How to Reduce Distractions at Home

One question I get asked a lot is how to reduce distractions at home. You may have to do some tweaking to find out what exactly works for you but here are some things that have worked for me throughout the years.

Physical Comfort

If I'm cold I can't concentrate. If I'm hungry I can't concentrate. If I'm thirsty I can't concentrate. If my chair is not at the right height, I can't concentrate. If there's a fly buzzing around I can't concentrate. Other things that interfere with my concentration can include needing lip balm on my lips, my feet being too warm, or my hair being in my face.

So if I find myself having trouble with something I don't try to work through it...I just fix it. I get a drink, turn on the heating pad or space heater in the room (so I don't drive everyone else crazy) or put my hair in a ponytail.

How long does any of that take? Why try to ignore it? Just fix it and that bugging feeling that something isn't right will go away.

One of the best things I ever did was to build a custom desk. I'm all of 5'2"...if I stretch and hold in my breath...and most desk heights would require my chair to be up high enough that my feet couldn't touch the ground. This drove me absolutely crazy. I hated not being able to have my feet flat on the ground. It just wasn't comfortable. Now, my feet can rest securely flat on the floor and, as a result, I've been able to concentrate much better. It's a much more natural feeling so that makes perfect sense. Also, make sure your desk height is such that your wrists are comfortable while you're typing.

Noise

Since I only work in spurts of a couple of hours at a time, I don't worry too much about having my phone tethered to my side. Besides, that would make it easy for me to slip up and just start chatting should someone call. No...it's best the cell phone is away from me.

To shut out normal household noise I normally shut my door. If I'm in the middle of something and someone knocks I don't answer until I find a stopping point and they know that so they don't stand on the other side holding their breath waiting for me to answer.

If it were to be a true emergency of course they know they can interrupt me but they also know what a true emergency would be...blood gushing, bones protruding, or fire. Not Jos just hit me or Harm ate the last banana and she knew I wanted it.

Depending on my mindset at that particular time I may have the television completely off. It's not that I particularly like to watch TV, but I like to keep an eye on the weather, especially since I'm a Floridian, so most times I'll have the Weather channel on really low volume. However, if I'm having a particularly hard time focusing that day I may just have to turn it off.

Learning to reduce distractions at home is a major component if any time management plan is to be successful.

Want to learn more about managing your time better? Download my free ebook about Time Management for some wonderful ideas. Also visit me at There Must Be A Better Way