March 4, 2009
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Working (sort of) from home
This past couple of months, I had a chance to work more from home. Sometimes I can come home before the rush hour and finish my day at home. A couple of times, I’ve been able to put in a full days worth of work from home. It saves on the commute and if I’m really motivated, I can get started by 7:00 AM.
Working from home isn’t that easy for me. I get distracted very easily. This is a fatal flaw for a procrastinator. On my worst days, I’ll be doing laundry and cleaning while work piles up. Oddly enough, laundry and cleaning are some of the things I procrastinate when I do my chores. I try to stay away from the TV. I’m a lot better now than when I first started. It’s like going to university for the first time. There’s no one around to supervise you. But when you work by yourself at home, you have to be very disciplined. I don’t know how some of you can do this.
Sometimes the noise from other condos and the traffic sound can can get on my nerves. If a unit near me is doing renovations, I’m dead. If there’s construction work on the road outisde, I know I won’t get a lot of work done. The other day, the fire alarm rang very briefly. There’s also the usual fire alarm testing, garage cleaning (we have to park elsewhere), condo inspection or water maintenance. But I suppose that’s the price I pay for living in a condo downtown. Eventually, I will need a better phone than the one I have. I’m also looking for a good chair as well. My ass needs a more comfortable throne.
There’s a relatively new coffee shop in my neighborhood. It’s called the White Squirrel. I dropped in there for lunch a couple of times when I worked from home. It’s small but cozy with wifi. If you’re ever down in Queen West – you should check it out. It’s a couple of doors down from Calfouti and across from Trinity Bellwoods Park.
Here are some food pics:
Winter melon soup with a splash of sesame seed oil
Chicken in sweet soy sauce.
Soup (pork based) with tofu, carrots, napa cabbage, fish meatballs and some dried scallops for extra flavor.
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Comments (17)
the winter melon soup didn’t come with a noodle? but i kinda like the soup, especially where there’s rice next to it. yum!
you easily get distracted with noise? how about getting those anti-noise headphones. that’s what i use in the office. the downside though is if someone is talking to you, you probably won’t notice.
I procrastinate at work already. I can’t imagine working from home…
My manuscript that we are aiming to publish last year is still unwritten
BTW, what’s that chicken thing in the middle?
that wintermelon soup likes nice, reminds me of my mum’s cooking… it also looks like parsnip soup, which i also like. i don’t think they add sesame oil, though, might ask my mum to do try it.
your chicken picture only shows a bit of the left side of it because it’s been pushed out of view to the right.
yeah working from home sounds nice but discipline is needed. it’s very much like my job, i need to send the notes i’ve typed within 24 hours of taking them down, but i tend to do it within 48 hours (which is ok, because i email directly to the students and they don’t mind).
the city coffee shops tend to look nicer than the suburban ones, and my area has none, from what i know. i’ve never tried doing work in a cafe, but i might try it one day.
Working from home can be real difficult, I get distracted easily. But, being a student I work from home almost all the time (except for when I require the studios).
Your winter melon soup reminds me of my HK home cooking….miss that so much!
Working from home, aka. telecommute? That’s impossible for me since there are too many distractions….surf the net, ice-cream in the fridge, Nintendo Wii, chat with neighbours etc..etc…and of course, there’s Xanga!
I never tried working from home. When teaching I did spend time at home preparing classes etc. Found myself in my shorts most of the day and just strolling around the house. I am ready to try it again!
yum! looks delicious!
i agree, working from home is a good and bad. if i am really motivated i can get a lot more work done at home than at work (since i can work longer hours and i don’t have coworkers bothering me), but i also can get distracted very easily. i think i’ve more or less got the hang of it now, but i still like going in to work for the social interaction and just to get out of my apartment once in a while.
I would never get any work done if I were to be at home.
I know that I’m too easily distracted. It’s bad enough when i’m in the office.
The coffee shop looks cute.. I love finding new places. I only wish I were in Toronto to wander around. Perhaps this summer.
Peace *~matthew~*
That (pork based) with tofu, carrots, napa cabbage, fish meatballs and some dried scallops for extra flavor looks SOOOOO good!!!
I would LOVE to try it!!! *slurpe*
This might sound like a complete rationalization, but I think some of those distractions are okay. Most of the time if we work in the office, there are tons of distractions and we don’t work an uninterrupted eight hours.
Washing the dishes, folding laundry, etc. give me breaks in the day. Since the work I do involves a lot of creative thinking and analysis of problems (how best to train information to people), those breaks let me shift my brain into neutral for a bit.
I find that when I sit back down to the computer, I often have a fresh idea or perspective on the work that I would not have arrived at if I had kept working straight through. Yes, it is easy to spend too much time on Xanga and it takes some self-discipline, but those interruptions aren’t all bad.
cool…..for me I don’t think I can work at home…..simply because there’s a ‘Bed’ hahahaha
The Chix dish reminds me of the Chicken Wing in ‘Swiss Sauce’ at Tai Ping Koon in Hong Kong
oh man Matt; ‘I can get started by 7:00 AM’ is so far out of my vocabulary when it comes to work! I work from home a lot and actually was the ‘test’ case a hundred years ago when the company I worked for then first wandered into the world of home-based work schemes.
I am ruthless about starting and stopping work on time when at home.
@Renatojr3 - some of those headphones (Bose) are expensive. If I use it in the office, I’ll have to get a mirror on my monitor so I can see if there’s anyone coming up behind me.
@Wangium - I never got the impression you were a procrastinator. ^^
It’s chicken in soy sauce. I sweetened it up but the secret is to add a few slices of ginger and shallots or the white part of green onions. Saute those first before you add the soy sauce. The darker part of the picture are just some thin slices of onions that have been browned and caramalized. I usually try to add squeeze in some veggies when I’m cooking for dad.
@stepaside_loser - there’s quite a few small coffee shops in my neighborhood along with restaurants and pubs. There’s 3 Starbucks within walking distance too. I don’t do any work there. I don’t have a laptop for personal use (just for work) so I don’t bring that there either.
@Dezinerdreams - I live alone so I have no one to blame. I remember doing homework on the dining room table with my brother and sister. It was chaotic.
@curry69curry - yeah I have to duct tape the fridge (so tempting).
@Fatcat723 - I know what you mean. It’s hard for me to sit still for a long period of time.
@kunhuo42 - I never would have thought you got distracted easily. I always got the impression that someone with your strong academic background won’t even notice if a band came marching through your living room. It’s interesting how we form impressions of fellow Xangans.
@bleuzeus - there are lots of interesting places to explore over here.
@tomatoboi - it’s easy to make, you should try it.
@christao408 - that’s an interesting perspective. Maybe I have a bit of “add” in me.
@agmhkg - hahaha, there are some jobs where you can’t work from home.
@AppsScraps - we have people out west that start early because they support the folks in the eastern time zone. It’s very easy to keep on working but I try to set a dead stop now.
@ElusiveWords - yikes, 3 starbucks. though i do like the atmosphere in there.
I wish I could work from home more often. But yet, big ass files are needed, and it’s too much work to drag them home
relax, no procrastinator is as bad as I AM. i’m the worst of them all.
Hooray for procrastination!… not.
The food looks yummy!