4 Ways To Stay Productive If You’re Quarantining At Home
What you need to know about working and staying sane
I know, I know — no one really wants to think about how we’re all forced to work from home, doing what we have to in order to survive. But, unfortunately (or maybe fortunately, depending on how much you like your workplace and being alone) that’s the reality we’re currently living in.
“Action is the foundational key to all success.” (Picasso)
Being home alone or with family, surrounded by your life outside of work, can make getting work done rather, well, difficult, as I’m sure you’ve discovered. Through my own practice and experience, as well as much research done in the field, I’ve found four key ways to become more efficient with your time.
My goal here is not to turn you into a productivity machine, yell at you to start writing your book, or turn you into a robot that just sits and works — but someone who understands the importance of what you’re doing, sits down and gets it done, and then moves on to life.
1 || Work in a new place
You’ve probably heard this before, maybe even before the quarantine. Working in the same place as you play, or in your bedroom, or surrounded by distractions can be really difficult. While this is true, I would tack on a new element to this thought out suggestion.
“You might remember how a new level or world to explore in a video game motivates you to play for longer, in the hopes of the reward of unlocking an achievement or gaining more points. Each new stimuli gives you a little rush of motivation to explore, because it makes you anticipate a reward.”
- Life Hacker: Novelty and the Brain: Why New Things Make Us Feel So Good
Work in a new place, every day if you can. Just like a video game, give yourself a new world to work in. Obviously, you can’t really go anywhere right now, but you can move to your back porch, your patio, your front porch, your kitchen table, the floor of your living room, your closet, you name it. Whatever place in your house you haven’t used yet, go and sit there and get stuff done.
This will help you have more novel experiences and be more inclined to start fresh in the new place that you’ve established. I don’t know exactly why it works, but it does. Novelty is the best medicine for un-productivity.
2 || Establish dominance over your life
This crazy time has taught me a big lesson. I have control over very little. Things don’t just happen automatically in life, both outside of my home and inside of it. And for the things that I am in control of, if I want them to happen, I have to do them. In a crazy time like this where things are out of control, it’s actually very helpful to combat anxiety, depression, and general laziness by establishing simple dominance and control over our environment.
“It’s important that you feel in control of your life. People who do go through life with a better sense of well-being and security, as well as have a greater hope for their future. Feeling that you have some say in your own life seems to be good for you — both emotionally and physically.”
Psych Central: Gaining Control of Your Life
This looks different for everyone, but it can involve simply making your bed, cleaning your room, folding your laundry, putting dishes in the dishwasher, writing down the three things that you have been putting off for months and then doing them quickly, or any combination or tangent from those.
Establishing dominance reminds yourself of what you have control of and gets you in the headspace to exert that dominance and control. Once you can do it over your bed, your spaces, your plan and your structure, you can get to work much more peacefully, easily, and productively.
3 || Find community with another person
I get that Zoom, FaceTime, HouseParty, and FaceBook live are NOT in-person communication, and that we will never be able to replace physical proximity and touch with digital technology and communication. But for now, that’s all we have. Turn off your mute button, laugh a little at this crazy situation, and have some intentional conversations about stuff that matters.
“Take this time to call or video chat with people to stay connected, or reconnect with people you haven’t spoken to in a while. […] Our voices hold a lot of power, and simply saying hello can make someone’s day.”
- Habitat for Humanity: 5 Ways to Stay Connected to Your Community During Quarantine
I have been insanely productive on a few key projects in my life these past few weeks because I’ve found a community with another person. I started a screenplay for a pilot I was working on and shared my screen over Zoom with a friend. She was able to watch while I typed, even more closely and intently than she would if we had been sitting together in person.
4 || Know your why
I know, really? Yes. I cannot tell you HOW many times I have set out on a new project, hyperactively invested countless time and energy into it, before realizing that I was, as Stephen Covey would put it, climbing up a ladder that was leaned up against the wrong building. Because I had allowed myself to go so far, I couldn’t simply shift my weight and lean up against the other building — I had to climb down it and start all over again.
“When you know your WHY, you can endure any HOW.” — Viktor Frankl
Before you start your work in quarantine, whether that be your typical working from home, your makeshift work from home situation, or making progress on personal projects, know why you’re doing what you’re doing. If there’s not a clear answer, maybe ditch that project (or consider ditching that job in the future) and move onto something more meaningful for you. Make the most of your time by doing what really matters to you and your impact on the world.
Stay tuned for more articles featuring the morning, evening, and daily habits of leaders of the past and of the present. Also, if you’re interested, click the link below to read my new Kindle book, On Purpose: Discovering Who You Are With The Enneagram.
