The work from home debate and J-O-B's
Two interesting topics, especially since Covid, to dive into thanks to Tom
Came a great email from subscriber Tom the other day about “the grind” that was worth sharing and expanding on (emphasis/bolding is from me):
“It is busy, in fact, time organization is a real challenge, working from home with all the distractions and obligations coming from having a family... You may have already written about that - it would be an interesting subject to cover. Solutions can be having a separate home office (not practical with all the rooms already taken :-) ) or having an office outside of home (much better, but commute and expenses can be a killer).
<rant>
Maybe a J-O-B is the ultimate solution, having your mind at ease, not thinking about quotations, discovery workshops, invoicing, phone calls that could be replaced by a really good email, time trackers, etc.
</rant>”
Dare I say an A+ rant (or two) that I can definitely relate to. Maybe you can too?
Brings up two important topics: how to work optimally and whether entrepreneurship is even worth it. Here are a few of my cents.
I have covered working from home over the years so won’t dive too deep, but a few of my personal takeaways, many of which are similar to Tom’s, are:
I prefer working from home as an introvert and homebody in general
with that in mind, you definitely want a designated working area, aka an office, with good boundaries. That means you go there to work, and you leave there to do everything else. Otherwise things get too blurred and bad things can happen (probably even more important if you have family members at home too)
I despise commutes, especially long ones, which is another reason I like working from home. If you do decide to go with an office, my recommendation is within a 30 minute commute, max, and ideally you can mix it into exercise too (for example, within a 30 minute walking or biking distance)
despite loving working from home, I can go stir crazy if I don’t mix things up enough. This means a few times a month I’ll either work from a coffee shop, our investors office, coworking space, etc. If things start to feel stale, mix up your location
can also depend on your type of work. For example, I do a lot of sales calls/demos where I need a quiet space and it really helps to have 2 computer screens. Another reason why coffee shops/flexible work spaces aren’t amazing
Tom’s last sentence is an interesting one: is all of this stress and pressure worth it?
I’ll end with a classic lawyer cop-out answer: it depends.
Too many factors to consider, and for each of us there could be a different answer of whether a J-O-B would be worth it.
Maybe I’ll dive deeper into some of those factors in another email…
Have a great day,
- Josh Schachnow
Canadian immigration lawyer, CEO at Visto.ai
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