Taming the unwanted phone calls
Whether you are at work or not, the phone never stops buzzing. On weekdays, it’s your colleagues, on weekends, it’s your friends—their names flashing on your screen, stealing your attention. Without a conscious decision, you will pick up their calls even when you are in the middle of an important task. Sometimes, the calls will be short and to the point; other times, they will go on and on, touching all the tangents that you can think of. After a series of calls and unwanted gossip, you feel tired and unmotivated to go back to your chore.
To avoid long, unimportant phone calls, create dedicated timelines for your work and stick to them. Fix a time for casual conversations. Unless there is an emergency, keep the conversation short. Tell them you will call later, and go back to the task at hand. If your phone is buzzing with emails or social media notifications that are not important, make a conscious decision to turn a blind eye to them and stick to your schedule.
To cancel the noise, use earplugs or earphones while working.
Cancel the noise
Whether you are a writer who works out of a cafe, or a software engineer who codes along with hundreds of other coders, finding a quiet corner to work is not easy. Loud conversations, a phone ringing until the last beep—it becomes difficult to focus when unwanted noise is creating a swamp of distraction.
To cancel the noise, use earplugs or earphones while working. Try listening to music—with no lyrics—to cut down the acoustic disturbance and sharpen your concentration.
If you are working from home, try to find a quiet workplace where there is no one to disturb you—perhaps, away from the window that overlooks a noisy street.
Don’t let your thoughts run wild
How many times, in the middle of a meeting, have you zoned out to a whole new train of thought? When you don’t keep a tight leash on your thoughts, they run amok especially when you need your focus the most. Your thoughts are nothing but emotions with a voice. If left unchecked, this voice will keep on reminding you about the bad breakfast you had, the previous night’s argument, or the defeat your football team suffered.
If you have command over your thoughts, you can achieve anything in life. This quality is what separates leaders from followers. Unfortunately, it doesn’t come overnight. Use meditation, yoga, or solitude to silence your mental noise. Eat healthy and sleep more—they can keep your mind fit and steady.
Perfecting the work-from-home conundrum
For someone who thrives in silence, working from home can be a living nightmare. Unless you live alone, you are never free from distractions at home. Household chores, phone calls, children, whistling tea kettle, running tap water—distractions are inevitable.
To deal with distractions at home, you need to master the art of time management. Set a dedicated time for everything, from your office work to household chores. If you have dedicated 11 am to 1 pm as the time to reply to emails, don’t do anything else in this timeline. Along with time management, you will need to make some changes around your house as well. Don’t work in the same room as your TV. Don’t make your bed your laptop table. And share your working hours with your family or flatmates as well, so they know when they have to keep their volume low.
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