If you are like me and run your business out of your home. And, perhaps also like me, one of your major challenges is focusing all of your time on your work and not taking time for yourself. And, lets not forget we have distractions around our home office that others most likely don’ t have. From children playing close by, laundry spinning in the dryer (in the next room), pets crawling on the desk and under foot and other distractions. Distractions that our downtown office using fellow business owners don’t have. And there is that ever nagging problem of wanting to be outside sitting on my wonderful patio in the back yard, my wife works her butt off designing and maintaining.

Well, what is a fellow to do? We have to keep a schedule of everything we have to do everyday and every week. We have to keep a to-do list and make sure we stick to it. Set aside certain hours of the day that you are going to be in your home office doing those things you need to get done. And if you are doing those things, for goodness sakes, let you voicemail get your calls for a period of time each day. I do this so that I can get those things done.

And, most important, lets not forget to set aside some time for ourselves. Whether it is just a short iced tea break or walk with the spouse or a weekend out of town. We have to get away from the grind of the office. This is especially true when you work out of your home. It is way too easy to get so caught up in our work that we forget to set aside time for us. It is way too easy to always have the cordless phone or cell phone handy and take every call that comes in.

So, schedule time for yourself.