(Newswire.net — May 23, 2020) —
Working from home may be the result of a bold decision you made, or it might be a necessity of our current economic reality. Whatever your reasons, there are unique barriers to working at home that you need to be ready to deal with. Chief among these is being able to concentrate in this environment. Working from home has many benefits such as avoiding a potentially long commute and not having a manager looking over your shoulder. That being said, it can be a nexus of distractions that pull you away from your work, which can have a negative financial impact on you and your family. Try the following steps to ensure you stay focused on work when you need to while balancing this with family life.
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Have a Dedicated Work Space
If your floor plan allows for it, set up your home office in a completely separate room. In the event that space is at a premium, at least carve out a portion of a room that’s your work area. It should be part of a room that doesn’t get much foot traffic from other members of the family. If you live with your spouse and have kids, a portion of your bedroom might be good, especially if your spouse works outside of the house.
Make sure there’s no TV or other distracting items in this space. A dedicated workspace goes beyond the physical space you occupy while working. When using a computer, be sure to close all open tabs that having nothing to do with work at the start of your day. There are apps that enable your web browser to block access to distracting websites until you are done for the day. Also, turn off any social media alerts on your phone. -
Have Set Working Hours
Dedicated working hours are as important as a dedicated working space. You can work out best how to set your hours since you’ll know better what times of the day you’re typically most productive. This might also be living-situation dependent. If your husband or wife works outside the house from nine to five, then this is also the ideal time for you to get stuff done without distraction.
Remember that these are “working hours.” It can be tempting to get up and start some laundry or do some other simple chores with the rationalization that “they won’t take long.” Imagine that you are working in an office somewhere. Unless it’s an urgent task, such as necessary care of kids or something similar, don’t do anything that you couldn’t do if you were actually working outside your home. -
Set Boundaries With Friends and Family
Having set working hours is all about you not doing things that have nothing to do with work during these hours. Setting boundaries with friends and families is to make sure they are not interrupting you continually with other matters. It’s easy for your significant other to fall into the mindset of, “well, he’s at home anyway so ask him to do this and that.” You may have to handle some important tasks such as picking the kids up from school or taking them to an appointment. Be sure to make it clear that just because you’re working at home doesn’t mean you’re not working every bit as seriously as someone doing it in an office. -
Clean Your Workspace
When you sit down to get some work down, you don’t want your concentration to be thrown off by piles of debris or lots of dust on your desk or computer. Make sure you don’t violate having set working hours by making sure to clean your work area during your downtime. Especially if you have allergies, you’ll be glad you took this step.
Stay Healthy
Even without distractions, you should do what you can to ensure that you are functioning as optimally as possible. This starts with eating a good diet and getting regular exercise. Staying healthy and active will go a long way in improving your concentration.