Why do we often feel non-productive when working from home?

It wasn't so long ago when working from home was sold as the entrepreneur's dream.

"Work from home, get stuff done while wearing your pyjamas, take as many breaks and naps as you want. All you need is your laptop and an internet connection," said almost every ad, every guru, every promotion. Maybe not in those specific words, but that certainly was one of the benefits, even if it was not explicitly said.

Then, Covid-19 happened. Many people were forced to work from home - and most of them discovered that it's not all it is cracked up to be.

Of course, you'll hear all kinds of stats. For example, research firm Valoir claims that employees who were suddenly required to complete their assignments from home only suffered a 1% productivity loss.

I don't know about that. It might be somewhat true... but only perhaps because most people work longer hours.

There was an article on Bloomberg that said that in the U.S., homebound employees are logging three hours more per day on the job than before lockdowns, according to NordVPN.

People are overworked. Stressed. Afraid of losing their jobs.

So "only 1% productivity loss" comes at a great cost.

Stanford economist Nicholas Bloom says that the global work from-home movement could actually generate a worldwide productivity slump and threaten economic growth for many years.

Now, let's back up a little.

A lot of people reading this email - and that probably includes you - either have a day job and are currently looking to build another stream of income, or are building a full time online income.

Either way, you're probably doing it from home, and if it's not your first day, you're probably already aware that maintaining a productive environment is challenging.

So what I'm going to do is I'm going to share things that worked for me when it comes to improving my work environment at home.

By the way, it's crucially important you pay close attention to this. Because your work environment can not only affect your decision making and performance... but mood and even physical health.

#1 - Have a Structure To Your Day

I don't mean you should join the 5am club. I know that this has been all the rage for a while now (if you want to see an extreme example of this, look up Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod), however, I think that we're all created differently. If you're not the person to naturally get up at 5am and you function best after midnight, why bother moulding yourself into someone you're not?

What you need to do instead, is have a structure. By all means, sleep until noon and get all your work done from 2pm to 10pm or whatnot. But do it with purpose, and make every day the same. The structure and the routine is what gives your brain peace and order - and once you don't have to think when you're up and when you're doing what, you'll find your productivity soar.

By the way, if you're afraid of having a "routine" because you think it will stifle your creativity, don't be. In fact, most of the time training yourself to create at a specific time of the day actually helps your creativity.

And get out of your pyjamas. While it's a nice soundbite, it hurts your productivity - because if you leave them on, that serves as a subconscious clue to your brain that you're still in "relax" mode, not "work" mode.

#2 - Have a Professional Space

Make it dedicated, too, if possible. Meaning, it's a place where you just work. Even if you have a small house or an apartment, figure out a way to have a corner where all you do is work. If you relax on your laptop, stop. Make it your work tool and get an iPad instead for watching YouTube videos, reading articles, and whatnot.

By professional I mean that you should only keep work related stuff in your field of vision as much as possible. If you make it happen, you'll find your ability to focus grows exponentially. The reason why this works is we only have a very limited amount of working memory available to us at any given time, and if it's constantly flooded with clues to stuff that's not relevant to what you're trying to do, you're going to have trouble focusing.

#3 - Know, At All Times, What You Should Be Doing

The best way to start the day is to hit the ground running with a clear action plan.

The trick is to create it the night before. Then, when you wake up and start the day, you don't have to wonder, and you don't have to decide anything. Forget about email for the first couple of hours of the day. Just blast through that to do list. And when you're done with at least 2 of your most important things, then you can pause and look at the email, and make sure you haven't missed anything.

You should also prioritise. For example, if you have a day job and are building a side business, you could decide that the first couple of hours of every work day belong to you. During those 2 hours every day, you work hard on things that will move the needle in your own business. Then, you go to work - whatever that means in this day and age, maybe you just log in to work and stay in the same place. But that's beside the point. When you work in your day job, you do it with confidence and peace... because you've already invested 2 hours into building your own business.

Conclusion

While working from home isn't all it's cracked up to be, there are quite a few things you can do starting tomorrow that will make you more productive and happy.

And, if you do this right, it will also let you work fewer hours - meaning, you could get back to normal sooner.

I hope you found this useful in these times where work habits are changing.

Drop me a note to let me know what you think.

#Learn #Earn #Grow #Succeed