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Because I speak on human connection, I'm often asked to weigh in on the current debate about the hybrid work environment. The debate goes something like this:

Employer: "Tim, When people stopped coming into the office, productivity went way down. It must be because of a lack of human connection, right? Convince everyone to come into the office more!"

 

Employee: "Tim, I've been working in my PJs for the last two and a half years. There's no way I'm going back. I want to work from home."

Employer: "You don't want to work from home. You just want to get paid from home."

For some help with this, I turned to Arci Grey, a success coach, who uses applied neuroscience to help her clients reach their goals faster with less stress and more progress. She told me: Ultimately, you and your boss want the same thing: less stress and more progress.

Your boss thinks that the best way to solve this is to return to the office, but after two and half years of working in your PJs, that feels more like a punishment than a solution.

The real problem is not where you work, it’s how you work.

In other words, what is happening in our brains and bodies determines our ability to be focused and productive. Although your environment does play a role in this, it’s not the driving force in your motivation.

Working From Home Has Changed Your Brain

At the office, we were more productive but more stressed, and yet at home, we are less stressed and less productive.

But the answer is not to give up our freedom and go back to the office full-time; it’s to change how we use our brains.

Many of us default to procrastination as a motivational tool; the stress of a deadline often kicks us into high gear. Although it does produce some results in the short term, it doesn't feel good, and it’s not sustainable.

So, how do we fix that? The great news is there are some simple hacks to help your brain get out of survival mode and align with your goals, so you can work with naturally energized motivation, and get your work done faster―without giving up your freedom and autonomy.

Five Work-From-Home Brain Hacks

1. Wake Up to Sunlight. Your eyes are actually an extension of your brain. They detect threats and rewards. They are also a conduit for light, which is essential to the brain. When natural light is perceived, it has a calming effect on the parts of the brain that affect mood and stress response. In addition, light actually resets and regulates the rhythmic systems of our brains, including our circadian and ultradian rhythms. When you get sunlight in your eyes first thing in the morning, it actually sets the timer for the sleep hormone, melatonin, to release at night. Sleep is essential for focus and motivation.
2. Forward Ambulation. Moving your body, under your own energy and in a forward direction, otherwise known as walking, creates something called optic flow, which reduces activity in the amygdala. That's the part of your brain that lights up and fires out the stress response you feel in your body, like anxiety, and ultimately shut down and retreats (procrastination). Taking a morning walk can help set a lower baseline for stress for the day and will help you maintain focus throughout the day.
3. Break Down Tasks and Race the Clock. In my workshop Focused AF, we use complete short bursts of focused work. This does three things:

• Breaking your tasks down into smaller steps allows your brain to stop overthinking and stay focused on completing the task.
• There is good stress and bad stress. Setting a timer actually provides the brain with good stress, putting your focus on the clock, and letting your subconscious do what it does best.
• Our energy and focus actually come in waves, known as an ultradian rhythm. Working for 45-minute intervals, strategically timed during your ultradian cycle, can help you optimize your focus and energy usage during the most important tasks.

1. Ditch the To-Do List in Favor of an EOD Brain Dump. At the end of your work day, or before switching between major tasks or projects, do a brain dump. Our brains hate open loops. Unfinished projects or unsolved problems take up a lot of mental real estate and drain our energy. This is known as the Zeigarnik Effect. This is also why multitasking is the least effective strategy for reducing stress and increasing productivity, and why to-do lists don’t actually work.
2. Pay Yourself First. Just like the best way to save money is to pay yourself first, the best way to save time is to take a little off the top for yourself. How you spend the first hour of your day will have the biggest impact on your energy and mood, as well as your ability to focus and actually get stuff done. A morning routine is key. If you want a good one that is designed to balance your dopamine, cortisol, and serotonin levels, then check on my website.

How is staying at home going to improve your human connections at work? When you work from home effectively and efficiently, suddenly your relationship with your boss improves. The time in the office can be focused more on building more human connections and collaborations.