What is the one thing that everyone wants more of?

Time.

Productivity hacks give us time back with more output for less input.

In the typical IRL office, productivity hacks are used to turbo charge team members, allowing them to get more of the things only they can do done in each day.

Productivity often means something else for remote workers. When you work in an office, more productivity increases your capacity to take on work; you never leave early under the watchful eyes of your boss, so you fill your time with more stuff.

Working from home, being more productive allows you to get time back to use (largely) as you choose. Empty time is your own wishing well, and productivity is a tool that creates more time for wish fulfillment.

When you’re starting in a new job, you are slowed down by the amount of time learning how to work, but over time, you’re able to create efficiencies.

A fellow remote worker recently described her day: working from 7 to 9 or 10 am, and then pursuing a hobby; baking, knitting, listening to a favorite podcast. To be fair, she works for the government; her contribution is, perhaps, institutionally limited.

People tend to spend other people’s time less judiciously than they spend their own.

At an office, free time is sometimes passed just to get to the end of the workday, stealing time on social media or on longer than allowed lunch breaks.

At home, free time is precious, time is your own. You don’t waste time away, you structure it intentionally to get more out of it for your company and for you. You aren’t forced to plough through a task when you aren’t in the right headspace, you can restructure your time on the fly.

Few people want to work long, inflexible hours, yet many either work them anyway or sneak out without asking for permission, research shows. - Young People Are Going to Save Us All From Office Life, The New York Times

How “free” time is spent, at home vs IRL: an educated approximation

Time is the perk that remote work offers that trumps ping pong tables, team lunches and social connection.

This is an under advertised benefit of remote work for employees and an under discussed potential downside for employers. How do you get people to pour their everything into work when they don’t have to?

Making the choice to go remote inserts the self into work. It says my lifestyle, my needs, my hopes and dreams are important, and I won’t work for any company that doesn’t accept and embrace my humanity.

Remote work requires autonomy, discipline, and the ability to use freedom responsibly. It naturally attracts more free thinkers, GDIs and introspective people. It also attracts people looking for an easy out who want to do the absolute least, but let’s assume that they’re weeded out through the hiring process.

Enough autonomy must be given within the work to mimic the remote work environment - choice, flexibility, room for failure and growth.

Purpose at work is a need to have in a remote work environment. If purpose is derived elsewhere, more time will be thrown into the elsewhere. (Anecdotally, the % of remote workers I know with side hustles far outnumbers the % of office workers I know with side hustles.)

The decision to work remote is self led, so remote work must provide the flexibility to satisfy some self awareness, development and/or actualization.

Remote work creates time to fulfill wishes beyond the workplace - connecting with children, significant others and friends, the ability to pursue hobbies and live more life - or within the workplace, if sufficient unstructured opportunity for contribution, development, and intrapreneurship is provided.

Working from home, productivity is the comfort of knowing at the end of each day or week, you’re getting the most that you can out of your time to make progress towards your potential.