Working From Home Unlocked My Natural Productivity Rhythm
Knowing when I work best is helping me thrive
When the world went remote and we were left scrambling to figure out what the hell we were doing, the productivity gurus — both those worthy of the title and those not — got loud. We were bombarded with tips, techniques and hacks on how to manage our time, our work, our families and ourselves.
I dove headfirst into it all. I tried various to-do list techniques, mindfulness, scheduling apps, post-work rituals and post-work commutes. It all worked — until it didn’t.
What most productivity advice fails to consider — or conveniently ignores — is that we’re all working in unique environments. What works for one can’t be a blanket rule for others. When someone tells me to get up at 5 a.m. to enjoy the quiet hours before my other half begins her own remote workday, no one considers the fact that leaves me twiddling my thumbs by 10 a.m. and battling insanity-inducing boredom. When others blame my inefficiency on the lack of shared work hours, it fails to consider that my wife works 9–5 while I’m self-employed, and conduct most of my work with colleagues in the U.S. Time after time, the advice I tried to follow resulted in a lack of productivity, wrecking havoc with my mental health. What more could I do? It turns out, I needed…
