The WFH Productivity Myth. How can you be objective and work better?

4 years since the Covid pandemic began. 4 years since the Work From Home revolution took place overnight.

"Remote work came to stay," they claimed.

However, many companies are calling their employees back to the office.

Why is that? I don't know for sure, but companies are result-driven entities, so I assume their results are lower than expected.

On the other hand, we have the employees' words:

• "I'm 10x more productive WFH."
• "I can focus way better here."
• "There is no water cooler chat."

Being a WFH Lover, I never liked these affirmations. I like the comfort associated with it, but I never felt a boost in my performance. It was exactly the opposite.

If you don't feel your productivity skyrockets when you work from home, you are not alone.

Let's navigate some of the difficulties of remote working and why it is much more complex than working at the office.

Being objective

Our biases condition our perceptions. In other words, our productivity-o-meter may be inaccurate.

Nothing better than establishing some objective metrics to know how well we are doing.

This concept applies to both sides (those who think they're hyper-productive and those who think they are the worst employees).

A few examples I use:

• Time connected (Disconnection Time - Connection Time)
• Net time connected (Seated at my desk)
• Net time working (excluding breaks, chats, surfing the internet, etc.)
• Activities done.
• Hours spent in activities vs hours estimated for activities
• Time spent on unplanned topics (usually priorities that other people threw at me)
• Time spent in chat and meetings (aka, people pretending to work)

Tracking my time and activities is the most powerful tool I found to gain awareness of my productivity. It is beneficial not only for work but also for life.

After one month, we may know how productive we are, and our difficulties will become more apparent.

Inherent challenges of WFH

Despite the comfort of avoiding the commute, working from home has some extra difficulties compared to working at the office.

If you track your time, you will learn which ones affect you the most:

Distractions

Every possible distraction is there at home—your couch, bed, food, TV, gadgets, etc. You can't ignore them. Your entertainment accessories take your focus off your work like your junk food takes your focus away from your diet.

Chores

Doctor's appointments, laundry, household chores, technicians' visits to fix your appliances, supermarket trips, picking up your children, etc.- things we used to do outside working hours are now part of our day. It's not every day, but they gradually fill our weeks.

People

Inside and outside. This includes our family and co-workers. We may need to interact with someone at home, unexpected visits, children, spouses, or relatives we care for. We also have our colleagues, who demand our time, set calls and meetings, tell us about their frustrations (virtual water cooler chat), etc. These activities also take time away from our productivity bag.

Energy

When you are at the office, everyone is (or should be) doing the same: working. That energy is contagious.
At home, you are alone (at best) and need to push yourself to work. If you feel low, that's enough to start thinking about something else or seek instant gratification.

Flexibility

The idea of having the whole day (a lot of time) to complete an activity makes us procrastinate. We don't need to leave the office; we live there. So we stay connected for many hours, which are not entirely dedicated to our work or personal life.

All the above items contribute to making your days shorter. You dedicate your entire day to work but don't accomplish that much. Every interruption costs you plenty of time switching between tasks.

This impacts your performance and synergy with the rest of the team.

Improving performance and self-esteem

That feeling of guilt negatively impacts our self-esteem. We think that we are not doing enough. We have what we always wanted but can't take advantage of it.

So, how do we keep on the right path?

The first tool is awareness. Knowing how we are doing and which pieces we need to adjust gives us some power.

The second one is attacking our productivity killers. We are different persons, so the ones that impact you the most won't be the same as those that affect my performance.

These are some actions I have taken:

• Defining my space: Desk, monitor, chair, keyboard, mouse, headphones, water, and that's it. I made it as similar to an office as I could.
• Turning off my computer: I used to leave my computer on so I could come back and finish something. Not anymore. I turn my computer on and off every day. If I can't complete some task, I live with that pain, knowing I should do it better tomorrow.
• Unflexible flexibility: I define my schedule: My start, lunch, and end times. This helps me to know how I am doing and how much time I still have. I used to go out and walk around the block before starting and after finishing my shift in an attempt to reset my mind.
• Disconnection: I disconnect my phone from the work applications, disconnect my IM when I need to focus, reject meetings that aren't good for me, and learn to ignore some messages that pop up until I finish what I'm doing.
• Priorities: I list my priorities first thing in the morning. I refrain from doing other activities until I finish what I started.
• Dopamine control: I avoid leisure activities like watching TV, planning my holidays, or looking for my next gadget on Amazon during my shift. I will have enough energy to do them later.
• Workday in one piece: I used to suspend my work to go to the gym and resume it later. However, the second period never ended. I couldn't disconnect, so I stopped doing this.

Include whatever you want on the list. This is a try-and-error. Make it easy enough to reduce the dependence on your willpower.

Takeaway

Working from home is challenging.

Many distractions and interruptions make us multitask.

Awareness is essential.

We can change our behavior to make our day better.

Thank you for reading, and see you next time.