In chatting with my excellent therapist, we talked about some of the negatives of remote work. These are not insurmountable issues, mind you, but even for as long as I've worked remotely, I often forget about them.
The first is that the place that you work is the place that you live. Sure, you do your best to carve out a proper office, with a door, but it is still your home. You're a few dozen feet at most from where you make dinner and binge watch The Last Of Us. I think this makes it harder to unplug and disengage when it's time to be with your family. For me, it has always been harder to stick to a schedule. When you commute, there's a natural buffer between stopping work and getting into home life. That doesn't exist when remote.
I think this is why I am so adamant about always having a trip of some sorts on the calendar. Travel isn't just seeing other places, it's not seeing your workplace, which is otherwise always there, at home.
Being present is hard enough, but for me at least it works best when I'm not at home. That's why I go out for lunch so much. It's hard not to think about work when work is at home. Doing that can come at the expense of family and other priorities. We have to make space for this, and that requires a little creativity.
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