For some, working from home sounds like a dream come true. For others, it’s a nightmare. COVID-19 has changed how we conduct business, and many office workers around the world have gotten their first experience working from home.
There are many benefits to working from home. You can work in your pajamas, you don’t have to drive to work, and you can do laundry while sending an expense report. However, there are plenty of challenges. One of the biggest ones is staying focused.
It can be hard to stay focused on your job under normal circumstances, and you most likely have more distractions when you’re working from home.
Take a look at some tips that can help you stay focused while working from home. It might help you achieve a balance between comfort and work.
Have set hours
It’s one thing to drive to work and know you’ll probably only be working from 9 to 5. When you work from home, this isn’t quite the case. You might have some program that tracks your work hours, but it isn’t quite the same feeling of going to an office and knowing you’ll only be there for 8 or 9 hours.
When you work from home, there tends to be a higher risk of working too little or far more hours than you would typically work. This can leave you stressed out in one way or another by not getting enough done or working insane human hours.
It’s good practice to follow similar hours you would normally work while in an office setting. It helps keep your mind focused, knowing you’re only dedicating this amount of time to work.
Avoid heavy television and news consumption
If you have a tv set, consider keeping it turned off. While it’s tempting to work with the tv going on in the background, you’ll probably get distracted by whatever program is playing more often than not.
Watching television tends to go hand-in-hand with heavy new consumption. Some people work with having CNN, Fox News, or MSNBC running in the background, and while it’s important for people to stay informed about the issues, you should limit how much news you consume. It’s distracting and tends to get repetitive.
Similar things could be said about heavy online news and streaming consumption. It’s a bit more tempting since you’re working from a computer, but it does you no favors. Stick to limiting the amount of news you consume and keep streaming to an absolute minimum.
mindmybusinessnyc.wordpress.com 