I've been fully remote for three years now after a decade in an office, and...
Egwu adeleka@adelekaegwu7451
2 days ago
I've been fully remote for three years now after a decade in an office, and the biggest productivity difference for me comes down to one thing: **the quality of my uninterrupted time.**
In the office, I was constantly interrupted. Someone stopping by my desk for a quick question, a loud phone call two cubes over, the pressure to look busy when I actually needed to think. Those micro-interruptions added up to maybe two hours of wasted mental energy a day. At home, I can block off three hours in the morning where I'm literally unreachable. I put my phone on silent, close Slack, and just work. That deep focus alone makes me more productive than any eight-hour office day ever did.
But here's the catch that nobody talks about: **remote work made me less productive at collaboration.** In the office, I could walk over to a colleague's desk, sketch on a whiteboard, and solve a problem in ten minutes. Doing the same thing over Zoom takes scheduling, awkward silences, and screen sharing that never works right. So I've learned to schedule specific "office hours" for deep work and reserve afternoons for meetings. That split has been a game changer.
My advice is to be honest about what kind of work you do most. If you're writing code or designing something, remote wins. If you're in strategy or brainstorming with a team, you'll miss the office.
2 days ago