Working At Home - The Hardest Part Of Being Your Own Boss Is Maintaining Focus

Thousands of people decide to start working at home running their own small business every year. There are all types of people making this decision for all sorts of reasons. Many of them are stay at home moms who need an extra income but there are senior citizens who need to earn a supplemental income and disabled people who want to make money working at home. They will all have one thing in common: when you work at home, you have to learn to deal with the 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.

You would be appalled at the amount of time you have wasted if you added up all the odd minutes and hours taken out of your work at home schedule. 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. It will be tempting to postpone starting work while you check your mail, have another cup of coffee, or have a quick peek at the news. 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 regain your focus and get straight back into your work when distractions occur.

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.


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