Staying focused when you work from home

Sumy Designs is a virtual business. We work from home. I’ve been asked why we don’t have an office, but that seems like an awful waste of money considering about one percent of our clients are here in town and Susan and I live in separate states. Instead, we save a lot of money by working from our home offices.

However, there can be distractions when you work at home. I had a friend recently ask me, “How do you stay motivated when you work at home? Don’t you get distracted by dogs and housework and other things?”

Yes. It’s easy to get distracted. My first and best response is always that it’s easier to stay focused when you don’t get paid if you don’t work. 🙂 If I don’t produce work, then I don’t make money and I sort of need money to buy food and clothes and stuff.

Now that the summer is here and kids are no longer in school all day, there are more distractions than ever. So here are my tips for staying focused when you work from home and avoiding the traps that go along with working at home.

• Listen to music or podcasts. I find that I’m much more glued to my computer if I have something engaging to listen to. Some of my favorites are This American Life, The Dradcast, OfficeHoursFM, and RadioLab.
• Use headphones. My home office, unfortunately, is not closed off from the rest of the house, so when my family are home and I’m working, it can be hard to focus.
• Clean up your desk. I struggle to stay focused when the top of my desk is a mess.
• Stick to a schedule. Don’t just show up willy nilly, plan your work time and work during it. It can be whatever schedule you want. It’s your office, make your own hours. But have a plan.
• Take breaks. Nobody wants to sit and stare at a screen nonstop. Plan for breaks. Take a walk. Have a snack. Do some sit ups. I tend to go for a run around 10 AM.
• Leave. Working from home doesn’t mean you have to work from home. When things get hectic at my house, I’ll grab my laptop and head to the public library. There’s good WIFI, it’s super quiet and I can get a little cubby where I can work.
• Find other people who work from home. It can be very isolating to work from home. Find other people online that you can communicate with so you don’t miss the “water cooler chatter.”

Some people will tell you to dress like you are going to the office. I will not tell you that. I wear yoga pants to work. And the thought of putting on shoes to sit at my desk makes me want to sob. The biggest drawback to going to work in an office for me at this point would be having to wear shoes.

Working from home has many advantages. As an established homebody, I love it. But it takes some discipline.

Here’s a shot of one of my coworkers at his desk.