Semi off-topic Sunday. I’m not great at predictable weekly style articles.
Today let’s look at why I tell all my clients to scrap their home offices.
Whenever I used to go see someone and they have a home office, I’d tell them that I won’t talk to them about eyesight until that office is absolutely gone. I’ve dragged office desks hidden in the garage out onto driveways, and smashed them. (just once, that) Partially because I’m probably a bit strange, a bit because it’s sometimes necessary to shock people, and mostly because home offices are the bane of your eyesight health.
Whatever. So, why no home office?
You probably already know my story. Jake, who started this whole journey with a -5.00, “high myopia” prescription. Trial and error, eventual recovery to healthy eyesight.
One thing I learned is that you really need to get yourself away from close-up as much as absolutely possible. Every little way you can come up with, to keep yourself away from screens.
For me, the core habit on that front is to never, ever work at home.
The habit programming for this one is to not work whenever I eat, sleep, relax. It might sound like an easy habit to break.
It’s not.
Once you build a real solid habit, it’s like an invisible fence. I’ve been doing this for years and at this point I quite literally can not work wherever I live.
Whether that’s a hotel room, a four-week Airbnb rental, a house with a private office, I can’t work there.
I have to physically get outside of the structure, I have to commute somewhere, to be able to work. And that’s not even all. I really only can get good work done if I’m in a coffee shop. There have to be people, coffee shop noises, and I need big window with lots of natural light.
You think I’m exaggerating.
But it’s the truth. I’m simply getting nothing done, if those conditions aren’t met. You know how that came about?
Way back when, I started tracking my close-up time, and all the pieces that created it. I started looking at the bits that didn’t need to be there, vs. the ones that were indispensable.
I found that making close-up like an island, something I’d have to get to, to help add a lot of distance vision time. So much so that making this into a piece of the puzzle for clients, turned out to improve their eyesight 20-30% better than for those who didn’t apply these tactics.
Working at home is a significant, major draw for uninterrupted close-up vision. It’s something I work to eliminate for clients, and also for myself. For months after I decided to never work at home, I always sought out a coffee shop with nice natural light I got a lot done there. It became so much an expected environment that I started to gravitate towards that type of setup. Over time it became more and more a “must have”.
These days, it’s all that works.
And I did it on purpose. Because I knew this would add quite a bit of outdoor time.
I relocate myself a few times a year, usually. Put it on the list of strange guru living. I like to move. Pack a small daypack size bag, sell or give away everything else, and just get on a one way train or bus or plane ride.
Take into account your own lifestyle, when looking for hacks for more distance vision time.
For me this means having to find new coffee shops with big windows. It means exploring neighborhoods, it means riding around (remember, Tikit), and eventually as routines develop, it adds more or less an hour or more that I’m in transit to and from my work spot. That and usually coffee shop means other outdoor distractions, places to wander around, things to do.
Compare that to working at home, in a home office.
I used to spreadsheet track my hours. This one little habit, never working in a home office, literally added hundreds of hours of distance vision time for me. Doesn’t seem like such a big deal, but those hours are absolutely key to healthy eyesight.
Long story short: If you have a home office, and use it, get rid of that space. If you can wake up, scratch your nappy head, and wander over to your home office, you have way too easy of a setup to get no distance vision time. Replace it with a bike, or a scooter, or a skateboard (yea, I don’t care how old you are), and some neighborhood coffee shops. Replace that giant iMac with a Macbook Air, and your pajamas with some faded jeans and beach life t-shirt. Grab some cool sunglasses and motor out there, to get things done.
Realize that habits are hard to break. If you have a home office, it’ll be calling you. Turn it into a movie room. Black out the windows. Move the wifi router far away from it, turn down the power so you don’t get a signal there. Sell your desk and the chair, and your keyboard. Make it as work un-friendly as possible.
Home offices, not allowed.
You know, besides all the how-to guides and hands on things and prescription talk, the ultimate key is using that vision you are trying to rebuild. Distance vision. Get some use for it.
Some previous work spaces:
Saigon coffee shop. Brilliant work space.
On the prowl for a temp work space in Kathmandu.
Some little town in … Bulgaria, I think. Coffee in the square.
A few weeks in Istanbul. Easiest place ever to find coffee shops.
Six months in Budapest. Right around the corner there, my favorite coffee shop.
Just landed in a place not ideal to venture outside to find coffee.
Serbia, most likely. Tikit made the shot.
Budapest. Summer basecamp. (though that, fall shot)
Where coffee shop usually also means great Hungarian food.
Winter basecamp, Asia. Vietnam or Thailand or somewhere. (with close-up glasses)
Where finding a coffee shop sometimes involves detours.
And Berlin. You have to watch those Germans, when they say “let’s have a tea”.
Vietnam. Great Internet speeds, chilled coconuts, very few cars. Highly recommended.
Seriously. Vietnamese coffee.
Yes. Never work at home.
And I know. You life and my life, probably not exactly the same. Rather than a point by point comparison, just use these stories to draw some inspiration. Color outside the lines a bit. Consider how much health and seeing the world is worth, over existing routines and lazyface conveniences.
So. Will this article be a waste of time, or productive new idea? In other words, are you reading this from your home office?
I’ll offer you this… half-a**ing life, is what most people do. Read a self help book, nod gravely, make a few quick excuses, remain a slave to existing habits.
Tear that thing down. Don’t one day be the half blind, wearing progressive lenses old person. Don’t end up fretting over lattice degeneration diagnoses, don’t end up squinting at your life, making things better just for some French lens company’s stock trends.
Be a good example for your kids. ;-)
Cheerios,
– Jake
