Working from home at least some of the time is a goal for many office-bound workers. It makes sense. Working from home frees you from the daily commute and lets you manage personal obligations while still collecting a full day’s pay. Of course, working from home comes with the problem of interruptions and lost focus. You can, however, deploy a few key strategies to overcome these particular problems.
Set Up a Work Space
Ever notice how you drop into work mode when you get to work, even if you weren’t feeling it on the drive in? Part of the reason for that is that you’ve trained your brain to associate that environment with working. Your home, in contrast, is a place you probably associate with relaxing. Setting up a specific work area, be it a card table or home office, can have a similar effect. By consistently working there, you’ll train your brain to think of it as a spot for productivity. You’ll find yourself dropping into work mode when you sit down there and become much less likely to get up to do non-work tasks.
Hire a Cleaning Service
Distraction is the enemy of productivity. If your housework piles up, it’s not a problem if you go to an office. It’s harder to ignore when you’re working in the middle of it. Even if you shut the door, you still know the mess is waiting for you. It’s like a psychological anchor. One solution is to hire a cleaning service like Southern Cross Cleaning (SA) Pty Ltd to help you keep up, or even to do the majority of your house work. Simply knowing that someone is going to be tidying up can be enough to keep you mentally on track. As an added bonus, a well-ordered environment is good for productivity.
Put Your Phone on Silent
Smartphones are a treasure chest of productivity-killing distractions. Everything from games and social media to news and banking is right there. Putting your phone on silent can help to cut you off from all of it. If you simply cannot mute your phone for job reasons, turn off all of the alerts. Not having your phone dinging or chiming at you every ten minutes will do wonders for your ability to focus. You can look at all the missed messages when you take a break.
Working from home offers you a lot of benefits, but it comes with built-in distractions that wouldn’t exist or be tolerated in a formal workplace. You offset some of that problem by creating a dedicated workspace that triggers a productive mindset. Outsourcing your cleaning tasks removes a ready-made focus killer. Silencing your phone helps you stay on task by eliminating unnecessary distractions. Implementing these simple strategies will go a long way toward keeping your work at home uninterrupted.
