As someone who hated traffic, I am starting to miss it.
Many will think that one of the main advantages of working from home is that you no longer have to sit in traffic. The morning and afternoon commute is a tedious part of most office workers’ days, but it provides us with what is termed as transition time – an important but under-recognised factor in our mental health. It allows your brain to shift gears between what is on your grocery list and your big presentation.
We all want more time for the things we enjoy. Time is a commodity we must guard carefully. If we are not diligent in setting boundaries around our time, we can easily become overwhelmed.
Transition time is normally spoken about in neurodiverse circles. People with ADHD and ASD are well versed in the importance of letting the brain take a time out between activities. Most people do it without noticing. You switch between tasks and projects all day, perhaps you have a cup of coffee before starting the next task or look at your phone and respond to texts. These small breaks indicate that we have finished one task and are preparing to focus on the next. While taking time between doing things may sound like a loss of productivity, it actually increases efficiency.
It is important to recognise that productivity requires a flow of movement and successful shifting from one task to another. Build in time to re-orient your focus. We often lose track of time and feel our schedules are unmanageable when we do not plan the time it takes to transition.
The drive to work gives you an opportunity to get out of home-mode and think about what must happen that day at the office. The commute from bedroom to home office is just not long enough to do the same. This results in blurred lines between home-life and work. If you are home all the time you never fully switch between the two. This manifests in working late into the night, thinking about meetings at the dinner table and/or thinking about dinner in the virtual boardroom. Both aspects of your life suffer.
Having a routine at home is essential to staying on track with work. What is also essential is building in transition time or rituals into that routine. Placing parameters around daily activities, accurately planning our days as much as possible, and accounting for transition time lead to increased productivity and improved time management. When working from the office I would shower and leave in the morning, having my first coffee when I arrived at work. At home, I have a cup of coffee on the balcony for about 20 minutes in the morning before coming inside to start the day. I use this time to think about the day ahead and what I need to get done – things I used to think about in traffic. When the workday is done, I again have a cup of coffee on the balcony. This has become my personal transition ritual; it triggers my brain and allows me the time I need to change roles.
Different things work for different people. It may be scrolling through social media, watching a TV program or simply going for a short walk. The activity does not matter, it is only important that you think deliberately about task transitions. Design your tasks, and the activities between them, to effectively make those transitions. Replace the traffic.