Staying productive while working from home (lockdown edition)
It finally happened. I had believed that I might be one of the lucky ones. I thought I might make it. But alas, Lockdown. And more than that. Isolation.
The university I work at (in Australia, my thoughts go to those in other countries hit much harder by this bug) had a positive case of COVID-19. Due to the virulent Delta strain, and Australia’s low vaccination rate, the decision was made to close the Chemistry building. Only truly essential access is allowed (think ‘this expensive machine will become an expensive paperweight if someone doesn’t top up its juices’, not ‘this experiment would tie off that project nicely’). And for the next two weeks I am in isolation waiting for a second negative test.
Since February 2020, when online learning first became the new normal, I had been hoping to avoid working from home. I was lucky for a very long time. I like to keep my work separated from my home life. One of the best ways I have found to achieve that is to physically separate my work from my home. However, for the last five days and for the next four weeks (minimum), I will be working from home (WFH).
I am a synthetic chemist by training (organometallics), and have been working on more kinetics and electrochemistry of late. All of these activities are distinctly difficult to do when WFH. However, there is more to the worklife of a chemist than just mixing things in a flask. In order to keep myself engaged and to make the most of the extreme amounts of dedicated (and mandated) quiet time, I have made the following plan - heavily based on a lot of advice and wisdom that I have read in the last year and a half.
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Keep a regular schedule
I may not be able to leave the house for the next week, and will not be able to return to work for at least four, but I will keep my regular hours. I will get up at the same time, work during the same hours, and finish work at the same time. I cannot avoid working in my home, but I can control how much it seeps into my non-work life. When I am not ‘at work’, I store my notebooks and work laptop in a drawer - out of sight and out of mind. I have also started using Cal Newport’s shutdown ritual, and saying out loud ‘end of work’. Now that I no longer ‘leave’ work, this ritual helps keep the lines from blurring. -
Time block/schedule time
For the last few years, I have been using a combination of Getting Thing Done (GTD) and a bullet journal (BuJo). The GTD methodology has really helped when I started my current post-doc position. Gone are the days of having autonomy over my whole day. Now (at least before lockdown proper), I have to be available to help and give input, as well as respond to the occasional emergency. Time blocking was useful for me to dedicate time to my ‘big rocks’ that I wouldn’t otherwise get to - a good introduction is from AE. I generally allocated an hour and a half in the morning (before my colleagues were in and starting experiments) and an hour in the afternoon (post lunch slump, so no urgent tugs on my time). Other than that I used my Next Actions list to chip away at activities when I could. Now that I have no colleagues to casually interact with, I have almost complete control over my days (excepting meetings and the occasional call). Defining up front what I’ll be doing each half hour will keep me on track, something Cal Newport promotes as being key to a productive worklife. -
Take breaks
I have found that WFH means that I have far more time in my day. There is no more commute time, no incidental chats with colleagues, no interruptions. This has lead me to become super productive. Hours of unbroken concentration available. However, after the first few days I realised that it was becoming too much. It was exhausting. I previously used the pomodoro technique to get started on the things I didn’t want to do; once I had started it was easier to continue. Now I have started using the pomodoro technique to build breaks into my day. I have found that 50 minute time periods with 5-10 minute breaks work well. The key for me is to take a proper break. I get up, stretch, and have a little walk around my apartment, make another cup of tea or coffee if desired. This has helped me stave off exhaustion, but also gives a bit of time for my subconscious to process what I was doing. Little flashes of insight or ideas come to me quite often during a break. -
Unplug
The internet is wonderful. I feel very lucky to be alive and working in this modern day and age. The ability to access a whole world of information with a few keystrokes is truly revolutionary. However, I am one to go deeply down the rabbit hole. I think this is a factor in why I enjoy science and research so much. To prevent me from exploring the wrong hole, I have started scheduling my internet use. Batching together online and offline tasks. This initially came from necessity (I don’t have wifi at home, and my mobile data plan is small by today’s standards), but even now that I’ve got a larger plan to enable me to WFH for the next few weeks, I find that unplugging allows a heightened level of focus. During an offline pomodoro session, there are often one or two queries that arise that need the internet to look up. I just add them to my GTD inbox and move on. Then during an online session, I batch together all of my searches which prevents me from diving into any one particular rabbit hole. If something does spark my interest enough, I’ll add it as a project for later.
These are the four key concepts that I aim to follow during the next few weeks of working from home. Based on my initial findings, I suspect that I will implement periods of offline work even when I return to the laboratory and office.