What are the most effective work from home practices during COVID-19?

Encyclopedia of Opinion

Question: What are the most effective work from home practices during COVID-19?
Position1 of 3›: Behave as though you're going to work
Argument1 of 2›: Clothes maketh the man.

The clothes one wears has a profound impact on the way they conduct themselves throughout the day. A fresh set of clothes ensures a fresh start.

The argument

Being in a relaxed environment can be good for productivity. Nonetheless, doing so in conditions where we must hold down on the social interaction can prove to be more stressful and induce a gloominess in the air causing apathetic torpor. ‘Enclothed Cognition’ is the effect clothes have on the psyche and behavior of a person. Time and again many studies have been performed which prove that our habit influences our habits to be more consistent with the way we are dressed. They change the way others perceive us and also the way we perceive ourselves. So, why not boost productivity by tricking our brain into it? Dressing up in work clothes while working even at home acts as a mental cue for the brain to remain consciously in work mode. This helps boost productivity and wards off spells of procrastination. However, this does not mean that one must dress in board-room formals. A happy balance between casuals and office wardrobe is key to comfort and focus. In these uncertain times, the certainty of a fixed routine also helps keep anxiety at bay. A fixed routine when working from home helps us feel in control of our time and promotes a feeling of normalcy. This helps maintain a safe mental space and uphold an optimistic attitude in these bleak times.

Premises

[P1]Clothing acts as a mental cue (enclothed cognition) that shifts our mindset and behavior to match how we are dressed. [P2] Dressing in work-appropriate clothes while at home therefore signals the brain to stay in work mode, boosting productivity and reducing procrastination. [P3] Pairing this with a fixed daily routine provides a sense of normalcy and control that reduces anxiety during uncertain times. [C] Therefore, the most effective work-from-home practice is to behave as though you're going to work, including dressing the part and keeping a routine.

Counter-arguments

Changing in and out of clothes adds an additional burden on the to do list of household chores and weigh a little heavy on the routine. Especially so if you live with smaller children, have a larger family or have furry pets.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] The enclothed-cognition findings are narrower than the premise makes them. The experiments turn on garments carrying a specific symbolic meaning for the wearer in a laboratory task; they were not run on people working alone at home over months, and the effect has not travelled well to that setting. [Rejecting P2] Even granting the effect, the step to productivity is a leap: dressing differently may change how someone feels without changing what they produce, and the premise offers no measure of output at all. [Rejecting P3] Routine and dress are separable, and the argument's own concession that formal wear is unnecessary points at the real variable — it is the structure of the day doing the work. Meanwhile the extra changing and laundry add friction in exactly the crowded households where routine is hardest to hold.