RWL207:How to Work From Home Amid Distractions

Hey, it's Alex from Remote Work Life here. Welcome to another episode of the Remote Work Life podcast. I appreciate you being here and thank you for your attention. Thank you for listening to the podcast. I really appreciate it and today, as ever on these episodes, I just want to share quick tips that I can hope can help you to improve your remote work life and, as ever, I also request that you let me know of any sort of tips that you use in order to do just that. So today we want to talk about limiting distractions, to improve focus and productivity and working from home especially.

Speaker 1:
0:47

I work from home a lot. There's lots of distractions. There's lots of things that have distracted me in the past. There's lots of potential distractions that are there now that can lead to a lack of focus, a lack of productivity and, as a remote work, you have to be really disciplined to avoid and sort of reduce distractions, because there are so many and I have a family. I have three children. In fact, two of my kids are at home, one is at university. They're quite young, they're quite excitable, especially during the periods of time during the holidays, so they are a potential distraction. That's obviously when you're home with your kids, the temptation is to go and do stuff with them, or you know if they're arguing or fighting to split them up, or whatever it may be. As you work from home, as you work remotely, you begin to put things in place to mitigate those distractions and you work together with your family so that they understand the situation, especially if you have kids that are old enough to understand, which I am fortunate to have, although I did go through periods of time when they didn't understand as much.

Speaker 1:
2:16

But apart from the children not the only distraction, of course, there are other things like I don't know, putting the washing on or doing the washing up, hanging the washing out. I'm sure there's things that other people get distracted by things on the TV, things on the radio, things on social media. There's so many distractions, so many things that can distract you. But having said that, it's not remote workers are not the only people that get distracted. But if you are working from home, as I said, the distractions are there. But, as I said, to make it a success, you have to be disciplined in order to do that. And here are a few tips for you that I've learned not just from my own experiences, but from other people who work remotely, in order to limit distractions, to improve focus and productivity. So number one is you have to identify what those distractions are.

Speaker 1:
3:08

So early on I used to put a washing and hanging the washing out. It was well-intentioned and I didn't necessarily see that as a distraction, but it was a distraction. It didn't need to be done at that particular point. So I identified that as a distraction for me and I said to myself I was intentional about saying I don't need to put that on now, I can put it on later, I can put it on a timer, et cetera. All those different things.

Speaker 1:
3:38

You have to take note of the common distractions. Obviously, social media is one of those things. I don't really do social media a lot. Even notifications on your phone, that red dot that appears when you get a new notification on WhatsApp or on social media. I completely switched that off during the day because that was a massive distraction for me. Even though you're sort of replying to a one-minute message or, sorry, replying to a message for a minute or so, that has a cumulative effect if somebody is messaging you continuously through the day. So things like social media, email and, as I said, even household noise as well.

Speaker 1:
4:17

Me as a podcaster, there's lots of noise around. I've learned to accept. Now I don't have a dedicated studio, so I've learned to accept that when I come to my improvised studio so let's talk about that that there are going to be noises around and I have to just try to avoid those distractions and be disciplined enough to sort of get my podcasting work done, for example, and not sort of be sucked in and drawn into them. So you need to create a plan to minimize their impact on your work day. So that's identifying those distractions.

Speaker 1:
4:51

Number two is finding a dedicated workspace. Even if you don't have an office as such, you need to find a space that you dedicate to your work. It may be that you have more than one space that's dedicated to your work, but find that space. And that space should be comfortable, it should be functional, it should support good posture, it should be as quiet as possible, it should reduce physical strain during long work hours. So that's number two dedicated workspace.

Speaker 1:
5:19

Number three set boundaries. So communicating your work hours and availability with your team, with your family. This can help with transparency and helps manage expectations. It reduces interruptions and I can testify to that. It reduces interruptions during your focus time, which I'm doing right now. This is my focus time. I'm focusing on producing this podcast for you. I've got my family here, I've got my wife, got my kids, so I've set that boundary. I've said to them listen, I'm recording this podcast. Now Please don't come in while I'm doing that. So that's number three.

Speaker 1:
5:54

Number four taking regular breaks. So incorporating breaks, regular breaks and a dedicated lunchtime into the schedule. Put your lunchtime into your calendar. Share that with with the people in your household, if you're working from home, or your team, if you're working on a team basis, whether they're local or international. This allows for mental rest and promotes overall well-being throughout the work day. And number five on my list wellness rituals, which is something that I've repeated over and over again is considering incorporating wellness rituals into breaks such as deep breathing meditation. Go for a quick walk to recharge your batteries.

Speaker 1:
6:33

So those are my five tips for you to hopefully help you to limit distractions and improve focus and productivity in your life If you're working on a remote basis, especially if you're working from home. What other tips can you suggest? Please leave some suggestions in the notes. Please leave a review in the notes as well and let me know what you think of the podcast. Please leave a review as well If you're enjoying these episodes, and also please consider resharing this with your network so that hopefully it can reach as many people as possible. But all I'd say is until the next time. I wish you all the best and I'll see you on the next episode.