WFH Productivity

It’s no secret that the pandemic threw us for a loop and caused many of us to work from home for the first time in our careers. Even now a few years later, many of us are still remote workers in some capacity. I struggled in the beginning to figure out how to train myself to work in a space that I had previously associated with lounging, but I now feel like I’ve struck a good work/life balance in my home.

Whether you have a spare room to convert, a small desk setup in your room, or a kitchen table that doubles as your office, you can create a productive workspace that you will love and that will encourage you to get started on your work each day. This applies to students, fully remote workers, and hybrid employees, but it could absolutely be applied to people who work in a traditional office each day too.

Choosing Your Workspace & Staying Focused

• Keep it consistent

  • Working in one consistent spot each day reminds your brain that it’s time to work once you sit down in that spot. For me, I know that when I enter my home office and close the door, I’m in work mode. This can be more difficult if you have a hybrid work model, where you fluctuate between working from home and commuting to a company office. In this case, it’s even more crucial to commit to where you will work when you are at home, so that you don’t begin to associate WFH with being off the clock.

• Keep the work space for work only

  • It’s crucial to give yourself breaks throughout the day, but where you choose to take those breaks is just as important. If I need to take a break from my work or do anything I don’t really deem as “productive,” it does not get done in my home office. I make myself physically leave that space so that I don’t get into a habit of being on my phone or procrastinating in there.

• Designate different spaces for different tasks

  • For example, if you love to read maybe designate your favorite chair as your “reading chair.” You’ll be amazed how quickly and easily you will be able to focus on whatever task is meant to take place in that spot the more you solely do that task there.

• Create signals and trigger your five senses

  • This is my favorite one! Choose consistent ways to engage your senses in your productive environment. Maybe you light a candle or get some essential oils going everyday when you begin working. Maybe you’re like me and you can’t work until you have your favorite pens all laid out. Maybe you wear a specific pair of headphones or listen to a playlist when writing. Maybe you can’t get into the zone until you have lemon water or a caffeinated beverage next to you. Try out different ways to prime your environment and your mind for work mode. If you stack a few of these things, or choose just one, you can create events and surroundings that let you know it’s time to focus.

• Find your aesthetic

  • I have to admit that I am far more productive when I have pretty things around me. When I’m proud of the space I’ve created for myself, it makes me want to be in it more. In the last year I converted my spare bedroom into a home office. I painted a wall hunter green, added my favorite movie posters and quotes to the walls, and decorated it with my favorite books, pens, and desk accessories. I turned a room that I never used into my favorite room in my home. While aesthetics aren’t everything, having a work space that excites you to be in it makes all the difference. You can make the environment more aesthetic by adding plants, candles, artwork, a vision board, an ergonomic chair, and task lighting. Even if you are working from the dining room table, find a motivating quote or picture you love to keep nearby to make the space feel a bit more enjoyable to work in.

• Take social media with a grain of salt

  • The majority of the productivity videos on social media are all highly edited. So many of them show perfectly curated desk set-ups and aesthetics that seem impossible to recreate. In reality, we are seeing a brief snippet of someone’s day that they chose to share with us. We do not see the hours they probably spent lounging around and procrastinating before and after their video was taken. Feel free to take inspiration from social media, but try not to play the comparison game.

✪ This week’s action item is to create a spot that you will designate as your work zone. Decide what you will do to prime the environment to prepare your mind to work. Will you use a certain pen, light a candle, listen to music? That’s up to you!