Not another virtual productivity hack

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If you are like me, your inbox is flooded with work from home productivity resources. I get at least 5 new articles a day talking about how to stay productive while working from home. I've been asked to provide some professional development for staff on this topic, and there is workshop scheduled next week on time management and focus. It is obviously a struggle, for myself included. How do we wade through the deluge of resources and come out with something practical and usable? How do we separate out what will work for us versus what is wishful (or even harmful) advice on maintaining the same level of productivity we had before?

My humble suggestion, based on my own experience, is to start with the most basic step. Maintain the same schedule every day. Not the same schedule you had when you were waking up early enough to shower, dress in business clothes, and commute in Boone traffic. Enjoy the fact that your commute is 15 seconds, relish in the flexibility this gives you. But don't take advantage of this flexibility with schedule to play it by ear every day. This is a one way ticket to every day being "Blursday", to the morning sliding into the afternoon without a healthy lunch break, to hours staring at your computer screen immobilized by disorganization, and to a wrecked sleep schedule.

If you are mandatory and still working on campus, the same advice is helpful. Wake up at the same time you were before, but use those few extra minutes that you would have been sitting in traffic to do something for yourself. Harness the natural benefit of ending your work day at the same time each day and coming home to follow the same safe decontamination process.

If you are homeschooling, your kids will complain about this (I have two teenagers so I get it). Give them flexibility, but take the opportunity to help them notice the differences in their minds and bodies when they don't keep a schedule. Help them build their own awareness of the value of consistency.

Routine is your friend. And this advice is coming from someone who has, at best, an optimistic view of time on a regular basis. The best thing I have done for myself is to maintain roughly the same schedule each day. When I don't, my days are less productive.

Leave me a comment and let me know if you are maintaining a schedule and if it has made a difference for you!

Comments

  1. UnknownApril 16, 2020 at 12:31 PM

    Great point to maintain the same schedule! I had been guilty of waking up at 7:50am and then showering during my lunch break! Not great! Also working from home has shown me that I need to get up and more around more. I think my home workstation is not quite as ergonomically efficient as mine at work, and my shoulders and fingers and hands get more tired. But, it has reminded me to get up and stretch and walk, which has further led to doing some morning yoga (and getting up earlier to do it!). So, I will add "keeping my same schedule" into the mix now, too! -Becky

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownApril 16, 2020 at 12:35 PM

    I feel that sticking to my regular routine, including when I take lunch etc. has helped with working from home for this prolonged period of time. I am appreciating the extra time in the morning and afternoon even though my commute is usually pretty short. It has NOT been good though that no one sees how often I go to the fridge. :)

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