Having worked from home for five years now, I’m well aware how much discipline you need to stay focused on your job. You gradually learn to ignore the laundry, at least until lunchtime, if not the evening. But many home workspaces are quite small – perhaps your domestic space (with all its tasks & temptations) is even visible from your desk. Encourage yourself to stay in your workspace by making it comfortable, inspiring & efficient as possible. Don’t worry – this won’t be remotely as dusty or inconvenient as a commercial office refurbishment, nor need it cost much, if anything. Once it’s done, you’ll find it much easier to sit & concentrate for a few productive hours, instead of dragging through the day, half working & half distracted by that basket of dirty pants.
Stake your claim
Clearly define a specific area as your workspace & your brain will learn to switch into “work mode” when you enter it. Even if you work from a laptop on the sofa, mark out the area in some way & avoid sitting there whenever you’re off-duty. My main workspace is small, so when everyone’s out I sometimes work in our living room, but I always sit in the same place to do it. I’ve arranged an anglepoise lamp to look over my shoulder, which highlights the seat even when the lamp is off.
In front of me, I’ve covered the small coffee table with a bright yellow tablecloth, which looks cheerful & lets me shove potentially distracting bits of research, “to do” lists & dirty teacups out of sight while I get on with a task. I always make sure there are flowers in my line of sight, too, so I’ve no need to wander off to find pleasure. These needn’t be expensive – my supermarket sells them off cheap when a few stems’ve snapped. Plants, pictures & interesting objects also do the trick.
A clearly defined space also reminds family members to leave you alone when you’re busy. Floor-standing screens or curtains round the area, a massive pot-plant or even an “Office” sign at the border should make people reluctant to bother you. You will have to reinforce the message verbally, too, & make it clear by your own behaviour that you won’t drop work whenever they can’t find their shoes/want to show you something on YouTube/fancy some lunch.
Work with yourself & your habits
Before you start tidying up, just sit in your chair for a few minutes & look around. Where is the clutter, & what is it? You must be putting it there for a reason. Perhaps you’ve been making do with a casual solution while you’ve been busy, fully intending to create a better system when you’ve time. For example, that pile of receipts awaiting accounting day; you know that they’ll keep building up. Resolving to file them daily hasn’t worked. Put an open box where your receipts pile up, however, & from now on they’ll be contained & tidy until you do your accounts. Solve a tendency to get distracted by other tasks by putting a small whiteboard on the wall, within reach but just out of sight. Stick the whiteboard marker to it with Blu-Tak. Each time you think of something that needs doing, swing round, write it up & then get back to the task in hand. This lets you deal with those other things when you decide to, without worrying that you’ll forget them in the meantime.