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Ask HN: What are your outdoor friendly remote work tips?

69 points by nsho ↗ HN
Do you do anything to allow yourself to spend more time outside whilst working?

I.e. laptop glare protectors, shadings for monitor or laptop, devices to keep laptop supported while standing or walking.

Appreciate any thoughts!

45 comments

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radihuq
+1 would love to hear some thoughts on this topic as well
ykevinator
Covered space is the best, sun is awful
telesilla
A good industrial umbrella with a concrete or iron stand will do wonders except for the brightest part of the day. I worked outside most mornings on a terrace in Mexico for a long time. Be aware of sudden showers if you live in a place prone to unexpected weather. Be aware of mosquitoes when the sun is not out. I found a good non-toxic insect repellant but it doesn't work for all.
notatoad
if you've got a patio door and can set your desk up near it but not actually outside, that's 99% of the benefit of working outside with 1% of the hassle.

working outdoors is one of those things that sounds nice, and it is nice when everything is perfect, but it's really not worth the effort most of the time.

meheleventyone
Yeah I swim outdoors every morning, work with the door out to my deck open if it’s sunny and will sit outside for breaks and to do meetings, read, study or make notes but for actual development do it indoors.
nsho
Yeah I have shared patio space available that nobody uses but is super sunny.

It’s in a bit of a cavern and I think it also captures some extra light from nearby building reflections.

So I’m trying to figure out what would work for me that doesn’t require a large picnic table/umbrella investment since I can’t keep it in the space permanently.

emerongi
Or a porch with a roof. I used to work on the porch with a forest as the background behind my screen. The village cat would come over for a nap around lunch and chill next to me for an hour or two. In the evening I went for a swim in the sea.

What an idyllic time.

MattGaiser
* Good sturdy chair. A crappy chair will make you want to leave in the middle of something interesting. A large lounger is my chair of choice as I can set peripherals/laptop beside me without putting them on wet grass.

* Shaded spot under a tree.

* Extra router or Wi-Fi extender so you aren’t limited to right beside your house/cottage. Hotspot might work as well depending on where you are.

* Plastic bag to toss your computer in if it suddenly starts raining.

* Umbrella or towel covering. I like to build myself a cave of sorts to keep the light away from the screen. If you really want to invest, get an umbrella with a steel base and steel rods.

* Your phone so you can still do your meetings even if the extender is spotty.

When I get a chance to do this I am doing it lakeside in Northern Ontario at my grandparents place, so your mileage may vary.

nsho
The thing about umbrellas is that if they are portable they are built for rain, if they are primarily for shading they are large and not portable.

I’m not sure what the solution is but neither seem to be a good fit for sitting in a park.

cbhl
Northern Ontario would probably be akin to Tahoe; folks with permanent setups in the backyard of a second house.

An RV with a retractable shade might be large and portable-ish, but RV ownership/maintenance is complicated by the current situation.

Are you thinking more Dolores Park, though? Or the big parks?

MattGaiser
> Northern Ontario would probably be akin to Tahoe; folks with permanent setups in the backyard of a second house.

Ya, this is me setting up a perch for a 2-3 weeks in my grandparents backyard. Far too much work for a park.

AlbertoGP
There are portable umbrellas built for protecting against the sun, for instance when hiking in deserts.

Search for “uv umbrella” to find them.

tomduncalf
I’ve tried this a few times but the glare makes it painful. I’d say set up looking out of a window if you can, open it up to let air in and take regular breaks is more practical!
SyneRyder
I'd reluctantly agree with this. I often tried working outdoors in parks, but I wasn't really as productive as I should be. Working indoors with big open windows & lots of sunlight has been better, and if you're actually productive you can free up more dedicated outdoor exercise time.

The best middle ground I found was working from a park bench in the corner of a rarely used bushland hiking trail. But I had to choose specific times when the sun wasn't too bright, and finish up before it got so dark enough for mosquitos to begin. Even then, ants would often become irritating.

If you can find a picnic table with a shade roof at a park (or sometimes near tennis courts), that can also work well for a while.

robotmay
I'm a big fan of working from parks in the summer. I've spent quite a few days by the river in my local city. Finding somewhere that's both quite calm and has some form of amenities is a nice mix, albeit not possible everywhere.

Battery life on your laptop is one of the more important things, as chances are your screen brightness is going to be maxed. Personally I just sit on the grass/a rock under partial shade with the laptop on my legs (and a Bluetooth keyboard over the trackpad for better ergonomics) and spend a couple of hours like that, then retire somewhere else. Haven't found somewhere new to do it where I now live, need to get out this summer and find a good spot.

nsho
Nice sounds pretty good.

Are there portable chargers available for laptops that you use and think are good?

Also what do you do for an internet connection?

robotmay
I've got a portable charger that will do my Nintendo Switch but not one that will do my laptop. I get about 3-4 actual hours out of my laptop (Dell Precision 5540 running Ubuntu) which is about enough for me, but I would like to explore more battery life. A small ThinkPad with a second external battery would be a pretty nice setup. I've debated the iPad, Bluetooth keyboard, remote connection setup; quite tempted to give that a real go this year.

For internet I have a 20GB data plan for £15 a month on Vodafone, who have the best coverage and data rate for me around Cardiff. I went through quite a few until I found one that had both good signal and actually decent transfer speeds; I ordered a bunch of different pay-as-you-go SIM cards and tried them out in different scenarios for that.

I work in Ruby and avoid any Docker or Node.js nonsense when I'm tethering so I've never run into trouble with my data limits :D

egman_ekki
There are some tips in the productivity post from Stephen Wolfram who sometimes walks outside while working: https://writings.stephenwolfram.com/2019/02/seeking-the-prod...

From my personal experience, it's usually a bit annoying. Macbooks have displays bright enough to work outside, but then you're burning through the battery quite quickly. When near beaches, grains of sand can get anywhere. When sitting in the shade of trees, little droplets of something sticky fall down. Insect everywhere...

nsho
The wolfram example is actually exactly what I had in mind in terms of using a device to allow you to work and walk.

Although I’m not sure where to find one.

moconnor
I used to do a lot of this with an iPad and bluetooth keyboard. I found you can work pretty much anywhere (in the park, against a tree, in a hammock) for an hour or so but after that you have to move on.

The pain points after an hour are finding shade, a comfortable sitting position and a good place to rest your keyboard at the right height. So, a room with a desk and chair.

I did have good experiences mixing outdoors with cafes and home working!

dimitry12
Have you explored stands for iPad to position it perfectly relative to your sitting position?

I mean, a stand you can attach to a chair or fix into the ground - tripod style.

daneel_w
Laptop with matte display. Avoid flat benches.
cerberusss
I have a MacBook Pro, which hasn't been available with a matte display for ages. So I ordered a generic matte screen protector. If you wear a black t-shirt and sit in the shade, it's entirely possible to work outside.

Battery life can be greatly extended with decently sized external USB-C batteries.

SyneRyder
And for pre USB-C Macs, HyperJuice made 100W batteries with some weird cable hacks to work with MagSafe Mac devices.

Also consider an external battery for your phone when using WiFi Hotspot when outside.

analog31
Position your chair so you will remain in the shade for the duration of your nap.

Nah, this is why I can't work outdoors. It's hopeless.

taborj
Solution: add chickens. They'll periodically jump up onto the arm of your chair to see what you're doing, thus startling you awake from your nap and reminding you to do some work before you doze off again.

In all seriousness, in the 9.5 years I've worked from home, I've spent 99% of that time indoors, even on super nice days. The problem? Neighbors. From the kids playing in a backyard to the neighbor mowing their lawn, then edge trimming, then leaf blowing, I've found the QRM (man-made noise) to be annoying enough that most days I don't bother. And you can count Thursdays right out; that's when the garbage truck is in the neighborhood.

It's the primary reason I'm on the hunt for property outside of town...

acd
Work inside take inspiration lunch walk in the park.
ashtonkem
Batch your low intensity operations for dedicated outdoor time, as they’ll be less sensitive to glare and laptop temperature considerations. I personally will take out my iPad Pro onto the patio when working only on my email.

For more dedicated time, I’d recommend a hiking hammock, as they can be positioned to shade your laptop screen a bit. I recommend a double wide, as it’ll leave you spare fabric to shade yourself with. Be sure to learn how to use your hammock correctly, or the center sag will hurt your back.

glup
I work on my roof in the East Bay all the time. Mt. Tam is very inspirational. I find the following useful: Matte / antiglare screen or screen protector; recent laptops have brighter screens (2017 MacBook much better than 2013); light on dark UIs ; and open sided tent or umbrella to keep my computer from overheating (can't put sunscreen on a computer); Prosumer or better wifi (I have had good luck with Ubiquiti)
Xcelerate
Do you have a picture? That sounds really nice. I'm in Redwood City, and my view outside is the parking lot next to the apartment.
blablabla123
I used to work regularly outdoor in parks, a good data plan helps and finding a comfortable spot on some bench is also good. Probably I'd also go for lean tooling (Terminal, vim) that doesn't use much battery, is well usable with the keyboard and small screens
dageshi
I worked for 3 months outside in Thailand. The place I was staying had a section of roof open on three sides just outside the front door. There was a big table setup there, almost like an outdoor dining room actually and I'd work every day from about 7:30-3 in the afternoon.

I don't think I've ever been so productive in my life, it was outdoors but shaded well enough that there was no issue seeing the screen.

nsho
Sounds really nice

I’m looking into whether there are relatively inexpensive temporary walls I can put up on a garage rooftop I have access.

waiseristy
Anybody have any luck with special 'direct-sun' laptop screen films? My T490 can crank the screen brightness just barely high enough, but requires that I angle the screen oddly in order to get good enough contrast to read comfortably.
devenson
I have not used such film but did one better--I had custom polarized sunglasses made with the polarizers matched to the exact angle of my screen's polarizer. So my glasses darken the world, but not my screen. Cost me about $250, had then made at Lens Crafters. I brought in my laptop, and worked with the actual technician to set the lens blanks up correctly in the lens cutting machine. The angle I wanted was 45 degrees off from what they normally do.
gpm
For working with a generic laptop that has entirely too much glare:

If you can, sit in complete shade. Against the wall of a building with the sun on the other side of it for instance. Bright surroundings is almost as bad as being directly in the sun, it's still going to make the laptop screen seem to dim. Early morning/evening works best.

If you can't get complete shade, wear black, sit at a 90 degree angle to the sun. Your goal is to minimize both light reflecting off of you onto the screen, and to minimize light hitting the screen/laptop.

lmilcin
- Don't be in a hurry to deliver anything. You will not enjoy surroundings and only be irritated by the inconvenience.

- Try to shift your work so that when you work outside you can do things that are easier on your eyes, don't require a lot of typing, good internet connection, etc. For example read documentation, do some concept work, etc.

- If your family is close by, ensure clear expectations before you start. Set ground rules (ie. when you are working and when you are available). Try to make it up for them.

dkarp
Make sure your screen is really clean and you’ll be surprised how much less glare you’ll experience
k00b
I mostly work in my backyard these days. My #1 tip: Get a big sun hat!

If you don't tan well you might want additional protective sun gear. Devices get a bit dustier/dirtier so be prepared for that.

It'd be nice to not have to recharge inside but even with my late 2013 Macbook, I still get a few hours of work done before needing a recharge.

mark_l_watson
I have shady places in my yard on east and west sides of my house. I sit where there is the least sunlight in a comfortable chair and a very light weight lap desk. Fresh air is good.