WFH employees waste 5+ hours each week due to distractions, new research has revealed.
With millions of us either homeworking full-time or utilising hybrid working setups, modular garden room specialists Make Room Outside commissioned a national survey to uncover the biggest distractions that people most commonly face when working from home.
According to the findings, the majority (84%) of those surveyed were regularly distracted from productive work when WFH – at an average of 63 minutes and 17 seconds in a normal WFH day.
When asked which scenarios they found most distracting when WFH, the list (ordered from most common to least common) included:
- Social media scrolling (30%)
- Non-work-related messaging apps – such as WhatsApp, Facebook messenger etc. (27%)
- Browsing news websites (24%)
- Being interrupted by children (23%)
- Being interrupted by partner (21%)
- Watching television or streaming videos (18%)
- Receiving deliveries – such as from the postman or a courier (17%)
- Being interrupted by pets (16%)
- Doing laundry (13%)
- Cooking and tidying or cleaning (both 13%)
- Unexpected visitors (12%)
- Procrastinating (11%)
- Online shopping (9%)
- Running personal errands (9%)
- External noise – e.g. road, neighbours, pedestrians (8%)
- Caregiving responsibilities (8%)
- Daydreaming (7%)
- Pain/discomfort due to poor seating choice (7%)
- Being interrupted by a parent (6%)
- Pain/discomfort due to improper desk set up (6%)
- Having sex (4%)
- Other distraction (1%)
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With pain or discomfort regularly affecting thousands of WFH workers, Make Room Outside also collaborated with two healthcare experts – Elizabeth Moreno (M.Ost PgCert SPOP), a principal osteopath and clinic director verified on the healthcare platform Doctify, and Nathan Edmondson, a physiotherapist at Williams Human Performance – to discuss the health implications of improper desk setup, and symptoms to look out for.
Osteopath Elizabth Moreno revealed the following symptoms are a giveaway that you desk set up is causing your pain or discomfort:
Symptoms indicating an issue with your seat:
- Stiffness in your back
- Lower back pain
- Buttock pain
- Shoulder tension
- Leg numbness
Symptoms indicating an issue with your screen:
- Neck stiffness
- Eye strain
- Headaches
- Clenching or grinding your jaw
She added: “Tight neck muscles often translate to tight jaw muscles. This neck tension can disrupt the stomatognathic system, which includes the bones, muscles, and ligaments of the jaw, frequently resulting in Temporomandibular Joint Dysfunction (TMJD). If you find yourself clenching or grinding your jaw at work, your screen position might be a contributing factor, not just your workload.”
Symptoms indicating an issue with your desk:
- Arm and hand discomfort – such as tingling, tension, or tenderness in your forearms or hands
Physiotherapist Edmondson shared: “Any prolonged position, pressure or posture is likely to start causing discomfort, especially if your seat is uncomfortable or if you’re hunched over your desk for a longer period of time. In short, if you are uncomfortable it’s a sign that your seat choice or desk setup are causing issues. This could present as aches, pains, or pins and needles type sensations, and is your body telling you to move!”
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Ryan Crossley, director at Make Room Outside commented: “Many of our survey respondents are regularly distracted when working from home, with digital distractions, family commitments, chores, procrastination, and even pain all being common culprits. If you’re struggling for space, peace and quiet when working from home, or your work regime is affecting your work-life balance, then a fully insulated garden room (complete with all the necessary services, from power and heat to wifi) could be the perfect solution to match your working requirements.
Crossley added: “Potential benefits of using a garden room to create an office include having a strong separation between work and home life, providing a quieter and more focused space, protecting boundaries, and adding the feeling of ‘going to work’. Plus, it’s also a great investment for the future as it’s likely to increase the value of your property.”
For more information, visit: https://www.makeroomoutside.co.uk/news-media/tips-on-avoiding-common-distractions-when-wfh/
Photo by Vlada Karpovich: https://www.pexels.com/photo/young-lady-using-laptop-at-table-in-modern-workspace-4050320/
