How to Focus Better When Working From Home (Start With Your Desk)
I appreciate and get excited by all the different conversations around productivity - this is something I love and feel passionately curious about. I'd call it a hobby - deeply inspirational.
And, I have the capability to acheive great focus, for long periods of time. So I have begun asking myself lately - what exactly are the conditions that I can directly influence around this? Today I want to talk specifically about my physical environment - because my digital environment is a whole other tale and can be found at this blog post here!
Before I begin though, can we pause?
I'd like to take a quick check-in:
What is focus for you? Can you remember times when it was easily accessible to you? Are there conditions you can create to slipstream you there?
For me, a powerful force in this is my environment!! Once I discovered this I just fell in love with Feng Shui and how many solutions it offers for focus.
Here is a maxim I live by - If you want to get something accomplished, make that space and those tools the most beautiful, joyful, fun, cozy place on earth to be, and you will be drawn to them.
My desk is my happy place, in every way.
I am not regimented about it exactly, but I crave deeply a pristine focus; quiet, lightness, ease, and flow. And I can feel when that is slipping from me.
What follows is how I address any feelings of disquiet in my focus. And I can say - the ritual of it helps me get into the right mind frame, and there is something genuinely nourishing about giving this to yourself.
The Desk Checklist That Changed How I work
Clean. Wipe this baby down with vinegar water mixture on the regular. Dust all my components. I learned decades ago, if there is dust on the ceiling, my brain will find it and use it as a reason to be distracted. Once I figured this out, I actually shortened the time it took me to get my university papers out the door.
Decluttered. Both surface and drawers. I have some really lovely drawer space in my desk. We don't have a lot of storage in our home, so my desk is a great place for me to store my personal effects. I am absolutley amazed at how often I need to go through and declutter outdated stuff - at least quarterly. But I am the type of gal who gets a dopamine hit from opening a decluttered drawer and easily have a place to put a book, or grab a coloured pen. No rummaging. It reinforces the idea that life is easy, creating is easy, I am supported, at ease. On the desk surface, I keep the bare minimum. Not even photographs. In addition to being distracted by dust, my brain is a storyteller, and I am easily drawn from my work if I glance at my beautiful family or an old memory and start appreciating these jewels, and off I go down storytime lane. But the focus? Dissolved. I have kleenex, hand cream, and less than a handful of crystals that have been charged with a specific intention that supports my work.
My tools are kept decluttered, clean, updated, honoured, cherished with gratitude. How lucky are we to have access to these profound machines? And how lucky are we to be able to walk away, close the door, and they will be waiting there later.
Well lit. My eyes make demands. I listen.
An intentional view. I also bring this level of care to my view from my desk - decluttered, clear, pleasant, supportive. All my favourite things. It is a very small room, with two large pieces of furniture, so it is not a major task at all. But it matters enormously. What story is your view reinforcing?
And this is how I keep myself in flow, present, focussed, energized.
Creating Conditions for Deep Focus
In my opinion, focus is an environmental question, not just mental. And this is absolutley one of my favourite examples of the impact Feng Shui makes on our lives and outcomes.
To me, my friends, THIS is how home office productivity works - not forcing myself to concentrate harder - but instead making my work station the best place in the world to be. I LOVE being there! Can't wait to have a cup of tea there! Can't wait to get my playlist going and login, have my meetings, create, organize, focus... and Work with a capital W. That lovely long stretch between lunch and dinner where you can settle in and feel the difference an afternoon makes.
While here, I apply my Deep Focus Checklist - yours as a gift, below. I've tried to make it cozy - I hope you enjoy. It is a small element taken from my Personal Productivity Course.
Just Start Small
As with anything, I recommend starting with a small practice - just wipe down your desk. Pick up the items, dust underneath. That's it. Perhaps tomorrow, you consider intentionally removing a few items that you notice aren't in support of focus. Or one drawer.
Because I have been at this for years. And it is the little things that add up - cliché as it sounds. Your heart will tell you when it's time to do the big stuff, moving furniture, etc. But the little stuff sends the most important message, I believe. That it matters. Because your focus? It really, really matters. If you step back, you can see, this is how things get moving towards your goals and dreams; intentional focus.
I can't think of another way.
The Deep Focus Checklist above is a small taste of my Personal Productivity Course — a simple, adaptable system for getting your ideas out of your head and into the world.
Over the years and my many discoveries in productivity, this particular practice I just keep returning to because it is the strongest, most customizable, and easiest to setup and get going. I have tried other things, but nothing works like this! It's origins are from a corporate team environment, but I have customized it for just myself, on a team of one. It helps me to keep in flow, visually be able to see all my work and projects, and easily get things flowing to completion. If any of this interests you - check out my course here: Jessie’s Personal Productivity Course.