At home, the laundry, the doorbell, family, your phone and your thoughts all compete for your attention. Nothing marks when work starts or ends.
To stay focused when working from home, work in blocks of focused work with a timer and one goal. Decide on a block, get your home and your computer ready, and start it. Then write down thoughts about other tasks, use your breaks for chores and end your day on purpose.
Decide on a block before you start work
At home, nothing starts your work for you. No commute and no colleagues mark the start. So you scroll, tidy up or check email instead.
Before any work, decide to do that work as one block. A block runs on a timer, which tells your brain the work will end. That makes starting easier, especially with unpleasant tasks.
First get the house and the computer ready, as the next two sections show. Deep work means focused work without distractions. If you sit down and still can’t begin, read why deep work can feel impossible to start.
How do you overcome common distractions in a home office?
Start with the house: most disruptions there are predictable and preventable. Deal with them once, before the block.
For a deep work environment, you don’t need a separate room. A desk with only what you need is enough, plus a closed door if you have one. Before each block, handle these:
| At home | Before the block |
|---|---|
| People in the house | Tell them you’re unavailable unless the house is on fire |
| Doorbell | Turn it off or set it to silent |
| Washing machine, dryer, dishwasher | Start them before the block, or don’t run them during it |
| Pets | Care for the dog; take the cat out of the room |
| Your phone | Switch it off and hide it in another room |
| Street noise | Close the windows; wear earplugs or headphones without music |
Also tell the people who message you regularly at what times you can’t be reached. Then you stop waiting for messages during the block. List your own disturbances, and add new ones as you find them.
If people interrupt you anyway, read about deep work when everyone keeps interrupting you. If you have children, see deep work with kids at home.
Keep only this task open, then start the timer
Your work computer can distract you as much as the house. So close everything this task doesn’t need before you start. Every open app and every open tab is an open thought, and your brain spends energy ignoring each one.
- Email, Slack, social media: close them first. They take the most attention.
- Other apps: close everything that has nothing to do with this task.
- Browser tabs: close them all, or open a separate window just for this task. Save tabs for later in a bookmarks folder.
- Notifications: turn on Do Not Disturb, the setting that mutes them.
For chat and team messages in a remote team, see deep work while working remotely. The second block of the day goes faster, because your home, desk and computer are already set up.
Now set the timer, then write your block goal, the one result you want. Write it on your protocol sheet, a sheet of paper for your goal and steps. Write it as if it were already finished: “is done”, not “do”.
Many interruptions come from you
Once the block runs, many interruptions come from you. In the study Are Six Minutes of Focus Enough? (2025), Talypova and colleagues filmed 15 knowledge workers. During one planned hour of work, people left the main task every 3.5 minutes on average.
In the same study, people started many of these interruptions themselves. Those made up nearly 60 percent of the time spent away from the main task.
During the block, your brain also brings up other tasks, ideas and errands, because it fears forgetting them. Next to your protocol sheet, keep a second sheet of paper: your thought sheet. Write each thought there in a word or two, then look back at your goal.
Once the thought is on paper, your brain knows it won’t get lost and calms down. Noticing that your mind has wandered takes practice and gets easier with every block. For more ways to keep your attention, read how to stay focused through a whole block.
Use your breaks for chores, not for your phone
At home, quick chores make a good break when the timer rings. A good break empties your mind and gets your body moving after sitting through the block. Tidying up, wiping a surface or loading the dishwasher does both, because these tasks need little concentration.
Your phone makes a bad break, and so do shows, videos and messages. The break is when your phone is most dangerous: one quick look easily turns into 15 minutes of scrolling. And what you see stays in your head during the next block.
Set a timer for the break too, so your brain knows when the break ends and can relax. To choose its length, read how long your breaks should be. Don’t skip the break, because without one the quality of your next blocks drops.
End your home workday on purpose
After your last block, nothing at home ends the workday for you. Work and evening share the same rooms, so the end has to be your decision. First, write one sentence about what you’ll start with tomorrow, so you know what to do in the morning.
Then stop. The end of the workday means the end, even at home. Don’t check your email one last time, and don’t start one more small task, however quick it looks.
Rest in the evening is as much a part of your productivity as the work itself. Your brain needs the evening to perform again tomorrow, so if you keep working at night, the next morning suffers. For the other steps that close a workday well, read about a shutdown ritual.
After a real evening off, tomorrow at home starts with your one sentence and one block. Each step of that block decides whether your focus lasts until the end. See how it works →
FAQ
How can I improve my focus while working from home?
To improve your focus while working from home, first check whether you’re rested. If you’re not quite fit, meaning a little tired, shorten your block of focused work or get moving first. If you’re massively tired, take a 10- to 20-minute power nap or postpone the block.
What are good techniques for staying focused during remote work?
Good techniques for staying focused during remote work start with your body, before each block of focused work. Open the window for three minutes and drink a glass of water. Then do one to two minutes of jumping jacks or squats.
Do you need a fixed schedule when working from home?
No, your blocks of focused work don’t need fixed start times when you work from home. Some people like a fixed schedule, and others feel pressured by it. What matters more is matching the length and the tasks of each block to your energy.
