... and I mean, I used to subscribe to nearly all of the "separate work from life" advice. I've been working remotely since 2004 except for a brief 4-years in the office. It's the reason my desk is "sit-stand" and I spent $1000 on a chair; I wanted my work environment to be a work environment.

And it bled into everything else that I did. I tried to replicate the office experience in my home office and I really had no choice at the time -- that's how everyone I worked with worked.

But in some circumstances, you have enough control over your work/environment that all of those artificial boundaries prevent you from taking advantage of the unique productivity benefits that working remotely can allow. I don't stress over how much I work. I work around 45-55 hours a week. I spend no time in traffic so on an average week I have more free time than I had in the office. I'm allowed to complete my work during whatever time of the day works for me. So I do. I write boilerplate better in the early morning. I write complex abstractions better late at night. I complete more work in less time because I don't get hung up on keeping hours.

Sometimes I fight with a problem for an hour, head off to bed, wake up at 2:00 AM and have the answer in my head. Having my computer nearby means "I do it" -- ten minutes, fixed. The usual path that went was "I forgot all about that until something reminds me of it mid-day after I've spent half that day trying to fix it." And that happens to me enough to add up to a few days of time. I still work the same total number of hours in a week, but I am less stressed because things are being built better, fewer mistakes are being made and the "impact of my job on my life" feels like a lot less.

Reading through your list, though, it sounds like you are already a very disciplined person. Outside of "writing software", I am not (which is why your #1 is so important, I'd have a tough time working remotely if I hated my job). It probably works perfectly for people who share your personality. Most of the items on your list I have tried at one point or another and because of my personality/tendencies, mostly backfired. Most of the changes I made are centered around eliminating any friction related to "getting started". If my bladder isn't screaming, the first thing I do when I wake up on a week day is grab my monitor and turn it on/check work-related things. Within ten minutes, I'm awake, I get up and do the morning routine/breakfast/etc. But it keeps me from having to "do the drudgery stuff" when I'm ready to "start working" and it helps me to get into a "work mood" when I'm waking up -- both of which I hate doing, but doing them together feels like I only "take the hit once."

For example, I learned early on that I hated working in my office. I used to sit at the kitchen table with a laptop, sometimes while the kids were playing video games, but usually with a TV on some program I've seen a million times. I need the non-distracting noise and open space or I feel the need to get up so frequently that I can't focus long enough on the problems I'm solving. I carry my laptop between rooms when I'm feeling stuck and it often helps.

In almost every way the more I remove from "forcing an office way of working on my remote work life" -- essentially, giving myself as much freedom around where/when/how I work -- I am more productive and much happier.

And just to restate: I'm not taking issue or saying any of your advice is wrong. Most people do not work the way that I do. Maybe most would find working my way horrible or might lead to being a workaholic (my motivation for changing things was to work less and it worked ... for me). I get that there's probably a lot of folks who would have exactly the opposite experience doing exactly what works for me, or would find it to be distracting/problematic. I'm just putting this out there for the folks who are struggling following advice like this (everything I've said goes pretty contrary to the common wisdom about working from home including every bit of information every employer has ever sent me on the subject) ... So if my advice makes sense to you, maybe you're backward, too, and you need something different. ;)