I've always worked from home a few days a week and my productivity has always been above the average. Fast forward 2 years, and I am surrounded by 2 little babies and a cute toddler that likes to have her dad around. Unless I go to the office or work on night shifts, it's quite difficult to concentrate for too long. I felt that I needed to change habits to keep things on track.
I've got an intern to help me conduct some experiments that would demand too much time from me otherwise, and started to go to the office more often than before.
The nice side effect of going to the office is that I get to workout more (commuting by bike) and to conduct more side projects with colleagues. I keep choosing at least one day in the week to work from home, though.
Interestingly enough, there is a coffee shop right next door and yet I never worked from there. Sipping a coffee without bringing work with me has been pleasant so far, but maybe it is worth trying to find for how many hours I will be able to stay there focused on business related activities.
In talking to people about this, I found a number of people who just can’t work from home. Whether its not being as productive as they’d like, or something else.
If you’re working from home in a team, you definitely need to be aware of those who don’t operate the same as you. With good communication and respect this is an easy hurdle to get over.
> In talking to people about this, I found a number of people who just can’t work from home. Whether its not being as productive as they’d like, or something else.
Quite true. I worked with a friend of mine for years who almost never worked from home. The only time he did was during critical production failures experienced late at night.
He had two children and normally would be in the office in the pre-dawn hours.
I asked him why he got into work so early and he told me, "if I leave before my kids wake up, it's easier on them."
I've got an intern to help me conduct some experiments that would demand too much time from me otherwise, and started to go to the office more often than before.
The nice side effect of going to the office is that I get to workout more (commuting by bike) and to conduct more side projects with colleagues. I keep choosing at least one day in the week to work from home, though.
Interestingly enough, there is a coffee shop right next door and yet I never worked from there. Sipping a coffee without bringing work with me has been pleasant so far, but maybe it is worth trying to find for how many hours I will be able to stay there focused on business related activities.