As the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic continues to rocket around the globe, prompting school district shutdownsOpens a new window and, in many cases, non-essential business closuresOpens a new window , more companies are turning to work-from-home options.
Even if nowhere in the US. has yet reached a complete lockdown stateOpens a new window like that seen in Italy or in the Chinese city of Wuhan, many businesses able to continue working with most staff working remotely have done so.
Yet, working from home can easily lead to distraction, especially when global news stories are constantly changing and difficult to ignore.
Away from the constant potential of an office colleague catching you checking Twitter for the 20th time or watching YouTube videos, it can be challenging to stay on task. The positive social influence of colleagues in an office setting in terms of peer-enforced accountability is often underestimated by workers who aren’t accustomed to working from home.
If your company has implemented a work-from-home strategyOpens a new window to help support social distancing and slow the spread of the new coronavirus strain, it’s a good idea to help coworkers fight distraction — especially consumption of global news that can lead to panic or fear.
It’s natural to want to keep up with what’s happening, particularly during such a momentous time. But for many people, checking news and social media too often can be debilitating.
Here are some ways to keep employees focused on their work during the day, and hopefully help support them through the rest of this strange time as well.
Set work hours
Even if your office didn’t have them before, it might be helpful to set business hours. That way, people will know what time they are expected to log on, and how long they’re expected to be at their desks.
At the end of the day, employees should be encouraged to log off on time so that their work doesn’t bleed into family life (and vice versa). Recommended times for lunch and for short breaks should be included in the schedule, so that workers have a good sense of what’s expected of them without having to guess.
Share distraction programs
There are a number of anti-distraction programs that can be used to block certain websites for periods of time. If your employer doesn’t already make one available, talk to IT about setting up remote work laptops with the best option for your workplace.
Encourage employees to block social networking sites for chunks of their work day (unless, of course, their work is tied specifically to social media).
Arrange well-timed meetings
There’s still no good substitute for social accountability, and the best way to keep up employees connectivity — both to their work and to their colleagues — is to set up online meetings.
Conference calls are the best, since they allow people to see each others’ faces. Increasing the number of meetings scheduled for a department, and timing them for the beginning and end of the work day, can help keep a sense of momentum.
Create mini-deadlines
Pressure to meet a deadline can be the ultimate incentive to focus on a project, and achieving deadlines is a great way to keep up a sense of progress.
By breaking projects down into smaller and smaller increments and building in as many deadlines as possible, businesses can help keep focus consistent by creating a constant expectation schedule.
That will mean that there’s always something imminent to work toward — and another moment for checking in again with colleagues when deadlines are met.