5 Top Distractions When You Work from Home And How to Avoid Them!

However, a clean, uncluttered environment allows your brain to focus better on the task at hand. The “file by pile” system forces you to rely on your brain as a storage and organizational system, which is more mentally taxing than necessary. Studies show that people who exert control over their environments are happier. A disorganized, cluttered workspace signals to your subconscious that things are out of your control. Brainpower momentum” you give to each task, especially those that are most important to you. This is true when managing distractions at the office or when working from home.

There’s no better credit memoing than power housing through a task to the end without being distracted once. More often than not, our biggest distractions are our clients or our co-workers, which we may not even realize. You may be the type of person that absolutely loves wearing comfy clothes, and that’s okay.

Whatever you do, make sure that you give your brain a break every so often. The important thing is that you have a schedule and hold yourself accountable to it. Whatever space you choose, be sure it is a space that is not frequently full of the other family members that can distract you.

Studying from textbooks and classroom notes can be prone to distraction because you may feel bored and the information can feel uninteresting and dry. One way to prevent yourself from being distracted could be to use an engaging online learning resource, such as Study.com. Find a private place to study, such as your bedroom, an office space, a basement, an attic, or even outside if the weather is nice. Giving yourself some space to be alone and focus on your studies is one of the most important steps you can take to get your work done. And once you have found your private place to study, you should clearly communicate to anyone who might distract you that you would like to study and would like not to be disturbed. Technology temptation is all around us, and it’s one of the biggest work distractions out there.

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So, find yourself a pair of nice headphones and listen to a mellow playlist at a low volume or turn on the tv in another room to make abrupt noises stand out less. A noisy tv and loud cars driving down the street might interrupt your study sessions, but so can a silent home. Noises and sounds stand out even more in a near silent environment, easily stealing your attention away from what you are working on. Take a second and look around the house for an open area against a wall that you can set your computer up against. A blank wall behind your monitor might seem a little boring, but a still background is less likely to take your attention away from your studies. Remote.com is the leading community for remote and freelance work, connecting over two million professionals via a curated job posting platform.

• They should also organize papers in appropriate folders and files or, better yet, use electronic storage methods, such as a document management system.
• During this adjustment you will be far less productive and might actually have the urge to sleep more often causing you to be less productive than before.
• You’ll feel organized and satisfied checking everything off towards the end of the week.
• With Google Calendar, you can block out chunks of your day for each of your tasks or clients, helping you stay on task instead of doing other things throughout the day.

I start looking for information I need for work and then somewhere start reading all sorts of articles that aren’t relevant to my work. Let everyone in your life know when what your “office hours” are and when you’re available. Sharing your calendar with them could easily help since they can see what your schedule looks like. Some of the top distractions when you work from home can simply be other household duties that need to be performed. If you are not working in a dedicated office space you might be able to literally see the dishes overflowing in the sink or the laundry piled up that needs folded. You can set your own hours, be your own boss, and work in a more relaxed atmosphere to name a few.

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The corollary of all of this is that, to avoid distractions while working from home, you also have to avoid work distractions while living from home. You can’t make the most of your work if you’re making the least of your life. An initial concern was how effectively employees would be able to balance home and work life, but even as people slowly began to adapt, they were faced with the lack of in-person contact. Another 35.3% cited it had “increased,” likely those who fully embraced the sheltering-together as a family or pod, and 22.9% said they haven’t noticed any change. See my comprehensive free resource called Control Your Tech for detailed help on how to disable push notifications on your phone. This guide also provides detailed help for setting boundaries with your email, your social media and your team communication tools.

Obviously there are a lot of distractions when you work from home. Still, the advantages can outweigh the disadvantages and be resolved if you work on them. Set up a signal system that tells your family when it is ok to interrupt and when it isn’t. Green means it’s ok to disturb you, yellow means ask first, and red means not to come in right now. It can be difficult to resist the urge to stop and complete these tasks when you are supposed to be working. Additionally, it could be noise from your own creation such as a loud dishwasher or music you have playing.

Invest in a good pair of noise-canceling headphones to block out all external sounds. These headphones are a game-changer when you need to concentrate and get important work done. Set up a separate area in your home for work and leave your phone in another room. This physical separation can help reinforce the distinction between work and leisure, which helps your brain focus. If nothing else works, you can always promise a child some treat if they don’t interrupt you, say, for two hours in a row.

Put Your Phone on “Do Not Disturb”

As a freelancer, I invested in a desktop computer for all of my client work, and I strictly use it only for any tasks relating to my business. This is also where I store all of my files for my clients and log into my client accounts. If you stay in your pyjamas all day, you are going to be a lot less likely to want to get work done. You’ll still be in complete lounge mode, so you won’t want to focus and may even get distracted more than usual. One of the keys to having this work properly is to make sure that the multiple workspaces are actually set up at a desk or a table. If you work on your bed or on a couch, then you’re going to risk your productivity.

• A lot of remote companies allow their employees to pick the hours that they’d like to work.
• If you are not working in a dedicated office space you might be able to literally see the dishes overflowing in the sink or the laundry piled up that needs folded.
• No matter how you choose to show others when you’re available and when you’re not, it’s important to enforce your boundaries.

In this way, you can even learn the epic leadership lessons of Game of Thrones one WFH coffee break at a time and still get your work done. Here’s a sample of calendar items that can help you focus on the work at hand, knowing that a scheduled pause is waiting to refresh you. If you don’t necessarily need the internet, another option is to head to a public garden. They usually have lots of seating options, and you’ll be able to get some fresh air during your workday. Lastly, in addition to having multiple workspaces in your home, consider going to a public workspace to eliminate distractions. While you may think that you have to pay to go to a public place to work, that’s not the case.

Managers may have a harder time separating work from life because 63% of managers said they now check their work devices more frequently than they did pre-pandemic. Remote workers cite a decrease in life satisfaction, more reliance on mobile devices, longer hours than at the office and fewer perks, according to a new survey by Joblist. If you’re very concerned that you might miss an important call, you can set your phone to allow calls from a particular contact. Or, you can set your phone to allow a second call within a minute or two from any number. However, if you can’t bring yourself to entirely power off your devices, then set them to silent and put them out of your sight. Studies show that just having our phones in our presence is distracting.

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Join now to connect with industry shaping professionals and change the way you look at the world of work. Her 8 years of career experience in finance and business include insurance and consumer lending. In 2018, Calero-Holmes has written extensively on business and finance topics for numerous brands and digital publications. Electronic storage methods eliminate the need for additional physical storage, such as filing cabinets, which also take up space. • In case of emergency and impromptu meetings that are crucial involve only key people and not the entire team. All of this translates into business losses – real-time losses that rarely get accounted for in the balance sheet at the end of the year.

If you’re working from home and another partner or adult is there too, then alternate caregiving in increments of minutes. This way each of you gets a stretch of focused, productive time for work activities and then switches to caregiving. Tag-teaming like this is the most effective method for giving both partners the best chance to maximize attention on work tasks. Setting boundaries with family members, including children and spouses, is key to successfully working from home. Let them know there are firm signs that you’re working in your home office or dedicated workspace. A closed office door and agreed-upon “office hours” can signal that you’re busy and unavailable, and help keep things running smoothly on both the home and job fronts.

One of the simplest ways to zero in on your work is to listen to music or a podcast. If you’re the kind of person who can also be distracted by a podcast, then listening to instrumental music might be the perfect solution for you. Here are the best ways to eliminate distractions when working from home. Whether you’re just starting out on your work from home journey or you’ve been doing it for a while, ditching distractions is something you should learn how to do. All the collaboration functionality you’d expect built directly into your Sococo office but with an added office environment to feel even more connected with your team. Meet with clients, freelancers, or consultants in your Sococo workspace at no additional cost.

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For instance, you get interrupted, the true cost of distractions is approximately equal to the length of distraction + 23 minutes and 15 seconds. If you distract someone for 30 seconds, their attention and focus is distracted really for 23 minutes and 25 seconds. Working from home comes with a very different set of distractions to a more traditional office setting.

One of the top distractions when you work from home can be your kids or spouse. Even if all of your children are all in school full time there are still probably days when special circumstances keep them at home. This is hard to swallow for many “traditional managers” who are used to the office management style. Unfortunately as we explained above, being distracted is only natural and a part of working remotely.

Are you up and about every ten minutes doing a chore when you should be working? If so, you are probably the type of person who is easily distracted. Seeing how co-workers stay productive can be an inspiration to others.

Generally speaking, these are the broad four types of distractions at work. These apply irrespective of whether one is in a remote work setting or working in a physical office space. Make it a habit to only check your phone during your scheduled breaks. This is a best practice for professionals in any career, but it can give you a major boost in productivity.

Workflow management system is one of the best gifts you can give yourself and your team. Although a bedroom may be located off to the side of the busiest locales in your home, it is the absolute worst place for a home office. Working from your bedroom can disrupt sleep patterns and interfere with the privacy and peace of your most personal space. That said, a good reason to have a second monitor is if you are a designer or developer and absolutely need the space in the service of one task. You keep palettes and images on one monitor, and the item you’re creating on the other monitor.