While the Coronavirus pandemic and the lockdown continues, most of us are bound to work from home. But often amid noisy neighbours, kids, and pets around, working from home nearly feel impossible and you can’t work up to your full potential. What would you do then, to deal with the many distractions when working from home around you?
Since the pandemic began from China’s Wuhan and spread widely to the entire world in the long run, many economies are suffering and the corporates, to mitigate their losses and get back on track, have advised their employees to work from home. This might ensure a smooth workflow for the corporate sector and might help you work in the comforts of your home. So, why wait? Take out your laptop and sit down on a couch for a comfy work from home.
But, stop — your challenges do not end there! You are bound to come across many distractions when working from home. Some of them include:
- Your kids who, much like you, have to stay at home all the time during the ongoing lockdown.
- Pets, who have waited for a long time to play with you and now can’t stop being a centre of attention when you are staying at home.
- Noisy neighbours who deliberately play loud music while you are working.
- Frequent power cuts and bad internet connectivity
- Lack of motivation to work
- Lack of accountability and communication
Like the above distractions when working from home, hen you aren’t working in your office, there can be a number of distractions and mostly there can even be a lack of accountability and communication, which can ultimately result in low productivity. This may then seem like a hard task to achieve but since safety comes first, you might be left with no other choice than working from home.
What would you do then to get rid of distractions when working from home? Don’t worry, we at Colive, today will suggest you 7 Great ways in which you evade distractions when working from home and be more efficient and productive towards your work.
Also Read: Work From Home: 6 Great Reasons To Prefer Colive
Tips on Improving Efficiency and staying away from distractions when working from home
1. Wake up Early
While staying at home, you might evade your big pains of cleaning up, cooking your lunch, and dressing-up for your office, you will still face issues keeping up to your assigned tasks if you wake up late. Waking up early, on the other hand, will help your mind stay relaxed and keep it away from distractions when working from home.
You can even wake up early to boost your fitness with yoga and do some meditation to stay energized throughout the day. Moreover, you can complete some household chores easily if you wake up early in the morning like cleaning your room, washing your dishes, and even cooking your meals.
2. Take-up one task at a time
To bringing-in more efficiency and stay away from distractions when working from home, you must always take-up one task at a time. This is a healthy habit to keep your mind relaxed and away from all distractions when working from home.
You need to understand that unlike a machine, the human mind is less capable of multitasking and if you try to multitask, you might end up hampering your overall productivity at work. Moreover, staying focused on one task at a time will help your mind work efficiently while taking-up more than one task at a time will instead keep it totally distracted.
3. Avoid household chores on a workday
When you are working from home, it is essential to divide your time between office hours and household chores. This is because when at home, both these things require focus from your end. Talking about working from home, that holds more importance than your household tasks. This is the reason why your office work should be prioritized over household chores when working from home.
Moreover, this will also help you evade distractions when working from home and make your day more productive.
When talking about your household chores, you can use easy ways to finish them off early by waking up early in the morning or completing them after finishing your work. You can even avoid certain chores on your workday like doing laundry or getting the essentials. Select the weekends for them when you aren’t working. This will surely help you stay away from distractions when working from home.
Tips on Staying more focused on your work
4. Note down your tasks before working
This should be the very first step to take before you start working from home. Work from may seem like a piece of cake but believe me, if you haven’t prioritized your tasks you might not be able to utilize the time at hand at doing the most important tasks first.
Some people might argue that work from home should be more comfortable and flexible but this just isn’t the case. Remember that whether you are working in your office or at home, you are given a definite target that you need to achieve by the end of the day.
To solve this problem, take notes from your manager or employer about which tasks have to be taken at hand before you sit down to work from home. Then sort out which of these tasks need are more important and which are less. Begin with the most important ones to keep your mind focused and away from distractions when working from home.
5. Ignore Unnecessary phonecalls
You might get many phone calls from your office, and since you are at home, you might also get phone calls from relatives and friends, which might prove to be the major distractions when working from home. There also may be certain times when you would have to attend unnecessary meetings, which in turn might affect your work efficiency when working from home.
Ignoring such distractions is the best when working from home as there might be other things as well that you need to take care of when at home. Though effective communication is essential to achieve efficiency while working, this may actually sometimes distract you from the task at hand which require focus.
Related: COVID-19: 10 Ways To Make Your Work From Home Efficient
Tips on Avoiding Distractions caused by Kids or pets
6. Keep Your Kids Busy
When at home, you also need to take care of your kids. But fully focusing on them can prove to be one of the major distractions when working from home. At the same time ignoring your kids might also not be an alternative to resolve this issue. This is especially true in the case of working mothers. So what would you do in such a scenario?
The best way to evade being distracted by your kids would be to keep them busy while you work. Keep them engaged in fun outdoor activities, learning games, and even by giving them small homework assignments and reward them on successfully completing those tasks. This will definitely ensure that they don’t become distractions when working from home. Taking care of infants may be a harder task which may be solved by you and your spouse taking turns taking care of your child.
7. How to avoid being distracted by pets?
Cats or dogs — all pets are the most adorable things in the world. The research even says that adopting a pet might help you become a better human being after all. But they can be one of your major distractions when working from home. What would you do in such a scenario?
Your dog might want to seek your attention to entertain it thinking it’s a long weekend but working from home and taking care of your pet at the same time can be challenging. You should consider setting boundaries by giving your pet something to play with like a ball or a Nyla bone, which they can spend time with. You can even keep their beds in your room so that you can take care of them while working and they might not feel that they are being ignored. You can even assign the task of taking care of your pets to your kids who might be one of the other distractions when working from home.
Working from home can be challenging for most people especially the ones who are accustomed to working at their offices. It can be a huge challenge amid the distractions of noisy neighbours, kids, pets, and even improper internet connectivity at home. Though some of us might find it a totally new experience, these 7 tips will surely help to make it efficient and evade distractions while working from home.
At Colive, we provide the best rental homes at an affordable rate. We have beefed up our safety against COVID-19 at our facilities by taking adequate hygiene measures. As most of the corporates have directed their employees to work from amid the widespread COVID-19, Colive provides them with the best environment to work from home.
Along with co-working spaces, we also provide our residents with a High-Speed Internet 24×7 to help them in working efficiently, considering the current scenario. Visit our website and learn more about how you can upgrade to a coliving space and keep away from distractions when working from home.
