Grant Holliday

Almost 2 years ago, back in November 2005 I started getting migraine headaches. I couldn’t narrow them down to any particular trigger (chocolate, red wine, smelly cheese) but they went away after a few weeks.

Well they’re back again, here’s what I know about them.

• Symptoms: the same as last time. Intense pain on the top-right side of my head. No squiggles this time, but I do get a watery right eye.
• Frequency: Average of one every three days for the past month.
• Timing: Always at night (with 1 exception)
• Relief: Warm shower / cold washer is not effective. Panadol + sleep is how I’ve been treating them. (going to try Ibuprofen next time)
• Food triggers: No common thread. I’m caffeine-free. I (temporarily) stopped drinking red wine. I don’t eat smelly cheese. I eat very little chocolate.

Conclusion: Stress

After exhausting all the possible food triggers, I’m only left with one possibility:

The single most common cause of migraines in individuals is stress.

The doctor suggested that migraines triggered by stress are quite cruel. They happen just when you start to relax after a stressful day. Some people also get “weekend headaches” which are the same concept but they happen after a stressful week. This matches up with my pattern over the last month or so:

Obviously the solution is to just work 24/7 and never relax. That way the migraine can never take hold. Errr… maybe not.

Solution: Reduce stress

In my ideal world, there would be little stress:

But before I can get to my ideal world, I need to start breaking the problem down (divide and conquer). One suggestion is that instead of having a large intense period throughout the whole day, break it up into smaller chunks:

So how did I get here?

Working from home is a trap waiting for you to fall in to.

I’ve got a great home-office setup that I feel very comfortable in. It’s got a 22″ widescreen LCD, a comfy chair, a window with an interesting view, a whiteboard, a recliner, a bookshelf, etc.

The problem is that it’s *too comfortable*. There are days where I barely leave the room. There are weeks where I barely leave the house. I’ve tried working from ambient places: a hotel lobby, coffee shops, library, etc. but I never enjoy it as much as sitting in my office. I can never get a VPN connection, power is hard to come by, no dual-monitor, no external keyboard + mouse – it’s just not the same.

I also find it hard to draw a line between work and recreation. Being a geek, my recreation is also on the computer, so it’s difficult to “switch off” from work.

Although I do enjoy some of the benefits of working from home (no commute, no parking, make your own lunches, temperature control, unrestricted internet, etc), I am looking forward to going back to an office environment. The things that I’m particularly looking forward to are:

• Interacting with other humans on a day-to-day basis (watercooler conversations)
• Walking around the place. Carpark, Cafeteria, etc.
• Physical separation between “work” and “home”