Hey, how's it going? This is Seth Williams from retipster.com
In this video, we're going to talk...
Hey, how’s it going? This is Seth Williams from retipster.com
In this video we are going to talk about…
Hey, how's it going? It’s Seth Williams - REtipster.
In this video…
Hey, how’s it going? This is Seth Williams from retipster.com
In this video, we're going to talk about how to eliminate distractions while working from home.
Okay. So, if you're working from home on any kind of self-employment entrepreneurial endeavor,
it's pretty much a guarantee that there's going to be a lot of distractions around you,
unless you live by yourself in complete and total isolation
chances are there's going to be interruptions throughout your day,
whether it's from family members or screaming kids or barking dogs,
I mean, you name it.
That's just the name of the game when you're trying to do work-related activities from home
because your house is not the same as a corporate office environment,
unless you take some steps to make it that way.
Because if you don't get this figured out, you're going to have a much harder time
getting anything done in your business.
So, first of all, I've found it's really helpful to establish and very clearly communicate
what your work schedule is going to be.
You got to figure out what time of the day and what days of the week
you're going to sit down and dedicate your full attention to your working activities.
Whether you're going to do this from Monday through Friday,
from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM
or a second shift or weekends only
whatever it's going to be, make sure that's very clear and scheduled.
And most importantly, communicate this to the people that you live with.
Make sure that they understand you're not going to be available.
You can't run errands for them.
You can't come up and play.
You can't do anything else because you're dedicating that time to work.
And once they're on the same page with you, it usually gets a lot easier because
they understand, "Oh, okay. They're working now.
They're not available.
I should basically pretend that they're not even here".
And once they understand that, you'll find that there's a lot less distractions because
they realize they can't just barge into your workspace and start making their demands.
And sometimes this takes a little bit of time for them to sort of get in that rhythm.
But if you create that kind of plan and very clearly communicate and remind people of that,
eventually it gets a lot easier.
So this actually took like probably a few months when I started working from home,
but eventually, we got most of these kinks worked out and it really works pretty good now.
Now, once you've created this schedule and clearly communicated it
to the people who live with you,
make sure you stick to the plan, treat this time like gold,
because it is gold.
Don't spend this time doing anything else that's not work-related
Use your time wisely.
Don't cheat yourself by doing anything other than work during this time
that you've established for yourself indefinitely.
Don't let anybody who lives with you
see you doing things that are not work-related
because if they see that you're not respecting your own time,
why should they? It all starts with you.
It's going to be surprisingly difficult when you have this kind of freedom to do whatever you want all day.
So that's why it's very important to stay disciplined about this.
And it all starts with you.
Now another thing that can be really helpful is to have a quiet space
in the place where you live, where there aren't a lot of background noises
or people screaming or talking loudly in thebackground.
I have that. However, I realize not everybody has the luxury
of this dedicated space where there's no sound intrusions.
So if that's your situation.
And honestly, that was my situation at first too,
I'd encourage you to put on some kind of background noise,
whether it's literally white noise or some kind of classical music
or something to just drown out the distractions in the background.
And actually, one helpful way to do this is to get some noise-canceling headphones,
whether it's the over the ear kind that actually sends a visual message to other people,
Hey, don't bother me.
I can't hear you.
That can be one way to do it, or you can get some of these earbud things.
There really are not that expensive.
I can put a link to these things beneath the video.
They really honestly block out most of the perceptible sound in the background.
They sound amazing.
It's just really a great way to kind of put yourself in your own little world,
at least as far as audible distractions go.
Now, sometimes there's just something inherently distracting about being in our own homes.
Maybe it's the people we live with.
Maybe it's where we live.
Maybe it's just in our heads.
I didn't really know, but sometimes I've found just leaving the house going somewhere else.
Maybe it's a coffee shop.
Maybe it's a library.
Some kind of a shared workspace can work wonders for productivity,
just because it allows me to get into a different headspace
and kind of hit the reset button on my own mental thinking process.
So if that's you, don't be afraid to just leave the house and go somewhere else, if you have to.
Another thing that can be really helpful is to simply organize your priority list.
So when you've got just a ton of things to do, it can really feel overwhelming
and kind of just beat you down before you even start to doing anything,
because you just see this Mount Everest of to-do tasks every single day,
and you just don't even know where to start.
And sometimes what happens to me is I start doing multiple things at once
and I end up getting like five different things, half done.
But the thing to remember about your half-done projects, or even your 90% done projects
is that if it's not 100% done, it's not done at all.
It's as if you haven't even done anything.
So I think if there's any way you can focus on doing one thing at a time
and make sure that one thing at a time is completely done before you move on to the next thing,
you'll find yourself kind of feeling more satisfied at the end of the day,
just because you can literally point back and look at things that are completely finished
and checked off your list instead of just feeling the overwhelm of,
"Wow, I still have just as many things to do because none of my projects are actually finished".
I find it's really helpful to create like a task list
and literally finished one thing before you move on to another.
And then last, but certainly not least is to turn off notifications and even downright delete apps.
Things that chime at you, things with little notification numbers that pop up,
all these things serve no real value.
They get in the way of us actually doing the things that are important.
Just turn them off and even delete the things if you have to.
I've actually deleted almost every single social media app on my phone.
Sometimes I delete my email app just because it gets in the way and it intrudes in certain
parts of my life when I don't want it to.
And when I don't want it there.
And if we don't tell these things what to do, they will absolutely take control
of our attention when they really shouldn't.
If you can muster up the power to do this, I guarantee you, you'll be very glad you did.
I'm Seth Williams.
Thanks a lot for watching and I wish you all the best
as you continue on the journey of trying to take more control of your time and get more done.
See you next time.