduck 6y ago
    I will never do anything you have recommended and I will still be as productive as you are. Thanks though!
    - sgt 6y ago
      Well if you are certain it works for you, then I guess don't mess with the recipe.
  - andybak 6y ago
    WIth all due respect I'm 49 and I've spent my entire life figuring out how to engage with my own productivity. > I recommend taking one of the bedrooms in your house and converting into a proper home office. I have one. I don't like using it.
lhorie 6y ago
I think it's worth noting that the examples in the article about people like Frida Kahlo involve a higher degree of creativity than most desk jobs demand, and one could reasonably attribute bursts of inspiration to come from the "unusual" aspect of working in a horizontal body position (similar to how people often say they think up ideas more clearly when going on walks) But laying down for extended periods of time is known to cause health problems. In hospitals, bed sores are a well known problem associated with excessive in-bed time. Muscular atrophy is another. It's kinda crazy how just a couple years ago there was a standing desk craze touting the miraculous benefits to muscular/skeletal health, and now we've got a 180 degree turn with a major publication putting out a claim that laying down for extensive amounts of time is somehow a good idea (never mind the whole "sitting is the new smoking" thing!) Geez!
lazyant 6y ago
See also dysania / clinomania.
timvisee 6y ago
The only think you'll do by working from bed, is destroying your back. Don't do it.
djohnston 6y ago
I did this right out of college as a young and struggling developer, and I had a lot of psychological issues with sleep and depression that haven't resurfaced during this recent extended work from home. There are a ton of differences in circumstance, but I think doing my work in my living room office vs lying on my bed is much better for my mind and my spine.
kashyapc 6y ago
You can kiss goodbye to your quality of life if you "work from bed". As Matthew Walker, of "Why We Sleep"[+], reminds: you want your brain to associate your bed with sleeping. A related point is that if you're not feeling sleepy, don't lay around in the bed waiting for sleep (go to a different area of the room, if possible)—just as how we don't (?) sit around at the dinner table waiting for hunger to arrive. [+] With warts and all, like any book. Don't let the so-called "egregious errors" pointed out by some guy online distract from the main points made in the book.
- phreack 6y ago
  Going a bit further, if at all possible, my tip from many years of remote work is don't even have a computer in the room you sleep in. It's amazing how much the brain correlates rooms with tasks, and if you work in your bedroom you will have a worse quality of sleep.
  - kashyapc 6y ago
    Going to a different room may not be possible for everyone. We have to consider those who live in studio apartments and other kinds of smaller places. But your broader point stands—a decent enough separation between bed and work is critical. And take advantage of human nature: we're creatures of habit; build solid routines for compounding benefits.
    - phreack 6y ago
      Yes, it's definitely a luxury for many. I did find that setting up a dividing screen (made of basically hanging cloth) tricked my brain into believing a particular kind of one-room apartment was two, which helped a lot with keeping focus.
rubyn00bie 6y ago
I don't recommend working from bed, but for a pretty simple reason. If you're laying down, for the majority of your day, after about six months your back will be incredibly weak. It will then be painful to sit in a chair for an equal amount of time; and no chair will fix it. You'll have to regain your back, shoulder, neck strength to alleviate the pain which takes months.
itsnot2020 6y ago
I've worked from home pretty much my entire career (over 20 years now, and am fortunate to have a dedicated office) and the last thing I ever want to do is work from bed. I need some distance between my bedroom and office both physically and mentally.
amyjess 6y ago
I have absolutely taken conference calls in bed, especially when it's really cold in the morning. I can just snuggle up under the covers and stay warm while discussing project status.
ReaganFJones 6y ago
Most work-from-bed setups are ergonomic disasters. The typical person who works from bed is not getting a $5,995 Zero Gravity setup or anything like that. Ergonomic issues aside, many commenters in this thread have discussed the other drawbacks of re-purposing your bed for work.
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combatentropy 6y ago
I sit up in bed against a backrest pillow, with my laptop in my lap. I don't have a mouse. I program with vim and use keyboard shortcuts in other apps as much as possible. I have been doing this for years. I don't have problems with my back or wrists like I did years ago in an office, even though I had an office chair, desk, and keyboard drawer.
Tycho 6y ago
Maybe someone will come up with an app that you use before you go to sleep and it trains/primes your mind to work on pieces of work (ones that require creativity or insight) while you sleep. And then corporations will adopt it and offer employees a pay rise if they sign up to use it. Eventually it will become mandatory, and people will write wistful articles about the uncolonized dream spaces of yesteryear, while accepting that no normal person would sacrifice the most productive part of the working day (night) in order to dream about fun things that they will mostly forget anyway.
- helen___keller 6y ago
  I did something like this (unintentionally) in college by working until I passed out on the floor, then working more the moment I wake up (generally to hit a morning deadline) It's not great* for problem solving, but it is a wonderful recipe for depression. * Actually, I frequently solved problems that I was stuck on immediately after waking up. However, I am convinced I would have solved these problems had I not been so sleep deprived in the first place.
adamgluck 6y ago
Winston Churchill famously did most of his work from bed and he won World War II, so I buy it.
twobitshifter 6y ago
As a teen, 20 years ago, I always did my homework from my bed, as that was about all I had. I don’t think that it challenged me in any way and it may have enhanced my thought processes as they article notes. Certain postures are said to influence the way you process and think. For example, I definitely read books from bed, as I’m sure others do as well, even those that object to television or working from bed. Thinking about it now, lying down may help to displace my mind to the story more than sitting.
vladmk 6y ago
Waiting for the working from your toilet piece to come out
otagekki 6y ago
While being between 4 walls might seem isolating, I would happily take a 20 second commute (i.e. opening the computer and voila you're at work) over a 160-minute round trip commute any day. Especially when the feeling of isolation can easily be mitigated by a 20 min walk in the city at lunch time.
guscost 6y ago
“Stop the spread, stay in bed”
boboboboboboo 6y ago
I did this for a few months until it really started hurting my back lol.
mentos 6y ago
I've been working remote for a decade now. Moving my office out of my bedroom eliminated 99% of the claustrophobia I had developed. Having where you work and sleep in two different mental compartments is more valuable than you could ever anticipate.
ineedasername 6y ago
From bed? Horrible! I work laying down on the couch with a 3-axis monitor arm suspended above me, just as all WFH was intended. I can't quite get the see webcam to make me look like I'm sitting normally though so I have to sit up sometimes like some kind of pre-COVID animal in an "office".
code_duck 6y ago
I smashed myself in the bridge of the nose with a Macbook Pro doing this. The edges of the open lid are surprisingly sharp.
tonymet 6y ago
don’t put your feet on your pillows
signaru 6y ago
trivia: Sleeping in work is supposedly viewed positively in Japan.

Working from Bed

161 points by edward 6y ago

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wasdfff 6y ago

Speaking as someone who goes from bed to couch to bed during this pandemic due to a lack of desk space in my crampt apartment, I would murder someone if it meant I could claim their chair and desk and have actual lumbar support again.

jolmg 6y ago
There are sit-up pillows[1] that can provide this support, if you're interested. Personally speaking, I think lumbar support from my sit-up pillow is better than that of my office chair at work. YMMV. You may want to look for one that's of a good size and firm. Not all are. [1] https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=sit-up+pillow&iax=images&ia=images&iai=http%3A%2F%2Fhomesfeed.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2015%2F09%2Fcomfortable-brown-sit-up-pillow-design-made-of-velvet-fabirc-with-smooth-touch-and-bold.jpg https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=sit-up+pillow&iax=images&ia...
derekp7 6y ago
Have you considered (or able to install) an adult loft bed so you can put an office underneath?
tartoran 6y ago
Lumbar support is a false friend. I used to rely on this until I learned proper posture and did exercises to strenghten and relearn to use skeletal musculature correctly. I need not rest my back on anything now and my general health couldn’t be better. Unless you had a recent surgery and the body is weakened or you have a serious condition (torn discs, etc) I’d advise to try to ditch all these crutches which end up weakening us up in the long term. However, I admit they could be very useful and help with back pain. I used to not be able to concentrate because of backpain and lumbar support did help at the time.
- fastball 6y ago
  Link?
  - tartoran 6y ago
    https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25634546 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25634546
    - fastball 6y ago
      I kinda meant a link to information about the proper posture and exercises you mention.
- aicioara 6y ago
  Also curious
  - tartoran 6y ago
    Curious about what? Proper posture?
- c0nsumer 6y ago
  I recently was shopping for a new chair for home, and realized that... I don't actually need anything special because I habitually sit on the front half of the chair and don't rest my back against the back. So I just got one of the low-tier Steelcase chairs we have at the office and it's great! It'll last, and it's just... fine. I tried sitting on a yoga ball for a while, but realized that it's not doing anything more for my back (because of how I already sit), but it's difficult to turn between my three laptops because the ball sticks to the floor and my clothes. So I went back to the chair. <shrug>
  - tartoran 6y ago
    Yes, the yoga ball helps somewhat but it is a training tool not a permanent solution as it is quite awkward to sit on. I've been there long time ago, it was recommended by a chiropractor. I used to have bad issues and was seeing a chiropractor 20 years ago but am doing really well now. As a matter of fact I'm in much better shape in my 40s than I was in my 20s and I don't work out like crazy. It was all about fixing sitting/standing and walking postures then the benefits became apparent. You seem like you're on the right path or even are in good shape yourself. Leaning on the back of the chair or supporting on the armrests teaches us to sit wrong and while maybe comfortable at the time it will soon start to mess up with the sitting posture. And sitting on the front side of the chair is a good way to sit. Also I find that bringing the keyboard as close as possible to the lap and the body (desk or keyboard extender) promotes good posture. (elbows close to the torso and body straight, head above torso not sticking out front, adjusting the screen at eye level helps with that).
tzs 6y ago
Have you considered the floor? When I was young (late teens to early 30s) I found that laying on the carpeted floor on my stomach, with a pillow under my chest, and my head tilted back (think of Superman flying and you'll get the picture) with my computer in front of me worked great. This probably wouldn't work out well nowadays with a desktop computer because desktop monitor sizes are usually way bigger than they were back then so you would have tilt your head too far, but it might still be fine with a laptop.
- soared 6y ago
  I sit on my floor, back up against the wall/bed, for like 6 hours a day. Big fan.

ShaneMcGowan 6y ago

R.I.P the author's back

mikestew 6y ago

I did it on the rare snow day in Seattle a few times. I’m not one to be particular about my workspace, but what few things I am particular about went out the window in bed. It’s fun for an occasional break, but not for productive output. But TFA is rife with counterexamples, so what do I know versus Marcel Proust?

p_l 6y ago
Every time I end up working from bed I'm angry within 30 minutes about typing experience - and that's assuming I remembered to grab trackball to not be angry at touchpad experience! Seriously, f*ck bed work :|

Thaxll 6y ago

Bed should only be using for sleeping, no tv in room etc ...

unnouinceput 6y ago
And you can turn off said TV when going to sleep
rozab 6y ago
Glad I can tick off 'comment that rephrases first sentence of the article' from todays HN bingo

egypturnash 6y ago

Personally I find that me staying in bed all day tends to be a sign that I am either very cold, very depressed, or both. Even if I manage to get shit done.

diveanon 6y ago

Author is fairly young. This will destroy your back after even a short amount of time.

devilduck 6y ago
I've been doing this for years, my back is fine, and I'm 40. Cut this nonsense out.
racl101 6y ago
So fast. Ugh, I'm 27 and even just looking at these pics makes me cringe.
hinkley 6y ago
Not to mention muscle atrophy, including cardiac output.
squeaky-clean 6y ago
My back hurts just looking at the 4 images at the top of the article. Also the positions in the upper-left, upper-right, and image further down the page cause lots of elbow strain. I had several months of numbness in my hands from spending too much time resting on my elbows like these photos.
saagarjha 6y ago
I'm 21 and enjoy working from bed. I did it for a week or two when I was at my parent's house for break once and it totally destroyed my back. These days I only do it when it's especially cold out.

nxpnsv 6y ago

My lower back wishes to dispute posted title...

eljimmy 6y ago

I couldn’t bring myself to work from bed. More due to the mental separation of being “at work” vs at home. I find it’s beneficial for me to have an exclusive area otherwise I’ll mentally feel like I’m always working.

nevinera 6y ago

Ergonomically speaking, it can be, but that requires some tooling and experimentation. I have put together a setup that works pretty well, but I rarely use it because extricating myself from it takes too much work. The pictures in the article do not demonstrate a viable way to work from bed for long periods (though shifting positions frequently enough can offset the postural problems quite a bit).

agumonkey 6y ago

Who does a compromise of that, like on a zen cushion ?

cm2012 6y ago

I have a dedicated room for an office in my house with everything I need for productivity. Yet sometimes I feel more productive with a laptop on the couch or bed. I wonder why.

racl101 6y ago

I could never do this. 1) My back would hurt after a half hour of this. 2) My brain would not be engaged in a state of too much comfort. (i.e. I'd get sleepy). In fact, I even keep my work room in the house kinda cold (by not putting in a heater) so I can be more alert. 3) I'm a developer so I need a full keyboard and multiple screens. 4) Most importantly, I need a clear separation or line of delineation between work and rest. I don't want to mix the two together. The thought is as perverse to me as eating while taking a shit.

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pottertheotter 6y ago
I'm the same. I've been WFH for a while and I need to get up, take a shower, get dressed, and go to my desk or I never really get going. Sometimes I'll do some work on a laptop on the couch, but it's the type of work where I'm more casually looking up information. Or I'll print out something I need to read and go to the couch. Otherwise, I'm so much more productive and engaged when I'm at my desk with keyboard, mouse, and monitor. My wife is the polar opposite. We're lucky to be in a situation where we can both have dedicated home offices at this time. We already had a desk for her, but her work let her take home a good chair, and two monitors with a stand. We set up a really nice office for her, but I'd say that she works from bed or the couch 95% of the time. In fact, the only time she uses her office is when she has an important video call. I don't know how she does it, and I still believe that she would be more productive/efficient at a desk. For me, just having the extra screen real estate and a keyboard and mouse are enough for me to want to be at my desk.

geocrasher 6y ago

I've been WFH full time since 2011. I could not even finish this article. Anyone who thinks that working from bed is good in any way, shape, or form, is deluding themselves. It's an ergonomic nightmare that is unsustainable. It's lack of separation between Life and Work. It's everything WFH should NOT be. In a year, there will be another article that says "Working from Bed: Maybe not so much"

andybak 6y ago
> Anyone who thinks that working from bed is good in any way, shape, or form, is deluding themselves. I do love being told I'm deluded.
jrockway 6y ago
I think it must depend on what kind of work people do. I really have no idea what non-engineering jobs are like, but I feel like they probably require less screen real-estate and text entry, and so don't demand the same ergonomics that writing software (or doing CAD modeling, etc.) requires. I can tell you that I personally hate being away from my desktop. I like the feeling of the office chair, I like my ergonomic keyboard, I like having a ton of monitors to organize my triple-wide Emacs window, some terminals, some browsers for documentation, Slack, Discord, a music player, etc. But... other people probably don't do as much I/O with their computer, and can probably lay in bed and get stuff done. When I worked at Google I always saw people sitting on bouncy balls typing away on their laptops, and I guess they got stuff done doing that, so I just chalk it up as "I don't personally understand it". I like my desk, but I see no reason to require people to sit at desks all day if they'd prefer to be in bed. If it doesn't work for them, they'll probably stop doing it.
merpnderp 6y ago
When my team was sent home because of COVID we were told to set up home offices and offered equipment if we needed it and told we had to have an office space, even if just a desk by our bed because the consultants had shown how bad it was for your physical and mental health to work from a bed. I can't imagine anyone thinking being hunched over all day with your neck leaning forward could somehow magically be good for their back and neck alignment, or that lying down all day would be a positive of your cardio health. You'd think they'd be convinced when they went to look for any research backing their bizarre claims and couldn't find any.

Raphmedia 6y ago

On the opposite, I'd say it's a great way to destroy your sleep routine and habits. As a rule of thumb, your bed should be dedicated to sleep and cuddles with your significant other. "This study indicates that the use of computers and mobile telephones in the bedroom are related to poor sleep habits" https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1365-2869.2011.00913.x https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1365-2869... "Computer use, TV viewing, and the presence of media in children's bedrooms may reduce sleep duration, and delay bedtimes." https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23886318/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23886318/

mhh__ 6y ago
What if my significant other is a copy of Misner, Thorne, and Wheeler?
- jedimastert 6y ago
  We can't change who or how we love
- slowmovintarget 6y ago
  The gravitational time dilation from proximity to the book does not work in your favor, better to leave it on the shelf while you sleep.
  - ISL 6y ago
    The book helps -- clocks deeper in a gravitational potential run slow relative to those higher in the potential. As I recall from Hartle, to paraphrase: "The experimentalists in the basement live longer than the theorists upstairs, but the view is worth it." My recollection from the associated problem is that the difference, over a lifetime, is microseconds. MTW won't give even that much aid :). Good luck with your studies; there's a lot to learn.
    - AnHonestComment 6y ago
      You have gravity right, but the impact reversed. By being lower in the gravity well, you get less sleep than if your clock had run faster.

0dmethz 6y ago

This article kind of feels like people are working really hard to rationalize working from bed? Personally I just find it extremely uncomfortable, and I just can't be productive that way. Plus you have to wonder what the long term effects are, it doesn't seem very ergonomic.

trinix912 6y ago
I've tried it once and it just didn't feel right. It didn't feel like I'm working, it felt more like staying in bed while sick. Also, my back started hurting after a few hours. I can't imagine someone doing it for more than a few days.
qwertox 6y ago
I never understood people who have no issue with typing on a laptop while sitting or laying in bed. Or outside on the grass. It just doesn't work for me. I need a keyboard on a table and sit in a chair in front of it, or stand in front of it if it is height-adjustable. I need space to put things nearby, like a glass of water, without having to care if it will fall and spill. But I'm ok with having a tablet in bed to browse HN or Reddit or listen to something on YouTube until I fall asleep.

pmiller2 6y ago

For those who don't want to sign up with NYTimes.com: https://archive.is/3AZmg https://archive.is/3AZmg

neom 6y ago

I'm a 35 year old who internetted/"worked" from bed all the time in my teens and 20s, I really believe doing this: - Removed the sanctity of bed. The bed is a great place to train yourself to decompress and unwind. - Absolutely destroyed my back. I'd build pillow forts around myself to compensate for increasing weak muscles. - Hindered the ability to notice shifts in my mood/difficulties in my routine. Eg: I struggle to get out of bed these days.

user_501238901 6y ago
Idk how you can destroy your back working from your bed, unless you do some idiotic posture. Just lay down, face up, back to the bed, computer on top of your stomach. Know a person with an actual destroyed back who can't even drive a car, but is able to work from bed.
- JimBlackwood 6y ago
  Muscle atrophy will do that for you. Things get harder and you do it less. It’ll be a challenge to get your muscles back to where they were.
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proverbialbunny 6y ago
>Absolutely destroyed my back. I'd build pillow forts around myself to compensate for increasing weak muscles. Yep. I had to learn muscle building exercises to get out of that situation. It's totally worth it.
- whitepoplar 6y ago
  Could you share some of these techniques? I'm in the same boat.
  - proverbialbunny 6y ago

ateng 6y ago

The fantastic educational YouTuber CGP Grey did a video detailing why working from bed is a terrible idea https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=snAhsXyO3Ck https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=snAhsXyO3Ck

screye 6y ago

Working for bedroom is already is nightmare. I can't imagine the kind of destruction working-from-bed is capable of. Strong physical separation between distinct aspects of life is critical for me to get anything done. Covid has disrupted things enough as it is.

nickelcitymario 6y ago

I've wanted to work full-time from home for as long as I can remember. It took about a month in lockdown for me to realize I hated it. Turns out, my mental health is much better when I have an office to go to. 1h20 in commute (round-trip), no privacy, tons of distractions, and still I'm happier when I get to leave the house to go to work. I suspect it's mostly just a matter of getting out of the house. Those 4 walls get pretty oppressive after a while. I, too, found myself working from bed. It was not an improvement, and ended up being the last step towards a crippling depression that wouldn't let me get out of bed in the first place. So, for me at least, working from bed is awful. Ergonomically, emotionally, spiritually just f---ing draining.

trinix912 6y ago
> Turns out, my mental health is much better when I have an office to go to. 1h20 in commute (round-trip), no privacy, tons of distractions, and still I'm happier when I get to leave the house to go to work. This is very important to me. It helps me forget about work when heading home and vice versa. I also like talking to people in person at the office more than relying on Zoom watercooler rooms.
- nickelcitymario 6y ago
  That commute turns out to be one of my favourite parts of the day. In the mornings, I leave early to workout at the company gym. (Not true at the moment, because all gyms are closed in my area right now.) That commute gives me time to wake up and get into the gym mindset. After work, it gives me time to unwind, let go of the stress for the day, and get into my dad-of-4 mindset. Without it, everything blends together. My work days would never really start and never really end.
  - nucleardog 6y ago
    What's your commute like? The common thread I'm finding in the people that don't mind their commute is generally that... their commute isn't terrible. Mine's 45m-1h to work, and 1h-2h home in a city with notoriously awful traffic design and flow. It's basically just 5 miles of gridlock. In the heavy urban traffic I find it actually _adds_ a lot of stress to my day--it definitely feels like a mad max style survival adventure more than anything. I used to commute 45 minutes each way on a nice dual line divided highway with very light traffic. Barring the odd blizzard, I found it like you describe... A great chance to let my mind switch states between home/work. And it was nice to have an hour and a half every day where I _couldn't_ beat up on myself for not being productive and could actually just truly sit and enjoy listening to a podcast or something.

eric_b 6y ago

Working from bed is great? What? Who at the NYT thought this was worth publishing? This is a great way to increase mental health issues, decrease physical health and hygiene and generally make everything worse. Maybe in the future when morbidly obese humans float around in hover beds and purchase things only from Buy-N-Large this will be "great" - but this reeks of a strange "pro COVID lockdown" narrative I've been seeing lately.

TimTheTinker 6y ago
> but this reeks of a strange "pro COVID lockdown" narrative I've been seeing lately. Along with phrases like "the new normal" and such. There does seem to be a push to keep people from wanting and expecting to go back to the real normal anytime soon. Though who stands to gain from this alternate reality? It would seem the liberal left wants to normalize it (even post-vaccine), but I don't understand why.
- eric_b 6y ago
  Agreed - it's certainly a left-leaning narrative. I don't understand the "why" of any of it anymore. The far-left folks are pro lockdown but also want to help the underprivileged. No one is hurt worse by lockdowns. They want to defund the police, and yet by now even the hardened ideologue can admit that less police is maybe not a great plan. The left is anti-authoritarian but engages in almost textbook authoritarian behavior. (Cancel culture, democratic governors having emergency powers for 9+ months now etc etc) They hate capitalism but enjoy the byproducts (my most socialist friends can't get enough of Amazon prime - the irony is completely lost on them). There is just no way to reconcile the platform. It is completely incoherent.
  - TimTheTinker 6y ago
    I’ve thought some more about this, and I think their platform is coherent if you assume their goal is power. Economic trouble and poverty help the left by making them the savior upon whom everyone is dependent. After all, it was the Great Depression that gave FDR’s New Deal a free pass in the first place — and that really was the beginning of the modern Democratic Party’s economic platform. They want people to be poor. That’s how they get the majority of their votes.

Consultant32452 6y ago

This is deliciously tone deaf on the part of NYT. People are dying all over the place, the meager wealth and incomes of working class people are being destroyed, even unemployment benefits are completely dysfunctional in many states. Maybe it's not the best time to talk about how great it is to be able to maintain your income without even having to leave bed.

timdaub 6y ago

> Working from Bed is Great Article goes on to say that anecdotal evidence from people that work in bed since COVID-19 pandemic are doing fine. What I can say myself about this is that since I've started working full-time from home in 2018, there were many "great" things I started doing during work. It was a bit like finally having the chance to be "free" and working how I wanted - and not my employer. Three years later I'm now convinced that there's reasons why people go to offices and why there's certain rules in those. Anyways, technically speaking "I'm not working from home anymore". I rented out an office space. It's as comfy as home (still, there's no bed). But having a dedicated space to work and face challenges is great, because afterwise I can drive home - and when I'm exhausted, fall into my bed.

alisonkisk 6y ago
NYT "lifestyle" articles are (usually young) writers on deadline filling space with apps from their friends.

wtf_is_up 6y ago

Wow, NYT will publish anything.

jkire 6y ago

The main thing I found interesting about this is the idea of trying to break the taboo of working from bed, especially for those who have a disability that make it hard/impossible to get out of bed some days. After all, this is the reality for a lot of people long before the pandemic. Yes, fine, maybe it's bad for your back or sleep schedule (I personally hate even reading in bed), but it's up to the individual to figure out what works for them. I really hope that one thing we get from this pandemic is not just that remote work is more accepted, but that there's more understanding and flexibility over people's individual situations (without them having to try and justify themselves). This would help so many people, whether they're disabled, or juggling childcare, or whatever.

FpUser 6y ago

Was working from home for the last 20 years except for occasional visits to clients / shareholders meetings. So far enjoying the freedom of not being stuck in the office environment that I do not appreciate at all and not wasting my time on commute. With that I can't even remotely imagine myself working from bed. I do exactly 2 things in bed - 1) sleep, 2) wild guess here

emptyparadise 6y ago

Working from bed is great when you're too depressed to get out of bed. I'd rather nor do it otherwise, but I appreciate the flexibility of being able to do it.

sfteus 6y ago

I've been WFH for nearly 6 years now. The one constant I've found that hampers my productivity is working from a "shared" space. Working out of a space like the living room or bed room, where you would normally relax, tends to make me slack off, get distracted easily, etc. I have noticed though that your work space doesn't need to be fully dedicated though, it just needs to not be a leisure room. We adopted a Belgian Mal mix in February that needed supervision throughout the day, so I transitioned from my office to my dining room. We don't use that outside of the occasional game night or other gathering, and the table makes a nice makeshift desk with a laptop. I found working from there comparable to working from my office.

Toutouxc 6y ago

My WFH desk is in my bedroom because of space constraints. The fact that it's there doesn't bother me one bit and I have no desire to work from bed, curled around the 14" laptop I do my coding on, instead of the 43" 4K screen I have on the desk. But there are moments (once or twice a day) when I need to work on a specific piece of code that I don't mind center stage on the laptop display and I unplug everything and move to the bed for 20 minutes just for the calm, cozy feeling and a little bit of extra concentration.

wing-_-nuts 6y ago
>instead of the 43" 4K screen I have on the desk. I've been patiently waiting for a 32" 4k 144hz hdmi 2.1 ips display. I've noticed manufacturers seem to like making them in 27" (too small) and 43" (too big!) sizes. I have questions. How far away do you sit? How is a 43" screen for coding? Do you use a tiling window manager to allocate all that space? Do you use it for gaming at all? If so, how hard is it to keep track of everything on the display? Do you find yourself having to turn your head to keep track of everything?
- michaelt 6y ago
  Not the OP, but I use a 40" 4k screen. > How far away do you sit? 70cm - closer than a TV, further than a smaller monitor. I have it wall-mounted on an arm, so I can adjust the distance if I feel the need (which is rare) Browsers and IDEs and terminals all let you scale the fonts, and I apply a modest amount of zoom. > How is a 43" screen for coding? I like my 40" screen, and I'd recommend one to anyone with the space. I chose a single large screen in preference to a multi-monitor setup. I'd probably have liked it even more when I was a teen with great eyesight. > Do you use a tiling window manager to allocate all that space? No, but you will often want to use multiple windows - CAD software and things you might still fullscreen, but webpages and suchlike don't generally benefit from it. When I got it, Ubuntu let you tile windows with Ctrl+Alt+Numpad - alas they dumped that feature, so now I have to resize my windows manually. > Do you use it for gaming at all? If so, how hard is it to keep track of everything on the display? Yes, but I generally play slow-paced games like Civilization. Many games scale up the entire UI with screen resolution, and you can always move your chair back if you want the small-screen experience. Obviously, if you want to play fast-paced games like FPSes in 4K you'll need a $$$ graphics card; initially, I had a "4K capable" GPUs and it would run spreadsheets and web browsing and 4K video no problem - but not a triple-A FPS. > Do you find yourself having to turn your head to keep track of everything? With my seating I move my eyes rather than my head.

devilduck 6y ago

It would be really nice if everyone in this thread would stop trying to turn their personal feelings about this into universal truth. How many times to we have to hear about the negative effects of this from someone who misses going into an office?

panzagl 6y ago

Further proof Douglas Adams was right about the origins of humans on Earth...

andybak 6y ago

I spend 90% of my working day horizontal - bed, sofa and even the bath. I don't admit to it often but there you go.

sgt 6y ago
It's not good for you long term. I recommend taking one of the bedrooms in your house and converting into a proper home office. And wear slightly more formal clothing than pyjamas. It does wonders to productivity and discipline.
- devilduck 6y ago
  I will never do anything you have recommended and I will still be as productive as you are. Thanks though!
  - sgt 6y ago
    Well if you are certain it works for you, then I guess don't mess with the recipe.
- andybak 6y ago
  WIth all due respect I'm 49 and I've spent my entire life figuring out how to engage with my own productivity. > I recommend taking one of the bedrooms in your house and converting into a proper home office. I have one. I don't like using it.

lhorie 6y ago

I think it's worth noting that the examples in the article about people like Frida Kahlo involve a higher degree of creativity than most desk jobs demand, and one could reasonably attribute bursts of inspiration to come from the "unusual" aspect of working in a horizontal body position (similar to how people often say they think up ideas more clearly when going on walks) But laying down for extended periods of time is known to cause health problems. In hospitals, bed sores are a well known problem associated with excessive in-bed time. Muscular atrophy is another. It's kinda crazy how just a couple years ago there was a standing desk craze touting the miraculous benefits to muscular/skeletal health, and now we've got a 180 degree turn with a major publication putting out a claim that laying down for extensive amounts of time is somehow a good idea (never mind the whole "sitting is the new smoking" thing!) Geez!

lazyant 6y ago