Working at Home: How to Ignore Distractions and Boost Productivity

When you’re an online marketer, your entire purpose is to create distractions. You want to engage in tactics that will be “shiny” enough to bring potential customers to your door from all over the world.

But when you’re working at home as a freelance marketer, distractions can be your greatest downfall. You tell yourself that you’re only going to spend five minutes on Facebook, but the allotted time triples every time you open the page, and soon your productivity goes into the toilet.

If you’re a work-at-home marketer, you probably need to take control of your productivity so you can enjoy some free time after work, like everyone else. Here are some methods for doing that.

1. Eat Brain-Boosting Foods

Sometimes the reason you get distracted isn’t so much because things around you are drawing your attention, but because your brain isn’t prepared to focus. Various things can contribute to a scattered brain, but one of the most common is lack of nutrition.

Foods high in antioxidants, whole grains, nuts, and fish are all great for productive thinking. One surprising food that’s been shown to enhance brain function is green tea.

In a blog post, Mike Kamo of Nutrition Secrets discussed a study from the University of Basel, in Switzerland, that showed how drinking green tea every day can improve memory, boost productivity, and help your brain focus.

“The study used healthy male volunteers and found that when given a soft drink containing green tea extract, those consuming green tea extract not only showed increased connectivity in parts of the brain, but improved performance on working memory tasks as well,” Kamo states.

2. Practice Self-Control

Self-control is another important step toward keeping distractions from getting to you, though it’s admittedly not easy to master. “When your self-control leaves something to be desired, so does your productivity,” says Travis Bradberry in a blog post on Forbes.com.

The nice thing about self-control is that it doesn’t have to be an inherent quality. You can teach yourself how, and it gets better the more you practice.

When you’re practicing self-control, perhaps the most important thing is to stay positive. “Positive thoughts help you exercise self-control by focusing your brain’s attention onto the rewards you will receive for your effort,” Bradberry says.

“You have to give your wandering brain a little help by consciously selecting something positive to think about. Any positive thought will do to refocus your attention.” And the more you practice this, the easier it will get.

3. Limit Daily Work Hours

Understanding your limits is particularly worthwhile for your efforts. The longer you work, the harder it gets to focus.

Your brain will begin to shut down, and it will be hard to put all your attention into your work. Setting a time limit for accomplishing specific tasks can help.

As a general rule, try not to work more than six productive hours per day. It’s true that in the workplace you’ll generally work a full eight hours, but to be honest, not all of those hours are spent working productively at your computer.

You’ll spend at least a couple hours talking with co-workers, taking a coffee break, or shooting the bull. That’s the way things play out in a shared workplace.

Working from home is different. Each hour you spend working in a home office can be twice as productive as an hour spent in the office–if you focus, which means you don’t need to work as long.

4. Schedule Breaks

Most offices allow two 15-minute breaks and a one-hour lunch break. At home, it’s easy to skip those breaks and power through your tasks. But there’s a reason that breaks are part of a regular workday: Your brain needs them.

Take some time to plan a few breaks for yourself. You’ll have an easier time ignoring the call to check your social media or text messages if you schedule a time to do it. This will keep you from getting too far behind in your work, but give your mind a much-needed rest.

When you work at home, it will be a challenge to eliminate distractions altogether, but you can take steps to minimize their effect. The more you practice and stay positive about your efforts, the better off you’ll be.

The post Working at Home: How to Ignore Distractions and Boost Productivity appeared first on AllBusiness.com

The post Working at Home: How to Ignore Distractions and Boost Productivity appeared first on AllBusiness.com.