I have been working for 20 years now and never really thought about this question so seriously before. Even during peak Covid times, when the entire world was coping with the work-from-home (WFH) concept and the changes it was bringing to our lifestyles, I always thought that it was a temporary phenomenon. Eventually, we will all return to our earlier ways. On a subconscious level, in trying to cope with the sudden imposition of this new way of life, I was changing like many others. So, when it was time to start going to work again, I had mixed feelings. While there were quite a few benefits that I enjoyed while I was working from home — going back to the office felt like returning to normal.

As months passed, the changes and norms imposed by Covid like masks, alternate shifts, and alternate seating arrangements also started to disappear. Off late, things are almost back to the earlier ways, except that as a manager one has to account for absenteeism as if even one team member tests positive — not only does that team member have to get into a quarantine mode but the rest of the staff needs to get tested as well. However, organizations have to come to accept this as part of the new normal now.

Some recent changes in my personal life brought about by the failing health of a family member have brought me to a juncture where I have to actively start pursuing WFH and remote opportunities. Though I am at a stage where I don’t have much of a choice and it looks like WFH is going to be my only preference for the next few years at least, I still thought that an assessment of my experience with WFH is fair game. So here it goes:

Positives:

Flexibility: WFH gave me the flexibility of location. I need not continuously calculate the travel time and cost, weigh options of which route to take to reach the office on time, or make it to a meeting at the other end of the city on time. WFH gave me the gift of time — 2 precious hours of additional time added to my day. I was able to take up online courses and utilize this time to pick up new skills that are helping me today.

Work-life balance: Less commuting meant more time on hand for me to practice better time management not only for work-related tasks but also for better management of personal time. I also observed a slightly better level of mental and physical health. This could largely be due to a reduction in stress related to the daily commute and the office environment. Also, with more time on hand, I was able to pay more attention to my health and fitness by allocating daily time to an exercise and meditation routine

Deep work and productivity: “This could have been an email!” I remember having this thought almost every single day in the office after an unnecessary and unproductive meeting that would eat up hours of precious time, leading to late hours in the office to finish important tasks since there was no time to do them during the day. In the WFH era, while the call volume went up and online meetings became a regular fixture, a lot of stuff that was meant for an email happened over an email. Even with the calls and online meetings, but without the other unnecessary office-related distractions I was able to do deep work for 3–4 hours every day, and that too during the working hours. I remember observing that I was more productive when I was working from home.

Multi-tasking: WFH meant that I could do multiple tasks and balance professional tasks with chores related to the house like helping out with cooking, cleaning, and home improvements. I was able to look after my ailing and old parents, and spend more time with the family and I could see the positive effect it was having on their mental as well as physical well-being.

Negatives:

Isolation: While WFH ensured that I got quality time to do some deep work, it also brought about the feeling of isolation. I sometimes found that despite a high volume of calls, emails, and chats — a lot of times the output produced by me and my team gave an impression of utter disconnect of thought. It lacked cohesiveness of approach and the silo effect was overwhelmingly strewn across the output. This led to a lot of rework and extra effort. Though this got better with time, it was obvious that the cohesiveness that comes with the physical proximity of the team working in the same room is difficult to achieve with virtual proximity, more so if the task on hand needs a team effort.

Too much screen time and gadgets: WFH means no respite to your eyes from constant screen time, whether it’s your laptop, mobile phone, tablet, kindle, or TV. Life was never so overwhelmingly surrounded by gadgets as it has been in the last couple of years. I remember seriously contemplating gadgets and screen detoxification almost every day.

Social anxiety: I didn’t like going out anymore. Despite being an introvert all my life — the bare minimum social contact that I had due to the office environment or due to the daily commute, meeting the one or two friends that I had during the weekends helped me in controlling the social anxiety that threatens to take over every time I am faced with a situation of meeting people. WFH ensured that now I didn’t need an excuse to avoid social interactions, however, it has also increased my social anxiety levels to an all-time high now and often I find myself clueless in social situations that were easy to handle even for an introvert like me.

Perception management: WFH always kept me guessing what my boss thinks of me, whether the top management knew how hard I was working, and whether my team understood the pain that I was taking in making sure that their work stood out as compared to other teams. The signals, the conversations, and water cooler chatter though distractions were also an asset that helped one to survive and thrive. WFH meant I had to work extra hard on my communication skills and make sure that I am communicating clearly and regularly with my team members, my peers, and my bosses.

Preparing for WFH:

Here is my plan based on the above learnings to make sure that this time when I start WFH I can be more effective and efficient, and can incorporate WFH as a way of life successfully:

Self-discipline: I need to be stricter on myself than ever before. There is no room for lethargy and procrastination anymore. Adhering to a set timetable and sticking to a schedule will be my primary objective. Whether is sleep hours or waking up at 5 am, meditation or leisure time, Meetings, or deep work — following a schedule unwaveringly and relentlessly is the only way I can do this in long term.

Setting Boundaries: Setting clear boundaries between work and personal space, literally as well as figuratively is something that I will have to do even before I start this new phase of my life. This means a separate workspace within the house, volume control on the TV, and curtailed social activity for the family during the day. This requires equal efforts and participation from the family as well and hence makes this point very critical.

Efficient Time management: Demarcation of work hours and personal hours, allocating time for deep work, scheduling specific hours for Emailing, calls and meetings, and not only keeping a to-do list for the day but also diligently dealing it with twice a day is going to be very important. A little slack in this area will mean work hours will stretch into personal hours and this will eventually lead to chaos. Efficient time management will also mean that it is up to me to ensure that I still can maintain a 5-day work week and make sure that the weekends are kept aside for me, my family, and the household chores, just the way it used to be before.

Higher emphasis on Communication: I need to get out of my shell and put extra emphasis on effective communication. Do not procrastinate on making that extra call to my team member or a peer, or avoid that evening email to my superiors. 1 social call a day to a peer has to become a regular feature of the day.

Off-screen time: Last but not the least, off-screen time whether it means no mobile after 9 pm and mandatory screen break at least twice a day, even if it is for 30 minutes is very important for this to work. I have realized that the addiction to checking for calls, messages, Emails, and notifications on social media is much more dangerous than any other addiction that I have ever had. I have noticed that I don’t even realize how involuntary and natural the process of checking my phone every minute has become for me, that sometimes I have to force myself to keep my mobile locked somewhere in the other room to stop myself from checking it every other minute and I can barely last for a few minutes.

As I prepare to adapt to this change in my life, I can sense that this change in a way is happening globally and I am hoping that soon we will see tools and programs that will aid people to function more effectively while Working from home. But even then, this will always be more of a personal battle of self-discipline and strength of the mind over matter.

I have been working for 20 years now and never really thought about this question so seriously before. Even during peak Covid times, when the entire world was coping with the work-from-home (WFH) concept and the changes it was bringing to our lifestyles, I always thought that it was a temporary phenomenon. Eventually, we will all return to our earlier ways. On a subconscious level, in trying to cope with the sudden imposition of this new way of life, I was changing like many others. So, when it was time to start going to work again, I had mixed feelings. While there were quite a few benefits that I enjoyed while I was working from home — going back to the office felt like returning to normal.

As months passed, the changes and norms imposed by Covid like masks, alternate shifts, and alternate seating arrangements also started to disappear. Off late, things are almost back to the earlier ways, except that as a manager one has to account for absenteeism as if even one team member tests positive — not only does that team member have to get into a quarantine mode but the rest of the staff needs to get tested as well. However, organizations have to come to accept this as part of the new normal now.

Some recent changes in my personal life brought about by the failing health of a family member have brought me to a juncture where I have to actively start pursuing WFH and remote opportunities. Though I am at a stage where I don’t have much of a choice and it looks like WFH is going to be my only preference for the next few years at least, I still thought that an assessment of my experience with WFH is fair game. So here it goes:

Positives:

Flexibility: WFH gave me the flexibility of location. I need not continuously calculate the travel time and cost, weigh options of which route to take to reach the office on time, or make it to a meeting at the other end of the city on time. WFH gave me the gift of time — 2 precious hours of additional time added to my day. I was able to take up online courses and utilize this time to pick up new skills that are helping me today.

Work-life balance: Less commuting meant more time on hand for me to practice better time management not only for work-related tasks but also for better management of personal time. I also observed a slightly better level of mental and physical health. This could largely be due to a reduction in stress related to the daily commute and the office environment. Also, with more time on hand, I was able to pay more attention to my health and fitness by allocating daily time to an exercise and meditation routine

Deep work and productivity: “This could have been an email!” I remember having this thought almost every single day in the office after an unnecessary and unproductive meeting that would eat up hours of precious time, leading to late hours in the office to finish important tasks since there was no time to do them during the day. In the WFH era, while the call volume went up and online meetings became a regular fixture, a lot of stuff that was meant for an email happened over an email. Even with the calls and online meetings, but without the other unnecessary office-related distractions I was able to do deep work for 3–4 hours every day, and that too during the working hours. I remember observing that I was more productive when I was working from home.

Multi-tasking: WFH meant that I could do multiple tasks and balance professional tasks with chores related to the house like helping out with cooking, cleaning, and home improvements. I was able to look after my ailing and old parents, and spend more time with the family and I could see the positive effect it was having on their mental as well as physical well-being.

Negatives:

Isolation: While WFH ensured that I got quality time to do some deep work, it also brought about the feeling of isolation. I sometimes found that despite a high volume of calls, emails, and chats — a lot of times the output produced by me and my team gave an impression of utter disconnect of thought. It lacked cohesiveness of approach and the silo effect was overwhelmingly strewn across the output. This led to a lot of rework and extra effort. Though this got better with time, it was obvious that the cohesiveness that comes with the physical proximity of the team working in the same room is difficult to achieve with virtual proximity, more so if the task on hand needs a team effort.

Too much screen time and gadgets: WFH means no respite to your eyes from constant screen time, whether it’s your laptop, mobile phone, tablet, kindle, or TV. Life was never so overwhelmingly surrounded by gadgets as it has been in the last couple of years. I remember seriously contemplating gadgets and screen detoxification almost every day.

Social anxiety: I didn’t like going out anymore. Despite being an introvert all my life — the bare minimum social contact that I had due to the office environment or due to the daily commute, meeting the one or two friends that I had during the weekends helped me in controlling the social anxiety that threatens to take over every time I am faced with a situation of meeting people. WFH ensured that now I didn’t need an excuse to avoid social interactions, however, it has also increased my social anxiety levels to an all-time high now and often I find myself clueless in social situations that were easy to handle even for an introvert like me.

Perception management: WFH always kept me guessing what my boss thinks of me, whether the top management knew how hard I was working, and whether my team understood the pain that I was taking in making sure that their work stood out as compared to other teams. The signals, the conversations, and water cooler chatter though distractions were also an asset that helped one to survive and thrive. WFH meant I had to work extra hard on my communication skills and make sure that I am communicating clearly and regularly with my team members, my peers, and my bosses.

Preparing for WFH:

Here is my plan based on the above learnings to make sure that this time when I start WFH I can be more effective and efficient, and can incorporate WFH as a way of life successfully:

Self-discipline: I need to be stricter on myself than ever before. There is no room for lethargy and procrastination anymore. Adhering to a set timetable and sticking to a schedule will be my primary objective. Whether is sleep hours or waking up at 5 am, meditation or leisure time, Meetings, or deep work — following a schedule unwaveringly and relentlessly is the only way I can do this in long term.

Setting Boundaries: Setting clear boundaries between work and personal space, literally as well as figuratively is something that I will have to do even before I start this new phase of my life. This means a separate workspace within the house, volume control on the TV, and curtailed social activity for the family during the day. This requires equal efforts and participation from the family as well and hence makes this point very critical.

Efficient Time management: Demarcation of work hours and personal hours, allocating time for deep work, scheduling specific hours for Emailing, calls and meetings, and not only keeping a to-do list for the day but also diligently dealing it with twice a day is going to be very important. A little slack in this area will mean work hours will stretch into personal hours and this will eventually lead to chaos. Efficient time management will also mean that it is up to me to ensure that I still can maintain a 5-day work week and make sure that the weekends are kept aside for me, my family, and the household chores, just the way it used to be before.

Higher emphasis on Communication: I need to get out of my shell and put extra emphasis on effective communication. Do not procrastinate on making that extra call to my team member or a peer, or avoid that evening email to my superiors. 1 social call a day to a peer has to become a regular feature of the day.

Off-screen time: Last but not the least, off-screen time whether it means no mobile after 9 pm and mandatory screen break at least twice a day, even if it is for 30 minutes is very important for this to work. I have realized that the addiction to checking for calls, messages, Emails, and notifications on social media is much more dangerous than any other addiction that I have ever had. I have noticed that I don’t even realize how involuntary and natural the process of checking my phone every minute has become for me, that sometimes I have to force myself to keep my mobile locked somewhere in the other room to stop myself from checking it every other minute and I can barely last for a few minutes.

As I prepare to adapt to this change in my life, I can sense that this change in a way is happening globally and I am hoping that soon we will see tools and programs that will aid people to function more effectively while Working from home. But even then, this will always be more of a personal battle of self-discipline and strength of the mind over matter.