Life moves at a loud and fast pace. There’s always something calling for your attention and trying to distract you from the present moment.
Working from Home
This can prove detrimental to any home business. And I, in fact, not only run my blog here, but have also started working another customer service job from home.
My wife and kids are still home during the day, since she runs her own blog and we homeschool, so we all have to make it work… together.
The work must get done if you want to keep your business going strong. So, how do you fight the distractions?
Here are just a few tips that might help reduce distractions while working from home:
- Stay off the internet. Pick a certain time each day to read your emails and check Facebook for new cat videos. Otherwise, stay off. This can be a huge time sucker if you don’t learn to control your time there. When you must be on the internet, shut down everything except the page you need to be working on at that time.
- Shut the door to your office. Put a “do not disturb” sign on the door with the time you’ll be done working. If you don’t have a separate room, explain to your family that the small corner of the dining room is your office and must be treated as such. When you’re at your computer you can’t be bothered about small problems.
- Explain to your children not to bother you unless it is an emergency – in other words, blood or broken glass. If they’re still young, hire a babysitter to come in for a few hours a day so you can have some uninterrupted time. A neighbor’s teenager may be perfect for this job. They won’t charge you a fortune and your kids will think it’s cool to have an older teen to hang out with for a few hours.
- Leave the house and go to a coffee shop or the library. The library is often quieter – but no snacks allowed.
- Figure out what task you’re most avoiding. Then do that – right now. No procrastination, no excuses. Just do it and get it done. You can correct it or polish it later. Often avoidance of one task can keep an entire day from being productive.
- Don’t expect perfection or you’ll freeze up and do nothing. Start right now and fix it later.
- Eat a breakfast with protein and fiber. You won’t feel hungry in 30 minutes and start looking for a snack. If your sugar level drops low, you’ll have a hard time concentrating. Eating a healthy diet will improve your productivity.
- Keep plenty of water nearby. Staying hydrated helps your physical body and your mental concentration. Stay away from sugary drinks that send you soaring and then make you crash an hour later.
- Take short breaks every hour. Walk around, go to the bathroom, or look out the window. Then come back ready to work.
- If it helps, have some sort of white noise or music playing in the background. This way you won’t be as bothered by outside noise such as the dog barking, the garbage man crashing cans, or the television in the other room.
Life is full of distractions. But if you’re going to work from home, you have to find ways that help you stay focused.
There’s no one else there to make you do the work. You’re the boss, the CEO and the worker bee. The sooner you start, the sooner you’ll be done.