Contrary to what you may think, working remotely comes with many (if not more) distractions than working in a traditional office setting. From Amazon deliveries to the dog barking below your feet, distractions remain rampant.
When you do deep work, you know exactly what those sound, look, and feel like for you. They pull you from a hyper-focused, ultra-productive space and propel you into a reactionary state so you can deal with what’s in front of you. This drives content creators up the wall.
Although distractions are inevitable regardless of whether you work in the office or at home, it’s important that we recognize them for what they are and figure out strategies to reduce them as much as possible.
But why?
For starters, it can take up to 11 minutes to get back to the train of thought we had before the distraction. Insert 3 distractions in 1 hour of your workday and you’ve magically lost 33 minutes of what could have been deep work time. I don’t know about you but I’ll take more product productivity/deep work time, please!
Second, distractions take a toll on our day-to-day mental elasticity — the ability to mentally switch from task to task to task quickly and harmoniously. Once that bandwidth is used up, that can kill your creative genius, stifle your decisiveness and drive productivity down the tube.
In an effort to preserve your focus, mental elasticity, and time, here are three strategies I’ve used which are effective ways to remove distractions and improve productivity when working remotely:
1. Focus on Mitigation Rather Than Elimination
Look, you can’t control everything. If you could the stock market would only ever go up and Uber Eats would always be on time. A better strategy is to focus on mitigating as many distractions as possible in your environment. First, take a mental audit of what the most common distractions are occurring. Write them down if you have to. Once they’ve been aired, it’s time to start thinking about mitigation. For example, can you schedule deliveries during times you aren’t doing deep work to avoid doorbell distractions? Does your deep work time need to shift earlier or later? What distractions are truly necessary? Once you become aware of your distractions, you have the power to change. Remember, even mitigating one distraction per day can save you time and energy and enhance your productivity.
2. Use Music to Stimulate ‘Flow State’
The term “flow state” describes a mental state in which a person is completely focused on a single task or activity.
Experts assert that music can facilitate this and I agree. I also think it’s the type of music that matters more than the music itself. Music has the power to facilitate deep thinking, it can stimulate other parts of the brain, generate creative excitability, and stimulate a higher level of thinking. For me, it can throw me into a hyper-focused state and allow me to be hyper-productive. It can also help me stay detail-oriented for longer periods of time.
You may work to a different frequency than me and have different music tastes, but here are a couple of recommendations if you want some music to facilitate flow state and deep work while working remotely. Once you find a frequency that works for you, create an entire playlist around it and save it for ease of access.
3. Streamline Superfluous Notifications
My productivity changed the moment I turned off my X notifications. During the pandemic, I got into the habit of following more accounts and receiving notifications in order to stay current with what was happening. The experiment worked for a while but eventually, it became too much and was impacting my ability to hyper-focus on my work. I’ve also removed Facebook notifications and notifications from other apps on my phone to avoid checking them as often. I’ve also done the same with my email (across all devices) and put things on silent mode as much as possible.
While I recognize that's not always possible for some, finding ways to remove superfluous notifications is a productivity hack for the ages. In a world that craves micro doses of dopamine through social media notifications, I argue that silence and good work remain more important. Ask yourself what needs to be turned off on your own devices so that you can turn on your ability to hyper-focus, and be fully committed to your craft so that you can bring your most creative self to your vocation.
Final Thoughts
While these strategies work wonders for your remote work productivity and overall wellbeing, it’s equally as important to test and figure out what works best for you based on your reality. For example, do you have kids at home? Do you have on a noisy street? Do you have a partner that works remotely with you? Many things can impact our day-to-day working life and it’s important to go with the flow as much as it is important to have solid systems and routines in place.
For more well-being and productivity tips to support working remotely, check out this book by clicking the image below:
Ryan
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