I've worked completely remote for the last 5 years. Before doing so, I read articles and sought advice. Most of the advice was the same — "try to get out of the house for a few days per week", "be sure your home office has a door", etc.
This type of advice is shallow, obvious, and unhelpful. The only thing that has worked for me is having a disciplined routine that I follow.
- Bed by 10pm
- Up by 5:30am
- Coffee made by 5:45am
- Protein smoothie for breakfast with coffee by 6:00am
- Yoga/dynamic stretching for 30 minutes
- Read through and reply to all emails and missed slack messages from the previous 12 hours
- Then work starts for me at 8am
- Pause work for 2-3 hours for rigorous exercise for 2 hours (BJJ)
- Dinner by 8pm
- Work for 2 hours
- Bed by 10pm
This is my specific routine. Your routine will be different, but the point is you need one, and it must be disciplined.
Going to the gym, coffee shops, meetups, social events, etc. will bring you friends and other acquaintances. It's the routine of your daily activity that will bring you mental health.
Doing the math... this looks like 1.5 (email) + 12 - 2 (work till dinner, minus break) + 2 (dinner to bed) = 13.5 hours of work a day. That sounds awful.
Totally agree with this, it does not have to be 8 hr exact. If you are working on something love then it is completely fine. We have all put in work in after hours and weekends. Plus it looks like he has very healthy routine of waking up early and going to the gym/yoga etc. I say in long run this is healthy.
No, I've never spent 13 hours on work in a single day, let alone decided it was normal to spend nearly 70 hours a week at work (assuming weekends off).
This type of advice is shallow, obvious, and unhelpful. The only thing that has worked for me is having a disciplined routine that I follow.
- Bed by 10pm
- Up by 5:30am
- Coffee made by 5:45am
- Protein smoothie for breakfast with coffee by 6:00am
- Yoga/dynamic stretching for 30 minutes
- Read through and reply to all emails and missed slack messages from the previous 12 hours
- Then work starts for me at 8am
- Pause work for 2-3 hours for rigorous exercise for 2 hours (BJJ)
- Dinner by 8pm
- Work for 2 hours
- Bed by 10pm
This is my specific routine. Your routine will be different, but the point is you need one, and it must be disciplined.
Going to the gym, coffee shops, meetups, social events, etc. will bring you friends and other acquaintances. It's the routine of your daily activity that will bring you mental health.