101 Tips for Telecommuters—Successfully Manage Your Work, Team, Technology and Family

2. Focus Your Life

Few things will undermine your telecommuting effectiveness as swiftly and significantly as a lack of focus. The myriad distractions that bombard a telecommuter (ringing phones, incoming faxes, buzzing doorbells, chatty friends, whining children, etc.) along with the ever-present demands of the moment (looming deadlines, crashing computers, demanding clients, frustrated co-workers, impatient bosses) contribute to our occasionally taking our “eye off the ball” with regard to our true focus.

A quick scan of the dictionary definition of focus produces words and phrases such as:

• convergence

• adjustment

• positioning

• clear image

• central point

• sharpness

• concentrated

Focus serves as:

• Your guiding light; the purpose underlying your actions. ...