Coworking — 5 min read
Designing a workday that holds focus
Concentration is mostly a structural problem. A few adjustments to how a day and a workspace are arranged do more than willpower.
Protect one long block
Most people get their real work done in one uninterrupted stretch. Everything else in the day can usually be rearranged around it, but only if it is defended deliberately rather than hoped for.
Put the block where your attention is naturally best, and put calls and admin on the other side of it.
Make the environment do the work
Sitting somewhere that signals work — a desk that is not also a dining table, in a room where other people are working — removes a decision you would otherwise make repeatedly every morning.
The commute, short as it may be, is part of that signal. It marks the start and the end of the day.
Give interruptions a place to go
Calls, questions and quick conversations are not the enemy; unscheduled ones are. A phone booth or a small room to step into keeps them from spilling across a shared floor and across your block.
End the day on purpose
Write down the first task for tomorrow before you leave. It closes the day and removes the slowest fifteen minutes of the next one.