Limiting distractions is one of the many challenges facing business owners since 2020.

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many of us to work from home more than ever before. And while this has been a great way to save on office space and expenses, as a business owner, it can also be challenging to stay productive and maintain a healthy work/life balance. One of the biggest challenges while working from home is overcoming distractions.

This National Work From Home Week, take a moment to celebrate how far we’ve come in adapting to pandemic work life – and then choose at least one strategy to help increase your focus. 

1. Schedule your work time. One of the best ways to avoid getting distracted while working from home is to schedule your work time. Set specific hours for when you will be working, and stick to those hours as much as possible. This will help you to stay focused and avoid getting sidetracked.

2. Maintain your focus; The Distraction Buster: Parking Lot Strategy. It is indeed frustrating to get distracted from a task at hand by other important but unrelated things. My favorite technique to stay on task is the parking lot strategy. A parking lot is a piece of paper where you write down (park) every idea that comes to your head. Jot down any unrelated yet important idea in the parking lot until you are done with the task at hand. Once finished, you can look into the ideas in the parking lot and decide on the real task you want to take on. The idea is to not lose focus on the task at hand.

3. Set up a dedicated workspace. Another way to stay focused while working from home is to set up a dedicated workspace. This can be a specific room in your home or simply a corner of your living room. Having a dedicated workspace will help you easily move out of “home mode” and into “work mode”.

4. Take breaks. It’s important to take breaks when you are working from home, as this will help you to stay focused and avoid burnout. Sometimes the best way to get work done is to take a step back and recharge.

The distraction-limiting strategies mentioned above will help you increase your focus while working from home. If you’d like to increase your overall productivity, let’s talk.