Working at home is tough duty when one considers all the distractions you might have to deal with. It is critical to your productivity to make sure you minimize them to a manageable level. Here are some ideas to help you do so. Determine your ideal working hours and stick with that schedule. With nobody to answer to, you may have a tendency to slack off when you know you should be working. Don't let the freedom of a home based business mess with your productivity. Office placement is critical. Try to position your office as far away from high traffic areas as possible. If this is not possible, set some rules to let others know that during your working hours, disruptions must be kept to a minimum. Remember, your at home based business is a real job. This is a business, one that your family is going to need to appreciate as being a "real job". Working for someone else would not allow conducting personal activities other than what is absolutely necessary, nor should you. Set some rules to make sure everyone is on the same page. You're work area should be treated as such. Establish with your family to importance of giving you the uninterrupted space you need making sure they understand that you are not available unless there is an emergency. One of the great things about working from home is the ability to spend time with your family, but you got to make sure they understand they can't abuse the privilege. Manage the time when you are tempted to "surf the web". Speaking of a time waster, this is it! If your business requires you to be on the Internet, discipline yourself to only browse for business related items. Try to minimize distractions by only bringing up your browser when absolutely necessary and when browsing, stick to the task at hand. If you enjoy "surfing" try to schedule it during your personal hours, not during business. Avoid "all work and no play"! Of course you know the saying, "All work and not play makes Jack a dull boy!" Working your At Home Based Business may be the joy of your life, and that's great, it should be. But be aware, everyone needs some off time to recoup, refresh and re-energize. Make sure some "free time" is scheduled into your day. Hope this helps? Regards, Judi and Mark Northstar At Home Based Business.com/Blog
The first thing I did was cut that Umbilical cord! To the television! It makes all of the difference in the world. Once in a while, I watch advertisements just to inspire me and see what is new. Too many law suits and medication symptoms for me! Victoria
Thanks for these tips! One thing that I would like to add, similar to Victoria's comment, is to be careful about the telephone. It seems that whenever you are deeply in the midst of work, the telephone will ring, be it a sales cold call or a someone that you know. Every now and then, this is something that you really do need to take time out to speak at length, but this is the exception rather than the rule. Learning how to let the call be picked up by the answering machine, or at least keeping the call short without coming across as being rude, has been a real lesson for me.
I personally just find a few short hours that I need to devote to my internet business and do everything that I need to do for that particular day. In that time, I do not watch TV and no one bothers me. Plus, I also devote 30 minutes before I go to sleep for reading a motivational book instead of watching late night news which is all negative and does me no good. Tal
Start working early in the morning like 5am can be very productive and more focus. There is no distraction during this time as other still not get up.
Plan your day ahead and focus on what you have to do. Get rid of all the junk emails or you will spend your life reading them.
I have been struggling with this issue all week. I have decided that I am going to start going to a coffee shop for a couple of hours every day where I will have no distractions whatsoever and I will be able to devote a solid two hours to my internet business undisturbed. This should work well because I have just moved to a different state and I don't really know very many people so it is doubtful that I would see someone I know and get distracted. Thanks for the other tips. Becky
All of the above are great suggestions on keeping distractions out and bringing the production of work in. Maybe you should try listening to music, smooth music no club music. It relaxes you...but dont get relaxed too much, you may fall asleep. You will find that if you are comfortable you tend to get in a groove and you may not want to stop. Take 10-15 min breaks every two hours. This will give you a moment to relax a moment and think. You may even come up with new ideas!
I have daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, and project goals. The family knows when I'm working on my business and therefore my goals. If the door is shut to my office, the line is even more defined. At the beginning of 2010, I set a list of things that I was going to accomplish every day. Some of the things on the list are increasing as the year goes on because I've gotten better at it, or I've found that I'm more disciplined than I thought and can achieve a little bit more. Other times I'll accomplish more through no fault of my own. For instance, if my goal is to write two articles in a certain niche but I find that one is just too long and I need to break it up into three, then, I'll submit the third one as well. That's one of those days that I feel I won the battle of the to-do list. On those days that I feel under the weather and struggle to get the two articles done, I'm happy when I've hit the submit button and close my computer with a feeling of accomplishment as I climb into bed to rejuvenate the spirit. Distractions happen. But if everyone is on the same team in the household, they'll know to let you work when it is work time. Don't forget to play when it is play time, though. It's important too. Life is what you make of it. If you can manage to stay on task, you can achieve the goals you set, no matter how many distractions come your way.
