Working from home - more or less productive?

[CunningSmeagol]

I find that I am more productive working from home because I have other things to do, pushing me to finish my work faster. If I am stuck at the office, there isn't much incentive to finish before it is politically correct to leave.

 

[JayJay]

Originally Posted by CunningSmeagol

I find that I am more productive working from home because I have other things to do, pushing me to finish my work faster. If I am stuck at the office, there isn't much incentive to finish before it is politically correct to leave.
I'm less productive working at home due to distractions and interruptions.

 

[gdl203]

I believe it very much depends on the nature of the work. If your "work of the day" is a set of discrete tasks, then you may be right. If your work is not discretely segmented in clear daily deadlines and tasks but rather a continuous flow - e.g. finding new ideas, prospecting new clients, developing a business - I think it may be worse to lack the structure of an office.

 

[GQgeek]

I don't work at all anymore, but when i did work from home on occasion, my productivity varied a lot more. Some days I would be super efficient and work steadily for 12 hours straight, and other days i'd find myself constantly distracted. On the whole, I was probably less productive than at the office.

 

[aboutsomeoneelse]

It would be too easy for me to skip the shower and shave, thus ensuring that I stay in "sick/furlough/vacation day" mode all day long, every day.

 

[dropout5]

do you live alone? i get distracted my my gf when i work at home.

 

[Blackhood]

I can't work in my own house. I'll sit around all day doing **** all, but when I'm at work I drive myself and my staff almost to breaking point. I guess I'm one of those "workaholic to avoid laziness" types.

 

[odoreater]

I have both a home office and an actual office and make pretty good use of both. My answer is that it depends. Sometimes I'm more productive at home and sometimes I'm more productive at the office. To me, productivity is not really a function of the environment that I'm in, but of a bunch of factors like: (1) how tired or rested I am on that day; (2) if deadlines need to be met; (3) how productive I was the day before; (4) distrctions; etc.

Maybe the physical environment is a factor in my productivity, but there are a bunch of other factors that have much more of an impact.

 

[Milpool]

It has changed dramatically over time for me. I used to be able to concentrate and be very productive at home, to the point that it did not matter if I was at home or at the office.

These days, I can still be somewhat productive at home, but I find that I am in much more of a work mood if I'm at the office (or even just somewhere quiet like a library or coffee shop).

I think perhaps if I return to having a dedicated work space at home, then I could be productive again. It seems I just need some kind of "cue" that I need to enter work mode rather than home mode.

 

[FidelCashflow]

I have a PS3 at home and I can surf SF DT's with NSFW impunity on my home computer, so work doesn't stand a chance.

 

[Huntsman]

Originally Posted by gdl203

I believe it very much depends on the nature of the work. If your "work of the day" is a set of discrete tasks, then you may be right. If your work is not discretely segmented in clear daily deadlines and tasks but rather a continuous flow - e.g. finding new ideas, prospecting new clients, developing a business - I think it may be worse to lack the structure of an office.
Yep. +1

 

[CunningSmeagol]

Originally Posted by Huntsman

Yep. +1

My work is generally a continuous flow, but there is only so much I am going to get done in a day before I burn out. Being at home, for some reason, makes me finish the same amount, but burn out quicker in a much larger, brighter flame. It is strange because I bill hourly.