What is essential to your home office?

Okay, seriously--years ago a got a pretty big magnetic marker board (4 ft x 3.5 ft. It's got some kind of ceramic surface I think, so it erases easily and completely. I like the magnetic part though. Most screen printers (who can print magnetic signs for trucks) have 50' rolls of 3/32" thick, vinyl coated magnetic sheeting. You can often pick up scraps for pennies.

Anyway, you can cut out magnetic squares the size of business cards or whatever, and then write on them with a Sharpie marker to make little organizer cards you can move around at will.

Here is a big thing too. NOTE: I would try this in a small section on your board first to make sure you don't ruin it--like I said, my board has an enameled or ceramic-like surface to it. Test yours.

Consider making a list down one side of your board of the things you must do every day insofar as online marketing goes. Make this list using a permanent Sharpie marker. (Test a small area first.) The markers say permanent, but if you use just a tad bit of rubbing alcohol the markings come right off--at least on my board they do. Put a small checkbox next to each item so your list looks something like this:

read email [ ]
check forums [ ]
read RSS subscriptions [ ]
check sales stats [ ]
write articles [ ]
blog postings [ ]
back-linking [ ]
new pre-sell pages [ ]
product development [ ]

You get the idea--whatever you do on a daily basis. That list is written in permanent marker. (Or, you can write the words on the little magnetic cards I mentioned above and place them to make a list.)

Then, as you complete each item put a check in the box next to it using an erasable Expo marker.

At the end of the day wipe the board with a dry rag and the checks will wipe off but your list will stay there. Doing this will help keep you on task and prevent you (hopefully) from checking your sales stats or emails ten times a day like it is easy to do--this is a huge time waster!

Sorry if I sound a little didactic--I used to be a teacher. It comes out once in a while. But doing this works for me. Maybe you can adapt something like that for your own use.

P.S. Lisa--So you're moving to KY? Was there a two weeks ago and saw pretty much green grass and no snow! A far cry from Michigan weather!