Avoiding distraction when working from home
Working from home offers a huge number of benefits over being tied to a 9-to-5 office-bound job. Of these, freedom is perhaps the one of greatest value.
Changes to your schedule, a doctor's appointment, looking after your children or even taking the dog for a walk in the middle of the day… all of these things are simple everyday tasks that become an issue when they need to be built around a strict working schedule at a set location.
When you work from home, these things are not issues. In fact, some people find that it makes a nice break in the working day to sort out some household chores. But there is another side to this in that working from home greatly increases the number of potential distractions.
To help tackle this, we've built up a round up of motivational tactics from homeworkers to help you get a good day's work at home:
- Keep to a schedule and try to start and finish work around the same time each day. While it can be tempting to roll out of bed late, your business will suffer if your not putting in the hours during your most productive times of day.
- Plan breaks. These could be something like taking the dog for a walk, or watching the news with a cup of tea. Whatever you choose, try and get away from your desk to refresh your mind.
- Make a to do list. Write down everything that needs to be done at the start of the day and work your way methodically through each task. It can also be helpful to have a long-term task list to ensure you don't forget about anything – sites like www.toodledo.com can help with this.
- Establish a designated work space. This could be a room or an area if you're short on space; either way, let your family or house mates know that it is a working space and ask them to respect this by not disturbing you unnecessarily.
- Try and work somewhere with plenty of (preferably natural) light to help keep up positivity levels.
Stay hydrated. Studies have shown that our concentration levels dip noticeably when we don't drink enough fluids. Unfortunately, coffee doesn't count, so have a glass of water with your cuppa too.
- Close your internet browser when you're not actually using it for something work related. This should help limit 'browsing time'. If you want to read an article, schedule this in as a break.
- Consider wearing office clothes even if you're not planning on leaving the house that day. It's a bit of a cliché, but there is a lot of truth in the power of telling yourself to “dress for success”.
