Where are you most productive?

It seems like a simple question, where are you most productive? Lots of people will say “in the office” where they have the equipment they need and no children or pets to be distracting. Others are more able to focus at home without people speaking in the office, phones ringing and other office distractions.

I had a conversation recently with someone who likes working in what is quite a noisy coffee shop, he finds that he is able to concentrate there better than in a quiet environment.

People find different things work for them.

Now, what type of work are you trying to do? In the examples above I am talking about focusing on a piece of work, probably writing, probably on a computer.

There are other types of work though. What about meetings, are you more productive when you meet in person or when you meet online? Does it depend on the meeting subject? What is productivity in that situation, for you? Is the meeting to make decisions, to impart information, to get feedback, to reach an agreement?

If you are training people, does that work better in person, remote or asynchronous?

It seems that is not such a simple question, so how do you make it work?

Some ideas: Give people choice, trust them, think about how you are measuring productivity and collect some data, Inspect and adapt.

If you have people working together and people working remotely it is entirely possible to make this work but you will need to give it more thought than if it is all one or the other.

Good luck

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