“How can I be productive working from home?”
It’s a question on many engineers’ minds right now.
It’s been a few weeks since many of us started to work from home. We’ve adjusted to the initial upheaval of everything we knew to be true about when and where we work.
In some cases, being forced to work remotely is a dream come true. I know of more than one engineer who has been trying for years to get approval to work from home without success.
There are others who have suffered a stigma from working remotely that has now been lessened because everyone has to do it.
For others, the sudden shift to working from home is a struggle for many reasons. They may be crammed into a small apartment with a spouse and children, all of whom are also working (or taking classes) from home.
They may be struggling with the isolation, and miss the comradery of the office and hanging out with friends after work.
They may be coping with loved ones who are in essential services, family or friends in high-risk groups, or those who are ill.
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Yet, we are still the fortunate ones, who are able to work from home right now. It’s estimated that only one-third of workers in the US are able to do so. Many of us find comfort in the familiar routine of analysis and calculations, coding and conference calls, especially when the entirety of the rest of our world has changed in such a short period of time.
And as our initial panic subsides and we settle into a new routine, it seems natural to start optimizing those new routines to make sure we are getting our most important work done.
Because getting the work done as efficiently as possible? It’s more important than ever because the world is looking mortality in the face.
If we need to work and are fortunate enough to be able to work from home, then the faster we are done with our work – even when it is work we truly enjoy - the more time we get to spend with our loved ones, even if it is only through a virtual video call.
Only…….the lines between work and home, which were already fuzzy due to the various technological advances in the last decade, have now been obliterated.
The place where we relax and the place where we deal with deadlines, irate coworkers, and hold our conference calls is all the same.
Boundaries – for ourselves, for those in our homes, and for our work colleagues - only exist if we set them, share them, and hold both ourselves and others to them.
I recently had the opportunity to virtually interview productivity coach Matthew Gaddy, a utility engineer from one of the largest utilities in Texas. His specialty is helping mid to senior level engineers create personal productivity systems to support their next level of growth. He knows a thing or two about being productive when working from home and is currently working at home with a toddler.
In this blog, I’ll share our discussion points that will help you work productively from home. If you’d like to see the full video interview, you can do so by clicking on the image below.
THE #1 WE GET WRONG WHEN IT COMES TO WORKING FROM HOME
The top thing we get wrong when we work from home, especially when we initially make the transition, is the environment in which we work.
I know this all too well from personal experience, having started my work from home adventure in 2018 when I founded Engineers Rising LLC.
Matthew notes that, in movies and TV we often see people working from home in their pajamas or lounging all day on their laptops. They aren’t dressed for work. They are moving their laptop from place to place. This is detrimental to us because we have psychological triggers that put us into work mode.
And this is exactly what I got wrong when I started working from home too.
Without either mimicking our old triggers and/or creating new ones, we have a subconscious tendency to be more relaxed and less productive, resulting in more time working due to lack of efficiency.
We are working more hours for no reason when we don’t address the environmental issues before we start working. Get the same quality of work done in less time by incorporating some of the following psychological triggers which Matthew shared into your routine:
Get dressed for work.
Have a consistent physical location where you work. This location should be separate from where you would relax.
Create a daily schedule. When will you work? Write that schedule down and communicate it.
Schedule transition times into your day (especially at the beginning and end of scheduled work times) to avoid attention residue. Matthew elaborates: “If you're paying attention to something and you switch to something else, you really aren't focusing on the new thing you're working on, because the old thing is still in your brain. So you need that time for you to decompress and get back into whatever state you need to be in next.”
Don’t do house-related work during your scheduled work times.
For an example, Matthew shares his philosophy on his current work-from-home location:
“When you are working from home, if you're working from home in the same location in the same posture that you surf the internet…you will be more lax. So one thing I've had to do is I'm in my garage right now, because I had to get out of my house into someplace that was completely foreign, so I could set the expectation that this is work place. This is where my office is for right now. That forces me to think differently than I would if I was in a lounge area [in the house]. The environment that you choose to work in is going to be very, very important in triggering your brain to react a certain way.”
But what if you don’t have a spare room where you can “go” to work? A chair and table in the corner of the room can work just as well. Just be mindful of only doing work in that location……and move that laptop to the couch if you want to check social media or watch Netflix when you’re relaxing.
THE #1 PRODUCTIVITY HACK: TIMEBLOCKING
You’ve got the environment covered. Now, it’s time to be productive.
Before we go further, let’s consider why we are being productive.
Productivity for the sake of simply getting more done is not the goal. The only reason we seek to get more done in less time is to get more time back we can spend with our selves or loved ones.
You can spend years reading productivity books and articles, and get one little tip after another for incremental productivity changes.
But you need to get to work right NOW. So, what are the biggest needle-movers for immediate productivity improvement?
Prioritization, elimination and time blocking.
I’ve shared in previous blogs frameworks for prioritizing work. I like to use the Eisenhower Decision Matrix. You can learn more about how to apply this matrix in my previous blog on setting boundaries.
Once you have eliminated unnecessary tasks, delegated what you can, and prioritized the rest, it’s time to get to work.
Time blocking is the top productivity hack you’ll want to use to get through that list as efficiently as possible. Matthew explains what time blocking is:
“There's a quote by Robin Sharma. He's an excellent leadership coach, productivity coach, high performance coach. And he classifies time blocks as a tight bubble of focus. What does that mean? It means that instead of trying to focus eight hours of your day - and if you're really honest with yourself, you're not completely focused to your greatest capacity eight hours every day - let's try to be as focused as we can for 35 minutes, 45 minutes an hour. That defined time is now your time block. It's simply going through your calendar and sectioning off pockets of your day to say during these particular times of my day, I'm going to eliminate as many distractions as possible, and focus on whatever I have predefined for that session to work on.”
When you time block, focus on one task only for the duration of that time block.
For example, I set a time block to complete this blog, by setting a 90 minute timer on my phone. During that time, I do nothing else but write. I don’t answer email. I don’t answer calls. I don’t do anything else but focus on the one task to be completed.
Time blocking works for a number of reasons. One is because it takes much less total time to complete a task when you are 100% focused on it. Depending on which study you look at, it’s estimated that it can take approximately 20 minutes +/- to refocus when you are interrupted or distracted during a task.
So, if I started writing my blog, and checked email or answered calls a few times while writing, my 90 minute time block could quickly turn into several hours, solely because I was task switching. That lack of focus means I’m not getting any more work done, it’s just taking longer.
Another reason time blocking works is because of a concept called Parkinson's Law. Matthew elaborates:
“If you're been in college, you've experienced this. Work takes as long as the time you give it. If you only have 45 minutes to do something, you're going to get it done in 45 minutes. If you give it an undefined limit of time, you are going to finish it in an undefined limit of time. So when you're giving yourself that finish line, you're saying, I have to focus in order to complete this in the 45 minutes. And because of that, I know that I can't be distracted during this time and I'm forcing myself to work right now.”
HOW TO APPLY TIME BLOCKING TO THE UNIQUE CHALLENGES OF WORKING FROM HOME
It’s not harder or easier to work from home, Matthew notes. “It’s just different and it’s something we may not have experienced. For some people it might be easier. For the person who has four kids and a spouse that’s at home…..and they haven’t learned to respect your space or that you are working, it’s going to be more difficult.”
Dealing with distractions can be difficult for everyone. Here are some tips Matthew shared to help you minimize them so you can get your work done in the shortest time possible:
Use time-blocking, but don’t jump off the deep end. Start small, with 15 minutes or 30 minutes, and work your way up to longer time blocks.
Put your phone in airplane mode when you are in a time block.
Understand when you are at your “prime time” for working. What time of day do you do your best work? Are you a morning, middle-of-the-day, or night person? Schedule your time blocks to correspond with your “prime times” for working.
Understand the times of day when you are most likely to have low energy or be distracted. Avoid scheduling long time blocks in that time, as it will just lead to frustration.
Additionally, Matthew is the parent of a toddler. Last week, we shared a number of techniques for working from home with kids in THIS blog. We asked Matthew if he could share what he does to minimize distractions himself for others who may also have toddlers at home, and here are some tips he shared:
Give yourself some compassion during this time. You’ll need to be flexible, and experiment with a schedule that works best for your household. Consider this an exercise in learning, as opposed to playing the comparison game of “now” versus “before COVID19”.
Wake up early, so you have un-interrupted work time.
Clearly communicate (realistic) expectations with members of your household (including kids, who can understand that they will watch a show for an hour while you are on your conference call).
Be real with yourself about what you will be able to get done. Don’t expect that you will be able to get eight straight hours of uninterrupted time to work during the day.
Use self-guided activities to keep your children occupied during important calls or time-blocking sessions.
Share child-care responsibilities during the day with your partner or spouse, if you have one.
To hear our discussion - including specific implementation examples of how we implement this during our workday, check out the video clip below.
HOW MANAGERS CAN HELP THEIR STAFF BE PRODUCTIVE
Finally, I talked to Matthew about how those of us managing staff can help our people during this time. Many of are hearing from employees who are feeling challenged in transitioning to the realities of working from home.
How can managers help their people be productive during this time of uncertainty and potential overwhelm?
Matthew told me: “From a management perspective, I really do think it comes down to, do you trust your employees? If you approach it in a way where you're trying to make someone be productive….It can burn that bridge of trust. And once that bridge of trust is burned, it does not get built back.”
Avoid the stereotype trap.
Society has many unconscious biases related to workers with children that we often carry with us at an unconscious level. Don’t allow those biases to cause assumptions about the productivity levels of employees with kids at home versus one with no kids. For example, studies have found that we assume men with kids are more productive than women with kids, and we assume single workers are more productive than anyone with kids.
Matthew shares some things to think about if you are a manager and are concerned that you have employees who are not being productive:
Approach employees with compassion. Do not assume that they are not being productive based on a “feeling”.
How did you “measure” productivity when people were in the office? Has this expectation changed (and been clearly communicated) as staff changed to working from home?
Are you (or other staff members) equating responsiveness with productivity? Have expectations regarding responsiveness been clearly defined? (Example: If you send someone an email and they are in the middle of a deep-work time block, should they drop everything and respond, which will result in a delay in that work completion? Or should they complete their priority task?)
Has everyone communicated their work at home schedules to their coworkers? If not, it may be worth a conversation.
Are priority response items clearly indicated in all communications, or are team members sending many emails, with no priority or deadline for response given?
If you have clearly defined expectations and metrics that would lead you to believe someone is not being productive, here is an example script Matthew shares that you could use to ask that person about it: “Hey, no judgment, I saw that you didn't respond to this email. Is there any way I can help you? There's something going on? Did you see it? What's going on what's happening because maybe your VPN access might not be going through?”
Are you communicating or checking in enough (without micromanaging)? Consider implementing daily team check-ins if members are struggling. (See Tip #7 in this blog for implementation suggestions.)
Want to hear the full discussion about managing remotely? Check out this partial clip from the full interview to learn more.
