The majority of people that I have spoken to that have been working remotely recently have told me that they are being more productive at home than they were in an office! This is not hugely surprising as the ability to control distractions is much greater when we are not surrounded by our colleagues!

Cal Newport wrote a book called Deep Work. He describes deep work as “professional activity performed in a state of distraction-free concentration that pushes your cognitive capabilities to their limit”. In open plan office environments and with social media and email distractions in the background, very few of us work in this state on a daily basis which means the quality of our work is low and our productivity is not what it could be. That’s not to say that we don’t have time where we come together and collaborate on projects or complex work, it’s just to say that deep work needs to be incorporated in to our week and perhaps remote working can help with this.

If we are not used to working deeply, it can take some training to get our mind used to working this way.

The 3 things that have helped me train my brain to be more focused is:

• Turning my email notifications and social media accounts off for chunks of the day.
• Using an egg timer and setting time to work on tasks (with a reward at the end).
• Blocking off time in my calendar every day for deep work

 

BOOK RECOMMENDATION

I highly recommend Cal’s book for greater insights on this topic. The short Youtube video (click on link) will give you a taster.