Work at Home Productivity Tips –

Having a hard time getting focused in your home business?

Do you feel like you have too many projects on the go, too many things running through your head?

If you feel that way, you probably do.

I just took a few minutes relaxing on our front deck (we call it the cottage, it's closed in with surrounding windows but the walls are unfinished, I go there to kickback, relax and fall asleep in the chair) and had a look at exactly what area I really want to focus on and exactly what projects, and when I want to do them.

A few things jump out at me – Product Development is number one. This has been nagging me for years, so it's time to shed all the other "stuff" and do something about it. I am serving no one by putting it on the back burner.

So sticking to my themed month system outlined in the WAHM in Focus Podcast #7, I am going to focus on product development a little longer at this time to get things in place, and sprinkle it with marketing, more details to come.

When using themes as a guide to increase focus and productivity, you will find that the balance you strike will vary depending on where you are in your business development and what your priorities are.

For me, product development is long over due.

If you have your products, you may want to spend time marketing and expanding existing content by monetization, updating info and links. (tip: if you update a blog post, be sure to change the date stamp so that it will "count" in the search engines as a fresh page.)

An important point in my planning has been to create a map of when I will complete each product.

Granted, things may take longer than expected, but having the perspective due date on paper will definitely help me to stay focused and give some urgency to my plans – otherwise I will spend too much time thinking that I have more time than I do – that's a dangerous assumption – especially when my "extra" time is then spent browsing my email subscriptions or surfing for things that I am not going to apply.

The emphasis here is on keeping it simple, but you can read this article for a few things to keep in mind while you are deciding on how you would like to spend your newly developed focus. Starbucks, Radio and Your Business Focus

Now would be a really good time to spend 1/2 hour, grab a tea or coffee and a few pieces of paper for brainstorming and planning and go sit somewhere comfortable and contemplate your business. It could be the most important thing that you will do this week.

ACTION TIP

• Ask yourself, what are you trying to do with your business? What can you offer?

• Translate that into what is the most important things that you need to be doing to provide these things to the world?

• Then outline a plan as to exactly how you are going to do it. You don't need to get too detailed today, outline a plan for the coming months – block some time and then fill in the blanks weekly.

• Print out the plan and put it somewhere that you can refer to it often, somewhere that you will see it at a glance.

• Put the plan onto your calender for easy reference.