Nowadays, more and more companies opt for work-from-home arrangements. However, this kind of work arrangement comes with its challenges.
But whether you’re working from home or not, there is nothing more challenging than being productive.
When you work remotely, your surroundings can affect your level of productivity. That’s why being aware of these productivity killers can help you create a more productive workspace.
Here are eight common productivity killers for those who work from home:
Noisy Environment
It is common to be stuck with your family or roommate when working from home. This, in addition to your kids and pets, can result in a noisy environment. And such a situation can make it difficult for you to concentrate.
For a lot of us, it can be inevitable to have a noisy environment at home. However, you can do a few things that can reduce the noise you hear when you’re working from home.
One example would be to reduce the sound that you generate yourself while you’re working. You can also try playing some white noise if you can’t work in complete silence but don’t want things to be too noisy.
Mobile Phones
Another source of distraction for you when working at home is our mobile phones. Even when we’re doing something on our phone, sometimes we get distracted while we’re on it. The notifications we get from our phones can shake us up and take our attention away from the work we’re doing.
Therefore, when you’re in the middle of work, you might want to put your phone away from your immediate reach. You can hold on and look through your phone during your break, but not when you’re in the middle of work. You should also make sure that you turn off any notifications so that you don’t hear them.
Untidy Workstation
According to Planet Maids Home Cleaning Services NYC, an untidy workstation can distract any employee regardless of whether they’re in the office or at home.
If there are too many items on your desk unrelated to your work, it’s going to catch your attention, whether you like it. It can take your focus away from the work that needs doing.
The best course of action for you would be to end each workday by tidying up your work desk before you step away from it.
You can also start each workday by doing a bit of rearranging and reorganizing around your workspace. That way, you start your work with a clean space.
Household Chores
Household chores that you haven’t accomplished yet can stick at the back of your mind and distract you from working.
Instead of using household chores to get away from doing a crucial task, you can instead do them before you work. If you can multitask, you can also do some household chores while you’re working.
It’s especially crucial now that you and your house members learn to cooperate when it comes to household chores. That way, you can help each other out when it comes to times when you need to focus on work and not household chores.
Watching too much TV
TV is also another source of distraction while you’re at home. As much as possible, you should place your workspace in a room that doesn’t have a TV. You’re going to find yourself peeking away from your work and looking at the TV instead.
Aimless Web Browsing
Many of us are guilty of doing some aimless web browsing when we should be doing our work.
One thought will come up in our mind, and then we find ourselves knee-deep into a random Wikipedia page we didn’t know existed.
When it comes to your web browsing habits, try to limit that during your break time. It will help if you decide to stick to a few websites so that you don’t end up focusing on something meaningless.
Hunger
Ensure that you take your breaks so that you don’t let hunger distract you from your work. Appetite doesn’t only make it hard for you to concentrate. It also gives you a bad mood without you realizing it’s because you’re hungry. Aside from that, it reduces your energy to accomplish your work.
Therefore, you should make sure that you take your lunch break even though you’re working from home. It would be best if you also had some healthy snacks on your desk that don’t make much mess.
Multitasking
Multitasking is an illusion that makes you split your attention into two things and not be able to do both effectively. As much as possible, you should focus on one task at a time. Concentrating on one task will help you finish it faster so that you can get to other jobs more quickly.
Over to You
There are a lot of productivity killers that you’re going to encounter when you work from home. The eight productivity killers we have listed above are just a few of the distractions you’re going to have to fight against while at home.
Self-awareness of the productivity killers around you will help you have more proactive defenses against them.
For every workday that you have, make sure that you are conscious of these productivity killers. That way, you can avoid them as much as possible to get a productive workday.
