View Full Version : Working from home
Not really looking for advice or anything, but had an interesting day today that wasn't exactly what I planned and just thought I'd share.
As many of you know I left my job at international insurance mega corp last May to work for a much smaller UK based company that is working hard to get traction in the US in my particular specialty after building a decent amount of that business in the London insurance market over the last 20 years. The US subsidiary of my newish employer is so small that they don't have a San Francisco office, which is pretty rare for insurance companies. Consequently, I now work from home, for the first time in my life. My boss is in Chicago. For the most part I have LOVED working from home. Off the top of my head there are a bunch of reasons:
-I'm an introvert so not having to interact face to face with people every day is a plus.
-The time I used to waste chatting with coworkers at the coffee machine or whatever is now spent doing things like putting laundry in the washer
-I don't have to suffer San Francisco's abysmal transit system on a daily basis
-I get interrupted a lot less, especially in the afternoon since a lot of the people I have to interact with are on the east coast so they go home shortly after I get back to work after lunch, which allows me to focus on underwriting tougher accounts without interruption
Today I was struggling to stay focused after lunch (and had a few things I REALLY wanted to get done today) so I switched pandora to the 80's dance music channel. (The classical music channel just wasn't cutting it.) Shortly after that I texted a dear friend that working from home benefit #254 was being able to blast 80's dance music while I worked and not have anyone complain. About ten minutes later I realized that while I had indeed gotten past the post lunch malaise I was in fact not working, and instead dancing around the room and hitting the repeat button everytime my favorite dance song from the late 80's was about to end. And I will be likely be singing this incessant tidbit from Evelyn Thomas's "High Energy" all weekend:
Bum bum bum. badum bum. Bum bum badum badum bum bum. <repeat 500 times in seven minutes alternating up and down a half step each time>
Don't go searching out the song if you've never heard it. I don't want to be held responsible for putting a major earworm in your head.
Monday morning I will need to get started working a bit earlier than usual. I have a bunch of things that I had hoped to deal with today that I just didn't get to for some reason.
That freedom of working at home is enjoyable. Some can manage it, some cannot. Music is a wonderful distraction. Have you found the music that gets you to focus yet?
jp, I've worked from home for 12 years now, and I love it for all the reasons you cited. But I also often fall prey to the pitfalls. Yes, I've wasted many a moment due to my focus evaporating. I have a major deadline and all of a sudden it's imperative that I clean out the utility drawer.
I sometimes use music like you do to help me focus--either classical or soft rock. My best tip, though, is this: If I have a deadline or something I need to do, I take my old fashioned kitchen timer--the kind that goes tick-tick-tick and I set it for 45 minutes. I do not let myself go on the internet, respond to emails, or answer the phone, or think about anything other than the task at hand for 45 minutes. Have you ever seen how amazing football teams can perform in the final minutes at the end of the game? Well, it's amazing what you can do in 45 minutes when you focus with intensity.
That usually works, and now that tick-tick-tick has become a subliminal cue for me.
Catherine, I love the timer idea, and I have a timer, so I am going to try that.
I have worked at home exclusively for ten years now, and I like some things about it, like the flexibility, and truly dislike others--if I had scads of money, and the weather was good, I'd be happy in one of those shared office spaces where you see other people, have no barking dogs, and where you get to shut the door on work when you leave.
I love you word picture, jp1.
I really enjoyed SF's transit when I was there for work--I could get from Walnut Creek to downtown and navigate your wonderfully compact city using it. Apparently, it's deteriorated.
Teacher Terry
2-8-20, 12:37pm
My last year at the state I worked from home one day a week. Since retiring it’s been 7 years part time from home. All positives for me but I am disciplined. It doesn’t work for my husband at all.
That phenomenon where you'd rather do anything but the task at hand is real. Once when I faced a daunting income tax filing, I suddenly decided I needed to work on a quilt. If I could only fool myself into thinking I was avoiding some odious task by doing so, maybe I could make some headway in life. :(
razz, I've found that different music works for different times of the day. In the morning when I'm fresh I have a mellow acoustic guitar channel that works or I do the classical channel. It makes me feel happy and relaxed, the sun is shining, the coffee is hot (and way better than office coffee...), and the music not distracting. By lunchtime I usually switch to a jazz channel I've set up that plays John Coltraine, Thelonius Monk, Dave Brubeck and that sort of thing. By 4:00 or 4:30 I've usually moved on to my Ozzy Osbourne or Bruno Mars channels, or occasionally one of my dance channels so I can power through until 6:00 or 6:30 when SO gets home. (trying to work after SO gets home just doesn't work. He wants to tell me about his day and turns on the news, etc.) Most days this cycle of music works pretty well but I must not have slept well Thursday night because all day yesterday I was just tired and distracted and really wanted to be doing just about anything other than work.
I have a manuscript I've promised to deliver the beginning of this week. That said? We had various emergencies and whatnot over the weekend, so it didn't get done. I had to do it or at least get it started today...and it took a LOT of reminding myself that I need the good vibes from this job, not to mention the experience, as this is a new aspect of publishing for me...
I finally got going, but it was after lunch, sigh.
DH and I both work at home. Usually it works just fine. He was gone today and it was tough to put my nose on that grindstone!
This week my boss was in town so we had a bunch of appointments and it was all good. He went home this morning so I was focused on getting back on track. Busy day but all was good. Stayed focused until SO was leaving the office. At the end of the day I put on the Macklemore channel. There are just too many songs that get my heart rate up.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGhoLcsr8GA
So I’ve been using a timer today. Not in the way Catherine suggested, but because I’m doing an online class for my insurance broker license and I have to do 52 hours of ‘class’ time. Because I have previously done the NY broker class/exam as well as classes/exams that cover the same topics for a professional designation I don’t need 52 hours of class time in order to pass the test. But the online class requires me to click on it every ten minutes to remain in the class. So I’ve been setting the timer on my phone for 9 mi it’s all day long and clicking in the class and restarting the timer. What I have discovered is that I must be able to stay focused pretty well. Most of the time 9 minutes seems to pass rather quickly.
rosarugosa
2-19-20, 6:47am
Oh no, JP! That sounds like the height of tedium!
Oh no, JP! That sounds like the height of tedium!
It has been, but it's also been interesting. I'm down to 23 hours of required class-time, and 12 of that have to be the "ethics" chapter, so tomorrow I plan to mostly actually study the remaining eight chapters and then I'll again randomly click the class every nine minutes to get through the remaining 12 hours of ethics.
The interesting part has been realizing how long certain tasks of my actual job take. Talking with bossman today I told him about this and commented that it takes almost two full nine minute chunks of time to quote an easy, low hazard, small business account, due to the speed at which our systems work. He was aghast. "It should take maybe three minutes once you're done making your underwriting decisions." I agreed but said "this is how long it takes." He'll be taking evidence of this (a screenshot of my email outbox of my work product from Tuesday afternoon) to push the systems people for better options.
I have been working in the office for about 18 years by now, and 2 years ago I have switched to 50% working time in home office (for all the reasons you cite, jp1).
Although the first days of home office I was all over the place and "wasted" my days away (in my case it was not because of dancing unfortunately: it was because I have setup my pc in the living room, and I had constantly under my eyes the dishes to wash, the room to clean etc etc...), I got a grip of it and after that, it went wonderfully. Of course some day it happens that I spend time on something non-work related when I am at home but it does not happen often and overall if I average what I get done at home vs in the office on a time span of months, home office wins many fold over office in productivity. If I could , I would work from home every day- consider yourself fortunate :) btw, just a not about what made a big difference for me for "home-officing" was to start working in a dedicated room (in fact, is the sleeping room of my daughter...) instead of working in the kitchen or living room. When I sit on that chair, it tells me "office time" and I automatically get into the mindset of work.
I agree with needing a space that makes one think "office time". I took over our dining room table. We've eaten on it maybe 5 times in 11 years. Otherwise the room has just served as a wine cellar and the entry to our apartment. So when I sit down at my computer and stair at the monitors I don't think "home", I think "work".
I agree with needing a space that makes one think "office time". I took over our dining room table. We've eaten on it maybe 5 times in 11 years. Otherwise the room has just served as a wine cellar and the entry to our apartment. So when I sit down at my computer and stair at the monitors I don't think "home", I think "work".
We took care of my MIL for a couple of months when she had hip surgery. We turned our dining room into a 1st floor bedroom for her by walling it off. When she recovered, I decided to make it my office, and it worked great. jp1, I know you rent so walling it off probably isn't an option for you, but if SO works outside the home, that probably gives you enough quiet time, right?
I never missed that dining room. On Thanksgiving and other holidays we had dinner in that other vestige of 20th century homes--the formal living room. I had turned it into a library, but for entertaining I used my sofa table that extends to seat 8. Worked great.
Yes, SO is generally gone from 7:30 uNtil 6:30 or 7:00 at night. In general I work until whenever SO gets home.
It’s actually the cat that drives me crazy. For the first couple of months after his brother died he was pretty needy. That has calmed down in the last few weeks so things are better. I was having to put him in the bathroom every time I wanted to make a phone call because he wanted to participate.
Teacher Terry
3-7-20, 6:53pm
Jp, Too funny about the cat:))
He’s actually a sweetheart of a cat. Not as charming as his brother was but close. Since I started working from home I’ve been joking about him being my underwriting assistant and employee of the month. SO, when he gets home, routinely asked ‘Everett, did you bind any business today?’ Apparently my boss’s boss doesn’t find this funny for whatever reason. Several people I talk to regularly, on the other hand, love that he’s always in the background when we talk on the phone. I’ve got a blanket on my desk for him to sit on when he wants to ‘work’.
Meawwww! So cute :) I also work at home with my cat. She does tend to jump on my computer keyboard at times...then she goes out the room and I close the door -done!
Strongsoul
3-23-20, 5:33am
The only thing I know for sure is I started drink too much coffee at home (https://www.coffee-statistics.com/best-dual-coffee-maker/), because recently, I've purchased a new coffee machine for home. So, I make coffee every morning for all my family, but while I'm working at home, I started drink coffee twice, or three time a day, I'm afraid of the future of my caffeine addiction.
Maybe the second pot should be decaf? :)
[eta We brew half-caff just to avoid such issues...]
The large percentage of home workers resulted in the Internet crashing here at about 8:30. Fortunately, it came back just as I had tucked into Ronan Farrow's Catch and Kill.
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