Working from Home? 5 Tips To Help You Stay Laser-Focused

Author

AJ Zampella
February 08, 2024

Read On: My Website

Read Time: 3 Minutes

The pandemic changed the way a lot of us work

I’m sure my story isn’t unique, but a lot of my work shifted to being performed remotely. Even after things opened back up, I still maintained a balance between time in the office and time at home.

However, in October of 2021 everything changed again.

My son was born.

Working remotely is hard enough with easy household distractions such as chores, tv, music, doing things around the house. That PALES in comparison to having the most kick ass little kid around all day who wants nothing more than to hang out.

Over the past 3 years I have experimented with a few different methods to stay focused. None of them are perfect or will work every single day, but they have helped guide me to finding a much better balance in life 5 methods to stay focused when working remotely/independently (and still allow time to goof off with your kiddo)

1. Create Aggressive Deadlines

Human psychology becomes your friend here

Parkinson's Law states that work expands to fill the time allotted for its completion. This means that whatever timeline you give yourself is the minimum for how long it will take. Along the way we have a tendency to use that blank space to either make a task more complicated (because free time so why not?) or we just goof off until it becomes URGENT.

Nothing lights a fire under your ass like feeling you’re behind schedule

2. Set daily goals (and knock em out early)

Yes, its’s cliche, but I want to add something extra that has REALLY helped me

Everyone always touts this idea of “set daily goals”, but then they wait until the last minute to do them (see item #1). What has helped me TREMENDOUSLY is setting those goals the night before and making them the very first thing I do in the morning.

Benefits:

  • Primes the pump for your work day (Go get quick early wins)

  • Front loads you biggest tasks (if you want to slack off later, not as bad)

  • Makes your morning mindless (Reduce process between thinking & acting)

Mornings are tough enough. I like to make mine as simple as possible and already have decided, preferably the night before, what I need to get done in the morning. Don’t think about it

Get up, Get ready, get to work

3. Create an Accountability Team / Check In

Words drive actions & talking about what you do drives accountability

Find a co-worker or even a friend that you can chat with for 15–20 minutes on a normal rhythm. Keep each other on track with what you did, what you’re planning on doing, and how you’re working through any challenges.

Some level of human interaction is absolutely crucial when working remotely (And Yes. I realize I’m describing a scrum, but I’m not the biggest agile fan so I will avoid saying more)

4. Talk a short walk

Get up and go move around.

Losing focus typically means getting distracted by something unimportant. Short walks are a great chance to perform a mental reset and collect some of your thoughts. Use your time to think about your tasks and the immediate actions you want to take when your walk is over. There’s also a ton of science to back up the goodness here

Breathe, stretch, shake, go

5. Re-Evaluate your schedule

If you are remote, do you HAVE to work a specific schedule?

Just like our bodies have sleep rhythms, we also have productivity rhythms. Take note of when you are most productive and have the best focus. Maybe sliding 2 hours later puts you in a better flow state. As long as you’re meeting your deadlines, see if this is something you can do.

The smallest adjustments often make the biggest impacts

That’s it!

As always, thanks for reading.

Hit reply and let me know what you found most helpful this week—I’d love to hear from you!

See you next Thursday!

A.J. Zampella

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Little about who I am and what I’m here to do:

15 years in tech & 20 years as a DJ

Mid-career professional trying to thrive in work and life

I spend 100s of hours figuring it out so I can share it with you (in <5 minutes a week!)

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