'Then he would joke, 'but I was here first!'' she says. When Steele Flippin started working from home in March, she had to tell him to turn the music down and readjust his routine in order to accommodate her work needs. But she wasn't aware that usually, after she left the house for her office, he would turn up jazz music, make his morning coffee and move around the house to work. If you live in a household where another person will be able to work from home, do you have the time, space and flexibility to make the adjustment together?įor example, Steele Flippin says her husband already worked from home regularly prior to the pandemic. Consider how you'll work with other members of your household

She references the 'Mistakenly seeking solitude' study from the University of Chicago, which found that while people think they'll be more content with a quiet ride on the train, they actually reported being happier when they interacted with a stranger.Įssentially, she says, people tend to overestimate how happy they'll be alone, and underestimate the joy of even unplanned social interactions. 'You don't want to underestimate how important that aspect of work is,' Brooks says. While it's important to think about productivity, Brooks says to not discount your personal preferences, especially when it comes to your workplace being a source of social connection. So you have to figure out the type of person you are.' Others crave physical interactions constantly.

'Some people thrive in a quiet, private, semi-isolated environment. 'These are really individual choices,' says Jason Fried, founder and CEO of Basecamp, a project management platform with a globally-distributed remote workforce. If child-care facilities reopen, would you be more productive working from home instead of going into an office then? Or maybe you've been unable to concentrate while also homeschooling your kid.

For example, maybe you were enthusiastic about your new work-from-home routine for the first month or two, but now social isolation is catching up with you and you wish you could be back in an office.

Doing work from home song