Truths & Myths Archives - Office In The Bed

… Insta-envy and how to stay focused

It is a known fact that when working from home we fall prey to distractions. Or at least we are more likely to, if we are not careful, don’t plan properly and we lack in the self-control department :). Because nobody sees us so we think it’s ok. That is not to say that those who work in an office setting are not distracted. They certainly are. But that is a topic for another post maybe. For now, let’s discuss the distractions at home.

Where do distractions come from?

Usually, when you think of distractions while working from home your mind immediately goes to the external ones. You tend to think of the postman ringing your door bell, or the washing machine finishing a load and making annoying sounds, or your colleagues pinging you all the time. Well in fact, research has shown that we waste more time due to the distractions in our mind, the wandering thoughts and the lack of focus.

“It’s not the chatter of people around us that is the most powerful distractor, but rather the chatter of our own minds. Utter concentration demands these inner voices be stilled. Start to subtract sevens successively from 100 and, if you keep your focus on the task, your chatter zone goes quiet.”

― Daniel Goleman, Focus: The Hidden Driver of Excellence

And while that is the only distraction that is completely under our control. It turns out that it is one of the hardest ones to “tame”.

“Insta-envy”

With the level of technology adoption in our lives and the role that social media is playing there, it tends to be very hard for us to practice focus and attention and quiet down the inner chatter. Not only do we get hundreds of notifications and updates every day on our phones and computers, but we then continue to think about them way longer than we probably should. “Wow, that was a beautiful bag”. “I’d love to have one like that one day”. “I wonder where she got it?”. “How come she can afford it?”. “Why don’t I have any nice bags?”. And the chatter goes on and on. And by the time we realize and bring our mind on the task we were working on as we were interrupted, you see 10min had passed. Or sometimes even more.

And that is not only disturbing and tiring for our brains, but also also expensive, for those of us working from home. The less effectively we use our time, the less work we do. And the less work we do, the less money we make. As simple as that.

How do we stay focused?

And if that is not enough to motivate you to keep the inner chatter under control, than maybe the fact that you get less time to do what you enjoy and spend with the people you love might. Or at least that’s what motivates me. When I catch myself “day dreaming” too much during a day, I remind myself that if I don’t finish my work on time I will need to work later in the evening which means less time to spend with my family or less time to sleep. And I am not willing to give up on either :).

“The antidote for mind wandering is meta-awareness, attention to attention itself, as in the ability to notice that you are not noticing what you should, and correcting your focus. Mindfulness makes this crucial attention muscle stronger.”

― Daniel Goleman, Focus: The Hidden Driver of Excellence

A few other practical things I do when I know I need to stay focused and finish taks are:

I keep my phone on “do not disturb” mode.

This way I only get to check on all notifications, updates and be fully up to speed on what my friends had for lunch :), after I finish my urgent tasks

I set my status to “out of office” in Outlook

This allows my team members and other work colleagues to know if I can be bothered or not. Whenever I schedule focus time, I set my calendar to “out of office” as well as turn on my email auto reply. And thus people know I cannot be reached and I will come back to them as soon as I can.

Plan, plan, plan

To me planning is a lifestyle. It gives me piece of mind and keeps me focused. I know what my priorities are and what I need to focus on each day. I deliberately assess and choose what I want to focus on so that I use my time wisely. More on my planning secrets coming up soon :).

I meditate

This has been a tremendous change in my life ever since I started meditating. It helps me observe my thoughts, catch myself when my mind is wandering and bring it back to focus mode with a lot less effort than before. I strongly encourage you to try it if you haven’t so far.

But what really matters is that we are happy and satisfied with what we accomplished. So, at the end of the day, you do you. If day dreaming and the inner chatter make you happy, then do it. If you feel you need to be more focused then work to improve here. Take small steps and create new habits. Anything you want, you can do.

Until next time,

Laura

Also read: Me time while working from home

Most people I tell that I work from home believe I work in my pajamas and maybe from the bed…and that is sometimes true 🙂

In the recent months I have been getting more and more questions from friends but also people I randomly meet about working from home. How is it? Do you work in your pajamas? Do you need to start exactly on time? Does your boss know if you’re late? Some people ask even deeper questions about communication challenges in remote collaboration, ensuring quality of your work and personal motivation. So I thought I’d address all of these myths here today and, if this sparks your interest, I’d be happy to develop any of these topics in further posts.

So let’s start with the questions I get the most: Do I work in my pajamas? The truth is I do 🙂 many times. In fact, until recently, most days I used to work in my pajamas, or some comfortable attire. However, since my team and I started sharing the camera during team meetings and calls, I at least make the effort of making myself presentable from the waist up. The video sharing really helps bring us together, especially during a period when we don’t see each other in person too often. It also helps facilitate the communication, as sometimes only sound and no visuals (no body language in particular) can make the interaction more difficult especially with people you have known for a short amount of time.

How does the schedule look like when you work from home? This is another question I get frequently. Truth is – if you are not careful you can end up working more than you do when you have a 9 to 5. And this is because you can start working as soon as you wake up and can stop…when you need to sleep. So while working from home is flexible and can allow you to schedule some personal errands during the working hours – my team and I try to take a 30 min break every day to exercise, go to the gym or meditate – it can also be the enemy of your work – life balance. I will probably develop this in a separate post soon as it requires much more attention.

Working from home is great – you choose which 18 hours a day you work.

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Myth number 3: as amazing as working from home is due to the convenience and flexibility, it can be rather lonely. If you are not careful, you can spend 8-10 hours per day, or more, on your own, in your home office. And of course, you do talk to many people during that time. But there is little to none personal or in person interaction. This is why I have made it a purpose to work every Friday from a different coffee shop around my house. This way I get to meet and interact with other people when I want to get that extra energy and vibe.

All in all, home office has been a real blessing for me, especially after having our son. I can make sure I plan my household chores and my business meetings and tasks in such a way that at the end of the day I am done with both and can dedicate good quality time to my family.

I would love to hear your experience with working from home and/ or address any other myths you came across about working from home.

Until next time,

Laura