Getting in the Zone: Tips for Making the Most of Your New Home Office, Part 1 of 3

Due to the spread of COVID-19 those of us with jobs and businesses will be spending more time working from home. For some, this is a great triumph. I have a friend who told me he thinks this is a harbinger of a brave new world where almost all of us have given up commuting and instead work from the comfort of our dining room table.

As he said, "It makes no sense to drive one hour just to go from one computer screen to another computer screen."

Despite my friend's common-sense observation, I think there is good reason to be cautious about the practicality of working from home. I should know, I've been doing it, off and on, nearly my whole life, as a college student, a graduate student, a young professor, a business owner, and later as a grant writing consultant.

To me, the biggest difference between working at home and working at the office is the different levels of peer pressure you will experience. At the office, much of your motivation and concentration is supported by the social pressures you face to behave yourself in front of your boss and your co-workers. Coming back late from lunch - drunk - will expose you to negative consequences. Working at home, however, you can get away with infractions.

Out of necessity, I have learned some tricks for improving my productivity at home. They boil down to tricks and techniques which improve your productivity in the absence of social pressure. One of my central principles is the necessity of preserving your sense of flow while working from home. To me, flow is the level of concentration and happiness that occurs when you are being most productive at home, it is a mental space where time seems to fly.

Maintaining flow is actually easier at home than it is under the stress of an office. If you concentrate on maintaining flow, then you will be leveraging the advantages of your home office. Potentially, you might find you may be more productive than if you were at the office. Nevertheless, I should warn you implementing these techniques and strategies takes an enormous amount of discipline. All I can say is that it is worth it.

1. Definitely keep track of your hours. For some reason it is very difficult to keep track of the passing of time. It is easy to deceive ourselves about how we spend it. One of the very best things you can do for yourself is set up a spreadsheet and record what you are doing every 15 minutes. You should do this for about two weeks. I think the first week is not really a good measure of how you waste your time because you will most likely be on your best behavior. What you will find is that minor activities like reading the paper, watching the news, or answering e-mails can turn into massive, daily, wastes of time. Keeping track of time will also help you see how little you have of it. 
2. Be realistic about your concentration and focus. I've found that I can only really handle about four hours of sustained writing a day. 
3. Demand quiet and uninterrupted time. This is difficult for some...not so much for me. What loved ones may not realize is that interruptions are huge consumers of time. The lost time is not merely in the act of dealing with the interruption, it is also in getting back into the rhythm and thought patterns of your work - your flow. Ideally, work should be a pleasurable, right-brain activity. You should be concentrating so hard that when you look up you are surprised to see that four hours have passed. That level of concentration cannot be maintained unless you have the active cooperation of those around you. For me, interruptions are physically painful. It hurts me just to think about them right now. 
4. I have found it useful to put up a do not disturb sign on the door to warn my wife off. 
5. Pro-Tip: There is nothing wrong with binge work late at night. I have done this since I was in high school. In the early morning, there are no interruptions because everyone else is asleep. It is quiet and there is nothing to do except work. Once you are on a roll, it sometimes helps to just keep it up. Once your head is into the work, it is unproductive to break your concentration and flow. 
6. Above all, you need to pay attention to ergonomics. This means get yourself a high-quality chair - something way better than what you had at the office. Also, make sure your keyboard is at the right height. Your arms should be level. Definitely get an ergonomic keyboard and use voice recognition software. Take breaks every hour so you do not mess up your back. While you are at it, you should probably make it a habit to look away from the computer monitor occasionally, toward a distant object, to rest your eyes. 
7. Be sure to exercise. Stress in your body distracts your attention and interrupts the state of flow which is essential to keeping yourself, happy, motivated, and taking action in the absence of social pressure.  

For me, the toughest thing about working from home is learning to force yourself to do things you are afraid of or do not want to do. This is where you just have to summon your inner warrior and get it done. Do not be shy about gloating over your superiority when you can force yourself to do unpleasant chores. I like to remind myself that successful people do the things that unsuccessful people do not like to do. Please remember, this is not an easy task. If it was easy to be productive working at home we would not have all these skyscrapers.

Weeks Ahead of Your Deadline: Understand Why Small Breaks Cost You Big Money

As a management consultant, I've come to believe that most people underestimate how costly it is to indulge even a small break in mental concentration.

I learned this valuable lesson while I was writing my award-winning doctoral dissertation. In contrast to most of the other graduate students, I made it a habit to work every day on my thesis - and not just focus on it on the weekends.

The problem with the weekend warrior approach to writing is that it takes a couple of hours each weekend just to remember where you were at mentally and theoretically prior to breaking off from your work. By writing every day, I saved valuable time because I did not need to invest additional time in warming myself up mentally to do my writing.

My normal procedure then, and still now, is to start by editing what I've written the day before. Then, I launch into writing fresh materials following the rule of NEVER rewriting anything the same day that I write it.

In addition, I understand that the same principle applies even to short breaks of just five or ten minutes.

Once my concentration is broken, it takes a bit of a time wasting struggle to get back to writing. This is true if only because I need to get back into the emotional spirit and energy of writing on behalf of a client.

Although I cannot shield my work from all interruptions, I have benefited by doing what I can to bring them to a minimum. For example, when I'm working on a grant application, I do not answer the phone; I do not check my e-mail. I shut the door and hang a sign on it that my wife created to remind me to say hello during my breaks. It says:

"MAN WORKING - Tricia: Please do not disturb me. I'll come chat with you when I take my break. Love, John."

I have also found that it works for me to write late at night when there are not as many people sending me e-mails or trying to connect with me by telephone. All in all, I think it's wise to select the office for the grant writer very carefully with an eye for... peacefulness, quiet, isolation, and tranquility.

At its highest level, grant writing is not a standard business procedure. To do it right, I think we will need to be much more sensitive to adapting the grant writer's physical environment so that it is a much better match with the functions essential to implementing this sort of high speed writing.

Accordingly, I think a fresh look at the physical environment of the grant writer will result in happier grant writers, happier clients, and happier results for everyone.