[m0zg]

I just think you notice how unproductive you are more when working alone. If you were in the office, you could go get a coffee or spend an hour or two bullshitting with someone near a watercooler, or have a longer lunch, or sit in some pointless meeting. I've been working from home for the last year and a half, and as a consultant I only charge for the time when I'm working, and let me tell you, to work for 8 hours a day _for real_ is a pretty difficult thing. It's something people never actually do on a consistent basis as FTEs. In any given day in the office _at most_ half a day, if not less, is spent doing something productive.

And that's in a hard-charging company like Google. Other companies are worse: ~13 years ago I worked at Microsoft and we had a period where the team just didn't do any work at all, for like 2 months. Everyone still showed up and pretended to be busy AF, but nothing got done. Lots of meetings and watercooler conversations got done though. Lots of status reporting as well. By any traditional metric people appeared to be "productive". But nothing got done all the same.

[Kiro]

I'm watching TV as we speak when I should be working. Pretty sure I will do 0 hours today. It has nothing to do with "noticing" anything. I simply can't work from home while I'm very productive in the office.

[bitL]

Yeah, discipline might be an issue; remote work is great for those that have stronger will, not so great for those that switch to "home" mode. You need to have internal motivation to work.

[SirLotsaLocks]

Yeah, I am still in high school, so I do not have a job yet, but I did home school for a time, and I really don't have the ability to work anywhere near maximum capacity when I'm at home for a good week or two until I can get into the groove of actually working at home. after that though I feel more comfortable both with work and just in general and I get more productive.

[m0zg]

You can. Just turn off TV and start working. Require of yourself that at the end of each week you write a report of what you've done ("snippets" if you work at Google) and send it to your boss. I also track the time (per client), and so could you. It does require some discipline, but it's doable.

If you're so disinterested in your work, you'll find a million ways to goof off in the office also. Just because you're there doesn't mean you'll be productive.

[Kiro]

I don't have the will power or motivation. I can't just lie down in the sofa and watch TV at the office. Everyone sees my screen and that's what makes me work. Again, this is a forced WFH.

[thu2111]

What's interesting is it's the fear of this that makes companies reluctant to let people WFH. I've noticed whenever I talk to people about it they say things like, but why would anyone work if their manager can't see their screen? It seems like the world is full of people who don't believe their managers are actually monitoring their real output, just hours at desk.

I've been WFH/cafés for the last six years. I have occasional off days but I'm way more productive at home over the long run, than at the office. At the office I often find that I seem to have had a full day but can't actually identify concrete outcomes. It was just a long series of meetings, chitchats, catch-ups, interruptions, and so on.

[rorykoehler]

What's stopping you? Make a list of shit to do today and just do it.