Ask HN: Work from home (WFH) setup

[n_t]

I have seen stories like these - Productivity boost of working from home (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17045308) multiple times recently. However, my experience was quite contrary. I worked from home for almost 1.5 years and it was full of ups and downs, mostly downs. Multiple distractions (kids [3yr and 8yr], wife, guests, network disruptions, etc) along with home office setup issues (chair, workstation, monitor height, etc) were always nagging every week.

However, every case is unique and mine was very specific to me. So, wanted to ask those for whom WFH eventually worked out, what is your setup? Chair, desk, monitor, IP phone, headphone, "do not enter" boards, other hardware setup? Timings, schedule, kanban, scrum, GTD, meditation, long walks, other discipline rules? Any tips/tricks which boosted your productivity?

[akulbe]

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!)

[riffraff]

kids can definitely learn not to bother you, my daughter used to come in the door asking "daddy, are you having a meeting?" cause she knows those moments are more critical :).

But they are kids nonetheless, if you are in your "office" room (provided you have one) and next room your kids are screaming it's still disruptive (though headgear might help).

If you have >1 kids and they are home sick, I suggest just working from some other place for a couple days.

[vidanay]

My ten year old son doesn't bother me when he is home from school. I taught him to program Scratch, Python and now learning C# so he gets as focused on his activities as I do.

I do try and limit his time to about four hours a day, then I deactivate his WiFi and send him outside to play until mom gets home.

[swalsh]

" but you can train your children not to bother you"

It really depends on the age, I'm struggling to get my child to poop in the toilet, I'm not sure he's ready to learn not to barge into the office when he knows his dad is in there.

[DoofusOfDeath]

> 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.

This approach actually worked quite well for me. For the first month or so there were some hurt feelings, but once everyone adjusted to the new "normal", everyone was fine.

[ericcholis]

I'm not sure if this your experience, but for me the interruption would be all too welcome. I'd love to play with my son (now 2), which would be a terrible idea in terms of productivity.

[coastal-fiesta]

You can always tell a Milford man.

[michaelbuckbee]

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.

[windlep]

What model of TV is that? I've been looking at going to a larger 4k screen for a similar reason, but am wary of the increased input lag all TV's seem to have (the dreaded molasses feel of the cursor).

Would love to find a screen around 43" or so without the lag.

[mcjiggerlog]

That's pretty cool - do you have a picture of the setup?

[owaislone]

What kind of computer do you use? Does it comfortably drive a 4k display with 9 screens?

[wordpressdev]

What system you are using to support that many sub-screens filled with applications??

[zie]

I've worked from "home" for over a decade now. I live in a van. I travel. I have a normal 9-5 type office job. I normally only travel on weekends, and spend the week wherever I happen to be that week. My internet is Verizon Wireless (LTE most of the time, but sometimes 3G). I do devops work (mostly ops/security).

90% of the time I'm out on National Forest or BLM public lands.

I work from a MacBook Pro. I do have an external keyboard (a MS Surface ergonomic bluetooth). My electricity comes from solar panels.

I've been working and traveling this way for ~ 8 years now.

It's a very, very different lifestyle than the rest of you, but it works out quite well for me.

So I would disagree that you need a $900 chair, I've spent about that building out my entire house(not including the price of my van).

I do take breaks often, to stand up, stretch, etc.

[oliv__]

I've been thinking about something like this myself and I'm curious what you eat and where you shower? Is it always cold food or takeout and does that not get tiring or do you have some kind of stove setup?

[matt_the_bass]

Do you have any pictures or write up about your van fit-up that you’d be willing to share? This sounds interesting!

[juliangoldsmith]

What's your workspace like? Do you have a desk and chair and all, or do you sit in bed with your laptop?

[larrik]

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.

[alexose]

I've worked from home for about a year and half now, so I'm not as much of an expert as others in this thread. However, I do have the experience of doing it completely wrong when I first started.

What not to do:

- Don't 'rough it'. Creature comforts are absolutely key. Get yourself a comfortable chair and the biggest, coolest, sturdiest desk that you can fit in your house.

- Don't interact with anybody in the real world while you're at work. When you're working, you're not at home. If you have a parter, you need to get buy-in ahead of time.

- Don't work without backup internet. A hotspot works. Ideally, it should fail over automatically. This is very easy to set up with UniFi equipment, which you should use anyway, especially if you're relying on wireless. Keep in mind that three nines of availability still means 10 minutes of downtime per week, and you can be assured that those minutes will be during your next company-wide presentation.

- Lastly, don't do this on the cheap. Recognize that you'll need to spend money on the right tools (see above) and don't forget a quality monitor, webcam, and microphone.

Working from home means that you don't get to blame management for having an uncomfortable chair, shoddy WiFi, or a slow computer. Recognize that maintaining a functional office is now your responsibility, and failing to do so only reflects poorly on you as an employee.

On the flipside-- Doing it well gives you superhuman productivity in the eyes of your coworkers. Plus, no commute.

[swalsh]

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.

[chasedehan]

>Windows for fun, linux for work.

That is horrifying backwards :) I'm forced into the opposite scenario with my job.

[znpy]

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".

[bcx]

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.

[rjspotter]

Standing Desk: Just a desktop from IKEA and some pipe from Home Depot

I get memory foam bath mats and replace them approx 1-2 times per year. I also have a yoga block and lacrosse ball at my feet so I can change my stance.

I've a 48" monitor on a stand that sits perpendicular to a window so I can look out the window and change focal length while thinking

Headphones are super important to me Massdrop x HiFiMAN HE4XX I wear them even if I'm not listening to anything.

Keyboard is an ErgoDoxEZ with a mousing mode so I never have to take my hands off the keyboard

I use the Mission Control Productivity system and sometimes the Pomodoro Technique if I'm having a hard time getting into flow

in my experience residential internet isn't any less reliable than the commercial internet I had when I went into an office

A nicer microphone is a must have for remote work so that people can hear you clearly in meetings. I use a Blue Snowball

I don't have kids but, if I need to ensure my dog will be quiet for meetings I just give her a kong. My wife is just great about not interrupting me.

[samastur]

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).

[cs02rm0]

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.

[lunch]

I'll offer a slightly different take--

I've worked from home full-time for about 1.5 years, coming from the standard open floor-plan tech company office. I live in a 1 bedroom apartment in the city so I don't have a dedicated office. Instead I work from my desk in the living room, the couch in the living room, a makeshift standing desk in the living room, or the coffee shop around the corner.

My quality of work and productivity is as good or better and I work less hours than before. You don't need an elaborate home office or expensive furniture, just a good work ethic.

[dboreham]

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).

[tlb]

It's great to work on your own, but not from your house. The ideal setup is to have a small office 10 minutes walk from home. When you're at the office, you only do work. If you find yourself being unproductive for 15 minutes, leave the office and go for a walk, or back home. That way you train your brain to associate one environment with working, and it becomes easier to avoid distractions.

[rdiddly]

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

[Tehchops]

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.

[sockgrant]

I have been wfh for 5 years and I have similar recommendations to you (jarvis bamboo, natural lighting, good noise cancelling headphones... dual monitors all that stuff). The only thing I'd add is for ergonomics. Back support when sitting -- for me the Better Back has done more than a chair can do.

https://getbetterback.com/

I've tried a few things for sitting and they all were crap compared to this.

[valar_m]

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.

[wink]

In my last job I did 1-3 days WFH per week.

I was often laying down on my sofa, occasionally sitting at a desk. Interestingly I usually managed to cope with a small laptop screen. But to be fair I tried to schedule the time where I really needed 2 screens to be on the office days or plug it in. Never had a dedicated desk, had to make room on my personal desk. (For me development work more often needs a "proper" desk setup, whereas ops and debugging go easily even on a 12.5" screen)

Distractions.. well, mostly not - but no kids and no pets. With other people around I could tone it down to "a lot less interruptions per day than in the office", but not always zero.

And wow about the network disruptions, I've always had more of those at work than at home :P

The downs were: too lazy to cook a proper meal for myself, so usually frozen pizza or something quick. No coworkers around (I tend to work for/stay at companies where I like interacting with the people.)

The ups were: no 2x45min commute, a lot less interruptions.

[joshuacc]

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.

[cygned]

Working from home for 5+ years.

Getting up at 4:50 am, meditating 16 minutes, work till 9am, walk the dog and eat something, then continue working till 3pm or 4pm, lunch, work till 9.40pm, 16 minutes of meditation. On weekends, I work till noon usually. My spouse respects my work and the time required, there has never been an issue.

Setup: MacBook Pro (13 inch w/ TouchBar), MagicTrackpad 2, 34" curved screen, HHKB 2 Pro (white w/out prints plus a wooden wrist rest). Consuming music via Apple AirPods, speakers or Atomic Floyd Superdarts. Simple chair and desk (don't care about that).

I have no special system to get things done. Sometimes, I turn off the phones and close email clients to work w/out interruptions. When coding, external things get ignored unless my business partners call. When I don't write code, I sort things by priority and required time to complete.