Work at Home as your Own Boss - Maintaining Focus

You are not alone if you like the idea of working at home. Every year thousands of people decide a home based business would be a good idea. They make the same decision for a variety of reasons: eg moms want to stay home with their kids, long term unemployed people give up hope of finding a job. There are all sorts of reasons for all sorts of people but they will all have one thing in common when they start working at home: distractions.

Most distractions you will find when you work at home won't even seem like an interruption. These are usually insignificant things like deciding to have an extra cup of coffee at breakfast, spending a bit longer lying in the bath, having a "quick look" at the newspaper, chatting to friends when they phone you, stopping to tidy a room on your way through, taking your time browsing when you go to the shops for an essential item, taking the dog for an extra long walk. If you did all those things on the same day, imagine how much time you would waste. If you also spend some time reading your mail, have an extra half hour at lunch and a couple of extra breaks to make tea, you will have filled your day but you will not have used it productively.

If you add up the extra minutes and hours stolen from your work at home schedule, you will be surprised and probably horrified at how much time you have wasted. The examples used above are not extremes, they are just everyday things that you could do without really noticing and, if you let down your guard, you end up having achieved nothing and wondering "where did my day go?".

All the small distractions I have mentioned could be dealt with easily. For example, if you really want an extra cup of coffee at breakfast time, take it and drink it while you are doing some paperwork. Save the luxurious bath as your reward when you complet your day's to do list and take a shower instead. Tell your friends you won't be taking calls during your working hours and let the answering machine pick up your calls during those hours.

Distractions are particularly dangerous when you are about to start a task you dislike or find difficult. Instead of getting on with the work to get it over with, you will be tempted to put it to one side and make another cup of coffee, maybe just check your email or have a quick look at today's news on TV. If you allow yourself to lose focus for an instant, you can lose hours of valuable time without even noticing its passing. You should not use a distraction as an excuse to procrastinate or deviate from your timetable. You must be able to recognise that you have been distracted, regain your focus and go straight back to the work you were doing.

It is the ability to focus which enables you to prevent a momentary interruption from turning into wasted hours. The keys to working at home successfully are the ability to focus and the ability to exercise self-disipline.