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Craft of Writing

Diana K. Serquina

Working From Home Despite Distractions

As a freelance writer, my office is in my home. In fact, until my husband and I move to a bigger place, it is in our dining room…hardly a “work-only” zone. At any given time, I have to split my attention and energy between work, housework, my toddler, the telephone, and the doorbell. I occasionally long for the days when I lived alone and could work uninterrupted. Then I remember that I still had more than enough distractions to keep me from staying on task, and that I still ended up pulling plenty of late-night deadline crunches.

Whether or not you live alone, working at home comes with built-in distractions. For those of us who don’t live alone, the distractions multiply by the number of people in our households. To be a successful freelancer or telecommuter, you must learn to reduce or ignore those interruptions to your work.

The Telephone
Ahh, the telephone. It is both a vitally important tool for our work, and a potential time-wasting procrastination aid. In fact, the telephone may be the biggest distraction in your home. There are two kinds of telephone-related problems…incoming calls and outgoing calls.

Our friends and family members who work in traditional offices may forget that just because we are at home doesn’t mean we’re available to chat. While we would probably not call and interrupt their workdays at the office, they can call us at home without worrying that they will get us in trouble with a supervisor who overhears a personal call. Even if they know intellectually that we are working, they may assume that we can take time to talk since we are not on a rigid schedule. In the evenings and weekends, when they are not at the office, they assume we are also “off duty”…and for many of us, that’s simply not true. (In fact, those of us working at home with small children are more likely to get work done in the evenings and weekends, when spouses or other family members can take care of the kids. My best work hours are actually after everyone else is asleep.)

What can you do to reduce the number of incoming calls in your day without reducing the number of friends in your life? First, try explaining to them that during certain hours, you will be working and will have to return personal calls at another time. This is more effective for those who have set work hours even when working at home; then you can simply say that during those hours you won’t be answering any personal calls. Even if you work irregular hours at home, though, you can tell your friends and family that when you are working, you will have to call them back later.

If that doesn’t work (or if you are getting enough calls that even a short “I’ll have to call you later” gets you off track), use voicemail or an answering machine. If it makes you feel better, change your outgoing message to include something like, “I am either working or not at home. I will return your call as soon as possible.” Just don’t pick up calls during work hours! If you can’t do that because you’re worried that you might miss something crucial (or because you’re expecting a call from a client or source), use Caller ID to screen your calls. Only answer those calls that are business-related or are likely to be a true emergency, like your child’s school calling to say he or she is sick and needs to be picked up.

Now, about those outgoing calls. If you’re facing a blank computer screen and having trouble getting settled down to work, it can seem like a really good idea to catch up on some “important” phone calls. Suddenly you remember that you need to place an order from your favorite catalog, or that your mother wanted you to call today to tell her how your weekend was. Resist the temptation—at least until it’s time for a break or for the end of your workday. Of course, if the calls are truly work-related (interviews, fact-checking, maybe even placing an order for office supplies or reference books), that’s different.

Family Members
If you have a spouse or children, Caller ID and voicemail aren’t going to keep them at bay. They’re right there in the house with you.

Ideally, you’ll probably want an office with a door on it (and maybe a lock). Then you can shut the door, perhaps hanging a sign on it that says, “Do Not Disturb Except In Case of Fire, Flood, Or Injury Requiring Hospitalization.” If the noise from your family is distracting even when the door is shut, try using a white noise machine or some soft music to drown it out.

If you don’t have the luxury of a separate office, you’ll have to convince your family to cooperate. If your kids are old enough to play unsupervised, let them know what kinds of problems justify interrupting you. If they aren’t, you’ll have to work when they are at school, napping, or being watched by your spouse or a babysitter.

Other Distractions
When I’m on a roll with something I’m writing, almost nothing penetrates the bubble of concentration that surrounds me. I’ll fail to hear the oven timer, the doorbell, and sometimes even my husband. But when I’m stuck for words, or am lacking the enthusiasm to get a new project started, everything around me is a potential distraction. There’s the television, the many shelves of books, the cat, and even the possibility of a nap.

And let’s not forget the computer…I don’t even have to look like I’ve stopped working to give in to a distraction. I admit it, I’m addicted to Spider Solitaire, one of the card games on my computer. I can literally waste hours playing it without realizing how much time has passed. While I’d never have “cheated” my employers in the corporate world with that kind of behavior in the office, I know I’m not the only one who cheats myself that way now that I’m my own boss.

So what’s the answer when you are distracting you from your work? Discipline. Set the VCR if there’s a show you “can’t” miss. Tell yourself you can read a book, pet the cat, take a nap, or play a computer game after you finish your day’s work assignments, whether it’s an article, a set number of queries, or a chapter in a book you’re editing.

You can also use your judgment. If you give in to distractions, make up for it by spending some of your “off-duty” time doing the work you skipped in favor of the distractions. As long as you do that on a daily basis instead of putting all the work off until the night before a deadline, it should balance out.

Working at home isn’t for everyone. Some people will find themselves utterly unable to resist some or all of the distractions discussed in this article. Most of us will have to fight the urge to procrastinate instead of working. For those of us who manage to get enough work done, however, working at home is well worth the discipline it requires.


About The Author
Diana K. Serquina is a freelance writer living in Spokane, Washington. She has written for a variety of magazines and newspapers, and is currently a columnist for the Great Falls (Montana) Tribune.  And very shortly, she and the husband and the toddler and the cat will be moving to a bigger space where she will, indeed, have her own office.