I have been going through an unusual period of unbusyness. Normally I tend to be quite busy, working my full-time job, working on side projects after, going to the gym in the morning and talking to friends some evenings, and the weekends tend to be much of the same, only that I work on side projects the majority of the day.

So what has happened recently?

My work has slowed down quite a bit, I have also been on two holidays in one month, with 2 weeks in between, one to Scotland and one to Lisbon. Both were quite nice, and I managed to see a lot of both of these wonderful places. But this has meant that my last 4-6 weeks have been lacking a certain busyness I was used to.

This sounds great, doesn’t it? Well… Yes. I recently watched 9 hours of TV in a single day, I don’t remember ever doing that before. It felt ok, I’m glad I’m in a position where having such unproductive days doesn’t hurt, but it does leave a sense of unnacomplishment (although this particular example I was somewhat proud of, in a weird way), this is something I have fought with for about a year now, and I’m starting to understand this feeling better.

I’ve learnt to appreciate this feeling, it pushes me to do something, it isn’t something to fight, it is something to be grateful for. It pushes me to continue learning, continue working and push myself. It goes away once I’ve completed a good days work, when I’ve been to the gym, and when I’ve made a good, healthy meal.

What about (remote) work?

Firstly, I will try and get back to a good state of bussyness, first and for most.

Secondly - although I am a big believer in remote work - I understand the need to leave the house. This is not some revolutionaty idea I have discovered, I’ve known that practically anyone who does remote work for a long time wants to leave the house. Maybe not for an office, but for a coffee shop, a co-working space, the park. Literally anywhere but their house (obviously from time to time).

So an action I will undertake is to try and leave the house everyday, and during weekdays I will try and work - at least 3 days - outside of my home office. This will mostly come in the form of going to a London office, in general I want to spend more time in London, as I always have fun and meet incredible people when I take the time to go to events, spend time at the pub, or simply working from the office. My mental health improves and so does my work.

However, the time I spend at home I also want to be better. The home office can be an incredibly productive space, and I want to keep it that way. I will come up with rules around using my phone near my desktop, about starting the day right when I am at home (waking up at the same time), and a few other baselines which I want to achieve. I might also write a blog post about these, more in detail.

Conclusion

I’m somewhat unhappy with my current productivity. I feel like I am lagging behind, not keeping up with industry trends and much as I should - and most importantly - I am not programming enough.