Managing Boredom while Working from Home
In some ways, boredom is the common enemy of life. People are constantly engaged in any number of ways to stave off boredom and be entertained. Television, movies, and video games help occupy free time and prevent boredom. Web browsing, conversations with coworkers, and building structures with your business cards keeps you entertained at work. Boredom can hit you at any time, and in any place. When you work from home boredom can pose a very real threat. If you fight it with your usual off-the-clock methods your work productivity will suffer, but you don’t have the usual methods of an away-from-home worker to defeat the doldrums. When you work from home you need to be creative, flexible, and always on guard to protect yourself from boredom.
Some might think it would be impossible to get bored when you work from home; after all, that’s where everyone at the office is dying to get to every afternoon. Therein lies part of the problem, there is too much non-work to do that you can’t seem to focus on the work. Inability to focus is often mistaken for boredom, though they are two different issues. When you can’t focus on your work, you are distracted, not bored. When you can’t focus, or don’t want to focus, on anything, then you are bored. Regardless of the difference in words or definitions, the treatment for inability to focus and boredom are very similar. Variety is the answer.
Break Associations
When working at home it is important to have a dedicated workspace. The same computer you use to check personal e-mail, do your shopping, and manager your social networking sites shouldn’t be the same one you do your work on, if you have the resources. The room itself should not be shared with other non-work activities. The reason for this is to break behavior related associations with one place or item. Sitting at your computer to review spreadsheets the morning after you just watched your favorite movie on the same screen may severely hamper your ability to focus. Your mind will be turned to the high-speed action sequence that had you on the edge of your chair. You won’t be able to focus on anything else, and you will feel bored with your work.
Variety is the answer, so separate work and non-work tools and spaces. Not only will this help you focus better when it is work time, it will also prevent true boredom by giving you different tools and spaces to retire to when the working day is done. Be careful not to go too far and decide to turn the backyard or the city park into your office. Logistical stability is good to maintain.
Take Breaks
Attention span can be depleted. Some tasks may require hours of dedicated focus, but not all attention spans can hold up to such demands. Many of the tools you use for work run on batteries. These batteries drain and need recharging; your attention span isn’t altogether different. When your attention span drains, inability to focus and boredom take over. Manage your time so that you spend no more than 90 minutes on the same task, in the same physical position, without a break. Schedule breaks if you can, where you will stand up and walk around, take a quick meander about your yard or the city block, just move your body. Your physical energy also drains over time, so take this opportunity to have a wholesome snack to recharge your body and mind physically.
You'll want to be careful during breaks not to become engrossed in an activity, such as a number puzzle or a video game, which may become a nuisance of distraction when your break is over. Be strict with scheduling breaks to allow yourself time to recharge, but also be careful not to take so long that you distract yourself from the work you are briefly escaping from.
Interact with People
Social interaction can make all the difference in a job being boring or not. When you work in an office or other job site there are usually supervisors, coworkers, and clients to help you stay engrossed and entertained. Working from home doesn’t always provide as much opportunity for people time, which can be good and bad. Having coworkers to bounce ideas off of can help you get through writer’s (or thinker’s) block. Thinking too long about a single issue can lead you to become bored with that topic. Talking about it with someone might help to hurry the process along and find a solution before your attention span drains out. If you have remote coworkers, make use of them by phone or instant messaging online. Try to use methods of communication that are direct and in real time, not e-mail. Talking with someone can help solve work related problems, but it also can help recharge your attention batteries.
If your work includes phone calls or client interaction, try to spread the tasks out, again, for the sake of variety. Don’t use up your entire allotment of human interaction first thing in the morning and then fall into an afternoon of feeling like a lone woodsman in January (this isn’t a common saying, but I’m sure you can figure it out). Social interaction typically keeps people happy, so use it to your advantage as much as you can in your work.
Set it and Forget it
Finally, it isn’t always easy to remove or control distractions, so sometimes its best to just deal with them. This doesn’t mean that when the thought comes to you mid-afternoon of how much you would like to have a hamburger that you should go right out and get one, instead, think about it, accept it, plan to get a hamburger at a later time, and then forget it. Thinking about not thinking about something is the same as thinking about it in the first place. This means that when a distraction comes up, perhaps to play a game, watch a movie, or finish the last chapter of a book, you don’t want to tell yourself “I can’t think about this now” as it may lead to you thinking about it more. You need to attend to the desire, determine when will be appropriate to carry out a related action, and then get back to work. Schedule time to finish the book after work is done for the day, perhaps while you are eating that hamburger.
Whatever the distraction or the behavior you’d rather be doing than working, acknowledge it and then schedule it for later. This allows you to finish the thought process about it and not leave a loose end in your subconscious while you try to get back to work. Most jobs consist of the same activities day in and day out, eventually you are going to get bored and lose focus on the task at hand. Being able to manage yourself in the face of boredom will make your work hours more efficient, and give you greater freedom to relax when you are off the clock.
