I’m not talking about harder because you don’t have access to a gym or equipment. I mean is it harder to motivate yourself to work out, when you’re working from home?

I find that when I’m working from home, I find it very hard to pull myself away from my laptop. I remain glued to it, even after my meetings are over. I can see my productivity reach a low point – I can clearly use a break after all the zoom calls. But somehow I remain stuck to my laptop, trying to get work done, despite knowing that I would be a lot more efficient if I took a solid break.

I have an elliptical at home. It could not be more easy or quick to squeeze a work out in. But I was much more regular with my daily workout when I was commuting to work, vs now when I’m working from home.

For a while I thought – maybe I should try going out instead of working out at home. Eg: A run or a walk. Running is definitely better, but I couldn’t sustain it for long since it impacts my knees. And walking for exercise is just not as much fun.

Which brings me back to square one. Why is it harder to motivate myself to work out at home? I think that as much as commuting to office wasn’t fun, it created a physical distance between work and play. Once you leave work, the mind automatically enters a different state – one where its more relaxed, and a bit removed from whatever might have been happening at work. This perhaps makes it easier to do something else.

My other hypothesis is that some sort of structure works better for productivity. When I was commuting to work, I had a certain structure to the day – get to work before meetings, leave around 6 or 7, work out, eat, do some end of day work, sleep. But when I’m at home, I find it harder to create a similarly rigid structure. The boundaries are harder to enforce, when you’re in the same physical space at all times.

I’m considering whether I should get a plug-in that simply switches off my laptop at a pre-determined time and acts like a forcing function 🙂

Does this resonate with you? What have you done to motivate yourself to work out at home?