Ask HN: Work from home (WFH) setup

I WFH a couple days a week. Nice monitor, nice desk, nice chair, dedicated room that serves as my office, etc...

That being said, probably the the most important contributor to this being a productive setup is we don't have kids. Can't imagine why you'd even think that would work out.

Have been happily working mostly from home for over a decade.

I think three things are really important: - have a separate comfortable working environment - have a routine - no kids

I don't think it matters what equipment you use as long as you like it and you yourself can separate when you are "in the office" and when not. I have a separate room, but separate computers worked for me too.

Routine usually requires some experimentation and negotiation with your company and your family, but once you find something that works, make it a routine.

Kids is a short-hand for consistent presence of difficult to control and to remove interruptions. Some of it can be ameliorated with a noise cancelling headset, but they tend to become uncomfortable before end of workday so are really only something to get you through occasional interruptions (like neighbour drilling or work on the street).

I'm guessing my opinion isn't going to be popular, but you can train your children not to bother you. This requires participation from your spouse/partner.

I've worked from home for four years now. We have a 6-year-old. And she has been taught not to bother daddy when the office door is closed.

If she comes up to bring me food, she is quiet coming in, and quiet going out.

As far as network interruptions, I have two Internet connections coming into the house, and my router fails over when the primary connection goes down.

Every single last issue you mentioned is solvable. If you're going to work from home long-term, then buy equipment that works for you.

In my case, I have a desk that raises and lowers, and my display is mounted on a VESA arm so that I can alternate between sitting and walking (I have a treadmill as well. You need to keep healthy!)

I worked from home very briefly (less than three months) while I was a full-time university student and was sharing a room with another student.

My setup was basically a "scavenged" setup: I carved four holes in the middle of a single-person ANEBODA ikea wardrobe in order to lower the upper shelf to a desk-like height. This way I had what could be called an "office in a closet" setup.

In there i put a 18" monitor and my thinkpad X220. I used the wardrobe doors for post-it, calendars and todo lists.

Frankly, it worked quite well. Consider a similar setup if you're tight on either budget or space (or both).

Also, a nice thing about that setup is that you can close the door and you don't see your "office"anymore".

chair, laptop, monitor, standing desk, headphones / mic for conference calls. my wife and son cannot be around, they're too distracting. i end up getting frustrated with them (can't you see i'm thinking?! :)

working from home for about ten years, as happy as ever (though I don't mind offices either, provided there's flexibility).

I didn't even have a proper chair and desk until some time ago, worked from bed, couch, dining table, standing, kitchen counter etc. I still do from time to time, but I wouldn't advice doing it :)

I didn't have kids for most of the period (I have a 2yo and 4yo now) and they're certainly disruptive, in my case they're not home most of the time now, so it's basically: work from nice desk and chair in the living room while kids are out, move to secluded room and close door when they're not. They definitely learn not to bother you too much, but they can still be noisy, for which a nice set of earphones might help.

If for some reason your home is expected to be too noisy one day, go work in some other place.

I have not done this for a long time, but I'd advice having a scheduled daily outing (go jogging in the morning or evening), it's good for your mind and body, and slightly more important than if you were working in an office, as you don't even have a daily walking commute.

If possible, try to separate work and home, i.e. separate "office room", to avoid the feeling of being always at work.

Been 100% WFH(office is 2000 miles away) for over a year now.

Have a separate room for the office. That being said, it's adjacent to the kitchen and has no doors, so there's still traffic.

I don't think kids are a non-starter for WFH. Have one ten year-old kid. I think it's about setting and enforcing expectations in terms of "work-time" vs. "home-time".

Of course, if your family doesn't respect or support you in that, you're going to have problems no matter what. Everyone(kids, spouse) needs to be involved in an honest discussion where expectations are set.

Architectural nice-to-haves:

* Doors on the office.

* Multiple floors, with the recreation room on a different floor.

* Plenty of windows for natural light

As far as equipment/hardware:

* Adjustable standing desk(love my Jarvis Bamboo)

* Good chair. I mean a good chair. Herman Miller Aeron for me.

* Dual monitors mounted on arms. Amazon Warehouse has consistent deals on Dell 27 in monitors.

* I use a MBP, so I've got a vertical stand and Pluggable TB dock.

* Logitech MX Master

* KBC Poker II

* Comfy, decent headphones

What's been huge for me is the ergonomic stuff(chair/desk). It's a big expense up front, but believe me, it's worth it if you're going to spending 8-10 hours a day there. Plus it's tax deductible. Do yourself a favor a splurge there.

Overall, WFH has been a huge productivity boost to me. I make sure my employer sees the benefits of my productivity as well, and I work very hard to ensure they have no reason to be displeased with my output.

Working from home for past 10 years. Major thing is having dedicated room with doors that close (really important now that I have two little kids (2 months and 2 years). Older kid know that when the door are closed she can't go inside and should not knock or yell at me. I am at my office just during office hours, after the workday is over I don't go inside this room.

Other than that just boring stuff: good chair, split keyboard (MS Sculpt), gaming mouse (Logitech G603) and single 27" monitor (HP Envy). I also have a nice sofa where I can lay and read if I want to.

One thing: if you have trouble "enforcing boundaries" (the psyc kind) then take steps to insert some kind of physical interposing barrier between you and your potential boundary-invaders. I've always had a separate building from the house to work in and find that invaluable. Outbuilding, heated shed, that sort of thing. In the past few years I've used an office 10 miles from my house (but close to my kids' school) that has no other people in it. Not sure if that still counts as WFH though.. Basically other people have to go out into the rain, or get in their car to interrupt you..

You definitely want to reduce cognitive load : avoid having to walk past the unfolded laundry or your distraction du jour, to get coffee, snacks -- have those things in your office space.

I find music very helpful for concentration. I switch between speakers and headphones during the day. Not sure why really but the change seems to keep concentration going. Invest in some decent sound equipment.

I have found that the right headset make a big difference for participating in conference calls (or whatever we're calling them now "formerly known as hangout?"). I settled on a Sennheiser model : PC-36 that has integrated USB so avoids the crappy analog ports on the PC. Bluetooth probably works nicely now but I've become so used to the PC-36 and I have three pairs of them.

You need a reasonably decent connection to avoid voice call frustrations. Doesn't need to be super-fast, but good QoS (low packet loss, jitter). The easiest way to achieve that in a home setting is probably to just get the fastest connection available from your fastest ISP. Consider deploying your own router that can enforce traffic prioritization so your kids' Netflix traffic doesn't delay your VoIP packets. We mostly use Skype for voice, which works ok, or Google. For PSTN interface I'm using Vitelity.net and Panasonic SIP phones or the Bria desktop and mobile apps. Google Voice might be an easier option for those who don't like debugging SIP and RTP protocols ;)

I've never been too picky about chairs and desk height and all that. I do like specific keyboards (Cherry Red) and lighting (fairly dim, diffuse, and balanced such that the screen is slightly brighter than the background).

Hi!

Here, working remotely for six years. I think that it's all about home-office, if you have a unique space, called office all changed a lot if not is still your house and you feel like extra-hours.

For this six years, for one year I didn't have a spare bedroom for the office, and that was bad, I was working from the dining room and a lot of problems. (As you have now)

Now working from a spare bedroom-office, with nice desk, large 4K screen, a good chair, etc.. Highly recommend. Around network problems, I have two internet connections, one for failover with another company, all wired, so I don't need to worry about the wifi.

Around kids, I don't have it yet, but a lot of my friends said that it's about that they should understand that you're working, and for that, you should have an "office".

Regards

I have worked from home 3-5 days per week for the past 4 years. I think there are two keys to being effective when WFH:

1. Minimizing distractions. Kids, significant others, television, etc. can make it extremely difficult. IMO, there are two main reasons for working at home: convenience and avoiding distractions. If you can't do the latter, it may not be worth it.

2. Maintain a work routine similar to your office routine. Keep your normal morning routine -- shower, get dressed, eat breakfast, etc., but instead of leaving the house, go to your home work area. Set a start and end time for working and stick to it. Take breaks and lunch the same time you normally would.

As far as setting up your home office/workspace, try to re-create the elements of your office workspace that you like. If you use a dock station or large/multiple monitors at work and that's effective for you, setup a similar configuration at home.

Also, invest in a good chair. I have a La-Z-Boy office chair that I believe I paid $250-$300 and it is outstanding.

I've been working from home for over 6 years, with young kids and a stay-at-home-wife the entire time. I wouldn't have it any other way.

1) You need a good chair. No, a good one. If it's not at least $500 new, then it's not something to consider. I picked up a used Aeron chair for $350 (drove 90 minutes to get it), which goes for $900. Unless you are doing a standing desk thing (which I wouldn't at first unless you are already someone who does that), then you need a chair that will let you sit for a while and not feel a thing. It's the most comfortable chair in my whole house, because it needs to be. No other one gets used 40+ hours a week.

2) You need an office. You can't work from the kitchen table or the couch or your bed. The office doesn't need to be a den or bedroom, but it needs to be dedicated and ideally somewhere you can be undisturbed. Honestly, your kids shouldn't be allowed near it, even when you aren't working.

2) You need to keep set hours, and you need your family to respect them. This is a job. You aren't on vacation or fooling around. Do work at work times, and home at home times. You'll find you can blend them once you get the hang of it, but you shouldn't let work bleed too much into home time, and you can't let home intrude onto work when you aren't in a place to accept it. Ideally these set hours should match the rest of your team, or at least heavily overlap. In the end you need clear "work time" and "home time", like everyone else gets, except you don't have to commute in between.

3) Family buy-in: your family needs to understand that you need to be professional and are NOT available whenever is convenient for them.

4) Environment: I don't think any specific desk will help you more than others, but you shouldn't be sharing it with the kid's homework or your wife's projects or anything like that. It should be work only, and either be clean and empty, or have work stuff on it. In terms of other equipment, that's very specific to you and your needs. Of course, I've really only had a single network outage in that entire time.

5) Sometimes working from home is awful for you, and you shouldn't do it. It's not for everyone.

I can’t do it. I go to a share office.

I've done full remote work from home, and one day a week.

Starting with the one day a week: I dedicated a day a week to studying, reading, learning, growing. Anything that required a book. I had a hard time concentrating on the job so I was grateful they let me leave whenever I needed to. Also, the building was walking distance to a joint library cafe. Score!

Full work from home / remote:

I did 1 and a half years working remote for a startup where I was the only software engineer. Communication was rarely needed, sometimes giving me 5 weeks at a time on my own. I was also local to the company, so if it was ideal to come in to talk with my boss, it was easy to do. I think I came in roughly 8 days in a year and a half.

During this time I shared a room with my girl friend. Her desk was next to mine with plenty of space in between us, enough where I couldn't see her monitor without leaning over. She was quiet during work hours, but not like headphone quiet. I'm slightly ADHD so having some background music out of my speakers and/or her having background noise out of her speakers aided my concentration. Also, we kept volumes reasonable so no clashing noise/music or anything like that. Also, if I needed it for any reason, I could ask her to put headphones on.

I had room mates who pretty much lived in the living room. They had desks setup behind the couch and had background tv going on seemingly 24/7. It was pretty great, because for lunch or if I needed a break, I could go sit out with them and watch some tv or a movie and just hang out. Likewise, they were pretty chill, so if I was in a thinking on a problem kind of la la land state they never distracted or took away from that, so I'd still get the environment without the distraction.

I lived two blocks from a cafe, three from a 7-11, 4 from a trail that would go out to a lake. And it's the SF/Bay Area, so weather is pretty nice all year around, so I could go for a walk any time I wanted.

Being at home I did have an exercise routine and a kind of neurological depression slowly kicked in. It wasn't a typical pessimistic kind of depression with a lot of woe, but more like a zombie like state where I wasn't quite aware of what was going on with slowed reflexes. It left me somewhat antisocial. I'd stare blankly at people on the street that would say hi. I ended up taking the dog out for a walk and 30 minutes of walking would clear it right up. It was weird, like walking out of a fog I wasn't aware was there until it was gone.

Was it hard or challenging? No. I excel in a work from home kind of environment. The more spacial reasoning a problem requires the harder it is for me to concentrate on it unless I'm in a place comfortable enough for me to close my eyes and feel safe. A cube doesn't do that for me. Anyone can come up and touch my shoulder or look at me or whatever. At home I can jump on my bed, close my eyes and just visualize what I need to, then jot it down. Of course, these kinds of problems are not the only kind of problems, but they're the ones I benefit from the most from being at home. I benefit from studying as well. It's easier to read a text book and concentrate on it. Also, it's way easier to unwind and fall into a diffuse mode of thinking while pondering on a problem at home or walking. I often do this while youtube is playing or while I'm surfing Reddit. The fear of looking like I'm not working keeps me from utilizing this helpful part of the mind in the work place.

Working from home does require some skills, but the bar isn't high. It comes down to organizing activities. Every day creating a new schedule is massively helpful. Also, ordering tasks that take the most concentration first in the day is super helpful, because concentration goes down as the day goes by. Organizing space is very important. Having an office helps a lot. If you do not, a clean desk and a separate login for work is a mu...

Been working from home for 10+ years.

OFFICE

I have a full dedicated bedroom setup specifically as my office. While there have been a few issues with boundaries, having that physically separate space mostly solves that. It helps that it's on the second floor and away from the 1st floor with the traffic of kids and family in and out constantly.

My desk it setup facing towards the windows (no glare). I have a ceiling fan and a dedicated air conditioner so it's always a comfortable temperature.

DESK SETUP

I use a 55" Curved 4K TV as a monitor along with a standing desk. The center of the TV is ~3ft from my nose.

4k -> It's like a grid of 9 laptop screens. I use Divvy as a window manager and have it split into multiple sub-screens. Typically my setup is to have my code editor in the center and then array around that with terminals, documentation, previews, chat apps, etc.

My goal is try and cut out alt-tabbing and context switching as much as possible: use live reload, auto running tests, dedicated virtual desktop per project.

Curved -> The curve helps quite a bit with the larger size and using it as a monitor. I upgraded from a flat 42" 4k and that was close to the corners being too far away to be usable.

Standing Desk -> I'm a weirdo and just stand all the time, the desk doesn't even move. I use a thick standing mat and sometimes a balance board. Also, the combination of 4k + Standing is great b/c you can lean as needed.

NETWORK CONNECTIVITY

I've got an unremarkable (and relatively) quite slow residential cable internet package. The few times there has been an issue, I've tethered to my phone as backup so I could stay online.

Hope this helps.

have been working from home for almost 5 years. i travel 2-3 times a week for meetings so try to schedule all mtgs during those days. doesnt always work, sometimes have to travel for a half day, or do random calls throughout the day, but nowhere near as distracting as random interruptions working at an office

i track my productivity and am doing productive work ~65% of the time. i used to use pomodoro method but now sort of do extended pomodoro (45 min on, 10 min off), with 1.5 hour break midday to exercise and eat lunch

my gf lives with me but works away from home. when she gets home i either stop working or go to starbucks (small apt so not really fair for me to enforce silence / no distractions while i work)

i just have a desk and a monitor / keyboard / mouse from my old job. but ive had months long stretches working on a coffee table with just a laptop which is generally fine. just use iphone and default headphones for calls

I more or less have ONLY worked from home for my entire work career, so my experience might be different than most.

Like many of the commenters here I think the following are key:

#Creating Time for Work (work hours)

- This could mean setting hours for yourself, closing a door, getting yourself in a certain mindset. Setting clear expectations for others in your life that you are 'mentally' at work even if you are physically present, this is ESSENTIAL.

#Creating Space for Work

- I've worked at home through remodels, nannys, and guests. If you have a one room apartment, and a few kids, working from home is likely impossible. However, if you have at least two rooms with some separation of space. You can close a door, go to a coffee shop, or generally find somewhere where you won't be distracted.

#Creating time and space for NOT WORK

- This is probably more of a challenge for startup founders and work-a-holics but if you don't. You will not be productive. period.

#The ability to focus and prioritize work

- I am blessed with the ability to block out distractions when I am at home, and be very focused on what is going on, on my computer. I have no idea how to describe this to others, but I can often miss comments from my wife, text messages, etc when focused on a task.

#Some basic nuts and bolts:

- You need good internet - You need backup internet (I have both a Verizon hotspot, and LTE on my iphone) - You need an employer and coworkers who understands that working remotely requires a vastly different set of communication protocols than working in an office.

A pair of these: https://www.amazon.com/Bose-QuietComfort-Acoustic-Cancelling...

...and this: https://www.simplynoise.com/

Works great at the office too, or on the plane/train/etc

i don't have to worry about the distractions so much, my wife works from home now also, but we have separate offices.

barring that the one thing I would advise is trying to get out every once and a while. since I have an infinite amount of work, and cook meals, its entirely possible to spend a week without leaving the house.

I find my productivity goes down pretty drastically just sitting the in same spot day after day.

taking a 30 minute walk in the afternoon helps alot

if I get up and do something else involved, I may not get into the right mood to start working again afterwards, which is another hazard.

still working that out

It's all about the dedicated room for me.

https://i.imgur.com/ehJKHJ9.jpg

Aeron chair, 4k monitor, some storage. I shut the door when the kids are home, I know which cafe I'd head to if the internet goes down, but it doesn't.

I've been working from home (basement office) for about 4 years. I've recently concluded that in order to minimize sound-related distractions I need to finish my basement office with full-blown soundproofing.

The alternative is to impose a really onerous burden on my wife and kids to be quiet, which is particularly difficult during summer vacation.

Unfortunately the project isn't cheap. In the end I'm probably looking at $15-20k for the final result.

For distractions, my office is on the basement level, separate from everything else in the house. There is a baby gate at the top of the stairs to prevent the kids from entering. My wife is very good about not interrupting unnecessarily. Guests may come over during my workday, but the most that I will do is say hi and then go back to work.

I built a standing desk out of a solid wood door and stainless steel pipe. It is at the perfect height for my wrists to rest correctly when typing. I mostly stand on a rubber mat, but I also have a bar stool I can rest on occasionally.

I have 3 external monitors (2 wqhd and 1 1080p) as well as my laptop screen. The externals are at the perfect height. The laptop screen is a little low, so I just use it for supplemental things that I don't have to look at for long.

I've used my phone maybe 4 times in the past year, so for that I just used my cell phone. I use WebEx, HipChat Video, and Google Hangouts to videoconference with my coworkers. I use a Kingston HyperX gaming headset, which works phenomenally well.

I follow the exact same routine every day. Drop the kids off at school. Start work at 9am. Pick kids up in the middle of the day, go back to work. Sign off by 5pm.

I use GTD, implemented using a Filofax organizer, with a custom set of inserts. For me, it is essential that my task management system be paper based. It's easy to reference, and unlike phone/computer based task systems, it doesn't set me up to be interrupted/distracted. I also use a kitchen timer and the pomodoro method when I need to be most productive.

At a minimum I go on an hour long hike with my kids every evening, but I also supplement that by going to CrossFit one or two times per week. When I am able to go for multiple short walks during the day and do some meditative prayer, that's when I'm most likely to be at peak productivity.

I WFH and I move around a lot, so I’m constantly re-setting up my office and trying tweaking my current location to be productive.

I need a room separate from the bedroom or other living spaces that’s very quiet. This helps me separate work and life and keep me in the work zone when I’m “at work.”

I’m off-limits to friends and family during work hours. I keep a strict work/life schedule. This can be truly awkward since popping in or asking for a quick favor seems like no big deal from their perspective, but is productivity destroying from mine. No kids, and I honestly don’t know how anyone can have their office in the same house as children.

Comfortable ergonomics. I’ve stashed a few folding plastic desks(the kind you can get from wal-mart) in various locales, along with office chairs I find comfortable. I also don’t hesitate to buy another $90 external display when I need one. My bluetooth keyboard comes with me since I find it’s too much of an interruption to adjust to a new key layout.

Excellent headphones, non-isolating for calls. Being able to understand people in a conference room is a huge plus. I used to use pricey open-backed Grado headphones (the frequency response seemed to be well matched to voice), but I’ve been recently trying to use cheap earbuds from ali express that have good hifi audio recommendations and that seems to be almost as good(Monk VE at the moment).

The laptop comes with me, but my SO has been using Amazon Workspaces (a hosted workstation) which seems promising from a security and redundancy standpoint. Laptop bites it? Just dust off a backup machine and log back into the server.

2 or 3 levels of internet connection backups. I prefer to use a wired connection for my primary. I always have at least one LTE network as a secondary and usually a second on another carrier. I use google voice so if the cell network goes down I can still receive VOIP calls to my business line.

Put yourself close to your hobbies. Since you don’t have to be commuting distance to the office anymore, make sure there’s something you love nearby, preferably right outside your door so there’s a very low barrier to entry. Surfing lunch break? Morning Hike? Afternoon cycle? There will always be WFH downsides, so set yourself up to enjoy the upsides.

Keep your people nearby. WFH is isolating, so don’t isolate yourself. SO and I spend most of the year within 10 minutes of family. We’re planning on spending a month near friends later this summer.

People have the equipment thing down, and the separate office thing has been mentioned already so I'll try to add something new.

Open up your /etc/hosts file, think of EVERY website that's not work-related that you visit regularly. And redirect it to 127.0.0.1.

Once you get working, you'll forget its there... but especially if you use this computer for non-work things, it can be hard to get the engine started.

Another thing, I dual boot my computer. Windows for fun, linux for work.