Remote working from home is here to stay and so are the distractions in working from home:
The global pandemic has brought unprecedented changes to work as a massive transition to remote work occurred across industries to maintain operations. With the release of vaccines hopes of returning back to normalcy appeared. However, series of variants are making a full-time return to office-based work is looking highly unlikely.
In a post-pandemic world filled with uncertainty, the new work model of remote work will likely remain for the long haul.
Remote work has been an overwhelming success for both employees and employers. Remote work not only increased employee productivity but also flexibility in their work to accommodate their lives. Working from home can make people more productive - remote work has resulted in a massive 13% general work productivity, improved work satisfaction, and decreased attrition rates by 50%.
However, “Working from home” rhymes too closely with “Shirking from home”. Working from home implies temptations of sidetracking - surfing the web, scrolling through social media, running errands, doomscrolling about the coronavirus, updating your LinkedIn resume and spacing out on conference calls.
As work and life are blurred more people are experiencing distractions and difficulty finding balance. 54 percent of remote workers report feeling overworked and 39 percent feel exhausted.
Working from home puts anyone at risk of diverting their attention to all the distractions of home life. The lack of physical proximity to management and coworkers only increases the temptation of an array of online distractions. 56% of remote workers admit to have watched TV or streamed video while they were working. Flexible work hours present an allurement to procrastinate work tasks for more enjoyable, pleasant, and facile tasks of home life.
As productive and accommodating remote work is, it requires ample self discipline to develop clear parameters for a balanced work and home life.
A balanced work and home life starts with properly separating professional and private life. It ensures your well being so that you can attend to both work and home needs.
An easy way to separate your work and personal life is a separate space that allows you to focus on work with few distractions. When you separate and dedicate a space for work you are able to distinguish with ease when to work and when to kick up your feet and relax. Such separation serves as a break, helping facilitate recovery, reset mood, reduce stress and increase concentration and boost productivity.
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