If you have been working from home for a while, you have probably learned how difficult it is to stay focused, be on track and organized.

This is especially true if:

1. your office is in your house
2. your working space is small
3. you have small children at home during office hours

But don’t despair. I will give you 5 quick and easy tips you can immediately use to get the most out of your working day.

1. Treat it As a Real Business

Every morning, when you wake up, you need to play the game that you’re going to work. You take a quick shower, have breakfast, kiss your loved ones good bye and leave for work.

Even if this means that you walk down the hallway into another room.

You need to make your family members understand, that until lunch time you are not available.

If they need you, they need to meet you after office hours.

Once you’re in the office, close the door behind you, switch on your computers and get down to business.

2. Plan The Day on The Day

Although most people usually plan their days in advance, I have found a better and more effective way of daily planning.

Before I would get started, I sit down with my dairy and think over all the tasks and projects I am working on.

I start making a list and then I execute the tasks. I noticed that if create my list in the morning, I create a much better, fresher list and in most cases I manage to include the most important ones.

Clear day, clear head, clear planning.

This simple day planning strategy works for me. If you find it easier to plan your days in advance just do that.

Whatever it takes to keep your days effective and organized.

You need to work on priority issues first and leave everything else for the rest of the day.

3. Block Temptation

There are all sorts of different ways of blocking temptation during working hours, one of them is using this handy little software program called “Temptation Blocker”.

You can download it free from WebJillion.com

Here is how it works. You can enter unlimited number of web addresses into TB and the software will block them for a certain period of time you specify.

For instance, if you kind of having the urge to quickly go to Ebay and check out a couple of cool guitars, right in the middle of a meeting, this little puppy will prevent you from doing that.

4. My Rules to Checking Emails

I don’t mix any private emails or industry newsletters with business emails. I use a totally separate web based email account, such as Gmail for that purpose.

I use Eudora for everyday business email communications.

I check my business emails 2-3 times a day and respond to them in larger blocks.

I check my newsletter email account once or twice a week. This strategy helped me to save tons of time.

5. Focusing on One Project at a Time

Even if I have multiple projects running at the same time I tend to focus on one at a time.

I usually dedicate a certain part of the day for a particular project and try to accomplish my goals set for the day. Then I take a breather and move onto the next one.

Not mixing projects helps me to stay focused.

When I am working on project I have the tendency of not answering phone calls either.

I let the answering machine to do its job and I call back my clients, before I would finish my day.