How to minimize distractions when you work from home

Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge | Photography by Robert Nickelsberg / Getty Images

I have been working from home for a long time. I have attention deficit disorder as well. There are lots of streaming subscriptions. Also a Sony console. There are a lot of books. A partner who sometimes works from home and is equally aware of the presence of streaming subscriptions and other things.

My home has a lot of things going on. It's likely that yours is as well. It might be different from mine but still distraction. It may have taken you a while to realize that it can be difficult to avoid these distraction when working from home. If you aren't careful, the constant ping of emails and slacks can make you feel like you're working all the time but never actually getting anything done.

There are productivity and project management applications. Todoist won't help you resist the call of TikTok and Trello won't play catch with the dog. Managing yourself is the only way to manage your distraction.

Accept your distractibility

Humans are distractible so accepting that you become distracted is the first thing to do to mitigate distraction. You are part of your nature. That is alright.

A person who hits the snooze button on their alarm nine times is over sleeping. If you want to over sleep, you have to get out of bed and walk across the room to hit the snooze button when the alarm goes off. It becomes more relaxing to just stay awake.

Setting yourself up to be distracted from your distraction can be done the same way.

If you decide to take a quick break in front of the TV, it will be an even-money shot that you will be on the couch for three hours.

Set yourself up for failure if you can't resist the call of your Vizio. Don't get sucked into a binge-worthy hour-long drama with eight episodes to go, and if you do, don't wait to pull out until the end of an episode, when you'll probably be at your most desperate to see what happens next Something simple will get in and out of a story in less time. Six-minute installments of a children's cartoon. A five-minute documentary series explains how baseball gloves are made. There is a daytime talk show that settles questions of a child's parentage or a lover's fidelity. Something that will allow you to move on to something else.

Let's say your weakness is an app. It might be a good idea to have a barrier in place to keep you out. Nathan told me that if he is on deadline he has had success logging out of addictive apps. Sometimes I leave my phone in the room. The phone is there for my convenience.

Set daily limits

You don't want to go that far because you have a job that requires you to use your phone frequently or because you have a bad case of nomophobia Time limits can be set for individual apps.

In Android

• Go to Settings > Digital Wellbeing & parental controls
• Tap the chart
• Tap Set timer next to the app you want to limit
• Select the time limit you want to set, then tap Set

In iOS

• Go to Settings > Screen Time
• Make sure Screen Time is turned on
• Go to App Limits
• Tap Add Limit
• Select app categories or individual apps that you want to limit
• Tap Next
• Select the time limit you want to set (Optional: You can tap Customize Days to set time limits for specific days)
• Tap Add

Don't forget to disabling notifications.

The buddy system can be used if you live with someone who is kind and understanding. They know each other's bad habits. If you catch the other stuck in some distraction, gently call it to the other's attention in a bid to get them out of it. It's a simple question. You don't know what's going on. If you both want to do better, get unstuck.

The goal isn't to avoid work at all. The goal is to keep the focus on the task at hand. Leaning in is sometimes that.

Schedule everything

While recovering from a car accident, my occupational therapist told me to take frequent breaks as I worked from home but also to schedule those breaks on my calendar and to stick to them as if they were a deadline. Walks outside, household chores, and anything else that wasn't "work" are the same thing. Eating had to be done in the calendar.

I smiled and nodded, ignoring the advice. I was still struggling.

I agreed to schedule things such as laundry, snacks, and exercise so that I would never work more than 55 minutes in a day. A typical day in my calendar would consist of 30 to 55 minute work blocks with break for food, exercise, and rest. During my workday, every minute was recorded.

My physical condition began to improve. I'm better now. I was more productive as a result. Scheduling my non-work activities into my day made me more efficient and focused on my work. I was able to manage my symptoms without it ever feeling tiring because I stuck to a strict schedule.

More laundry was done by me.

The Pomodoro Technique is a time-management method that was developed in the 1980's. My routine is very similar to the Pomodoro rule proposed by the Draugiem Group. The company found that the most productive users would work for 52 minutes at a time, then take a break for 17 minutes. Their breaks became more effective because they were 100 percent dedicated to taking a break during the 17 minute allotted time.

Break needs to happen so put them on your calendar. Schedule everything during your work-from- home day. It's everything. You have to get to your doctor's office from the phone call to play the game. Your actual work is also included.

Meeting the needs of your roommates is the same. From time to time, anyone you live with will want something from you. Learning to say no goes beyond the scope of this article, but there are things you will have to say yes to in order to minimize distraction. At some point, the kids will need to be picked up, the trash will need to go out, dinner will have to be made, and so on and so forth. If you both work from home, you have to tag-team your responsibilities.

Negative scheduling is something to keep in mind. When you are on a video call, working on a complicated problem, or rushing to finish a project, you are more likely to be distracted. You should do the same thing with your remote coworkers. Tomorrow is off-limits, so let you know. Don't knock on the door if it's all the way closed.

To avoid distraction while working from home, you have to avoid distraction while living from home as well. If you don't have the kind of job where you have to be available all the time, make sure that when you're off the clock, you're off the clock as well. If you don't make the most of your life, you can't make the most of your work.