5 ways to intentionally design your environment for more focus
Working from home is a way of working which is now the reality for many of us, by deliberate choice or through circumstance. I first started working from home in 2017. I love the freedom and comfort that it offers but have often struggled with work and life slowly merging and I also found it hard to focus with distractions being present everywhere.
I tried many things to be more intentional about accommodating work and life in one space. After some time of trial and error, I noticed that my good intentions would only ever take me so far if I didn’t design my environment in a way that supported my efforts.
Below are five ways that I found helpful and that might be helpful to you too when designing your environment to increase your focus.
Separation between work and life
I now have an office — a room dedicated to work and once the workday is over, I can close the door and resume life in the other spaces of the apartment. However, for the majority of my remote working life, this didn’t exist. Many of you might have the same struggle. So what do you do when work and life happen at the same table? By far the most successful method for me has been to create a shutdown ritual. This can be as simple as closing your laptop and putting it away. If you want a more elaborate solution, I invite you to write down three accomplishments, challenges you’ve overcome and what you could improve on. You can even go a step further and go for a quick walk to create a ‘fake commute’ to end your workday.
Physical environment
We often forget how important the environment that surrounds us is — it can support or distract us. A messy room or messy desk might take your attention away and you will feel an urge to clean it — an ideal ‘task’ to move you away from your work and procrastinate.
Make sure your physical environment is set up how you like it and that everything you need for your work is close to you. Create an inspiring space — a space you want to spend time in. This may take a few minutes at the start of each workday but it will carry you through to the end of the day without major distractions.
Your phone
When designing your environment you want to put things in place that support your work and remove things that distract you. Your phone is by far the biggest distraction. They are like slot machines at a casino, ready to deliver a dopamine hit at all times via notifications that also pull on your limited attention.
Find a place for your phone where it doesn’t disturb you. Put it in a drawer so you don’t constantly look at it or even in another room. Turn your phone into an enabler and only allow important calls and messages to get through to you.
Virtual environment
Now that you dealt with all the physical distractions in your environment that could prevent you from doing focused work, you are ready to tend to the potential distractions in a virtual environment. Most of us work on a computer or laptop and here many distractions are lurking. Open tabs, a messy desktop and desktop apps that constantly deliver notifications.
Spend a few minutes closing the tabs (especially emails) and apps you don’t need before you sit down to do focused work.
The importance of breaks
For focused work to be most effective, you also need time away from work. You can design that too and built it into your day. Reminders in your calendar can prompt you to take regular breaks. Leaving space between meetings is useful too by introducing more pauses throughout the day.
You can also plan for a larger break at lunchtime to go for a walk. Again, environment design can support your efforts by already putting your coat and shoes next to the front door. External accountability works well here too. Services such as Borrow My Doggy can help you create a beautiful commitment to spend time with an animal and introduce more balance into your workday.
Do you intentionally design your environment to help you concentrate on your most important work? How do you do it?
Would you like to dedicate more time to the work that matters most to you? Join the cabin — a mindful online coworking space that is carefully created to support your focus and meaningful work. Join us for FREE every Monday.
