Healthy Tech Habits when Working from Home

Working from home can be exhausting, especially if your entire family is also home due to a global pandemic. Staying focused on any one task can be nearly impossible. I do not know how parents of toddlers or young kids get anything accomplished because I have self-sufficient teens at home and I struggle with productivity. Some days it feels like I am on a hamster wheel, out of breath and getting nowhere. Is technology to blame for my shorter attention span? Maybe, but the problem goes deeper than that. Here is my best advice on how to improve productivity while at home.

I am an advocate for the Digital Wellness tools provided by tech companies (within reason, they have designed their products to keep us hooked so take their solutions with some skepticism). While parents might already be using screen time controls to track their kids’ use of digital devices, it is helpful to reflect on your own behavior as well. Apple, Google and Microsoft provide tools to help you see where you spend your time. The results could really open your eyes to how much time you waste checking your Instagram feed or getting sidetracked by news alerts. Of course, if you are using social media as part of your marketing efforts, it can be difficult to parse productive time spent on social networks from mindless scrolling, but seeing the overall breakdown in minutes will provide some insight.

It is not easy but try to enforce a structure to your day. Schedule your workday around what times your kids are occupied. This may not be the perfect 9 to 5 schedule but if you stop fighting the inevitable requests for attention during their breaks, you may end up finding a routine that works for all of you. This may involve setting time to check email before waking up the kids, or scheduling calls when they are busy with homework. You can focus on the work that needs the most concentration when you know your kids will be in-class, napping or busy with friends. At a certain point though, you need to be done with work for the day. Have dinner with the family, relax and recharge. Unless you are up against a particularly difficult deadline, resist allowing work to bleed in to every free moment. Designate a time to ‘leave the office’ for the day. This will force you to lock in on work during ‘office hours’ and be present for your family otherwise.

Push notifications, pings, reminders, texts… This where tech saps our energy. Are we using our technology as a lifeline to the outside world, or has it become a noose around our necks? Do you really need notifications to check Facebook? Do you need a reminder to find funny YouTube videos? There's a false urgency to every interruption. It is time to de-clutter your phone, your desktop, your mind. Evaluate which disruptions are necessary because not every email is urgent, and not every text needs an immediate reply. I use distinct applications and alert settings for my business vs. my personal email. Adjust your notifications so you can separate out the important from the ‘it can wait.’ When you really need to concentrate, set both your computer and your phone to Do Not Disturb.

Another difficulty with being constantly connected is the relentless news cycle. The nonstop updates of voluminous information 24 hours a day is a drain on our psyche. It’s all so overwhelming. You barely have digested one nugget of news when you are immediately served the next alarming story. The best way to focus on what matters to you is to tune it out for most of the day. Trust me, much of the breaking news is a slightly new tidbit of information added on to what you already know. If you shut it out it for two days straight — you will be able to catch up in less than 10 minutes.

I love my iPhone and my MacBook but sometimes my favorite tech advice is to not use it. Take time during your day to write down your intentions, your goals and your to-do-lists in the morning before you get started, in the evening to clear your mind before bed or any time you need a quick break from the screen. This may seem quaint with all of the convenient apps on our devices to track our progress, but there is a much more visceral feeling of accomplishment when you use a pen to physically check something off your list.

There is nothing more cleansing than a breath of fresh air — whether you leave your apartment for a walk in a busy city, take a stroll through your neighborhood or soak in nature at a nearby park, the change of scenery, even for a few short minutes, will help you to recharge, clear your mind and improve your concentration.

Technology is a huge distraction with the constant reminders, notifications and the ‘mere presence’ of my smartphone hypnotizing me to check in. But it’s not just the technology itself, but what it has allowed. The always on culture for work, the constantly connected family and friends, and the incessant ‘breaking news’. Everything is 24-hours-day so there’s no time-off from work, no break from home and no respite from alarming headlines. I do not want to be uninformed, unreachable from my family, or unresponsive to my colleagues but every once in a while, ignorance is bliss. Give yourself permission to disconnect from one to concentrate on another, or unplug from all, even if only for a few mindful, cleansing deep breaths.