Working from Home

As a result of the worldwide Coronavirus crisis many people who do not normally work full-time from home are having to. 

Here’s how to supercharge your work.

You can concentrate your work by taking advantage of the “end effect” which I wrote about extensively in my first book “Get Everything Done”. The way to do this is to work to the “school timetable”. This is two periods of 40 minutes with a 10 minute break between them, followed by a break of 30 minutes, with another two periods of 40 minutes. Then an hour and a half’s break for lunch, followed by the same again. Assuming a 9 o’clock start the working periods are as follows:

0900-0940

0950-1030

Break

1100-1140

1150-1230

Lunch

1400-1440

1450-1530

Break

1600-1640

1650-1730

If you want to finish at 5, then you can reduce the lunch break by half an hour. 

It’s very important that, whatever work periods you decide on, you stick to them to the second. This is because a definite start and finish time produces much more concentrated work than just working while you feel like it. A definite end time produces much better work then just carrying on for as long as you feel like it.

Comments

[Maureen]

So glad to see this post, thanks Mark. I've been playing around with ultradian rhythms (90 minutes of focused work, no more than three or four per day), and have wondered if this framework played well with little and often and work as long as you feel like on a task. I can clearly see now that there's no reason why you can't do L&O and work as long as want on a task within a framework. (They aren't related at all.) I like the mini break at 40 minutes, will definitely try that.

[Mark Forster]

Maureen:

A point I've often made about this in the past is that it makes your day feel extremely long and productive instead of passing by like a flash. Remember how long days seemed when you were at school? Or how long the days seem during a conference where you have a program of sessions? It's the same "end effect" in action.

The rule is that you must do nothing except work during the work periods, and do anything except work during the rest periods.

[Fabrice]

Mark, thank you for all the advice !
I have found the absolute strategy to fight off COVID-19... Stay at home and order the three books of yours I hadn't read yet ! (waiting for them from Amazon UK, they were outrageously expensive on Amazon FR, for some reason)
Keep calm and stay safe !

[Fintan]

Many thanks, Mark. I'd already applied this idea from "Get Everything Done" for quite some time, but with the current COVID-19 crisis, I'm needing to amend my regular schedule a little.

By pure coincidence, just before starting that tweak I decided to take a look at your website, as I haven't been here for several weeks. Your summary has re-emphasised to me the value of this scheduling concept and the importance of applying it well.

Thanks again,

Fintan.

PS - my younger son has been struggling with school work from home at the moment, and, as it happens, I've been recommending essentially what you describe. As I repeat to him at least twice a day, "if you start on time, you can finish on time!"

[Mark Forster]

Fintan:

<< As I repeat to him at least twice a day, "if you start on time, you can finish on time!" >>

Only twice?

[Nick]

Mark,

Thank-you for sharing this. Very helpful during this time!

One question: Do you assign specific tasks to each 40 minute block? Or, do you work on one task to completion and if that’s only 15 minutes into your 40 minute block, then you just start your next task and so on?

[Mark Forster]

Nick:

There are many different ways of using the "school timetable". They are all effective because they make use of the "end effect". Here are a couple, but you can no doubt think of other ways.

1) Use it as it would be used in a school - one subject per period. So for example Period 1 on email and/or other routine tasks. Period 2 on Project X. Period 3 on writing a report. Period 4 on Planning, etc.

2) Just work off your normal list, but take time away from it during the breaks.

Whatever method you use, don't forget that the rule is that you nothing but work during the work periods and anything but work during the breaks.

[Alan Baljeu]

This works pretty well! As a guide I aim to work 50 minutes with a 10 minute break, and occasional longer breaks, until 8 work sessions are complete. I amend this to fit my rhythms of work. If I am feeling stuck I may cut early, and if I'm in flow I might continue longer. That 10 minutes can be filled by almost anything, typically physical chores, but sometimes visiting mf.ss.com and posting. Back to work!

[Charles]

I have found a schedule quite helpful, but I was wondering about this line:

"A definite end time produces much better work then just carrying on for as long as you feel like it."

How does this fit with the advice elsewhere on this website of working for as long as you feel like it and no longer?

[Mark Forster]

Charles:

<< How does this fit with the advice elsewhere on this website of working for as long as you feel like it and no longer? >>

There are many ways of using the "school timetable" but if you wanted to use one of my systems like Simple Scanning with it, you would start work on it at 0900 but take a 10 minute break at 0940. During that break you could do anything you liked as long as it wasn't work. Then at 0950 you would resume processing the Simple Scanning list. And so on through the day. You would then get the benefit of both the Simple Scanning list and the timed breaks. The breaks would result in more concentrated work during the work periods.

So the effect of using the two different systems together is to multiply the effects of both.