One of the biggest issues to overcome I am hearing from friends trying to work from home right now is DISTRACTION!
They are juggling their roles as parents, employees and partners in this uncertain time as well as trying to find the “new normal” where they can function in their work and home life role and be productive and positive in both.
Even if you have worked from home before, you child is typically at day care or school, so their demands don’t impact your day in the way they are now.
Research shows that distraction impacts productivity significantly as it takes us a certain length of time to get focused and back in the zone, or flow, of what we are doing, and if we have multiple distractions pulling us away from a task, the task become so much harder to accomplish.
Stress is a major distraction also; a lot of people find themselves in an unfamiliar situation without a routine or structure to their day that they would have in an office environment.
And it is stressful. Not only are we learning to use new tools and technology to do our work, we are also creating new routines that need to work for us.
So…how can we create a better headspace and physical space to support us and our working at home?
Here are five things to think about:
1 WORKSPACE
We know that crap office design impacts productivity and enjoyment. Take a moment to look at where you are working now.
Is it comfortable?
Is it warm?
Is it a dedicated space or do you have to shift through the day?
Does it have a view? Ideally of nature, as looking at Nature ramp up our cognitive ability and ability to refocus on a task.
If you are in the kitchen are you getting distracted by the fridge every 30 minutes or the urge to bake scones that you’ve never had before?
Take some time to have a look around your home and see if there is a space that would be better suited to set up as your workspace. It might take a bit of time and jigging things about, but we all have extra time now so use it. Make it as ergonomic as you can with what you have to work with.
2 ROUTINE
Make one. It doesn’t have to be complicated but if you have a simple routine you follow every day when you start work then you will start it calmer.
Make it easy and achievable. Maybe its walk the dog, make a pot of tea, deal with the urgent thing on your to do list for an hour THEN check your emails. Or maybe the new routine is the times you work that work round the commitments you need to juggle.
What was your office routine? If you can adapt it easily for home do that (minus the takeaway latte and scone (or maybe with it, if you’ve joined the ranks of newly minted bakers this experience seems to be churning out!).
Routine at the end of the day helps too – perhaps write your top 3 things to do the next day so they are fresh and ready for you in the morning.
3 FOCUS
The more things you can put in place to help you focus the better. Tidy space, no clutter, a plant or two if you don’t have an outside view, and how you are working can all help.
I learnt a trick from the life coach Louise Thompson that I use a lot to keep me on track with tasks through the day. Write down the top three tasks you need to accomplish, one on each post-it note. Make them achievable and not open ended. If you’ve a massive task to do split it up.
Choose which is most important and put that one on top, stack the others below in order of priority. Don’t start the other tasks until you have completed the first. If you get an email or call, if it’s not related to the first task, it can wait. Better still turn your email off for a while.
4 KINDNESS
Be kind to yourself…cut yourself some slack! This is new to many people and its not going to be nailed in the first few days. If you are trying to stick to your usual work routine and hours you may fail as you have other considerations and commitments in the mix now. If you are most productive between 7am at 8.30am before your kids get up, or 9.30pm and midnight because your children have gone to bed, then that may become your new routine. Does it matter that you weren’t available during traditional work hours? Once you have had a bit more time to work out your best times, perhaps let your manager know so they don’t have expectations.
Be kind to others…everyone is in the same boat, working through the same issues so if you can be patient and supportive when someone doesn’t produce their best work or misses a deadline, be that person.
5 CONNECT
We are calling it social isolation rather than physical isolation, which is unfortunate. What we need more than ever now is social connection. If you can, schedule a regular catchup with friends or colleagues and make it face to face. I have been using facetime, zoom and google hangouts. Friday night drinks? Do them virtually, its neat to peek inside people’s houses and share stories of how you’re getting on.
That’s how this blog came into being, at my virtual Friday drinks with industry colleagues. I hope there is something useful in it for you.
Stay safe, stay connected.