4 ms·

Just to note that I've been working from home for nearly 14 years now, and I have always broken almost all of these rules. Except the one about loving what I do

by cstross 12y ago

Just to note that I've been working from home for nearly 14 years now, and I have always broken almost all of these rules. Except the one about loving what I do. Because I do love it: if I didn't, I'd get a different job. I don't have a set routine. I don't avoid the sofa. If I want a mid-afternoon nap, I have one. If I don't get up until noon, that's fine. I monitor my outputs, not my inputs -- which is why you'll sometimes find me working at 5am on a Sunday morning, or over a public holiday, and why you'll sometimes find me shopping or in the pub during office hours. (Not to mention the gym: I try to schedule my exercise for times when everyone with an office job is at their desk.) Outputs. As long as the work gets done, you're good to go. And apart from that, make sure you still have a social life. Drawbacks: it's easy to vanish down the rabbit hole: working in an office is an oft-unacknowledged social experience, and even though your co-workers may not be people who'd hang out with otherwise, human contact is important.

_dark_matter_ 12y ago
Just a question, are you married/have kids? I feel like that can be an important part of the schedule question. With a family, you can't work all those extra hours; or at least it would be much more difficult. These rules would help enforce a normal running of the household. Any thoughts from other at-home workers with families?
- gknoy 12y ago
  From his faq [0]: (I had to actually google for it, don't worry ;)) "He lives ... with his wife..., a couple of cats, several thousand books, and an ever-changing herd of obsolescent computers." 0: http://www.antipope.org/charlie/fiction/faq.html http://www.antipope.org/charlie/fiction/faq.html
- bmj 12y ago
  So, I work from home a fair bit, and have two kids who are homeschooled by my wife[0]. I tend to get a couple of hours of work done before anyone else in the house is awake (say, 6:00 am - 8:00 am). I will typically work during the kids school time (which runs 'til early afternoon), then I'll often take a break until dinner. Depending on my output, I may work for another hour or so after the kids are in bed. Like the original author, I rarely need to be constantly available on email/IM, and I have a fairly predictable meeting schedule, so this type of day works for me. The downside is that it can definitely blur the lines between work and play. I can live with that, however, because it does offer me a pretty significant amount of freedom with my time (that is, I'm willing to work a couple of hours later in the evening if I'm free to take advantage of a perfect spring day in the afternoon). [0] This actually helps enforce a schedule because I am relegated to my desk in the bedroom during school hours. I can only show my face during lunch.
- TY 12y ago
  Having kids (especially small ones) makes all the difference: I can't use my wonderful home office any more because of the all noise in the house: my kids, friends of my kids visiting, dog barking at all of them and etc. Walking around with earplugs/headphones all day is too painful and not an option, so now if I really want to get anything done I leave the house.
  - ufmace 12y ago
    I'm curious, how do you mean painful? I work in an office cube farm, and it's often noisy/chatty enough that I find it hard to concentrate without headphones or something. But I find most earbuds and cheap headphones uncomfortable to wear for more than half an hour or so, so I bought a big set of over-the-ear Bluetooth headphones that are great to wear all day long. Might be worth a try if that's your problem.
    - marquis 12y ago
      There is more attention given to the sounds of your family than your work colleagues. It's a completely different kind of distraction. And it's a little bit heartbreaking every time to say to a kid that you are busy right now.
      - __abc 12y ago
        That last part. It's why I can't work at home. It's INCREDIBLY difficult for me to ignore my children when in close proximity.
    - TY 12y ago
      I get increasing feeling of discomfort from wearing any type of headphones/earbuds for more than 3-4 hours a day and I've tried different kind of headphones/earbuds, invariably with the same result. It's probably an individual thing, I have plenty of friends who seem to wear something all day long...
  - bananas 12y ago
    Perhaps I have an incredible tolerance for it but I can work white happily with three children making a lot of noise, one of which is a mini tyrannosaurus.
- ibmthrowaway218 12y ago
  It was only until I had children that I realised just how much time they take up (this isn't meant to sound selfish, they're awesome!) It makes me wonder just what I did with all of that spare time I had when I didn't have kids. As far as home working is concerned, I do it (along with slightly different hours) during term time to allow me to do drop-off/pick-ups. There's no-one else at home when I'm working from home. During holidays I'm either off to look after children or I work from the office. I don't have enough space to effectively shut myself off.
- cstross 12y ago
  Married (wife works at home, too); no kids. (Our flat has three bedrooms ... or rather, had three bedrooms: in practice, it has one bedroom and two offices.)
joshhart 12y ago
First - I'm a huge fan of your novels. I would assume it is a bit different for you, right? You need to do whatever is necessary to produce a few very high quality works. Some tech workers like Linus Torvalds writing git are in that category too, but for most tech workers we just need to crank out decent software asap. Most software devs are using some form of agile & have fairly brisk targets to hit on a frequent basis. Is it common for writers to do something similar, like Chapter 4 has to be done in 2 weeks?
jjwiseman 12y ago
Yes. I had a hard time working from home at first, feeling guilty because I wasn't disciplined in the traditional way, with schedules and boundaries. But I learned to trust that my way of working, with long breaks (even days long) and no particular schedule, was effective for me. In the end, I get great work done, on time (or ahead of schedule). A common pattern I use when I face a challenging problem is to not work on it for several days. My mind is working on it, but not entirely consciously, and then when I do tackle it directly the solution seems to flow easily. As long as I produce results, even the people who pay me don't need to know the details of my methods. Often it's easier to keep them insulated from those details so I don't have to worry about them getting nervous. I'm sure that for some people my strategies wouldn't work. The important thing is to figure out what works for you, and when you find it don't worry too much if it doesn't match the common wisdom.

by cstross 12y ago

_dark_matter_ 12y ago

Just a question, are you married/have kids? I feel like that can be an important part of the schedule question. With a family, you can't work all those extra hours; or at least it would be much more difficult. These rules would help enforce a normal running of the household. Any thoughts from other at-home workers with families?

gknoy 12y ago
From his faq [0]: (I had to actually google for it, don't worry ;)) "He lives ... with his wife..., a couple of cats, several thousand books, and an ever-changing herd of obsolescent computers." 0: http://www.antipope.org/charlie/fiction/faq.html http://www.antipope.org/charlie/fiction/faq.html
bmj 12y ago
So, I work from home a fair bit, and have two kids who are homeschooled by my wife[0]. I tend to get a couple of hours of work done before anyone else in the house is awake (say, 6:00 am - 8:00 am). I will typically work during the kids school time (which runs 'til early afternoon), then I'll often take a break until dinner. Depending on my output, I may work for another hour or so after the kids are in bed. Like the original author, I rarely need to be constantly available on email/IM, and I have a fairly predictable meeting schedule, so this type of day works for me. The downside is that it can definitely blur the lines between work and play. I can live with that, however, because it does offer me a pretty significant amount of freedom with my time (that is, I'm willing to work a couple of hours later in the evening if I'm free to take advantage of a perfect spring day in the afternoon). [0] This actually helps enforce a schedule because I am relegated to my desk in the bedroom during school hours. I can only show my face during lunch.
TY 12y ago
Having kids (especially small ones) makes all the difference: I can't use my wonderful home office any more because of the all noise in the house: my kids, friends of my kids visiting, dog barking at all of them and etc. Walking around with earplugs/headphones all day is too painful and not an option, so now if I really want to get anything done I leave the house.
- ufmace 12y ago
  I'm curious, how do you mean painful? I work in an office cube farm, and it's often noisy/chatty enough that I find it hard to concentrate without headphones or something. But I find most earbuds and cheap headphones uncomfortable to wear for more than half an hour or so, so I bought a big set of over-the-ear Bluetooth headphones that are great to wear all day long. Might be worth a try if that's your problem.
  - marquis 12y ago
    There is more attention given to the sounds of your family than your work colleagues. It's a completely different kind of distraction. And it's a little bit heartbreaking every time to say to a kid that you are busy right now.
    - __abc 12y ago
      That last part. It's why I can't work at home. It's INCREDIBLY difficult for me to ignore my children when in close proximity.
  - TY 12y ago
    I get increasing feeling of discomfort from wearing any type of headphones/earbuds for more than 3-4 hours a day and I've tried different kind of headphones/earbuds, invariably with the same result. It's probably an individual thing, I have plenty of friends who seem to wear something all day long...
- bananas 12y ago
  Perhaps I have an incredible tolerance for it but I can work white happily with three children making a lot of noise, one of which is a mini tyrannosaurus.
ibmthrowaway218 12y ago
It was only until I had children that I realised just how much time they take up (this isn't meant to sound selfish, they're awesome!) It makes me wonder just what I did with all of that spare time I had when I didn't have kids. As far as home working is concerned, I do it (along with slightly different hours) during term time to allow me to do drop-off/pick-ups. There's no-one else at home when I'm working from home. During holidays I'm either off to look after children or I work from the office. I don't have enough space to effectively shut myself off.
cstross 12y ago
Married (wife works at home, too); no kids. (Our flat has three bedrooms ... or rather, had three bedrooms: in practice, it has one bedroom and two offices.)

joshhart 12y ago

First - I'm a huge fan of your novels. I would assume it is a bit different for you, right? You need to do whatever is necessary to produce a few very high quality works. Some tech workers like Linus Torvalds writing git are in that category too, but for most tech workers we just need to crank out decent software asap. Most software devs are using some form of agile & have fairly brisk targets to hit on a frequent basis. Is it common for writers to do something similar, like Chapter 4 has to be done in 2 weeks?

jjwiseman 12y ago

Yes. I had a hard time working from home at first, feeling guilty because I wasn't disciplined in the traditional way, with schedules and boundaries. But I learned to trust that my way of working, with long breaks (even days long) and no particular schedule, was effective for me. In the end, I get great work done, on time (or ahead of schedule). A common pattern I use when I face a challenging problem is to not work on it for several days. My mind is working on it, but not entirely consciously, and then when I do tackle it directly the solution seems to flow easily. As long as I produce results, even the people who pay me don't need to know the details of my methods. Often it's easier to keep them insulated from those details so I don't have to worry about them getting nervous. I'm sure that for some people my strategies wouldn't work. The important thing is to figure out what works for you, and when you find it don't worry too much if it doesn't match the common wisdom.