7 ways to handle distractions (when you work where you live)

Posted by Doug on October 9, 2008

When you work where you live, you are probably going to have to deal with distractions that can break your concentration, interrupt your workflow, and derail your productivity.  Young children at home, a messy room that needs cleaning, the TV, yard work, your hobbies–any of these things can scream for your attention when what you really need to do is get some work done.  How do you stay on task when your office is also where you live, relax, eat, sleep and play?  Lest the reader get the wrong impression, I am no stranger to being sidetracked by stuff going on around me at home, but I’m educable, and I’m having some success.  Here are some things I’m doing (and trying to learn), but first a caveat: they all involve some (ahem) discipline.  There’s just no way around that.  But if you remain undaunted, read on.

1. Head distractions off at the pass.

Eliminate potential distractions before they happen.  If the dishes need to be done, sooner or later you’re going to get to a point in your work day when the task in front of you is a whole lot harder or more boring than doing the dishes, and, depending on what sort of person you are, you may be tempted to just get up and go wash dishes instead.  Washing the dishes is a fine thing, and in my role as part-time writer and house-husband, washing dishes is clearly in my job description.  But it isn’t always a good idea to drop what I’m doing when I happen to think of something that needs to be done around the house.  Doing those chores before my work day begins helps to eliminate the possibility that one of them will pop up to distract me from getting my work done, or interfere with my meeting a deadline later in the day.  Thirty minutes or an hour of routine tidying up in the morning can keep most of the housework distractions at bay the rest of the day.

2. Obey your to-do list.

“Plan your work, and work your plan…”–that was the mantra for time management when I graduated from college, and I’m pretty sure it still holds true today.  Making a reasonable, achievable to-do list is the first key, but the second key is actually using it.  Whether you use pen and paper or an online to-do list application (such as the excellent Todoist, which is what I use)–it’s all useless if you don’t refer to it from time to time throughout your day.

Here are some time-worn, but helpful suggestions for making your to-do list work for you:

• Don’t let it get too long. The process of making a to-do list stimulates your thinking about all the things that need to be done, but you’ve got to be careful not to over-estimate what you can get done in one day.  That said, when you’re on a roll, thinking of all the tasks in front of you, you don’t want to forget any of them, so one thing I have done is to create a “master list”—a long list of every upcoming task I can think of, and then I pick several items from that list to go on my to-do list for today—the tasks that really have to get done today.  If you have 90 things on your to-do list and check off only ten of them, you can’t help feeling like you’ve failed.  Your daily list should be short enough to be realistically achievable.
• Do it in pencil (so to speak). You’re probably not going to end up with the same list you made at the start of the day.  Things come up, things go away, and you may have to roll with some unexpected development along the way.  Priority escalation is a fact of life, no matter what business you’re in, and you have to be flexible enough to adjust.  Some days you might have to chuck it and start over.
• First things first. Ask yourself the priority questions:  What are the things that simply must get done today?  Which things aren’t so critical?  Can some things be moved to tomorrow’s list?
• Think 500-pound banana. “How do you eat a 500-pound banana?  One bite at a time.”  Break big tasks into smaller tasks.  Some items on your to-do list might be so big, so broad that they are too overwhelming.  A task like “Plan conference” is NOT the sort of thing you want to put on your to-do list.  Break it down into smaller tasks and sub-tasks:
  –Secure a conference facility
  —-Call the three big hotels
  —-Call the public library to check on conference room availability
  —-Call the bank about their public meeting room
  –Get promotional materials ready
  —-Lay out the postcard
  —-Lay out the poster
  –etc.
  You get the idea.
• Out with the old, in with the new. At the end of your work day, take a couple of minutes to look over your list.  Check off any remaining items that you got done, and review what’s left.  Are there things you didn’t get done that should be moved to tomorrow’s list?  Take a few more minutes to begin preparing tomorrow’s to-do list.  If you have a master list, review it, too.  The busier you get, the more difficult it becomes to keep all of this stuff in your head.  You really have to revisit your lists and keep them updated.

3. Don’t work anywhere near a television.

Unless your work directly involves watching TV, don’t keep one anywhere near your home office, or you may find that a simple check of the Weather Channel or CNN has turned into a day completely wasted watching inane talk shows.  Television, by its very nature, demands your attention and focus.   Maybe you can work with a TV in the background, but I can’t—it always sucks me in.  On the other hand…

4. Try some background music.

What I said about TV, well, forget that when it comes to music.  A little soft music playing actually helps me block out other distractions, provided it’s the right sort of music, and that is entirely a matter of your musical taste.  I met a guy whose idea of “music to work by” was loud death metal in his iPod earbuds.  It must have worked for him, because he was one of the most creative and productive people I’d ever met.  The kind of music I listen to while I’m working varies with my mood, and with what I’m doing.  And sometimes I prefer none at all.

I’m a podcast junkie, and there are dozens of podcasts I try to listen to each week, several of which are related to my work.  Sometimes I’ll listen to a podcast while I’m working, depending on the sort of task I’m doing; some tasks require more concentration than others.

5.  Compartmentalize your life a bit.

If your home office space is used pretty much only for a home office, you’ve got a great advantage over those whose home offices aren’t single-use spaces.  When your office is a desk in the corner of your family room, or a corner of your bedroom, or in a room that is also where your hobby stuff is, or some other multi-purpose space, there is more potential for distraction than when your office space is just an office space. My home office is in a back bedroom that is away from the main “traffic patterns” in my home, and that’s great, but the room is also is home to my amateur radio station and my home recording studio, which can make it difficult for me to focus at times, particularly if what I’m doing is boring me.

If there is any way for you to isolate your workspace from the rest of your home, it might be worth it.  Even putting up simple room dividers or curtains can communicate to others in the household that when you’re “in there” you’re working and not to be disturbed. If you can figure out creative ways to store the other stuff in the room that you share as a home office, perhaps you can reduce the potential for distractions a bit.

6. Bug out if you have to.

If there’s just too much going on at home some days, those might be good days to establish a “remote office” in a coffee shop or restaurant for the day.  Those places have distractions of their own, but I usually find it’s easier to tune out the noise and distractions in a crowded coffee shop than it is to resist the lure of my guitar when I really should be writing.

7. Take a work break and clear your head.

When it seems like any little thing is getting you off-task, maybe it’s time for a break.  Step outside for some fresh air, maybe take a short walk, or get a fresh cup of coffee, work on a relatively mindless, busy-work task for a bit–any of these things can help you rest your mind long enough to gather your thoughts and get back in the groove.

Other ideas?

Maybe you’ve got an idea or technique that you’d like to share—please leave it in a comment!

Thanks for reading this article!

You won't miss the next one if you subscribe to the RSS Feed