>My productivity has definitely dropped, and it feels like my brain never really fully turns "on". It feels a lot like those times in university I decided to study for exams from home instead of going to campus. I can't explain it, but 9 out of 10 times it just feels bad, like the way your brain feels if you've spent the day watching TV or something (when, in fact, I haven't). This doesn't even begin to consider the social punctuations of work that are essential to my psychological well-being.
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>Does anyone feel the same?
I can't believe no one mentioned it yet: Mental compartmentalization based on where you are is a very real thing. Everyone experiences it, some more than others, and if you want to be productive working from home, learning how to work with it is of key importance.
For good work from home hygiene it's required that you isolate a physical space dedicated for work only tasks, like a home office.
Some people can get away with having a separate computer or seperate user to separate their space while using the same desk. Having a work account that blockes reddit, ycombinator, youtube, and the like helps, but as a general rule of thumb the easier it is to switch spaces, the smaller the isolation between them. ie, if switching users takes 10 seconds the isolation is small, but if you need to walk two minutes across the house, it's going to be a much stronger isolation. This is one of the tricks the rich use, by having an office far away from their bedroom in their house.
If you don't have things in your room to play with, like a tv or something, then the digital space separation works well, but if you find yourself fiddling with a tv all day while on your work account, it may cause problems. Alternatively, having background noise can help and turning on a ratio or tv in the background while working can accelerate productivity. It depends on your mental frame and how you think of it. In your situation it may be better to set up an ad hawk work space in your kitchen or living room.
This space separation is recommended in just about every work from home guide you will find, and it is a well studied phenomena, going back to the vietnam (or korean I forget) war where they were able to get 98% of solders off of heroin using the same tricks: the addiction was tied to physical cues like a physical room, or a friend. Get rid of those physical cues and the mental part of the addiction would vanish for all but those using drugs to avoid their problems. Same mental process, but studied in a drastically different subject.