{"id":4416,"date":"2018-07-09T07:08:46","date_gmt":"2018-07-09T12:08:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stlouisdad.com\/s\/?p=4416"},"modified":"2018-07-09T07:08:46","modified_gmt":"2018-07-09T12:08:46","slug":"the-dads-guide-to-working-from-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stlouisdad.com\/s\/the-dads-guide-to-working-from-home\/","title":{"rendered":"The Dad’s Guide to Working From Home"},"content":{"rendered":"

Working from home can be fantastic yet it isn\u2019t without its drawbacks. \u00a0Indeed, one of the greatest drawbacks is that whilst working from home can be much more convenient, it can make you less focused.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

See, the temptation to watch YouTube, Netfli<\/span>x or check up on the land of social media is far too tempting and in addition to this, when faced with the prospect of getting down to work on a sunny day, most dad\u2019s would lack the willpower to resist a family picnic by the river. \u00a0Then, there\u2019s the distraction of <\/span>children watching TV<\/span><\/a> in the background, which whilst providing entertainment so that your kids aren\u2019t disturbing you – the background noise can be distracting. <\/span><\/p>\n

In summary, there can be a productivity cost when working from home in terms of focus, particularly if you struggle with discipline or concentration.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s therefore essential to set up a <\/span>good space to work in<\/span><\/a>; meaning a space that will allow you to feel comfortable and relaxed yet focused and productive. \u00a0You\u2019ll want to create a distraction free environment that allows you to focus, and is ideally, differentiated or perhaps even removed from your actual home.<\/span><\/p>\n

This space should be yours, and yours alone; meaning that when the door is closed you won\u2019t be disturbed. \u00a0It should essentially feel like an annexe to your home rather than part of it, as this way, you\u2019ll feel less distracted and more in \u201cwork mode\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here are three tips to help you focus when working from home:<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. SET UP THE SPACE<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    You\u2019ll want to create a distraction free environment that allows you to focus on work without distraction, therefore decluttering the space that will become your office will ensure a minimalist environment that assists concentration.<\/span><\/p>\n

      \n
    1. FURNISH<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      You\u2019re going to need a desk, as even if you are working from a laptop you\u2019ll probably want to spread out in order to arrange your thoughts and focus on work. \u00a0Similarly, this is your home office and should be tailored to your unique needs – for example, if you are left handed then it\u2019s important to find the <\/span>best left handed mouse<\/span><\/a> rather than struggle with a conventional mouse.<\/span><\/p>\n

      Also, what you sit in is extremely important, as this chair is likely to get extensive use, perhaps \u00a0upwards of eight hours a day. For this reason you\u2019ll want a chair with plenty of padding and decent ergonomic support.<\/span><\/p>\n

        \n
      1. ROUTINE<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        The most important thing in terms of having a routine, is that it provides structure and keeps you focused – that\u2019s what a lot of people that work from home lack. \u00a0They lack the structure and routine of the daily commute, the set lunch hour, and home time. It can help to set yourself a lunch hour between a set time each day and even <\/span>get dressed for work<\/span><\/a>, as if you were going to the office, as this can put you in a more focused emotional state.<\/span><\/p>\n

        In summary, you want to create a space that allows you to focus. \u00a0See, it\u2019s all too tempting for your attention to drift anywhere other than on work; particularly when working from home, and therefore you might need to parent yourself and set up your own version of \u2018parental controls\u2019 that keep you focused; there\u2019s a brilliant app called <\/span>Freedom<\/span><\/a> that offers this type of filtering functionality.<\/span><\/p>\n

        This post is a collaborative effort by St. Louis Dad.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        Working from home can be fantastic yet it isn\u2019t without its drawbacks. \u00a0Indeed, one of the greatest drawbacks is that whilst working from home can be much more convenient, it can make you less focused. See, the temptation to watch YouTube, Netflix or check up on the land of social media is far too tempting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4417,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[8,1,276,10],"tags":[126,12,147,762,690,11,761],"class_list":["post-4416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-apps-tech","category-blog","category-family","category-real-talk","tag-apps-and-tech","tag-blog-2","tag-family","tag-home","tag-office","tag-realtalk","tag-working-from-home"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/stlouisdad.com\/s\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/alex-tv.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5JMKA-19e","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stlouisdad.com\/s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stlouisdad.com\/s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stlouisdad.com\/s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stlouisdad.com\/s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stlouisdad.com\/s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4416"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stlouisdad.com\/s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4416\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4418,"href":"https:\/\/stlouisdad.com\/s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4416\/revisions\/4418"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stlouisdad.com\/s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stlouisdad.com\/s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stlouisdad.com\/s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stlouisdad.com\/s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}