Are you among 65% of people who think that working from home can make you more productive or 7% of those who prefer a traditional office workplace? To know how to focus on work at home, you should first cope with the three problems that you may face according to Singh et al. (2017). In fact, you may work more than 8 hours a day and 5 days a week.

How to Focus on Work in a Limited Space

The first issue is the lack of necessary resources, which may raise questions how to focus on work at home. These can include a quiet space, interprofessional and professional collaboration, and other things. To cope with this, choose work hours when no one will distract you. For example, 2 hours in the morning for intensive wirk (when kids are sleeping) and 2 quiet hours in the evening for planning further work and doing tasks of secondary importance.

Spare 1 hour a day to communitate with colleagues and the management to clarify work issues. It will solve the second issue of isolation.

Do not work 8 hours without a break because it will break your concentration and will finally result in overwork. It is the third issue to deal with.

Illusion of Choice Technique

Have you ever noticed that children always agree to do something when they face the illusion of choice? For example, the kid does not want to dress some particular cloth, but when the parent gives two options of clothes to choose from, the one agrees to dress based on his or her choice. The reason is that such a situation is an illusion that the child has the freedom of choice. However, in fact these two or three options to choose from are strictly set by the parent. There is no alternative like ‘your choice,’ but for example, when the parent presents 3 options like ‘white T-shirt,’ ‘blue T-shirt,’ and ‘green T-shirt,’ the kid will definitely choose one. The child will refuse if the parent states ‘You should dress this T-shirt.’

The same illusion of choice technique can work for you if you set the objective to do one task at a particular time out of 2 or more options than simply having no choice but to do only this and no other work.

It is closely connected with prioritizing your work: you face the illusion of choice here by setting priorities.

Therefore, organize your space at home, cope with overworking, prioritize through the illusion of choice, and set time limits for work with breaks for rest and family relations.

Reference

Singh, R., Kumar, M. A., & Varghese, S. T. (2017). Impact of working remotely on productivity and professionalism. Journal of Business and Management, 19(5), 17-19. http://www.iosrjournals.org/iosr-jbm/papers/Vol19-issue5/Version-2/C1905021719.pdf