Working from Home- Distractions and Solutions
Many of us wonder whether we will work from home more than we did before Covid-19 when work reopens. Is work forever changed? It is likely that we will see more people working from home. Options, where people show up at an office for a few days a week and then spend the rest of the time working from home, will multiply. Companies were already experimenting with these ideas before the Pandemic. Your success in working from home requires you to resolve and deal with distractions. Here are 5 major distractions and some solutions each.
Kids and spouse: Just when you are on a roll working on a difficult problem your kids come running down the hall yelling, or turn the music up so loud that you can’t hear yourself think or your wife comes in and asks for help with the homeschooling. These and the myriad others associated with your kids and spouse occur often. They require you to stop what you are doing. After solving their problem, you come back and try to pick up where you left off.
SOLUTION: Have a separate workplace with a door and pre-defined times when you are working. Work for a fixed period and then take a brief break to help them with any issues that came up while you were working. Be sure to put a sign on your door. ” Do NOT Disturb — Thinking in Progress!”
2. Our homes require a different setup for working from home: We don’t have sufficient computer capacity for the zoom calls and the information flow because we only needed limited capacity for our home use. You may also need additional phone lines or fax machines.
SOLUTION: Either you or your company will have to upgrade your capacity. This may become an expense that the company asks you to absorb. You may have to negotiate with your boss about who will pay for the changes, but he should be sympathetic since he has the same problem.
3. The refrigerator is within easy reach and the boss won’t see how often you visit it, but your waistline will.
SOLUTION: Keep the refrigerator off-limits until you are taking one of your problem-solving breaks.
4. Your workshop, TV, Stereo, and chores are calling. All those things you usually put off until the weekend are now within easy reach and calling out to you when work stumps you.
SOLUTION: You have to define work time and playtime each day to relieve your tensions. Give yourself an hour or two each day to play with your toys. Your mind will be clearer while you are working if it knows time is set aside for play.
5. Meetings: you hated the endless meetings in the office but Zoom meetings just aren’t as much fun. Reading body language and noticing who is dreaming and who is paying attention is much harder. You may as well give, Zoom is here to stay.
SOLUTION: If you convene the meeting and are the administrator for the meetings, you at least can watch all the participants at once. It also can provide some feelings of controlling who is talking, etc.
You can add your own personal distractions and concerns about the pros and cons of working from home. Give it some thought because for many of us it will become a reality.
