Working from home

For those of us lucky enough, we are now able to work from home, we set up our home offices and we get to work. We save on fuel, avoid traffic and travel time - this will be the new way of working into the future once this social isolation is over. 

I was fortunate enough to be able to work from home one day per week as it was, now my full 5 day week is from home so I am loving it. I work from an open plan office so while they try to say it is great for collaboration, it isn't - it is great for distractions.

So, I have YouTube playing all day in a minimised window with music, when they upgraded my computer and I lost my sound then I brought my tablet in and connected to the office WiFi. With my headphones onI can drown out all the background noise, whining, complaining and useless discussions and just get on with it.

At home I am more productive, you have to be disciplined so I get up at 6 am like normal, as it is now autumn, it isn't really light early and I go for a 7.5 km run, water the lawn and garden by hand, a quick weights session, shower off and still start before my standard 8 am official start time.

You get more done, you set goals, create a tracking sheet to monitor progress and go. I am coordinating others from home so emails, zoom meetings and phone calls are common practice without interfering too much with my personal goals. 

You end up working more, that is a given and can end up working well into the evening as the distractions are gone. As businesses see the benefits and increased productivity, there will be more of home offices. For those who lack the personal discipline, they will still have to trundle off to work every morning - for the rest of us, this is a new beginning.