Last Updated on September 1, 2023 by David
By Molly Barnes of Digital Nomad Life
Your attention can be difficult enough to wrangle under the best of conditions in a normal workday. But what about under the rarefied circumstances we find ourselves in now? Much of the world is working from home due to the coronavirus pandemic, and suddenly, you find yourself there, too — smack in the middle of all the distractions it offers. And you’re still expected to put in a productive workday?
From the fridge tempting you to grab another snack to the kids “learning” online in the next room to the TV spouting often frightening news that you need to keep up with, how can you make sure that all the distractions in your house won’t keep you from getting your job done each day? Here are several tips to help you focus:
Block Internet Interference
Besides kids home from school, the internet is probably the most notorious time-wasting invention in the history of the world. Whether you want to check COVID-19 updates, watch baking shows, share memes, chat with friends, play games, or argue yourself into a tizzy about politics, the internet makes it easy to look at a clock and wonder where the hours went. Social media is a particular time-suck, especially now, with the average user sinking two hours a day into Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
The good news is that you can manage your own internet use just as if you had a 6-year-old who wanted to look around on the internet. Use your web browser to block access to the websites that foster the least productivity and the greatest distraction. You can set these blocks to act just during business hours, so that once the day is done, you can spend as much time as you want looking up CDC updates — or cat videos.
Try Product Uniformity
A “junk drawer” is a common way for Americans to collect every spare part they own into one place. However, junk drawers are famous for taking up far more time than you wish whenever you’re trying to find what you seek. Even if your junk drawer is stylized, it’s still likely to distract you when you need to find something quickly.
Instead of throwing odds and ends all in one place, it helps to make certain that everything you need to find is uniform in style and appearance. Then, even before you organize, there’s no confusion. And afterward, you’re rewarded with the pleasing sight of all your matching items neatly arranged together.
Uniformity offers another perk, too: It allows you to keep handy a stock of customer-ready branded tools, like promotional pens with your company name and logo. During isolation, you can send these out with a quick note to ensure your clients and customers don’t forget your company and your products while we all shelter in place. Two birds, one stone — neat, clean, and quick.
Set Rewards
Anyone with kids at home knows that it’s far easier to get them to behave if there’s a reward at the end of the tunnel, like TV time or a candy bar. And adults aren’t so different from our kids as we might wish to think.
The psychology of rewards suggests that we react better to the promise of a real, tangible prize than we do to the less-tangible idea of a good performance review or a bigger bank account. So set specific rewards for specific deliveries, and make sure not to skimp on what you enjoy whenever it provides the best motivation to get the job done.
Move and Sweat
There are a lucky few of us who get more than enough exercise at our jobs. However, most Americans aren’t Peloton instructors, and most don’t burn nearly enough calories when lodged behind a computer screen.
Yet few things keep you better focused than exercise, which has been used by psychologists as treatment for a variety of concerns like depression. Making time to exercise is crucial for personal health, and also for maintaining focus and motivation. The good news is, working from home offers you much more flexibility to jump up for a stretch and a walk during the workday.
You don’t need to work up such a sweat that you’re still gasping during a video conference; just take small steps for periodic health gains, like setting an hourly timer to walk 100 steps and do five push-ups. You’ll feel a little better immediately, and with enough exercise breaks over time, you’ll find the gains add up.
Organize Your Documents
A company’s knowledge management platform should be comprehensive enough that a first-day hire can locate every document they need to do their job. However, “what should be” is rarely the same as “what is,” and many businesses (especially small businesses) have no knowledge management plan whatsoever.
The sudden work-from-home order may have caught off-guard many companies who were forced to figure out remote working capabilities on the fly. Yet somehow, everybody did it — probably thanks to cloud computing and its online capabilities.
That’s one reason why building cloud architecture, in which everyone can share, edit, and add documents, can be worth its weight in gold to a business. With your information safely stored in the cloud, not only do you make certain that all files are in place and accessible to everyone who needs them, but also you can monitor updates by who, when, and what took place to ensure deliverables meet the proper targets.
Strategize Your Time
The 42.5 hour workweek is increasingly considered a feature of 20th-century work, not 21st-century work. Many examples, such as the Japanese four-day workweek that was shown to hugely boost productivity, show that the clock is no longer the best indication of who gets the most done.
So, if you have some flexibility in your home office, try planning your workday according to your projects, not your timepiece. Consider the projects you need to get done in a day, then set goals specific to accomplishing them. This strategy will keep you focused on the finish line, not thrown off by the distractions. Once you hit those goals, you can log off with no second thoughts and walk “home” from work (aka into the next room).
Plan Your Purchases
Speaking of goals, another great way to avoid distraction is to think of a major financial reward — not just the next mortgage payment, but a future vacation, a new car, or a home renovation. Tell yourself that the next two hours of work are a shortcut to gaining on your biggest goal (rather than just another block of tasks that need to be done), and you’ll find yourself more committed. Even with the financial uncertainty facing us all now, a faraway goal can still be a reachable target.
By planning out purchases well ahead of time, you not only make the decisions about what steps are necessary to finance them (hint: you’ll need a solid credit rating), but you might enjoy the planning phase, as well. This keeps you focused and productive, informed by the knowledge that your work will lead to achieving your biggest life goals.
Nearly everything about the way we work is evolving during the coronavirus pandemic, and it’s hard not to be distressed and distracted by all the changes. But with some compassion for yourself and others, plus some focus, a plan, and a few thoughtful strategies, you can stay productive and accomplish what you want while staying safe and healthy.
About Re:amaze
Re:amaze is a modern helpdesk and customer messaging platform designed to help eCommerce businesses boost customer happiness and revenue. Re:amaze allows all customer-oriented teams to work together in a shared inbox through email, social, SMS, voice, and live chat. Re:amaze also comes packaged with automated messaging and chatbots so eCommerce brands can succeed at the front lines of conversational commerce.