What to Do if you can’t focus while working remotely

No going to and from work. No sudden meetings. No dress code. Remote work can seem to be very convenient until our personal life gets in the way. It can be easily ignored while sitting in an office, but at home, it can be difficult to distinguish between personal and working time.

Absolutely everything distracts in your, such a familiar apartment: a dropped dust particle, cleaning which turns into a general tidying up of the whole house; ingredients for a dish that you have long wanted to cook; but especially, such an alluring sofa and the opportunity to watch YouTube and Netflix. After all, no one will see it! You think you can do everything tomorrow or the other day. Eventually, it turns into a huge snowball that hits the majority of remote employees. No matter what you do — freelance writing jobs or remote accounting — it’s hard for a person of any profession to focus at home. There is no panacea for it, except discipline and self-organization. However, how do you achieve them? We have prepared some tips on how to focus on work when you are a remote employee.

Determine working hours

This may sound silly, but if you want to work hard, imagine that you’re not working from home. Set up office hours to work from home and clearly define what you can and cannot do at that time. If you want to do something unrelated to work, ask yourself, “Would I do that if I were in the office? If the answer is no, then you should do it before or after office hours. Homework, running errands, and meeting with friends had to be moved to off-hours. Of course, you can sometimes answer your friends’ calls during lunch breaks. If you have an emergency, such as a car repair or a leaking pipe, you can arrange it for the daytime.

Set limits for others

Explain to friends, relatives, and acquaintances that the days you work from home are not free time, so they are not meant for external activities. For example, if you stay home with your husband or wife, say: “Today I plan to work on my laptop from 8 AM to 5 PM. We can chat at lunch, but I’ll be busy for the rest of the time”. If you make a promise and keep it (e.g., really stop working at 5 PM), people usually understand the limitations and don’t think you are available all the time.

Organize your working space

The ability to work while lying on the sofa and not taking off your pajamas seems to be one of the main advantages of remote work. But in fact, it rather reduces productivity — especially if this is the first time you have to arrange a home office. Your body has probably already got used to the fact that you sit while working, and the horizontal posture of the brain automatically associated with rest. There are many life hacks and tips on organizing your office at home. One of the key rules is that, if possible, there should not be ” household ” things: toys, scattered clothes, hygiene products. The cleaner space is, the better.

Develop an eating habit

While working in the office, people go to the nearest cafe for lunch, and at home, they face three categories of problems. Someone falls out of work for an hour and a half every day to cook their own meals. Some, on the contrary, forget about food, and eventually, hunger prevents them from focusing on business. On the other hand, there is a high risk of slipping into excessive eating at home, as the fridge and kitchen cupboards are now very close by. Review your eating habits and diet. Make up a weekly menu of simple and nutritious dishes. Cook lunch from the evening so it can be quickly warmed up. In the morning, put aside in a separate container with a strictly defined number of snacks that you can eat during the day. And set reminders on your smartphone, so you don’t forget to eat on time.

Take breaks

Some are able to skip lunch or give up a little physical activity just to get the job done. The only catch is that without breaks, productivity decreases, and concentration also dissipates. In this condition, it is easier to miss details, which naturally reduces the accuracy of tasks. Planned breaks are more effective than spontaneous ones. This is due to the fact that the body is more comfortable to be in familiar conditions. Think about what you will do during the next break in advance. At first, it will help not to be distracted and then turn into an exciting game. During the break, you have to change the type of activity: go and make yourself a cup of tea, stretch a bit from sitting, close your eyes and listen to a favorite song, etc.