HOW TO STAY FOCUSED WHEN YOU WORK FROM HOME

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You thought when you work from home you won't be disturbed or distracted, however, your pets, toddlers, other people or matters keep asking for your time & attention. Here are some suggestions to minimize distractions and stay focus on your remote work or online job.

1) Whenever possible, secure a secluded or private space to work in.

If you are single and you have your own bedroom then that's great, where better place to work inside your house but in your own private space i.e. your bedroom. 

However, if you are someone who shares a room with a sibling in case where both of you are still young, unmarried and living with your parents or if you are someone with a friend whom you share the cost of renting a studio or 1-bedroom apartment, it's best to create a work area outside of/separate from your common room/area. This is so that you can respect the other person's privacy and also that some work requires privacy due to sensitive documents and information that you are probably handling.  

If you are living with your parents, perhaps you have an unused room in your house like a guest room or a family member who are now living/working afar & seldom goes home. Perhaps you have a corner somewhere within your house where there are minimal visual & auditory distractions.

If you are married but your spouse is working in the office, you still can use a part of your couple's room as a work area. For sure there's a corner or side that your spouse can spare you with and leave you to work privately and comfortably.

Some work requires not only privacy but a quiet environment especially when you usually make or take phone calls or video calls. Here's what you can do to seclude your work area out of a common area.

a) Hang a curtain or use a modular partition stand

b) Use a cabinet and/or drawers to compartmentalize your area

c) Line up some tall indoor plants

2) If your workspace is in your bedroom, place a partition wall or something to hide your bed from your work area.

Thank you for the background effects in Zoom & Google Meet, you can hide your actual background in virtual meetings. However, the purpose is not only that your bed will not be seen in your video meetings but to avoid or minimize the instances of you wanting to lay down/sleep every time you see the sight of your comfortable bed. Sometimes the bed can be enticing specially when boredom strikes from your monotonous or repetitive tasks.

3) Keep your child and pets away during work hours.

If you have toddlers, make them understand when the right time for play is and needed time for work, why you need to do this and be away from them for a while. Don't underestimate a young child's capacity to grasp situation where he/she needs to adjust & behave accordingly. However, be sure that they have a guardian taking care of them to give you peace of mind, so you don't worry about them while working.

If you have a pet or pets, take them out of the room. If you're working outside of a room, place them somewhere else or put them temporarily in a cage if they're insistent.

4) Maintain a clean and organized work desk/area.

You are feeling that great momentum at work when suddenly you need a pen, and you can't find it. For some if not most, there's this tendency to forget what's currently in one's mind or at the tip of one's tongue when we get distracted and it takes a little time to recall where we left of, especially when you have a lot on your mind. Maintaining a clean and organized work desk will minimize instances of losing seconds or minutes trying to find a misplaced needed item and hence minimizes the times when we lose that gained momentum at work.

5) Minimize aesthetics.

We are sometimes inspired by those images we see on Pinterest and somehow try to achieve the same aesthetics we want for our workspace. Sometimes we might even go overboard that we end up with a work desk that is overcrowded by things that's no longer helpful nor necessary on the worktable. Too much aesthetic displays can be visual clutters that makes our eyes and mind busy as it already is.

There are a lot of apps that can be downloaded in PC or mobile phone that can replace those hanging sticky notes, moreover, you also have your notebook on the side. And do we really need that analog or digital desk clock when we can set our PC to align with our client's time zone? How about those excessive photos on your desk or wall, we can place a few on our PC's wallpaper or screensaver.

6) Be disciplined.

When you know you have an early daytime work shift, don't stay up too late and try to get enough sleep. It's hard to keep your eyes open in front of the PC when you're sleepy. Also, our mind tends to be foggy when we are sleep- deprived.

7) Choose to eat healthy foods. Fuel your body with necessary nutrients.

Notice that some if not most of those who work from home have fats concentrated on their bellies. Some eat junk food during break times. Remember that we are what we eat. We are in total control of what we do and feed into our body. Why not eat fruits or nuts as your snack instead of junk foods, better if it's a fruit and vegetable salad.

Unless you have a standing/moveable desk, most of the time we sit in front of our PC. Let our blood flow throughout our entire body regularly as it should be by standing as often as you could or at least every 15 minutes. Also, sit up straight & do not slouch if you don't want to have a herniated spinal disc.

8) Prep your lunch meals for the whole workweek or at least the night or day before.

Sometimes our minds wander a lot because we have a lot of worries. Being prepared for something that you will need tomorrow or in the near future, gives you confidence to go through your day.

Preparing your meals ahead of time lessens your worries, hence lessens your stress. This is especially useful for pressing times that even a lunch break would be hard to sneak in or those unpredictable times that we suddenly get too busy with work.

9) Whenever possible, never miss your 15-minute AM and PM break time.

This is to rest your body and mind for a while and recharge yourself with a new energy to help you withstand the remaining work hours. Burn out occurs when we put too much pressure on ourselves that we forget we are humans and not machines.

10) Keep your mobile phone reachable but out of sight.

Sometimes friends, family members & other parties call you on your mobile phone during work hours. Unless it's an emergency or an urgent matter, keep your mobile phones away from sight but reachable when you need them.

Also, for some, whenever you see your mobile phone & hear notification sounds, you can't resist to check on your social media. Sometimes time flies and you didn't notice it especially when you're enjoying what you're doing. At times you thought you just checked your mobile phone for a few minutes but actually it's been half an hour. 

You may want to do as follows:

- Put your mobile phone on silent but on vibration mode so just in case it's really urgent or it's an emergency, you still can be aware of it.

- Turn off social media sites notification. Set your social media profile status to "busy at work".

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When you stay focus on your job and tasks on hand, you get to perform your work better and achieve great results. The client is happy, and you feel confident & fulfilled.