You’re working from home, you can work from anywhere in the house but some places are not as great as others which could lead to no work being done and you falling behind, building stress which is not good for your wellbeing.

A dedicated workspace also means less distractions, more productivity and better organisation all together.

To avoid that here are some examples of things you can do to build that “workspace” anywhere in your home by following a few simple steps.

Silence

Dedicated workspace doesn’t necessary mean physical, stopping distracting sounds from reaching you can impact your workflow tremendously.

A good pair of headphones or in earphones will do the trick but, if you don’t have sound concealing ones, then playing instrumental music in the background can work just as well.

Distractions

Most of the time when people get distracted its because something caught their attention just out of the corner of their eye, you can avoid this by simply facing away from open spaces.

If you’re sitting on the sofa then facing towards the side of the sofa will do just the trick, also facing walls or a closed off space can work just as well.

Temptations

When there aren’t people working around you or you’re alone, it’s very easy to get be tempted and get distracted by the simplest of things, e.g. clothes need washing, you need to hoover, what to have for lunch blah blah blah… 

The simplest fix for this would be removing them in the first place. If there’s cleaning, do it the night before, if it’s food, pre-plan what you want to eat, if it’s a TV show give it to yourself as a reward later on for doing your work, it’ll be that much sweeter!

Notifications

In this day and age if this isn’t the biggest cause of reduced productivity then I don’t know what is. Social media, phones, messages, emails etc. they pop-up every day all day and they are almost always guaranteed to stop you from working and wasting a good 10mins doing nothing productive.

Simplest thing here is to put that phone away, close all social media, turn your notifications off and that should be it. But for those who are easily distracted like me, there are apps you can instal that can block sites / notifications for you and stop you from accessing them for a specified time. it really helps so use it if you need to!

Boredom / Entertainment

Boredom is the worst, anyone would want to rather binge watch their favourite Netflix series or play games or chat to people than work, in fact I would be bored of writing this blog if I didn’t write it in a way I find enjoyable.

I must say this is the most challenging thing to overcome, it’s not simple at all and it varies from one person to another, so my suggestion is try some of the following, they might help.

• Reward yourself for a job well done, but you must get it done first otherwise it defeats the purpose.
• Challenge yourself, try making your work a game, see how quickly you can finish a task, some people are just competitive and this works
• Make your work enjoyable, for example I’m enjoying writing this blog because I’m speaking to you in first person, so see what it is you can change to make your work enjoyable, it’ll make things easier.

So that was it for me today, I hope this has helped you, let me know in the comment’s below what you do to create your Dedicated Workspace at home, I would love to hear them!

Remember to check out our original blog on Working From Home And Mental Health it has all of our planned posts this month designed to help you this lockdown!

Post written by Manar Muflahi

Photo by cottonbro from Pexels

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