I've seen bosses and colleagues cynically equate working from home with a paid day off, and the title of my blog is a direct reference to this attitude.But a survey says that we are more productive when away from the office because there are fewer distractions.
This item on the NY Times says that reading using a handheld device provides many distractions. I would apply this to working from home too - if I'm bored with what I'm supposed to be doing, the open tabs along the top of my browser or the apps in my dock become way too tempting.
I'm sure that distractions at home (household tasks, social networking, receiving a delivery...) balance the distractions at work cited in the survey (chatting with colleagues or walking to someone's office to make a request) and I would say that working unsupervised gives you more freedom to give in to the distractions than when working with others.
However, there are other benefits too. The article makes the point that for the employer (or the self-employed) there's a huge financial saving to be had from working from home, and for the worker the lack of a commute is a huge saving in time, stress and money. These things make working from home cheaper and more enjoyable, and I have no doubt outweigh a difference in productivity.
