Professional writers, freelance writers and authors are the original work-from-home knowledge workers, long before the pandemic made remote working a household phenomenon.

Working from home requires a mental detachment from all the other pending tasks piled up at home, like laundry. It is hard to maintain one’s focus on office work when there is a brain-shift happening towards housework every minute.

Unattended tasks at home create stress and cause a neural traffic jam that paralyzes the remote worker. Some authors resort to going to a sparse hotel room with nothing for the eyes to hold on to, getting their focus completely on work and entering the flow mode.

The familiar is the enemy in this game of remote productivity. Coffee shops where no one knows us or is talking about us are often more productive for cognitive work. Even the sound of hammers or bricks will not interrupt our work as much as our own kid’s shouting.