The Work Hack To Remain Productive And Avoid Commuting

00:00:00.000 | All right, let's do a new feature case study listener case study. I appreciate these this comes from Diane

00:00:06.800 | She says

00:00:09.680 | This is not a new question

00:00:11.680 | Just a follow-up on a question I sent

00:00:14.400 | before

00:00:16.080 | my question at the time

00:00:18.000 | Was about the fact that i'm a writer who works at home and seem to be able

00:00:21.920 | Uh to consistently do whatever I wanted first thing in the morning, but then having trouble

00:00:27.680 | Ever moving on to the second thing I want to do due to the distractions of being at home while I worked well update

00:00:34.160 | Since then I think i've solved the problem by renting a small office near my home

00:00:41.440 | Now i'm exercising first thing and then I go into the office just like a normal pre-covid working person and get my writing done

00:00:49.280 | So it's up to you whether you choose to use my question or not

00:00:51.760 | But I feel like i've solved it myself and I feel good about that. So thank you for all your work

00:00:56.560 | Great case study diane

00:00:58.560 | Work from near home w f n h. I think it's a very important trend. I've written about this in the new yorker

00:01:05.680 | Diane is a exemplar. There are lots of things we freely spend money on

00:01:10.720 | Without even really thinking about it, but for some reason we have this resistance about I don't want to spend money

00:01:17.440 | On a workspace if i'm a remote worker

00:01:20.320 | If I don't have to go to an office

00:01:22.480 | I don't want to spend money on a workspace near my home because technically

00:01:26.160 | You don't need it

00:01:29.040 | You have a home office sure

00:01:31.040 | But the difference in experience about having a place to go versus not is worth quite a bit

00:01:36.720 | So let's say there's a quick thought example building on this case study

00:01:40.640 | let's say

00:01:43.440 | You had a traditional office job

00:01:45.440 | You live in a relatively expensive place. You live in suburban, washington dc

00:01:49.840 | All right. So in this thought experiment you live in kensington

00:01:52.100 | Relatively expensive house. All right

00:01:55.040 | You go permanently remote

00:01:57.920 | So you have a home office and your house in kensington

00:02:01.280 | But your dogs are there and and your kids come home from school and whatever right like it's it's distracting

00:02:06.960 | Your laundry is there the tv is always playing and you find yourself really distracted

00:02:11.700 | If you could have a office to go to near your house

00:02:18.080 | Your productivity happiness sustainability of your work might be much better. Now, let's say you're spending all your money kensington's expensive

00:02:23.840 | Well now that you're really remote

00:02:26.000 | You move out of kensington

00:02:28.080 | You move for whatever reason you've always had this dream of having land. So

00:02:32.320 | you move to

00:02:35.120 | a farm in westminster

00:02:37.360 | My local listeners know who i'm talking about here, this is actually a real person we know who's doing this

00:02:42.960 | And you have some land and a barn and and and you know, it's cheaper to live there

00:02:47.920 | and

00:02:49.200 | Then you can you go and rent a little bit of office space in the the nearby downtown

00:02:53.360 | And it's still cheaper than where you live before you kind of live in this cool place and you have this land and it's cheaper

00:02:57.840 | To live so you can spend some of that money you save into an office

00:03:00.960 | That's what you should do because you know what if you go to that office to work that works going to be much more effective

00:03:04.960 | You'll have much clearer separation between work and home. What a great investment in your money

00:03:08.880 | So what i'm trying to say here is what diane did is great

00:03:11.440 | If it is all possible to find a way to invest money in a dedicated working space

00:03:16.080 | That's not your house, but convenient to your house

00:03:18.400 | Do it

00:03:20.960 | And I think maybe we should see more of this

00:03:23.120 | If i'm remote

00:03:25.040 | I'm gonna move somewhere cheaper

00:03:27.040 | Reclaim 50 of that savings invested in a place to work

00:03:31.620 | [MUSIC]

The Work Hack To Remain Productive And Avoid Commuting | Deep Questions With Cal Newport

Chapters