Most of us were forced to work from home last year. Very few had the opportunity to ease into this new way of working. If you worked from the office all your life, working from home can be daunting.

Before working in Mumbai at my previous work, I had always worked from the office. Working from home felt a bit different in the first few weeks. There was just so much freedom and time saved from the daily commute. I could watch Netflix, youtube and listen to music on my speakers without disturbing others around me and working the way which made me more productive. The first few weeks were not productive, though. Ok. It was months and not weeks. The new way of working took a while for me to settle into. After the second month, though, I knew I had to be strict about my working hours and playtime. There was work waiting to get done, and unless I spent dedicated hours on it, it would not get done.

I would imagine everyone went through a similar phase last year—a few months of unproductive time and then getting good with day and time management. Most of us now are used to the new way of working. Being able to work from anywhere.

I spoke to a few people I know, and they tell me they don’t like working from home, even though they are now used to it. When questioned about which part they dislike, almost everyone said the same thing. They miss being around people and don’t mind going back to the office once things went back to normal.

A right balance I feel would be the best way forward. A few days in a week, where you get to meet people, interact, share ideas and have meetings and the rest of the days when you put you head down and work on tasks that need to get done as a result of discussions that week. That’s what worked best for me the last ten years before I moved to Australia.