More productive or less productive when working from home?

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.

work / life balance

I've just read this in a fascinating list of business failure post-mortems:

Make an environment where you will be productive. Working from home can be convenient, but often times will be much less productive than a separate space. Also its a good idea to have separate spaces so you’ll have some work/life balance.

I certainly don't have a separate space. And it's true, distractions can spoil productivity. But those distractions are things like Facebook (which I now try very hard to keep closed) and new emails popping into my inbox (which are always far more compelling that what I'm working on at the time).

Those are things which would still be a problem if I had a separate space. Not related to the fact that my home is my workspace and vice versa.

But the really fascinating thing is that the article made me think about productivity and I'd written this post before I really noticed the bit about work/life balance.

And now I have, I still don't think there's much to think about. Sometimes I work, sometimes I live and do whichever I feel is appropriate at the time, and that's not a problem at all.

Day off!

Yesterday I took a whole day off. Anyone employed is probably thinking 'so what', but for the self-employed it is a big deal.

We have to consider whether to shut up shop or get cover. Weigh up the risk of missing something important while away. Plan the job of catching up on return. We also have to manage customers who won't go along with it ("your website says you're closed tomorrow but is there any chance....")

It triggers all sorts of emotions. Excitement in a 'naughty bunking off' kind of way. Worry about the risks and the catching up. Enjoyment of a change from the routine.

I do find that getting out of the routine and physically away from the work allows the mind to see the bigger picture and thoughts, ideas and plans all flow much more freely. This makes the cost of taking time off seem more like an investment.