Starting this morning, I began a several-week long period of working from home. This isn't totally new to me. Back when I was a freelancer working from home is all I did. Between then and now, though, I've spent three years working in an office environment. I'd gotten used to the conventions of office work, and I now find myself changing gears back to the old, yet unfamiliar, routine.
I wanted to share some observations I've made over the course of the day.
Your Workflow is Uneven
Of course, it always is, but working alone at home you notice it much more. In the office, the unevenness of your workflow is concealed by trips to the coffee machine or printer. By short conversations with your coworkers. By trips across the office to the bathroom. Whatever.
When you work at home, you notice that unevenness much more. One moment you'll be blazing away on a project and making huge headway, but the next you're staring at the screen for minutes at a time, or looking up the origin of paragraphs on Wikipedia, or something.
In the aggregate I got far more done today than I think I would have in the office, but those unproductive periods were maddening. Time slows to a crawl when you're working in solitude and you tend to notice the periods that make you feel guilty about your progress, far more than the other ones.
In an attempt to even this all out, I'm working with the Pomodoro method. It's one of many Getting Things Done techniques you'll find on the internet, and it attempts to force you into a steadier rhythm of work and short breaks. Definitely trying it again tomorrow.
Solitude is Awesome
The fact that I can listen to whatever music I want, don't have to wear anything more intense than sweats and a t-shirt, and have my workspace to myself is amazing. Solitude can be a great tool for productivity, because there's nothing there to distract you but you.
Solitude is Terrible
On the flip side of the above, working at home alone can be horrible. Time, as I said, slows to a crawl. You don't feel as compelled to go out to eat, because you have food at home. I haven't left the house all day. Since I work in the living room of my house, my living room feels confined and like the office again.
To alleviate the starkness of my solitude, I keep my chat client open to communicate with workers still in the office. I feel bad for my boss, since he received the brunt of my solitary-induced nonsense. Mid-way through the work day I was sending off observations about the effect of lower income viewers on the commercials of daytime TV. A link to polar/grizzly bear hybrids (hilariously they can be called pizzly bears). That sort of thing.
What this illustrates to me is the importance of interacting with your coworkers in the office. You don't have to be talking about work, but every so often you need to talk about something. It acts like a rest-stop on a long road trip, where you can mentally get out and stretch your legs by talking about some random bullshit.
My Job Shouldn't Be Tiring, But it Is
A huge part of my job is reading. Another is writing. Another is just thinking about stuff, analyzing it to see if what you've read or wrote is wrong in some way. None of these tasks, taken on their own, is strenuous. Combined, they are exhausting.
I used to work an intense manual labor job. It introduced me to the kind of bone-deep weariness that intense work can produce. When I got my current job, I thought that level of exhaustion was in my past. Boy, I was wrong.
The first kind of exhaustion wears you down and can keep you from wanting to act. You don't want to do anything, because you've done stuff all day. This kind of exhaustion keeps you from wanting to think at all. You want to veg out with a movie, or close your eyes and listen to music. Anything passive. Anything to take a break from all the brain work you've done all day.
Writing today's post took some effort because of this. I spent all day writing, and more writing was the last thing I wanted to do. But here we are. Some weary comments at the end of a wearisome day.
Let's see if I have this figured out tomorrow.
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