Ways to Keep on Task While Working From Home

[Banana Smurf]

I don't know if it's just me, but I am really flighty while I'm working from home and can't stay at my workstation for more than a couple hours.

I have the freedom to clock out whenever I want, so I do, but I wish I could just get it done.  I'm much better at staying working when it's something I enjoy, like mapwork.

I figure lots of people are going through the work at home adjustment, so I was wondering if people are finding it hard to adjust?

I don't know if I should blame it on my ADD + anxiety and talk to my therapist about it whenever she calls, or a lack of discipline that I have to adjust to.  

 

[dancesintherain]

The ADD/anxiety piece can definitely be playing a part.

One thing someone told me earlier today--you're not expected to be more productive than you are normally.  So if normally you work for a coupe of hours and take a 5-10 minute break, stay-at-home you can do the same thing. 

I've found myself taking periodic 5-minute breaks to reset myself.  I also took a shower during the middle of the day once. 

[Banana Smurf]

That really helps. I've been leaving for normal breaks and letting them go on too long.  I think my productivity expectations are a problem, too.

[HAL9000]

A friend who might be one of the earliest telecomuters was getting nothing done and wearing a bathrobe all day. So... He sets the clock at a normal time for work. Showers and puts on a shirt and tie (I never saw him with a tie ever!) Then he puts his lunch in a briefcase and walks down the street for (I don't know how far) comes around and goes to his garage which now has a desk and a phone plus his work stuff. He tells his wife and kids that they aren't allowed to bug him (Other then emergencies) and to just act like he is gone to work. So..... He tells me he starts working hard because he doesn't know what the rest of us are doing and he starts producing the best work he ever did. And the work load of like 3 people!!! After a while he doesn't need to do the shirt tie and briefcase thing but he said he had to wire his brain that being at home wasn't being at home when he was working.

BTW this pisses off people at work because he is making them look like lazy slobs and they conspire to get rid of him. No one should be allowed to work at home! What jerks.....

[sugarsugar]

I’m not as efficient but work later to make up for it. I had to set up a more efficient work space, I set a 2nd monitor up to my laptop, for example. Although my work space is very cluttered, like my whole house, and that contributes to being less productive. I do take breaks. Mainly I force myself to get started, but if the dog acts up, I get distracted. Eventually I get work done. 

[echolocation]

i remember reading something that said that the average office worker gets something like 3-4 hours of work done in an eight hour day. it's very possible that your productivity expectations are too high. when i was dealing with a similar problem, my pdoc had me working in 45-60 minute blocks with a 10 minute break in between in which i was supposed to get up, walk around, and have a drink of water or a small snack. after two or three of these blocks, i got a half hour break. i was also supposed to check in with the people i was living with and ask them if my expected workload was realistic. often, it wasn't.

[Banana Smurf]

I asked my partner if my expected productivity was realistic and he said I was going to burn out.  I think I'm going to try what you were doing.  

Edited March 27, 2020 by Banana Smurf

[Complicated toad]

It's hard, I am perpetually distracted, checking news on my phone, talking to dogs.  I got a little more done today - and I am thinking of putting scheduled breaks, rather than sitting for 3 hours and having crummy focus, I want to get up every hour and do 5 minutes exercise - a couple sets of squats and lunges or something simple like that.  I have high hopes that it will give me the boost I need to focus.  Now I just have to follow through with it.....

[Ion]

I've been doing a few things:

Try to make the space I work in as functional and pleasant as possible

Try to create a new structure/routine for working from home to replace the one I had with going to the office

Pay attention to continuing the strategies that help at the office. For me these include background music, talking through ideas with coworkers, breaking tasks into small chunks, etc

Allow myself to be a bit less productive. These are stressful times

[chem]

some tips from my friends who are working from home

1) set up your workspace in a room that you don't sleep or eat in such as a spare bedroom, if that's possible
1A) if you can't do step 1, make a space in your room dedicated to only work- your work tools only on a desk with some pens/ pencils/ etc
2) wear clothes that you would normally wear when you're at your normal office
3) use productivity things like the Do Not Disturb function on your phone. my particular phone even has a "Focus Mode" that limits access to apps like facebook and your web browser
4) expect the first week or 2 of working from home to be chaotic and possibly less productive. 
5) hang in there. yall are doing your best in a very difficult situation!

[Antecedent]

You can use a timer, super useful. Set the timer to a length of time and say right, what i am doing now is this thing, i'm doing it for 10 minutes and that's what i'm doing for 10 minutes, and then in 10 minutes when I am doing something else entirely the timer goes off and reminds me i'm a failure

[sugarsugar]

Well actually my dogs acted up when I was in my efficient work space so we’ve relocated to the bedroom where they can’t see out to squirrels and start barking mid-meeting. However I feel the need to have TV on to distract my brain (a whole other story) and lie down now and then to rest my eyes, so not maybe efficient. Still, the dogs are happy and chill so maybe I can justify it as helpful. 

[Antecedent]

A thing that seems to work for me is interval timers but I can't find any that don't have a high pitched noise and i can't stand it so I don't use them...

 

The beep is like a check in

I go... am i doing nothing? ok do something
can't do something? ok then actually relax instead of procrastinating