How to Work From Home

Working from home is fraught with the kind of problems you don’t have in the office. It’s amazing what a strong motivator it is to be sitting at a computer screen that faces five other people who can see when you’re messing around on Facebook. But when you’re at home, there’s no-one looking over your shoulder, you are king. The only motivating factor is your own brain. And sometimes your brain can be the enemy. Here’s how to combat some of the ideas your brain might tempt you with when you work from home.

I’ll just leave Twitter on in the background

Your brain: It won’t distract me much. I’ll just pop onto it if I have something particularly witty to say. It’s like marketing myself, really. It could actually lead to work. Which is a totally justified use of my time. Ooh, funny picture!

Solution: Simple, really. Don’t leave Twitter on. It’s never just one quick look. If you’re working on an offline document, disable the internet access on your computer for the duration of that task to eliminate temptation.

The shops are quieter on a week day…

Your brain: I need a new shirt, but I’ll leave that until the weekend. No point wasting my freelancing day on shopping. But the shops are so busy on a Saturday! It would actually be more productive to pop in on a Wednesday, buy the shirt, and get out. I’ll be saving time, not wasting it.

Solution: Would you go shopping all morning if you were in an office working? No. Then don’t do it at home. At the office, you’d cram any shopping that needs to be done into your lunch hour, so do the same when you’re working from home. The benefit of working from home, of course, is that you can take your ‘lunch’ hour whenever you like. But keep it to an hour.

My phone beeped!

Your brain: That’s the email tone. I’ve got an email. I have purposely closed my emails so that I don’t get distracted. But that could be an important email. It could be from a client. I’ll just have a quick peek at it. Oh, sod off, Ticketmaster. I don’t want half price tickets to ‘Jersey Boys’.

Solution: Another obvious one – put your phone on silent. Unless you’re waiting on an email that is crucial to the task you are working on, only check your emails at allocated times of day: mid-morning, after lunch and late afternoon. They’ll only be a distraction if you’re trying to plough through a particular task.

I could have a cup of tea

Your brain: You’re right, I could have a cup of tea. To the kettle!

Solution: Actually, tea breaks are a good thing. You can’t concentrate for a full eight hours, and if you try to force yourself to, your brain is going to rebel. Short breaks here and there, and a chance to get away from your computer and move around, will actually improve your productivity. Just don’t live on tea and coffee alone – to stay hydrated, and productive, you should always have a glass of water to hand too.

I have Sky TV

Your brain: How am I supposed to be working with that much TV at my fingertips?! I should really just cancel my subscription and do some actual work. KIDDING! I’ll never give you away, baby. Shh now. There there.

Solution: Personally, I find that watching TV, especially a programme with a plotline I can get engrossed in, really damages my focus. It takes me out of the task I’ve been working on, and it’s very hard to get back into the flow. I avoid anything fictional while I’m working, and just have the news on in the background while I make lunch.

I could have a biscuit

Your brain: Dammit, you’re right again. Chocolate HobNob it is.

Solution: There’s nothing to say that snacking damages concentration, but overloading on sugar definitely does. Try to stick to healthy snacks while you’re working to boost your energy levels without giving you an artificial sugar high, which will burn out as quickly as it arrived. There’s nothing wrong with the odd treat here and there though, especially as a reward after a particularly productive day.

                                                       source:  yahoo