Inbox Zero (Premium)

When the pandemic started and those who could were forced to work from home, people started asking me for tips. After all, I’ve been working from home for almost 30 years. Surely, I had some ideas.

And I did, though I’ve been doing this for so long that it never occurred to me to document what worked for me and what didn’t. I just kind of did things the way I did them.

And perhaps as important, we’re all different. So what works for me might not work for you. Too, we’re all works in progress, and I find it useful to reevaluate workflows and habits from time to time and test new ways of doing things. Every once in a while you have a nice ah-ha moment where something clicks you make a positive change.

But at a high level, what I’ve learned is that I need to work disruption-free to be truly productive. And that, as an inverse of sorts, when I’m literally being very productive at the moment, I magically ignore distractions because I’m so focused. The trick is getting there. And then staying there.

There are two general things that prevent me from being productive: time-based requirements and literal interruptions.

Time-based requirements are scheduled events, like meetings, which to my mind are very popular with those who don’t create content but instead need to justify their existence by proving to others that they’re working. I get it, I guess: after all, anyone can see what I’m doing for the most part by just looking at the website. (Though there are times I’m wrapped up in research or writing for books that the work I’m doing isn’t so obvious.)

I do everything I can to avoid meetings and I spread out other requirements, like appointments, as much as possible because these are the times when I’m not getting work done. That said, I’ve been doing this for so long that I’ve noticed some important downsides that may start impacting those who have only recently started working from home. For example, I now find it tedious to go distances that others find uneventful; I’d rather go out to eat within a few minutes' drive vs. a 20- to 30-minute drive. Even moving my home office from the first floor of our house to the basement was bothersome because it was further away. I know.

Interruptions are things like notifications, phone calls, or messages, especially unexpected ones. I find these kinds of things so problematic that I disable almost all notifications on my PCs and devices, and for those I do leave on, I disable almost all notification sounds. (And my Apple Watch has added a new level of notification annoyance, but that’s another story.) Because I get up normally every day on my own to work, I never have to set an alarm, but on days when I’m traveling I do of course have to set an alarm, and there is nothing less welcome than that sound. Except of course, my inability to sleep properly the night before because I’m not used to setting an alarm and I’m worried I’m going to screw ...