The three rules that made working from home work for me

Three years before the pandemic forced us all to work remotely, I was among the few whose commute was bed-to-desk.

Most people I knew envied me, but it was a tough transition to make, and I dealt with a lot of uncertainty before I made it work for me.

One year into working from home I was ready to give it up and get an office job again, but my wife and newborn started hanging out at home and it made things both easier to bear, and harder to manage.

Now, looking back to 9 years of constant adjustments, I can clearly see three rules that made working from home work for me.

I’ve talked about this before, and I’ll talk about bits and pieces of this structure for dozens of posts to come, but the idea of having a structure is crucial, no matter what form it takes.

You can’t just wing working from home, not if you want to do it long term. It’ll work great for a day, just randomly cranking out a task here and there, and it’ll probably work for a two week stretch.

Long term though, days will start to blend in with each other, boredom will start to resemble depression, wearing jeans every day will become sweatpants and then pajamas.

Yeah, been there.

Having a structure makes work feel like an adult commitment. It puts you in a different mindset.

This should go without saying. It’s obvious. But wow, is it easy to ignore.

Find something to take you out the house every day - a trip to the grocery store, paying a bill physically, seeing a friend, taking a walk in the park.

Find something to do, to accomplish while you’re out. For me, it was picking up a sport. I pack my bag and go to the gym every day - for practice, to lift weights, or just to chat with real people - and it makes the rest of the day feel much lighter.

I spent the first months of working from home on my couch, with Netflix on in the background and a bag of chips within arm’s reach.

During that time I got some things done, but what I also got done was to turn myself into a blob of a person, 20kg fatter and feeling at 0/10 all day every day.

Slowly, I built myself a workspace. First, the kitchen table, then a small desk in a (very tight) corner of my bedroom, nowadays a tiny office in the corner of the house.

The place doesn’t matter as long as it is a place. Work needs to be somewhere, or else it doesn’t put you in the right frame of mind.

These are things that I made work for me - at the same time, there are dozens that worked to a lesser extent (or not at all).

I’m curious, what works for you?