Alaxandria Marvar
Under normal circumstances, study after study found that workers’ productivity increased when they shifted from working in an office setting to working from home. Of course, in the current pandemic, school closures have thrown a wrench in the gears for working parents. And across the board, parenting or not, a plague of pandemic anxiety is no help.
But according to Harvard Business School Researcher Prithwiraj Choudhury, who authored one of the aforementioned studies, working from home can yield great results. It simply requires forming and sticking to routines that help you focus.
“When you’re at home, you have more distractions and disruptions to take into account,” Choudhury told The Boston Herald. In fact, distraction lurks around every corner: the laundry room, the kitchen, the dog that wants to go for a walk, the cacophony of social media trying to lure your attention away from the daily grind.
Defeating distraction and passing on to the next level of work-from-home success is easier said than done, but SelectLeaders gathered a few of the most tried-and-true recommendations.
1)Define Your Routine
Good news: Adopting a routine can make you more productive. Now all you need to do is put it in place. “Make sure your routine sets boundaries for yourself and whoever you live with,” Choudhury said. “This will, in turn, create a strong balance in both your work and personal life. Once you find it, follow it religiously.”
Get up and dressed for the day, carve out time for yourself in the morning as best you can, and once you arrive at your desk — whether that’s in your pristine and luxurious home office, at a worktable strewn with extension cords you’ve rigged up in your garage, or at your breakfast table — keep it sacred.
Experts recommend replicating your office desk as closely as you can, or improving on it, and creating a space in which you want to work. Pay attention to factors like ergonomics, natural light and noise pollution.
Then, as needed, set a mood of productivity, whether that is silence, noise-blocking headphones or programming the right soundtrack. Brain.fm — “functional music to improve focus in 15 minutes” — and Focus@Will (“personalized focus music”) each create focus-friendly soundtracks for your workday.
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