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by mirimir 2294 days ago
TFA is loaded with good advice.

However, there's one thing missing: Track your time, say in 10-15 minute blocks, with short notes about what you're doing. That can be integrated with your calendar.

I consulted for many years, simultaneously for multiple clients with multiple projects, so that was essential for billing. But I can imagine that it'd also be useful if you're dealing with managers with little experience of working remotely.

The idea of videoconferencing from home creeps me some. It's a privacy issue. And I do love working in bathrobes. It's comfortable, and makes for less laundry.

3 comments

> Track your time, say in 10-15 minute blocks

I've read this advice a lot, but quite frankly I don't believe it. 10-15 minutes block is too short, and it would probably take too much in terms of overhead (at least at the beginning).

Plus, it's known that 10-15 minutes is what it takes for the average person to "get in the zone" as in "focusing on something".

If we're talking pomodoros (25 minutes) that could work. I used to try 45-minutes pomodoros, but always stopped at around 30-35 minutes (focus lost, got tired/distracted, took a break).

Fair enough. It's mainly that 10-15 minutes is the minimum amount of time that gets counted.
Have you heard of Toggl? It's a time tracker that integrates with your browser and let you click click click on Google Agenda meetings, JIRA tasks, GitHub PRs and hopefully most of the tools you use, to track how much time you spent on it. I've used it since 2017 and it was a game changer: helped me reduce multitasking, produce factual invoices when billing hourly, identify what ate all the time in my day...

I'm sure there are also other alternatives out there but Toggl is the only one I have experience with.

I am willing to bet a decent amount of work from home folks don’t wear pants.
I work from home full time now. Have been for about a year. Before I started working from home, jeans, chinos, etc. for 10+ hours a day wasn’t bothersome. But now? They bug me. I do have different kind of sweatpants to wear during work hours. That does help demarcate the work day.
This is only anecdotal evidence, but unlike many other days, today, I am wearing pants.
I thought that was the whole point.
pants, no. sweatpants, joggers, shorts? (almost) always