A commute is dead time by most measures, but it does one useful thing: it draws a hard line between "not working" and "working," twice a day, without you having to think about it. Remove it, and that line has to be built deliberately or it disappears.
Replace the commute with a ritual, not a void
The fifteen minutes you used to spend getting to the office don't need to become work time just because they're available. A short walk, a coffee made away from your desk, even just changing out of pajamas — any fixed pre-work ritual gives your brain the same "starting now" signal a commute used to provide.
Timetable your day the way you would an office day
Remote work tends to blur into one long undifferentiated stretch unless you actively block it. Set explicit start and end times on your timetable, along with a lunch block you actually leave your desk for — treating a home workday as unstructured is what leads to it expanding into the evening.
Separate "focus" blocks from "available" blocks
Without an office's visual cues, colleagues can't tell whether you're deep in a task or free to chat. Block dedicated focus time on a shared or personal calendar the same way you'd block a meeting, so interruptions land in the gaps instead of in the middle of concentrated work.
Give the end of the day a hard stop
Without a train to catch, "just finishing this one thing" can quietly eat two extra hours most evenings. Put a firm end time on your timetable and treat it the way you'd treat a meeting you can't be late for — something to close out for, not drift past.
Watch for the opposite problem too
Some remote workers overcorrect into rigidity and burn out from a day with zero flexibility. The goal isn't office-hours mimicry for its own sake — it's making sure your day has visible edges, wherever you choose to place them.