Working from Home and the future of my commute
Almost two years ago, I wrote about how I missed my commute to and from work, and the benefits that I found in that process. And two years later, upon reflecting on what my new normal is - working from home - I have some new thoughts on what this means.
I’ve found that compared to when I go into the office, I am significantly more productive when I work from home. I think it’s because that the only “distraction” is my partner - who works right next to me - being the only person to stop by my desk for a quick chat. Typically, we both have our headphones on, deeply focused on the work in front of us for the day, surfacing only when we need to take a break or have lunch. And I’ve found that this tends to work pretty well.
That being said, over the last year and a half, I’ve found that there are definitely a few drawbacks to work-from-home.
One of the advantages of working from home is that I no longer have to wake up early, get ready, rush to catch the train, and make my way into the office. The downside with this is that I now wake up with just enough time to grab a cup of coffee and make a beeline straight for my desk, without allowing myself the time to mentally shift into work mode. I was talking about this with someone on my team recently, and she and her partner found an interesting work around to this. They’ve implemented a sort of WFH commute into their calendars. In effect, they wake up early enough to make some coffee and take a walk outside before getting a start to their day, allowing themselves the time to properly wake up and shift into the headspace they need to be in. And after work, they do the same thing, just in reverse, so that they can wind down and shift back into a non-work space for the evening. I think that considering right now I’m going from looking at my laptop to my TV, that break in between might be a great way to A) break up my day a bit more and B) give myself that break from screens that I so desperately need.
At home, it’s also so easy to get sucked into a flow state, that I sometimes forget to take breaks and feel like I need to rush through my lunch break in order to get back to work and feel like I’m being productive and maximizing my workday. One way around this is that I’ve built in structured breaks into my calendar, buffers between large chunks of my day so that I can get up from my desk and get some fresh air. But those feel less organic than the breaks you often get in an office setting. In the office, I have people stopping by my desk, and sure, those can moments can pull me out of my flow state, but those mental breaks are often exactly what I need to be my most productive. Otherwise, it can feel like it’s just hours of straight work without looking up.
In the office, it’s also so much easier to build those social connections than when working remotely. See, I’m a bit of a blend of being both an extrovert and an introvert - an extroverted introvert if you will. I absolutely feel energized when I’m around people, but I also need down time to myself to recharge. At home, it’s hard to find that balance. When I started working for my current company a year and a half ago, it was seven months until I met my first work friend in person (thank you COVID). Granted, my company had ways to help build those connections, but nothing compares to actually seeing someone in person (and confirming if they are as tall/short as you thought they were). It wasn’t until 10 months in that the office re-opened, and that as exciting. I had forgotten that the office can just buzz with all this activity, noise, life, people, and culture. It’s hard to replicate that when working from home.
Lastly, and this might just be a me thing, but it’s often hard to disconnect at the end of the day. Sure, it probably doesn’t help that I have both Slack and my work email on my personal phone (notifications turned off to add a layer of friction), but I think the larger issue is that my work desk is in my living room. The lack of physical separation is always going to be much harder working from home than if you have an office space where you can leave work at the end of each day.
Despite these potential “drawbacks”, I think that working from home is more often than not still the best solution for so many people, including myself. It offers increased flexibility, and the time and energy regained from not having to physically commute is absolutely worth it. Now that the company I work for has been acquired, I think I’ll try and go into the office as much as possible at first, especially for the social aspect, and overtime, gradually shift back into more of the work from home routine that’s served me so well these last 18 months.
