Many of you are adjusting to the reality of working from home. There have been a gazillion articles, blog posts, and videos people have made to help you along. They have talked about the space you choose, the equipment you will need and the best way to get stuff done. You’re probably missing your friends, the energy of interaction, randomly bumping into people, spontaneous conversations, and water cooler talk about the latest episode of Westworld. You know, the distractions that steal your productive time but keep you sane and lead to a better working environment.
“Until we can manage time, we can manage nothing else.“
Peter Drucker
You don’t need me to give you any further advice on your casa office. BUT, I might have some ideas around your productivity. Since I have primarily been working from a home-based office for 37 years, I have a few tricks up my sleeve.
The Thing About Productivity
First, most of my activity, writing, creative program development, client projects, and all the research and development is suited to a solitary environment. Now, I’m not a cave-dwelling (though my office is referred to as “The Bat Cave“) curmudgeon, but I know a thing or two about productivity resulting from this type of work.
I want to visit with you about a simple productivity formula. I know there were lots of distractions at the office, but you were not only distracted by your work people, but you were also held accountable by these same folks. When you work from home for the first time, I mean really work, not just answering emails, you will discover a tsunami of distractions crashing on your supposed productive noggin.
Your internet will be beaconing you, whispering in your ear, ‘It’s OK, I’ll just check my Facebook page for a second. It’ll be OK, I’ll just jump on YouTube for a couple of minutes check out the latest cat vids. I’ll get back to work right away.” Well, FORGET IT. Distractions are like the pac-man, they gobble up time.
The 60-10 Formula
So, I recommend you give in to your distraction desire, in fact, I recommend you schedule them, EVERY HOUR. Here is how this simple formula works. For every hour of focused, high clarity, meaningful work you get done, you reward yourself with 10 minutes of distracting fun. Yep, it’s a work- reward thing.
Now for the 60-10 formula to work you have to be VERY disciplined. Set alarms and obey them like a religion. If you can get six solid, strong effective hours of work a day, CONGRATULATIONS, that’s exactly what the 60-10 formula is designed for.
You get to give in to your distractions, but only for 10-minutes. You get to do laser-like focused work for 60-minutes at a time. Give it a try and you will be blown away by the amount of actual, real work you can get done!
Want more productivity ideas? Check out this one strategy that could save you 100 hours a year.
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