Teaching online: how to avoid distractions working from home

Several years ago, I was teaching offline only and found it very uncomfortable to work online, especially with groups. Of course, I had some online lessons, but there were very few of them and mostly for individual students. 

Then suddenly everything changed — COVID had broken out worldwide, and like many teachers I had to switch to online work.

I took this change rather skeptically at first. Teaching 10-12 people groups was hard to even imagine managing online, let alone expecting results from the students. I mean, breakout rooms? Can’t I just listen to all the students at the same time? 

But quite soon I realised how many benefits online teaching had. 

• First, I did not have to rent the office for my lessons and go there. I could sleep more in the morning because I did not have to spend time commuting anymore. 
• For the same reason, I obviously had more time after the lessons, and I could use it for my family or hobbies. 
• Second, it solved a problem with clothes for me, as I am one of those people who have a full closet of clothes but never know what to wear and how to combine them. 
• At that moment I only had to take care of looking tidy on the web camera, the only part of me that my students saw. And it didn’t matter at all if the top didn’t match the jeans.

It all looked great at that moment, but with time it was getting harder and harder for me to focus on getting ready for the lessons. 

I had heard different jokes about procrastination before, and that time everything from those jokes happened to me. 

I couldn’t pull myself together to plan a lesson, I left everything to the last minute and I couldn’t keep up with the schedule. I was constantly tired and it felt as if I was always working, although I wasn’t.

The thing is that when we come home from work we usually want to relax, eat tasty food, spend time with a family or read a book. We don’t come home to work. We simply don’t perceive our home as a workspace. 

Returning to working offline was not the option for me, so I needed to do something to organise my workspace at home so that my brain would think I was actually going to work in an office, not to relax at home. 

Below, I want to share how I handled the situations I was struggling with. 

If you are also struggling with the same things, my ideas below might help you organise your workspace and become more focused and productive at work.

Organise your workspace

The first important thing to remember is: the tidier the space around you is, the fewer distractions you will have around you at your desk.

It will also help if your workspace is a separate area at home, although it doesn’t have to be a separate room. Just make sure you are not working at your dining table or your kid’s desk. 

If possible, leave only necessary objects around you on the desk and hide the rest. 

I am quite a messy person, so there are usually thousands of things around me: pens of different shapes and colours, notes I might not need anymore (but that’s not for sure), all possible kinds of stickers, a picture of ‘S’ I use to hint my students with the 3rd person singular in present simple etc. 

So, I bought a big box, put everything there and kept it under my desk, away from my eyes but within reach if I should need those things.

Create a task list

One more important thing is to have a task list for a day. I usually make a task list for the whole week and then arrange the tasks by days, but that is totally up to you.

For example, if it’s 9 am and you have a lesson at 11 am, it is more reasonable to prepare this lesson first rather than the one you have in the evening. 

It is okay if some of the tasks move on to the next day, we all are people and we can’t keep up the same level of productivity all the time. Moreover, with constant power cuts in Ukraine it is not always up to us to complete all the tasks. 

It will also help you understand how much time it takes you to prepare for a particular lesson and plan your day more efficiently. Note: the tasks need to be achievable, otherwise the list will only discourage you when most of the tasks there are not done.

Take regular breaks

You might want to ask, ‘Okay, the task list blah-blah-blah… But I get distracted anyway. There’s my cat sleeping, so cute I need to take a photo right away. Or I get hungry. Or thirsty. Or maybe I need to read the latest news on Telegram. Should I not leave my workspace until I get the tasks done?’ 

Of course not! And that’s one more vital thing. 

You need to take time off regularly to help yourself unwind and relax, get that cup of coffee or even lie down for a bit (nice working from home option, by the way, which not every office can offer) and watch some funny but pointless videos on Instagram to take your mind off work. 

But what is this balance? How not to spend the entire day lying in and scrolling the Instagram feed?

The Pomodoro technique is here to help! 

You can set a usual timer on your phone or install a ‘Pomodoro timer’ app. You can choose alternatives, for example, Flow - Focus & Pomodoro Timer and Pomodoro Focus Timer. This way you won’t forget to take regular breaks and your concentration will be better.

You can read about the Pomodoro more here.

Limit distractions

One more thing about modern life distractions. You might feel the need to scroll the social media or read the news updates, but sometimes we need to put that on hold to be more productive.

But when you work from home, there is no one who can stop you from scrolling your phone and procrastinating. And this might be a problem, especially when you have lots of things to do. 

So, what to do in this case? Remember the Pomodoro technique? 

I used the principle, but changed the timing and the process a bit and adapted it to my needs. Here is what I do.

During these 40 minutes of work I set the timer. I prefer to set some light music or different nature sounds on the timer (I use ‘Sleep Sounds’ app for this. You can download it on Android or iOS) but you can use any timer you like. 

And yes, checking emails and looking at your cat’s cute sleep is also a distraction. Promise yourself you will check everything once these 40 minutes are over and catch up with all the news you have missed. 

Of course, you can choose any timing option convenient for you. 40 minutes for me is how much I can concentrate on something without losing attention to detail. 

But the important thing is to keep you focused on a task and not get distracted for a short period of time. I don’t use this method every day, but it helps me to get things done on busy days.