You know how the washer always beeps RIGHT when you’re getting into a good flow on today’s client project?
That’s the sneaky “work from home flex” distraction reaching its claws out to you again.
Because really, just because you work from home doesn’t mean you have to instantly stop what you’re doing, grab the wet clothes, and shove them into your dryer.
You’re ALLOWED to wait till your pomodoro timer goes off, or you hit a “need to ask the client for feedback” snag in today’s project, or until your brain is out of energy and you need that movement break.
Whatever you do, DON’T break up a perfectly good flow state for an arbitrary timer.
(Because your to-do list cross-off rate’s gonna show it.)
Now instead, here’s what I tell my women.
Give yourself a bucket of time in the morning, or right before you sit down to work – this is going to be for your “pick up all the toys so I don’t step on them” or “move the load of laundry” time.
Whatever you tend to get distracted by, if it’s something actually USEFUL you know you need to do, set a specific time of day for that.
And once it’s through, THEN you can move on to your laptop-heavy project work, knowing you’ve gotten the kid side taken care of. (Or vice versa, if you’re like me and prefer to hit the creative stuff first, then prep the crockpot later.)
So here’s how this works for me.
When I hear the mail truck passing by, I do NOT save the Google doc of Q1’s LinkedIn posts and hop up to go get it. I put it on my to-do list (the personal one) for my next work break (so I don’t get distracted opening up the latest eBay package and seeing whether I need to give 5 star feedback for it).
And if the yogurt maker beeps that it’s time for starter, I call one of the kids (or better yet, give THEM the timer so they’re aware of it) to go handle it for me (recipe already out and ready on the counter), because I know I don’t have the wiggle room on THAT one to make it wait for another 50 minutes.
Because you’ll do way less housework if you can batch it all in a couple timer periods in the day – just like your marketing activities – which ALSO means bye-bye to the “all I ever do is clean up the house” feeling you’ve been putting up with.
No, you don’t “just” clean – and it’s hard to argue otherwise when you’ve got “11:20 tidy-up break before lunch” on your Gmail calendar, repeated daily.
You see what I mean here?
This is how you LOSE the distraction setting on your ordinary work day and turn yourself into a giant productivity machine instead – effortlessly.
No discipline required.
(Except for ignoring the dryer’s “I’m done” beeper.)
What about you – are you ready for this distraction-free, “I get to ignore the laundry” kind of work from home life?
Then what needs to change about your current chore reminders or time blocks to make this a reality?
