How to stay focused working from Home
Covid-19 is causing all sorts of challenges. One of the very unfortunate results of the outbreak is the workplace complications it is causing. By the day it is becoming more sad to hear of those being let go from their jobs due to financial strain the virus has caused on the company they work for. Our friends, family members, and neighbors going through this challenge need us to be more empathetic and helpful than we have possibly been in our culture in a very long time.
For those able to maintain their jobs, an odd complication, is that many of us who are use to going in to work in some sort of capacity are now working from home. Personally, its a love-hate relationship for me. Here are some of the techniques that have been working for me.
1. Designate a WorkSpace
This is probably the major challenge for most. For instance, I have seen friends that have used their babies nursery as their office during the day. I get that its super hard, especially if the rest of the family is home. But, that’s all the more reason to designate a space during the day (work hours). You don’t want work clutter all over the house. #plantyourflag and stay there.
2. Maintain Morning Routine
Don’t Sleep in. You’ll feel gross. Get up when you would normally to go to work. Shower, eat your breakfast, read, throw on a nice outfit. etc. Really prime your engines for the day. Chances are you have Zoom mtgs all day, so you definitely don’t want to look like you just rolled out of bed.
If anything, this is a real opportunity to fine-tune the perfect morning routine. For me, its get up, pour coffee, read scripture, read 10 pages of book of choice ( maybe more), write in my 5-year journal, pray for 10 minutes (I have to work hard at this), and then shower and get ready.
3. YOUR BIG THREE
For the last 6 months, I have been using a Full Focus Planner. I love it. Each day there is a section for the “Daily Big 3.” As you can guess, it’s where you write out the 3 major things you want to accomplish that day.
While working from home, charting out your day at sea is more important than ever. Along with writing out your most important task, go ahead and write out some other agenda items. That way every time you get a little distracted you can reference back, and you won’t get sucked into a 5 episode vortex of The Office…
4. Take Breaks
If you’re just half way a hard worker I think you’ll find it very easy to blast through hours of work without noticing your bleeding eyes that haven’t blink while starring at the computer screen for two hours straight. My wife helped me in a major way yesterday by forcing me to go on a little drive once she realized I had literally not stopped being in meetings or typing for 6 hour straight (other than going to the bathroom 27 times, for some reason I am drinking way more water while at home).
The breaks are a nice little reward. Because think about it, at the office you are probably pretty social. It kind of builds in breaks for you without thinking about. Whereas at home, it may (I understand there may be different distractions for some, like children) it may be easy to blast thru without breaks.
I would recommend that if you do a full two hours straight, with no social media cheating, of work, its worth taking a 10 minute break. Could be a little reading from your favorite book or a quick phone call to a friend.
5. Replace Mindless Social Media Scrolling
I was going to say avoid Social Media but I know some of you, like me, use social media a lot for work. So the important thing about it is to avoid mindless scrolling. Get in, get out; just like a port-a-potty at a concert. So even during your timed breaks, don’t just mindlessly scroll the whole time. Fill your time with something else.
6. Figure out a way to MOVE!
Last one! even if you don’t regularly exercise, at the office you probably walk around more than you do at home. Once you’ve wrapped up your work day or during a break, figure out how to get the blood pumping just a bit. Maybe a walk around your neighborhood, or some burpees in your living room or garage, or even some stretching. I could feel my body tensed up from slouching all day! So I went and cranked out some burpees in the afternoon!
Ok that’s it! Let me know if you have any techniques or hacks that help you stay focused and energized while working from home!