Divided Space for Undivided Attention

Curate all of your physical and digitals spaces

I have long prided myself in the separation I kept between work and home. The two stayed healthily separate for decades. But on March 4, 2020, that clear dividing line disappeared, when Microsoft announced that we would start Work From Home (WFH) immediately as part of the COVID lockdown.

None of us were sure how long this WFH would last, so for the first week I just focused on trying to stay productive with only a laptop parked on my desk in our shared home office, which meant kicking my wife out whenever there was a meeting (which was 75% of the workday). At the end of that week, our son Drew's high school announced that they were transitioning to remote immediately. The next day was a Friday, when our adult son Luke was always off of work. Our house was full.

That afternoon, I was sitting at the kitchen table having lunch and reflecting on the challenge of me trying to work in this blended environment. I couldn't get into a work mindset. Decades of practice at making the home a "no work zone" made this a hard habit to break. It was at this moment that I looked out in our backyard, and up at our treehouse.

This treehouse was a project we started with the boys years ago to teach them (and a lot of the neighborhood kids, it turned out) more about construction¹. But now, at ages 21 and 18, this treehouse wasn't getting much use.

When I looked at that treehouse, I saw a space separate from our home. I saw a viable place for my office. I finished my afternoon of work with a little more energy, knowing that more productivity was coming my way. And then on Saturday afternoon, I repurposed an extension cord, a space heater, some scrap lumber, and a spare large monitor from work to turn our treehouse into my WFH sanctuary.

I worked in this space for the next three months, and it was far more productive than working from the house ever would have been. My commute was a mere 20 steps, but it was perfect. I was leaving home and going to work.

Space plays an important role in your overall productivity. Be aware of that, and be the architect of your space, down to what trinkets you choose to place on your desk. Here's how to shape both your physical space and your digital space to help spin your energy flywheel² and propel you towards success.