Productive Energy and your Environment

Where are you most productive? Graphics courtesy of undraw.co

I’ve been working from home everyday for the past 2–3 weeks. While working from home isn’t new to me (I used to do it an average of 2 days a week), working from home all the time certainly is. So, what have I learnt during this new and exciting period?

Well, for starters, The Witcher was a really good show!

Netflix aside, I’ve found that my productivity waxes and wanes in differing ways, based on where I work.

Let me explain.

AT THE OFFICE

During days when I would be at the office, I found myself to have fairly regular patterns of productivity — I could work quite well during the normal hours of 9–5.

Within this period, my productivity would change, of course. I’m usually most productive in the mornings, take a bit of a dip in the afternoons and pick up again in the evenings. But despite that dip in the middle, I would work through it and, generally, did so quite successfully.

This allowed me to compartmentalize my day quite well — early mornings were for personal growth objectives, 9–5 was work and after 6 was my wind-down.

AT HOME

Naturally, I wanted to live that same, well-compartmentalized day at home as well

So, on days that I worked at home (this was pre-Covid19), I endeavored to follow the same patterns — after all if it worked at the office, why not at home?

But I generally felt less productive overall at home — hence my decision to work at the office more often than not. Despite my best efforts, I wouldn’t get much done at home in the afternoon, which frequently meant I crammed way too much into my evenings and that generally overflowed into my nights — not the best experience 😅.

This also meant that I usually ended my day feeling more guilty about whether I was productive or guilty about other things I’d sacrificed to get my work done by the end of the day.

This isn’t, by any means, new. It’s a common pitfall of working from home — working all the time. That’s hardly what I’d call a healthy relationship between work and life.

SO, WHAT’S THE NEW PLAN

I’ve recently started experimenting with a new work structure for myself, where I work as usual in the morning, take a break during the afternoon (around 1pm) and start again in the evening (around 4–5pm) — then I continue to work till about 8–9pm.

I’ve found this to be far more effective for me, where I achieve more in a day than before.

Another reason I like this as a strategy, rather than an unspoken thing that “just happens”, is that it makes it easier for me to end the day feeling less guilty about how productive I was or how I was spending my time. i.e. rather than sacrificing something important to me (like sleep or family time) for more work time, I simply re-organized my time allocations to be both productive and fulfilled.

Now, I take that nap or spend more time with family in the afternoon when my productivity naturally wanes and go back to work in the evenings as my productive energy is replenished!

These are my afternoons now 😀

BUT WHY IS THIS NECESSARY AT ALL?

My current theory is that it comes down to environment (did the title give it away? 😏). At the office, the environment is one where everyone is working — it’s, therefore, easier to tap into that productive energy and get down to it myself. It’s easier to work through that afternoon slump, because everyone around you is doing it too and there isn’t really much else to do.

But at home, most people in my household take a nap in the afternoons — goodbye productive energy, hello sleepy energy! It, therefore, becomes harder for me to resist that afternoon slump and get back into gear. Let’s not even mention the fact that my workspace is in my bedroom and literally a step away from my nice, soft, comfortable bed (a generally accepted productivity no-no). Sigh 😔

SO, HOW DO YOU GO ABOUT IT?

What’s nice about remote work is that, with the right levels of communication, shifting your work around is possible. If you’re lucky (like me 🙏🏽), most of your work doesn’t have tight deadlines (it tends to fall under the ‘important, but not urgent’ quadrant of work), which means it’s possible to shift things around much easier.

Don’t get me wrong, there will always be work that requires you to push through that afternoon slump (or whenever your slump is) and work anyway — especially if it’s got a tight deadline or someone else is waiting on you to finish up something. But that doesn’t need to happen too often.

With a little trial and error, some communication and some observation, I’m sure most people would be able to shift their work around so that they can do it when they are at their most productive.

So, let’s break this down:

1. Start observing your productivity patterns. This is something you’ll need to reassess every time you move to a different environment. Try to figure out when you are most productive in that environment — When is it easier for you to start something? When is it harder to? When do you get the most done?
2. Come up with a plan to shift your work around. This will require assessing your work in the ‘important-urgent’ matrix that I linked above, so that you can figure out what work can be shifted around.
   This will also need some communication, since you may need to exchange some work you do with someone else, if it’s recurrent and time sensitive.
   Consider shifting meetings/online calls to times that you are less productive, so you can f̶e̶e̶d̶ ̶o̶f̶f̶ ̶o̶f̶ tap into your team’s productive energy.
3. Test, test, test. Run your new plan for a few days (but you probably don’t need more than about 1–2 weeks for this) and check if your productivity improves. If not, run a quick assessment to figure out what went wrong and why. Then make whatever changes you need and test again.

I hope that helps you improve your #WFH experience. Stay home. Stay safe. And stay tuned for the next post 😉

This post first appeared on my blog. Check it out for tips on how to slay the Manticore! (jk, it’s just more posts 😛).