Avoiding Distractions While Working at Home

If you've worked from home for more than a few days, you may have discovered it can be a little (OK, a LOT) distracting. How do you work from home, do the things you need to do for your business, and still occasionally find time to slip in taking a bath? Give this a try.

1. Create a workspace. Are there file folders in your kitchen? How about your car? While it's true that people work from home in part to have the complete freedom to do what they want, it's equally true that we can waste hours a day looking for things. One way to combat this is to....

Create a place for your work related items to live, and leave them there.

2. Create a work time. Set a realistic starting and ending time for your workday and stick to it. When you work at home it's all too easy to have your work expand to fit the time available. "Just one more email" we say. But that one more email can turn into a 45 minute email answering session before you know it.

We all have natural rhythms to how we work. Some are 'morning people' [You know who you are!] ;) while others don't get a good start until noon. No matter your rhythm, find it and take advantage of your peak hours. Rule two ....

Choose times that work best for you.

3. Use blocks of time. If family and friends intrude on your work, gently, but firmly, make it known that during certain hours you aren't available ... except for emergencies. Let me emphasize that, while work is important, people must come first. The last thing to do now is to become trapped by arbitrary rules. That said, use this special time to focus on important tasks. The third step is ....

Use blocks of time to focus on important tasks.

4. Relax. You work at home in part because you enjoy the freedom. If you want to go outside on a beautiful day, feel free. For many home workers this is the payoff that inspired them to work at home. Give yourself permission to be happy. After all, this is the only life you are going to get! Concept 4 for home office success ....

Enjoy your life or change it.

Working from home can be great. But you still need to WORK. Be aware of distractions. Make a list of them and work on solving them one at a time.

Oh ... and leave the TV off during work hours. ;)