5 Ingredients for a productive work from home

Originally posted on Medium.

I identified 5 ingredients that have consistently resulted in improved work-related productivity.

1. Gradually slip into the work zone via a morning ritual.

Take the extra half hour or so usually spent on transport and use it to ease into your work. For me this looks like a stretching session, taking a quick shower, boiling the kettle and watering my plants as I brew my tea. Taking an hour to just warm up into the day and doing things that connect to my body makes me accountable to the things that matter to me more than my work: my health and mental well-being. I know I will be spending the majority of the day in front of my screen so executing a morning routine is a way in which to focus the energy of the day into my own hands.

2. Arrange emails according to projects.

At the beginning of the day I check my calendar and work inbox in order to arrange my emails into folders according to the current projects I am working on. I skim read some emails that jump out, but if I cannot address it at that exact moment, I make sure to check the unread button and leave it in the project folder until I am in the portion of the day that I have assigned to addressing this project. Arranging my inbox in this way has done wonders to my easily distracted mind and every time I open a project related inbox, I feel as though I am ‘stepping into’ the head-space of the project.

3. Draft up emails at the beginning on the day, then write your to do list.

I am a sucker for to do lists and would swear by them before discovering this tip: when beginning work on a particular project, start by drafting up the email that you are planning to send to your boss. From there, write your product specific to do list for the day. By writing out a draft of an email describing a theoretically completed task, it quickly helps me to realise what micro steps i need to take for the completed task to become a reality. This has really helped me focus on the results I want from the day and makes my to do list much more succinct.

4. Listen to work associated music.

Once you have a clarity on what needs to be completed for the day, it is time to deep dive into the productivity zone by employing the power of music. The music you listen to is a personal choice but I have found that assigning certain playlists related to working has been successful. Separate from my favourite singalongs, my work playlist is predominantly film scores. Recently the soundtrack for Gladiator, Atonement and The Godfather have done wonders for stirring up a mood of ‘getting-shit-done’.

5. No personal emails or social media until after work or a control period during lunch.

In general, productivity occurs when I am able to limit distraction from the task ahead. The ingredients above mostly address getting into the head-space of working but one of the most important ingredients of this list is this: avoid personal email and social media until after work or for a short period during lunch. I used to love checking email newsletters from my personal email account and listening to the BBC news podcast before going to work, but nowadays, I limit the information that gets to pass through my mind in order to focus around the theme of the work I am wanting to complete that day. Since I work four days a week at an architecture practice, those four days begin with listening and reading news only related to architecture and the building industry. Not only does this limit topics outside of this field but it also helps me to be more motivated to do architecture related work. This also works on my ‘days off’ where on Fridays I focus on UX design and on the weekends I focus on writing and illustration: so I try to start the day by reading email newsletters and catching up of blogs related to either UX design or writing and illustration. Of course, once you have completed you work you can do consume whatever information you want, but on days when I really want to be focused and productive, I try to be true to this rule as much as possible.

All of these tips are easily implemented in a working situation whether that be at home or work. However, I find that when I am not being monitored by my boss and colleagues it is easy to slip into habits that limit the productivity of my work. I believe remote working is a privilege of our modern society and I hope it becomes a normalized aspect of our current working culture, especially in tradition-laden fields such as architecture. I hope these 5 ingredients help you as much it has helped me over the past two months of Covid-related lockdown. Would love to hear your own tips!