Procrastination whilst WFH

[RoastedLikeChesnuts]

Anyone else feel like they are just constantly procrastinating at the moment?

I am perfectly aware that I should be working, that my attitude to work probably stinks right now, that I'm lazy, a poor employee and so on... I really wasn't like this before.

But after having worked from home since the first lockdown I've just had enough. My motivation and output is terrible. I am doing everything but work in the house at the moment, chores, Mumsnet etc etc... I cannot get into it at all.

Someone will be along shortly to tell you that anything other than 8 hours Sat focussed on you workstation is theft

In the real world, we have peaks and troughs and go through phases and factoring all the time we are now not spending "around the watercooler" it probably all evens out.

Can you just pick 3 things that you absoloutley are going to get done tomorrow? Spend the last hour of today just prepping for that - check through your emails/tasks and decide which three are tomorrow.

If you have the option to colour in your emails mark them a different colour each day and try and break them all down for the rest of the week. It's a nice feeling when you get today's work done and maybe also tick off one or two from another day.

Does your procrastination affect anyone else? I have my own workload so anything I don't do just waits for me for tomorrow.

I've been working from home for 6 years so way before my team joined me in working this way too. Peake and troughs are totally normal. I have weeks where I'm super productive and weeks where I spend half of it staring at the wall. It balances out and I do find being busier helps, which most of us aren't this close to Xmas. See how you feel after your break

I really struggle with wfh. I don’t move from my computer all day, but find myself staring out of the window or day dreaming, then working ridiculously late to get my work done for the day. Don’t get me wrong, everything gets done, to a high standard and it’s done before I log off for the day, but it’s not easy.

I much prefer working in the office where I’m in work mode as soon as I arrive and the boundaries between work and home are clearly set.

I find I have some days where I am amazing. Focussed and on task all day, achieving lots. And other days when I'm not!

Are there any(work) tasks you enjoy that you could kick off the day with to get you into the swing/give you a sense of achievement?

Where physically do you work in your home? If possible a set place to work and a morning routine (eg exercise/makeup/nice breakfast... just anything to signal it’s a work day) and doing set hours might help

I think your feelings are very normal. I speak (by VC) to my team most days and set us all goals for the day/week to help motivation

Can you work out what is ‘missing’ and try to meet some of those needs (eg social contact, fun, proper time to relax etc) which might get you more in the mood to work?

I’m definitely going through a procrastination phase at the moment, think it’s the run up to Xmas and the constant things that need sorting for that taking my mind off work.

A lot of what I’m working on at the moment is putting new ways of operating in place for the long term, which takes an inordinate amount of conversations and reworking up plans. Something that would normally have been thrashed out in a couple of face to face meetings with those affected and then put into action. Everything is taking much longer to sort out, which is sapping my energy.

I used to WFH frequently pre Covid and they were very productive days, but the weeks were broken up by travel so WFH days were spent catching up after meetings.

My team have definitely got that end of term feeling, so I’ve embraced it and we’re having a virtual games afternoon, instead of a meeting, like it’s the end of term at school

My work wildly swings from so busy I can hardly breathe to very little to actively do so some days I'm literally sat doing nothing.

I have found it much harder to focus working from home, I loved working in my office. I'm perfectly up to date with work, KPIs all met etc but some days it's hard work to get up the ooopmh to do that work.

You are not alone.

When working from home I have all intentions of being super productive but I'm just not in work mode. I love not having to commute but it's really hard for me to stay busy, I feel like I'm constantly just battling and chastising myself which is exhausting.

When you work from home you feel more under pressure to be super busy every second however in actual fact I feel you need MORE breaks when WFH because you aren't in the normal office environment, you're just at home staring at the wall quite often in total silence. It's weird.

I can work happily in the office where there's other colleagues to bounce off of, but WFH is making me feel like a shitty employee who doesn't deserve a job

No I'm fine wfh. I'm happier without people, I just feel more comfortable. So it's one less thing to worry about.
My job is v. stressful and sometimes I'll walk around and watch the Robin feeding to calm my anxiety.
I just get the shitty stuff done first I find that helps me.