1. In office but not surrounded by co-workers i.e. can focus for long hours without distractions.
2. At Home and not distracted by family members or other "temptations/errands" at home.
3. Office with co-workers
4. Home with family members/errands to take care of, which there can be plenty of during these Covid days.
Some people don't like to be alone and for them Option (1) isn't going to work. They like to be surrounded by other working people to have that sense of group work which helps power them through. For them Option (3) will clearly be the best.
Beyond that it also comes down to individual habits. Do you have a system to work at home? Without that one can be pretty ineffective. What's your "sustained focus" mechanism or algorithm? It can be a mix of:
- Micro goals system that works intra-day not just inter-day.
- Shutting off distractions by keeping the phone in a separate room (if the job allows, since computer can still relay most of the information)
- Clever use of headphones with the right kind of music or background noise that works for you.
- Some notion and measure of self-accountability.
- many others
The current environment is a pretty good time (and test) to strengthen any of the productivity habits. It takes practice but I don't see what the alternative is.