How looks your work at home?

Google Calendar is my friend.

I always spend half an hour a day laying out what I can do to get the most out of tommorow.

It really helps me be more productive, remember to give yourself breaks, don't just sit there for 8 hours haha

If I get half of what I laid out done then its a pretty successful day and I try my hardest to stay away from 'shiny objects' on this forum.

Oh, yes they do!

I have customers coming at me and employees needing guidance. What "comes to my head" is all the emails, messages, jobs and orders. I have to make sure I get away from home and think about priorities. I can't always do everything I want on a given day or week, but keeping a few top priorities in mind helps insure they get completed.

I really don't see any different with working from home online or offline.

The same attitude is needed to run your own business offline, govern and also work as employee.

Well, depends on the nature of your business. Some businesses works like manufacturing machine where it begins from stage 1 to 3 and it's done. If your business requires you to do same thing over and over again maybe like create a logo for a client and you are asked to do some minor revision, you will need a system in place to help work through things like this without letting it flip through your finger.

it is important that you have a balanced life and schedule 3 hrs or so to do what you need in order to complete your daily objectives

When I started my work at home fir the first time, people though I was just passing time by pressing the button in front of my PC. They thought, "how can a machine generate money for him?".

Now, I feel very comfortable than before when I seat in front of my PC. Nobody ask me weird questions.

Hey Tom,

In my opinion, this is the single most important question any home business owner can ask. Seriously, figuring this out will gain you two or three times the work in any given day.

As for what I do, I have a few strategies (which have evolved over time quite a bit). First, check out "Getting Things Done" by David Allen. Great book and the basis for dozens of pieces of software that make it MUCH easier to organize your schedule. Then, choose a calendar tool that syncs with your phone. If you have a Mac and an iPhone, Calendar is the way to go. Anything Windows or Google related, use Google Calendar for syncing.

After that, I like to set aside chunks of 2-4 hours throughout the day for major tasks. So, 4 2 hours for writing, 1 hour for email and forum replies, 2 hours for writing, 2 hours for updating sites, etc. It's all about chunking away time, disconnecting from the Internet and producing something solid in that time. Imagine yourself locked in a room without Internet, no phone, no friends or family - just whatever task you're trying to complete right now. Get it done and you can leave that room. It helps if you have an actual room you can lock yourself in - my productivity skyrocketed when I moved and finally had a home office, but even without one, use headphones or close the door to your bedroom and focus on that chunk of time.

One of the big things for me when it comes to productivity, though, is to pay close attention to what you are most distracted by and what times of the day you get the most done. My business partner gets more done at 2am than any other time of the day. I do NOT. My hot hours are 7am-10am (for the record, if you have a normal sleep schedule, you probably get more done early too). Find which hours are hottest for you and focus your most important, most effort intensive tasks into THOSE hours - if you can work for 3 hours straight in your most productive hours of the day, you'll be more productive than 90% of the people on this forum guaranteed.

Finally, find a way to keep yourself accountable. Post your goals and efforts on the Warrior Forum (or another private forum you like), create a blog where you track your efforts, ask your friends to get on you or set goals that reward you for success. There is no "right" way to be productive at home - just the way that works best for you. Use what has worked for other people before and tweak it for your needs.

I tend to use notepad a lot to leave myself notes lol.

I'll wake up, start up my laptop, and read what I wrote the day before.

I don't really plan day to day unless I'm launching a brand new site.

Normally I plan week by week. Get goal A done in week 1 and Goal 2 done in week 2.

Now my goals are normally a little bigger than just "Place 100 backlinks" lol. And since I normally work 12+ hours a day I can get Goal A done in a couple days so that gives me time to kill Goal B in the same week. It gives you a big sense of accomplishment and then you can take the weekend off

What i do is that until i have 100% clarity of what i will accomplish on any given day, i do not start to work.

This makes me way more productive than simply jumping on a project.. I need clear daily goals and you should do the same.

Good luck in your endeavors,

Gengis