I’ve been working from home for several years now, so I thought I would share some strategies I’ve found that work for me. These won’t be entirely relevant if you are now spending most of your time teaching online, but I hope that at least some of these suggestions will help.

Dealing with domestic distractions

Unfortunately, things like laundering, vacuuming etc need to be done, but if you can identify the time of day you do your best work (see below), you can do those kind of things at other times, unless there is an unexpected event. (Recently, for example, just as I was about to do some writing, I noticed that the dishwasher had stopped working. Everything had to be removed from it and washed and dried by hand. That all took 45 minutes with two of us working together. Yes, we could have just left it for another time, but that would have provided a nice environment for germs to breed.)

I find I can’t work if things need to be done, like washing dealt with, and some things can’t be left anyway, like feeding cats and birds. So what I try to do is get all of that routine stuff out of the way first thing, then I can settle down. But that’s just me.

Another good way of avoiding domestic distractions is to work in the library or a cafe. Sadly neither are possible at the moment (during the Covid-19 lockdown).

Dealing with displacement activities

It’s very hard to not keep checking email and so on while trying to work. Some people disconnect from the internet. If that sounds too drastic you can always use a distraction-free text editor, such as FocusWriter.

Find your best time

Here’s a strange thing. I used to work best first thing in the morning. For some reason, that changed over time. I now work best third thing in the morning — after doing some kind of physical exercise and quaffing a cup of tea. I think that of you can adhere to a routine, even if you don’t need to, it makes working easier.

Dealing with technical issues

It’s really easy to get obsessed with technical errors that don’t matter too much at the time. For example, occasionally my printer decides to go offline, and the only way I’ve found to fix it is to reboot the computer. In that situation I ask myself: do I need this printing right now? If the answer is “No”, it is much more efficient to leave it, and switch the computer off when I take a lunch break or pop out.

Take advantage of the law of diminishing marginal utility

I used to work for hours on end without a break, but it finally dawned on me that if I work fewer hours and spend more time taking a walk or going shopping (itself a form of exercise if you think about it) I either achieved more, or did less but at a higher quality.

It makes sense: we’re not machines. We need to take breaks, recharge, do physical things and vary our mental activities.

If you would like a graph to illustrate this, I’ve created the one below, based on the economists’ concept of diminishing marginal utility.

This means that in each hour you work (in this example), you derive less benefit than you did from the first hour. Suppose you can measure those benefits in units known as “utils”. Now, you might enjoy 100 utils of benefit in the first hour, 80 in the second, and so on, until in the fifth hour that has declined to 20 utils. In total, over five hours you have enjoyed 300 utils of benefit. (the red line) However, if you work for the first hour, then take an hour’s break, then work for the third hour, and take an hour’s break, and finally work for the fifth hour, in theory you start afresh each time and gain 100 utils of benefit from each hour. So, you have still gained 300 utils in total (the blue line), but in fewer hours of actual working and probably produced better work too.

Yes, I know the concept of utils, and the graph, are bonkers, but it does make sense in the real world. Frequent breaks, exercise, and eating properly — not hastily-grabbed sandwiches or cake at the keyboard — are all sensible and useful things to do.