Working from home is becoming more commonplace in our global society. And while working in pajamas from the comfort of our couch may seem like a dream come true, the reality is it’s more difficult than many anticipate. One of the biggest obstacles in working from home comes down to one thing: distraction.
We live in a connected world. But when we report to an office, we have co-workers and supervisors to hold us accountable for our time. We are less likely to get distracted on our phones or on the internet when we feel as if someone else is watching. But when we work from home, the only person holding us accountable for our work time is us.
It’s a common enough scenario. We sit down with the goal to finish our spreadsheet input or write 2,000 words by the end of the day. We’ll do laundry between tasks and start dinner during our scheduled breaks. We are going to conquer the day! Yet, somehow we find ourselves vacuuming and catching up on going through our mail and poof! Our work day is halfway gone with little actual work to show for it.
Throw in the temptation to binge our favorite show or spend the afternoon chatting with friends, and it quickly becomes difficult to focus on our work the same way we would at an office. So how can we minimize the distractions to ensure we are productive while we’re at home? Here’s five helpful tips.
- Set Small Goals
It’s one thing to say we have a busy day ahead of us, but if we don’t have clearly defined goals, it’s easy to get distracted. One reason this happens is the goal is too broad, too big, or too loosely defined. This can go one of two ways. Either we don’t realize how much work is actually needed to achieve our goals, leading to procrastination quickly followed by stress. Or, we become overwhelmed.
The trick then, is to break our day down into smaller, easily doable tasks. To get through that report, focus on the first 200 words. Once you are past that, focus of the next 200 words, and so on. By being able to cross smaller items off of our list, our brain releases reward chemicals, relieving stress and making us feel good. Getting these rewards throughout the day keeps us motivated and before we know it, we’ve met our goals.
2. Prioritize Daily Tasks
Once we’ve set our clearly defined goal, and broken it down into our smaller tasks, we need to prioritize our day. It’s unlikely that we have only one report to complete, and even if we have a huge project we need to work on, there are other smaller tasks we have to work into our day. And when we’re working from home, getting a chore done here or there may be a necessary part of our day as well.
Schedule times to complete each task, even using a timer to ensure we are kept on track. Make sure the more important things are given the highest priority, but be sure to break everything down into manageable pieces. Then fit chores in between these tasks, focusing on one chore at a time. By keeping this laser focus on what we are doing both for work and within the home, we can accomplish quite a long to-do list without feeling overwhelmed or frustrated.
3. Eliminate Unnecessary Stimuli
Now that we’ve set our goals and prioritized our list, we need to take a look at where we are going to work. We want to choose a location that has the least amount of distractions. If there’s a television in the room, turn it off or work in a different room. Delete unnecessary apps from our phone or put it in a different room when possible. If working in airplane mode isn’t an option, disable website alerts or mute notifications.
Once we have our space as distraction free as possible, it’s important to train our brain to associate this space with work. For example, don’t take personal calls or check social media while in this area. If we remove ourselves from our work space to engage in personal or non-work tasks, our brain will begin to recognize our workstation solely with work.
Since working from home may be a temporary situation, it’s entirely possible we can’t set up a dedicated space. But there are still ways to train our brain for work. We can place photos or office supplies in the same way while we’re working and remove them when we’re “off” work. If we can’t isolate ourselves from others or work in a noise-free environment, use white noise or a work playlist to listen to while working. Anything to get our brain to associate the cues with work and only work.
4. Don’t Stay Stuck
We’ve all been there. We can’t find the right word or a formula in our spreadsheet just isn’t calculating correctly. And the longer it takes to figure out, the more frustrated we get. Before we know it, either half our day is gone or we’ve given up entirely and are scrolling through puppy videos instead of working.
We are going to hit snags. They happen. The trick is to catch it before frustration sets in. Set a time limit for dealing with obstacles at the start of the day. When we find problems that take longer than the allotted time, flag the portion we’re working on and move onto the next section. If the project can’t move forward until the problem is solved, start in on an entirely new task set. After the next section is complete, or we’ve finished a different set of tasks, we can go back to the problem. Chances are it’ll be a lot easier the second time through.
5. Reward The Small Stuff
When our brain seeks momentum, it’s all about the reward. If we work towards a goal and never stop to reward the completed tasks along the way, our brain gets fatigued and searches for some other activity that will provide the reward it needs. This means it’s vital to provide rewards in smaller intervals in order to continue our motivation towards progress.
Reward functions on a simple if-then equation. If we finish our email, then we get our fancy coffee. If we finish this spreadsheet, then we get ten minutes on social media. The reward doesn’t have to be huge. It simply has to be something we look forward to. By breaking our goal into smaller tasks and celebrating each completion, our focus changes, motivating us to get more done. This provides the momentum we need to achieve the bigger goal, making the process seem faster and easier.
Conclusion
Working from home is a new reality for many of us, and understanding that distraction is one of the greatest threats to productivity is important. But by being aware of the potential for distraction, we can take steps to ensure we are able to focus even in uncertain times. Use these tips to help create a structured routine, bringing stability into your work day, no matter where that happens to be.
