Home alone
How my environment influences my productivity and mental health
Last Thursday, I decided to work from home expecting a quiet and productive day. However, I found my energy levels plummeting, which made me realise that I need to be around others to stay energised for certain types of work.
It’s great KPMG is flexible about where staff work. But after working from home for 4 years on Alfred, I've come to realise I’m most productive when I’m in the office.
As social creatures, we naturally draw energy from others and our tribal nature means we excel in psychologically safe teams. Teams where collaboration fuels camaraderie to help its members accomplish things they could never do on their own.
Which is things I miss from my time in Rugby, where being part of a team striving to do something special, like winning Super Rugby or the World Cup, gave me tremendous energy.
Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy being on my own especially when I'm writing my blog or trying to think deeply about Alfred. In those cases, being away from distractions is great because the energy I’m getting from my work offsets the lack of energy I get from being in the presence of others.
However, the tasks I tackled last Thursday were neither challenging nor energising, making it nearly impossible to complete them without the presence of my colleagues.
To compensate for the lack of energy, I turned to comfort food—a Yarralumla kebab and Magnum ice cream. While both were delicious, they only made things worse as I felt sick later in the day.
Eating to cope with boredom and stress has been a habit of mine since childhood, and I only became aware of it after I started tracking what I eat.
But this habit goes away when I’m engaged at work and surrounded by people that give me energy. And that’s why the supportive atmosphere at KPMG has been so great for me, as I was unable to be left alone during the darkest days of my depression.
I was so energy depleted and burnt out by the end of the pandemic, that I desperately craved the presence of others. And in light of this, I've been reflecting on the role energy plays in our lives and how I believe the "pursuit of energy" profoundly influences our decisions.
I'm not talking about airy-fairy energy that psychics say come from crystals and star signs. Rather neurocognitive energy—the kind you feel when you enter a packed stadium before a big game that causes the hairs on the back of your neck to stand up.
That's the energy I miss, and I’ve only ever had it when in the presence of others.
I'll be exploring my energy theory more in the coming weeks and I'd love your feedback. Let me know what makes sense and what’s unclear, because I think not talking enough about how energy levels impact us is adding to societal issues, like the mental health crisis.
PS: Up the Brumbies!!! What a game!!!
I really love this article, and I totally get where you're coming from. I feel like I'm a bit of an anomaly - I've been doing contract software work for a number of years now (therapy work don't pay the bills just yet) and, if I'm brutally honest, I so much prefer working from home over being in an office.
I think it's important to recognise what energises us, as you've very clearly done, and gravitate towards that. For me, I work better when I've got space to get on without interruption, and as a massive introvert, I get energy from cracking on under my own steam without people around.
One of the dangers of this, however, is that sometimes I forget about the social interaction with friends (which is sometimes sorely needed), and that can slip by the wayside. So I need to be mindful and check in with myself to make sure I'm not getting too stuck in my "fortress of solitude".
I'm 100% remote and I'm finding it hard. In my old job I was mostly remote but also had the option of going in to the office. This really helped because I knew if I was feeling unmotivated I could go in and get an energy boost from being around people, even if they weren't in my team.
It's a big challenge for me now... so I need to work out how I can charge up.