With the lockdown, the kids always at home, and no transitions between personal life and work, I’ve been thinking about how to harness the morning time for thinking more effectively.

My most productive hours are early. I usually get the most bang for my buck first thing when I get started, even if it’s just thinking and not building or writing. In a normal day, I even get a lot out of the commute time, the door-to-door 30 minutes or so between home and work — the transition space lets me clear my head before I dig in. With no commute during work-from-home time, I haven’t gotten a good phase transition in place to go from home to work mode.

I liked this post from Shawn Blanc on his morning routine.

During my work day, I have been more distracted — doing more busywork — than normal. I had to create a separate task list that is just all the “busywork ideas” I have. It’s a list of the little things I suddenly want to do around my house and around my office now that I am just here all day every day. And they’re all good things to do, but they also are distractions from what I need to be doing. (Writing it down on its own list helps me to stay focused.)

So, in order to combat my newfound work-from-home distractions, I’m trying a new writing routine to help me be more focused on this single most important task of the day.

If I can force myself to get to sleep earlier, there’s a possibility to fold in an earlier wake-up to give me an hour of “pre-work” time to get my head around the day before getting started.