If you lack consistency, your home business might not work very well. You need to keep yourself from getting distracted with things that don’t matter that much like: phone calls, emails and other activities that don’t need immediate attention. All these combined will delay your more important activities and you risk losing your business. Your first goal is to plan your days in a well established schedule.
First, close the email program. Unless you are a needed customer service rep from your house, there is no need for you to be looking at your emails every 10 minutes to see if anything is new. You need to schedule certain times you read your email. This way you keep from getting distracted when working on other items. Maybe set up a time in the morning for 30 minutes, and in the afternoon for 30 minutes.
The first hour should not be dedicated to email checking, especially if that hour is already scheduled with an important activity. You don’t need to keep yourself busy with emails when there is important work to be done. Nothing is more urgent than your business.
The rest of the day should be broken up into segments normally no longer than an hour a piece. This is to ensure you are making progress on everything, and nothing is getting pushed to the back because you are working on something else.
Don’t forget to schedule some unwind time as well. What I am calling this could be a work out at the gym, or a run around the block, maybe a coffee somewhere, but I would suggest it is time away from the computer. It will refresh your mind, and maybe remind you of some stuff to do or give you a few new ideas.
Don’t think that overworking yourself will lead to success. People spend almost every day checking emails or surfing on their computer without thinking about ending their work. This will make you more and more exhausted, so it’s not a very smart idea.
Also, statistically speaking, your productivity begins to decrease after the 7-8 hours of work in a single day. So, why waste your time? Exactly, I wouldn’t.
Set a schedule up like this and try it for a week or two. If it works for you, then keep it the same. If it does not, then you can make a few changes to it and get it to where you feel comfortable with it. But you will need a schedule to ensure you are consistent with your business.