Productivity Found in Unexpected Places

I’m not a fan of cubeland.  Hey, I’m not a fan of 9 to 5.  Any of you who read this blog know that already.  And my trouble with cubeland is that if you are on deadline and really need to concentrate it is nearly impossible.  And if you’re not on deadline and want an excuse not to concentrate they are abundant.

So as someone who has traditionally had jobs with lots of deadlines, and as a world champion procrastinator…cubeland is not for me.  Or is it?

I’ve been working on my own now for nearly a year.  I work where I can, but I often work from home.  I sit in my living room or my bedroom with my laptop.  TV is not a distraction…we killed cable long ago and I’m not much for daytime shows…so I should be hyper productive…right?

Well lately I’ve found myself procrastinating.  This is not unusual for me, but I’ve been a bit indecisive on my next business move and the deadlines I have are pretty far out, so the procrastination on two tasks has continued for well over 2 weeks now.  I’m still doing the things about my work I like but I’m definitely ignoring that which I don’t want to do.

So I’ve been happily distracted with having coffee and lunch meetings.  And in an effort to better use my time, I’ve tapped into my wireless vendor so that I don’t need to travel all the way back home before continuing work.  I get to work in lots of places, Starbucks, McDonald’s, Marriotts, etc.  So this week I took advantage of it.

And I found something fascinating…changing my lattitude, definitely changed my attitude.  At a crowded McDonald’s in Somerville, Ma I was more productive in 2 hours than I had been in days.  At a bustling Starbucks near South Station I cut through the clutter and accomplished some of the tasks I’ve been whining about.  So maybe it’s not cubeland that was my problem…maybe it was the routine…sameness…rut.

Perhaps I was more productive on my telecommuting days in my former job simply because it shook up how and where I worked.

One of the things about workplace flexibility is that it’s different for everyone.  And it will change as the company/employee changes.  My company needed me to change some things as an employee.  I was slacking.  My workplace flexibility unexpectedly allowed me to snap out of it…in places I never would have guessed would work.