How to stay focused working from home

What the office actually gave you

Think back to when you worked in an office. You probably didn't have a better desk. The lighting was worse. Someone was always microwaving fish.

But you got stuff done.

Not because of the environment. Because of the people. Someone was always nearby, typing away, in work mode. You didn't think about it. You just worked alongside them.

That ambient presence did more for your focus than any ergonomic chair ever could.

Home removed the one thing that mattered

When you started working from home, you tried to recreate the office. Better monitor. Comfortable chair. Separate room if you're lucky.

But you can't recreate other people. So you skipped that part.

Now you're alone in a room, trying to force yourself to start. No one's around. No one's working nearby. No one's typing. Just you and your brain, negotiating endlessly about when to begin.

You optimized the wrong thing. The office wasn't about the space. It was about the people in it.

The advice isn't working

Most work-from-home tips assume focus is about discipline and environment. Remove distractions. Build habits. Stay consistent.

That advice works for people who can start tasks on command. For everyone else, it's just rearranging furniture while the real problem sits untouched.

You don't need a better routine. You need what the office gave you for free: someone else working at the same time you are.

You can get it back

Here's what works: get on a video call with a coworker. Say what you're each going to work on. Mute. Work.

That's it. No chatting during. No check-ins. Just two people, doing their own things, in parallel.

It's called body doubling. And it works because your brain doesn't need the other person to be in the room. It just needs to know someone's there, right now, working. The video call is enough.

You're not collaborating. You're just existing in the same moment, both in work mode. That's the whole trick.

The first time feels strange. You're on a call but not talking. What's the point?

The point is you'll start. And starting was the entire problem.

Stop optimizing your space

Your home office is fine. Your routine is fine. Your headphones are fine.

What's missing is another person. Not to manage you. Not to keep you accountable. Just to be there, working on their own thing, while you work on yours.

Find one coworker who'd try this with you. One 50-minute session. See what happens.

You've optimized everything else. Try optimizing for presence.