Our lives have definitely changed in the last few years and many of us will not be going back into a traditional office space or will be working some type of hybrid. This series is dedicated to those still managing a work from home career.
If you have not already, it is time to get serious about the changes to your career. Though the surroundings have changed, your work is still very valuable. If your employer is able to be flexible enough to adapt to your work from home needs, preferences, or even if it is the employers' preferences, as workers we must understand and respect the value in our work and the remuneration we receive for it.
One of the major issues in working at home is the amount of distractions that can eat into our work hours. So in this article I will include a few strategies to minimize those distractions. The first consideration is your mental space. Make a firm commitment to your work. Be mentally "at work". Mental preparation is the first step. Prepare yourself for the fact that disruption will happen, and this will arm you to mitigate the impact to your work.
Make a plan. If there are children, pets, spouse in the home, communicate your need for the family to respect your work space and time. You also must lead the way by respecting the work time and space as well. (if you break the rules, everyone else will!) Then implement the family plan to accommodate everyone. Perhaps it is hiring a dog walker, or a drop off/pick up service for the kids, maybe a housekeeper or a nanny is going to be in the home. A family calendar/planner is a necessity for anyone working from home with a family. The better your organizational skills around this, the more successful your work environment will be.
Prepare for the day. Your commute to the home office needs to include what you will need for a couple of uninterrupted hours of work. Glass of water, check! Cup of coffee, check! Muffin, check! The fewer reasons for you to wander into the kitchen, the better, and the less tempted you will be to unload that dishwasher or check the TV schedule for later that day. Be dressed appropriately in case of an unexpected zoom meeting. The act of washing, dressing and combing our hair is a cleansing ritual that prepares us for 'action'.
You can't be everything to everybody. There are some great perks to working from home. Yes you can get laundry loads changed around between meetings, and you have more time without the commute to live-stream more of your favorite yoga classes, and perhaps you get a few more home cooked favorites if you have a great cook in the home, but do not equate work from home as an opportunity to become lax at work, or overburdened by doing it all. Just as tempting is to work all hours and to not be 'present' to the people in your life. Boundaries around work and around home life are even more imperative, because you have brought your work life home.
The doorbell. Ignore it. Unless you are waiting for a work package, don't be tempted. I know I do not have time to buy something, or listen to someone not invited while I am at work. Friends, neighbors and family will learn that working from home does not mean 'at home'. If you are getting great at being focused in the work, after a while you will not even hear the doorbell or the home phone.
Boredom and loneliness can be causes to seek distraction. In the next installment in this series there will be a section on recognizing the signals that you are bored or lonely. You can shake things up in your home work life to ensure you remain engaged and excited about your work.
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