I want to get a bit more specific on how I manage distractions. I have mentioned before that the distractions of a home office can often be the biggest obstacle to productivity. Distractions increase the time it takes to get things done, impact the overall quality of our output and even prevent us from completing tasks altogether.
This is a bit of an extension and follow up to my previous posts, “Is Working From Home Awesome? Here are my Pros and Cons”, “Working From Home Survival Guide – The Fundamentals of Doing Well.” In these posts, I highlight my perspective on the different challenges of working from and then go a bit further into how to overcome some of these challenges. If you haven’t had a chance to check out either of those posts I encourage you to give them a quick read.
Before I get into it, I am aware that different households offer their own unique distractions. I can’t cover every distraction out there but I feel this can help with just about any.
First off, there are really two types of distractions to understand. The first type is the external distractions. These external distractions are things that are going on outside of your office in your surrounding environment that you can not really control. An example would be in my case, my kids running around the house playing, often passing just outside my office doors. It’s the noisy stuff that can break focus and concentration. Another example is things like emails, texts, phone calls, notifications, etc. Essentially all the things your technology wants to throw at you to get your attention.
The second type of distraction is what I refer to as an internal distraction. For me, this is all the mental stuff and honestly where I struggle the most. All the ideas, worries, thoughts, things to remember, things to do and so on. The funny thing about the internal distractions is that they really have nothing to do with working from home. Of course, since being at home can keep you in a home state of mind, often there are things on your mind that may not be if you were working elsewhere.
Some of these are specific to either external or internal but there is a lot of overlap and fixing one seems to help the other.
Isolate yourself
I talk about this in the “Survival Guide” post. It is important to have a dedicated area that is separate from the rest of the house. Not only is this important for a handful of other reasons when it comes to working in general, but it is also a clear physical separation from the most common distractions. In addition, I find that using a dedicated office space in my house helps me get into the right state of mind for work. This on its own quiets a lot of the internal distractions and allows me to focus on what I need to be doing.
Do not try to control what you can’t control
It might seem a little counterintuitive at first. Even though I am in a dedicated office space with doors, there can still be a lot of noise and chaos in the house. In the example I gave of my kids running around making noise, the initial thought might be to make them be quiet. Here is why I don’t like the idea of trying to control what happens in the house. First of all, I don’t think it’s fair for me to say how loud or playful they can be, so long as it’s within reason. After all, this is their house too. Just because my office is in the house, it doesn’t mean I should expect my house to become like an office. I wouldn’t tell my neighbor not to cut their grass during the day. This is because I know it’s unreasonable and that it won’t work. Even if I did try to create the unreasonable expectation of quiet while I work, I know kids are kids. Honestly, I want them to play and have fun and run around the house. So if I insist on quiet, but know it is an unlikely outcome, the noise will only become more distracting. In the long run, by embracing the reality of the noise and chaos in and out of the house, I have become so accustomed to it that I don’t even notice it anymore. If I don’t notice it, it’s not a distraction. Think about this for any distractions that you really don’t have control over, if you accept it, you will get used to it.
Control what you can control
While there is a lot I don’t feel I can control around me, there is a lot that I can. The other example I used of technology being a distraction is representative of something I can control. I use my computer and my phone all day long for work. This means I have things popping up constantly with their little notification noises. For a long time, I felt captive to these notifications allowing them to distract me and change my behavior. There were two ways I could handle this, turn off all notifications, or train myself to work through them. Like I mentioned, for a long time the notifications prompted my immediate response because I knew the communications behind the notifications are really the lifeblood of my business. While turning them off and selecting specific times to check and respond to messages is a great approach, I knew it wouldn’t work for me. Rather, I forced myself to take control of the way I responded by making my priority whatever I was currently doing. I eventually noticed that if I got myself focused strictly on completing the task in front of me, the anticipation and urge to check messages went away. It took time, but now I can work right through all the messages as they come in because I know I will get to it when I am ready. As a matter of fact, as I type this, both my phone and computer are dinging with emails but I know I want to finish this paragraph first. All I do is remind myself that I am in control of where I look and what I do in response and then adjust accordingly. This works for me but if it wasn’t working or it stops, I will just turn off my notifications and start checking things periodically.
The important take away here is to honestly confront what it is that you can take control of and make the adjustments. A lot of it comes down to discipline. You are in control of whether you spend your day on social media or working. The internet offers an endless menu of potential distractions, you just have to confront whether you are in control or not, and adjust accordingly if needed.
Write it down, Organize, Prioritize, Execute
Often one of the most significant distractions for me is the feeling of being overwhelmed. It makes it difficult to know where to start and furthermore makes it almost impossible to stay focused on anything. An exisiting part of my daily morning routine is to sit down and actually write out everything I need to do in my notebook. This keeps me from feeling overwhelmed but even still, things come up that can upset the balance of my entire day quite regularly. When this happens, in addition to everything I else I have to do I find myself getting distracted by the volume of work that just came across my desk. So I do the same thing again. I write it down, not necessarily just what I have to do but everything. I write out on paper what questions I have, what I know, what information I need etc. Then I organize all the info, prioritize my next task and get into it. It seems simple because it is, but often people fail to do this. The feeling of being overwhelmed can lead to anxiety quickly so getting a jump on this keeps my logical brain in control and subsequently keeps me moving forward.
Do this. Even if you are not overwhelmed but finding yourself distracted, write down everything you need to do or even everything on your mind. By simply externalizing my thoughts I find I can approach them more logically and act on them without feeling distracted.
Music
Music can become a constant that drowns out everything around which then allows you to focus more effectively. I listen to quite a bit of music of all types depending on what I am doing and what is working. I don’t get fancy about it, just some headphones and a playlist. The important thing is to be aware of when the music goes from eliminating distractions to becoming a distraction of its own. Lately, I have switched to instrumental music like classical and playlists like “Sounds of Power”. The key is to find what works best for you.
Work Toward Specific Objectives
This one is a bit of a no brainer for sure. Of course, specific goals and objectives are critical in business and in life. The reason I bring it up is in my experience, working from home can make it a bit tricky to always stay in the work mindset. Not having any oversight or someone telling you what to do makes it easy to lose sight of keeping specific objectives in front of you. What can happen is work can become more about reacting rather than being proactive. Again, I get into this more in my “Survival Guide” post but this is specifically important when it comes to distractions. There is a common phrase about how an idle mind is the devil’s playground. When I catch myself not really driving toward something specific, it’s like there are all kinds of room in my brain for distractions to dig in and take up space. On the contrary, when I am busy working on specific tasks and projects, it’s almost like the resulting focus builds up a shield against distractions. So that’s really it. If you are finding yourself struggling to stay busy, it is likely that the distractions will find you or rather, you will find them.
HRZN HNTR 