Monday, October 27, 2008
9 Tips For Staying Sane While Working at Home With Distractions
FreelanceSwitch - The Freelance Blog: "There are a lot of other distractions here, too, though, including fairly frequent loud family guests. But you have to learn to work around such things. I’m actually fortunate that I live in an otherwise quiet part of town, and can go for a walk in the forest if it gets too hectic at home."
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17 comments:
One of the most important things that I have found about working with distractions is that some point you have to know when to stop fighting them and put things on pause for awhile. It's worst to push yourself through a project while you’re being distracted. Your attention isn't its greatest and you’re not giving the work your best. So like the article says "if you can't beat them, join them". Who knows, you might even need a break.
It's really important when working from home to define a workspace that isn't one's bedroom. I developed a habit of working in bed while I was working for a publishing company. After a few weeks, I started having trouble sleeping, as bed started to become a work-ish space.
None of these solutions deal with the biggest issue most college students have with distractions: a lot of your work is done on/near the computer, where you are only a click away from the internet. These solutions help if you have loud roommates, but other than that, they don't really help with the personal distractions that plague me MUCH more often. I was happy to see him acknowledge the necessity to "succumb" to these distractions occasionally, because that is important.
One technique that i employ is listening to headphones if my work space gets too noisy and distracting - but after taking a sound class i learned that if i listen to my headphones at medium volume for over 15 min. there is a chance of hearing loss. Now i am having a difficult time balancing out noisy work spaces. Sadly this applies to my studio, where i mostly have to work, so i have found that changing my work hours has been the most useful and productive. Also taking breaks to eat or stretch has given me more focus.
Some of these techniques are valuable however it sounds like many of them are catered for people working in multimedia as the writer explains. I discovered at some point last year that Starbucks was actually an extremely productive environment to write papers in. Just about all of my foundations papers were conceived and written there. I think it's easier though for students once they get an actual house as apposed to a college dorm room.
In our world, distractions abound. From TV to movies and the internet to IM, there are many different ways that one can be easily distracted. I find that listening to music, even at a low volume, give me something to concentrate on and allows me to work more efficiently (especially in the studio where noise and distractions about, although some of said noise is probably me). Some things that I haven't considered is changing the work hours or just plain old giving up on one task for a while and work on other, maybe less important, but still necessary tasks.
Sometimes if I find I am very scattered, I take a walk around the building or go get a drink from Entropy. It is amazing what a quick walk can do.
I think this is very funny because Pino is teaching us the same things! which make it even better to see that a lot of people really do take into account all of these different ways to stayed focused at home, or in your own personal office. I think that distractions are something that people need to take in their own hands. If you are in an enviroment where it is not possible to focus or do your work, its your own fault if you do not move. I have had many people tell me they dont understand how i get my worked done, but it is simply. I set goals for myself and if I am in a room that is not a good work enviroment, I will move. I dont think that it should be as big of a problem as it seems, just do what works for you.
I'm a big fan of silence when I'm working. I get off topic so easy that I need it to be very quiet, that's one of the great things about living off campus now is that I'm getting more done in the time that I am working than I ever did in a dorm or 33. I used to use a combination of listen to music and brown noise to block out my room mate. In fact at one point I would put ear plugs in with headphone on top and play white noise so I couldn't hear a thing he was saying.
This seems a rather pointless list quite frankly. All these things deal with sound. You could sum them up by saying along the lines of find out what kinds of noises help you work and what kinds don't. Then base your work schedule and locations around the results. There is no mention of the most distracting thing with working at home. That you could be doing so many other things, like watch TV, chat with friends, surf the web, or sleep. These seem like much more serious issues than sound. Then again I'm deaf. Of course I would think that.
This list is really repetitive, most of the tips are about how to deal with or get rid of th noise around you. Heres an easy way to do that if its a problem for you, go somewhere quiet. The article didn't address the issues like your phone or friends dropping in. Those are the ones that are probably the most problematic.
I agree with the comment about the internet and other distractors being very accessible when you are working on your computer. Also, the comment about working on your bed, and then its hard to go to sleep because the bed becomes your workspace; I kind of think I find the opposite to be true. I can't work in some spaces because they are too comfortable and I just fall asleep too much.
I find that having a dedicate work space is the best way to get work done at home. I only sit there to work and I only work when I sit there. The problem is getting my self to sit there and work.
Although these lists help and can help to steer you toward less distractions it is ultimately up to you. I find that the best way to get things done is to separate into smaller pieces and complete things. The times I get most distracted are when I have multiple things going on at the same time. If I can focus on one thing there are usually less things that can get in my way.
it's such difficult thing to work at home. it is just really relaxing mentally to put myself working mode. and i am probably in the most comfortable clothes and covered in warm blankets. but it is good to separate the work and play space. it is true that it can give you hard time sleeping once you work on your bed or anywhere you sleep in.
I think what I really need at home to avoid distractions is an office. Right now, my "office space" and bedroom are the same which is why when I enter it, I tend to be less accomplished then sitting in the second floor hallway. In addition, the space needs to be sort of void of personal touches. The decor needs to stimulate my mind towards my work like how my room stimulates my minds towards social events. There's just too much going on to remind me of what I could be doing instead of what I should be doing.
I have found this year that the things that helped me the most are figuring out my most productive hours and making sure that I am in a productive environment during those hours. I have also found that sometimes you just have to take a break and give your self a chance to get away from your work and clear your head before you can begin again.
O.K. so that was definately not nine tips for working at home; two of them were for working in a cafe and a library. Anyway, I think that it's really great when people learn to work in all different kinds of environments. After I got used to doing different tasks in different environments, I found it got dramatically less stressful. But to each his own right? If not, just put on some headphones or something.
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