I was thinking this morning that a lot of people are probably going to end up working from home over the next few weeks who don’t normally do it. I’ve been working from home for about a decade now, but there was a pretty steep learning curve in the beginning, figuring out how to actually get work done. So I thought I’d write some of that up. 

All of this probably won’t work for everyone, and a lot of it may not even be possible, especially for you all who also have kids out of school! But maybe there will be a useful tip in here that will help you.

This is what works for me.

1. Act like you’re going to work. Get up early. Shower. Dress in work clothes. (For me it’s jeans and a nice sweater, but they’re “going out of the house” clothes, not pajamas.) If you normally put on makeup, put on a little of that. This gets your brain in Work Mode instead of Weekend Mode. It also might help signal to older children and spouses that you are Working.

2. Have a Work Place. It doesn’t have to be a desk. It can be an end of the couch or a corner of the table. But when you sit in that place with your computer, you are going to Work. Try to make sure it has as few distractions as possible - no books or games within easy reach, no undone tasks that are easily visible, etc.

(I break this rule a lot, but I notice that I am notably less productive if I get in the habit of doing a lot of Tumblr and other faffing around in my Work Place. Like, for example, I’m doing now. Oops.)

3. If you find yourself getting distracted with things that need doing around the house, or pestered constantly, set a timer. I use an internet blocker for this, which not only gives me a timer but also shuts off a bunch of distractions. You might find that a big ol’ kitchen timer works better for you. I set mine in usually 20 min. to 1 hr intervals depending on the level of my justcan’tdoitism on any given day. At the end of that, you can goof off a bit, or succumb to the dog’s pleas to walk him, or answer the spouse/roommate’s 22 vitally important questions about dinner, or whatever. Then repeat.

4. Have time off. Most importantly, don’t even THINK about work during that time. If you have to, do the timer thing for that too. Or set aside certain times of day - e.g. 4-8 p.m. is dinner and kids time. Treat your weekends like normal weekends if you can. Even if you have to carry some work over to weekends, having at least one Day Off and doing normal Day Off things is really important. So is clocking out at some point during the day. You can burn out working from home just as easily as in an office - maybe even more so.

5. If you have a lot of scheduling flexibility - that is, if your job doesn’t require you to be on teleconferences all the time - notice when you’re most productive and roll with it. For you, maybe it might end up working best to get started right after dinner while the kids are watching TV and work until midnight, then sleep in. Or get up early and get a lot done in the morning. If it doesn’t completely throw you off, try working at different times of day than you normally do, and see what works best.

6. If you’re having a lot of trouble concentrating, more than you usually do at work, and there’s not an immediately obvious reason for it (kids screaming in your ear, the jackass across the street mowing his lawn at midnight, etc), one of two things might be going on:

There’s too much distracting clutter. You need less. Try cleaning up the area right around your Work Place, especially removing things that remind you of tasks that need doing, like shopping lists and laundry and reminder Post-Its. It doesn’t have to be gone, just out of sight.

There’s not enough distracting clutter. You need more. If you’re used to doing your work with a million things going on around you, home might be too quiet. Try turning on the TV - I need maximum quiet for writing, but for art, I concentrate best if I’m watching a distracting but not too distracting TV show, like a sitcom or a favorite movie I’ve already seen a million times. Get some little games, toys, or stimmy type things to keep around your Work Place so you can do something with your hands while you’re thinking.

There is a weird sort of dichotomy to working from home, where sometimes you can get a lot more done, and sometimes a lot less. If you can figure out how to manage your time efficiently, without having to deal with coworkers and phones and a million interruptions, you might be able to get done in 4 hours what you normally get done in 8, and take the rest of the day off. (Do take the rest of the day off! Try not to let working at home become an excuse to do All The Things and end up tireder than you were before.) But you also might take 8 hours to do what normally takes you 2. And both of these things might be true on different days.