Working From Home Focus

robertbanking

Hello you very wonderful and intelligent people that make up this forum. I sincerely hope everything is going well for you.

I work from home a few days a week, doing affiliate marketing, building blogs, doing advertising through Google. I find when i go on my laptop my mind is full of thoughts, such as personal tasks i need to do on the laptop, personal chores i need to do and i find myself not being as focused as possible. I kindly wondered please, what are some strategy's for calming the mind and helping me do some deep focused work for around 2 - 3 hours please? I usually try aim for 4 hours productive focused worked a day, but i have not been reaching that. If anyone kindly had any thoughts on this i would be forever grateful and thankful it would mean the world to me.

Sending you lots of good wishes and i truly hope you continue to have a wonderful life. Very best wishes and look after yourself. 

Brie

I would think that trying to work a solid block of 2+ hours is a bit too much of a challenge.  It would be for me.  I find that I'm ok for maybe an hour and then can get back into it after getting up, stretching, make a cuppa etc.  The other thing that works well for me is to do a quick blast on something and switch to a different task for a while.  Then when I go back to the first thing my brain can better spot where there are problems and where I can make improvements.  

Problem over all is that we each have good and bad ways of working so what works for me may not work for you.  

martindow

Do you have an area set up as an office or can you do this?  I find this creates a degree of separation between work and home which can help.  Working on the kitchen table I find disastrous as I'm constantly tempted to make tea or look for biscuits.  The fewer reminders of food and drink, housework or domestic tasks the better to keep you concentrating on work.

Savvy_Sue

I worked better when I started having to bring a laptop home from work. The other thing I do is keep two browsers going and use them for different things. Would that help?

SensibleSarah

I'm a freelance markerter, working from home full time and tend to find that I work best in about 90-minute stints - then I take a short break and do something else before getting back to it. I keep a word doc open all of the time that I use to quickly jot down anything I think of that distracts me from work, so I can look at it again when I next take a break. That tends to free up my head a bit so I can focus on what I'm meant to be doing. 

My clients buy my time by the day - so they get 7 hours of work (translated into whatever the deliverables are) per day and I try to structure each day out before I start - roughly working out what I'm going to work on when and for how long (ish). I do have deadlines for some tasks from clients, which helps keep me prioritise and keep things on track - but the self-discipline is definitely something that is easier some days than others. 

MrsStepford

Husband works from home one day per week, but that will be increased to two days a week, fairly soon.

When he worked from home during Lockdown, we got him a proper office chair and an L-shaped desk and set them up in the back end of our sitting room, close to a window overlooking the garden. Lots of natural light and birdsong.  We moved a bookcase so he could have reference books as a backdrop for Teams/Zoom meetings and got him a wall clock. 

He takes regular breaks for coffee or tea. Might put a washing load on before he starts work and hang it up at lunchtime. Might put the slow cooker on at breakfast too. Sometimes he will take 30 mins longer for lunch and run an errand but finish later. I try not to disturb him but I organise a supermarket delivery, which gets him a 5-10 minute break and maybe kombucha, kefir, chocolate or nuts as a snack. 

DullGreyGuy

In an ideal world you separate personal and business as much as possible, physically, electronically etc so when you are in your work office you dont have your personal mobile, dont have log in details to personal websites etc etc. Not all have the physical space to have a home office only for work but at least you can have draws to put away personal paperwork etc. 

Laptops etc dont need to be actually separate, though may people their employers give them a work laptop so not an issue, but if you are self employed etc you can setup separate profiles, one for work and one for personal and dont allow one to creep into the other. 

didibibim

I also work in SEO and marketing as a freelancer and usually work independently of location. If you're in London, there are many cafes with beautiful views. You might try switching up your work environment by visiting different cafes and using the interesting ones as your office. I think it could boost your productivity!