The making of an Entrepreneur… Part 2

One of the biggest issues people run into with being an entrepreneur is that they are not good at time management. Setting your own hours can be a great perk of starting your own company, but without discipline, you will find yourself feeling like a hamster on a wheel; moving a lot and going nowhere. You have to work your business just like you would work a job. You must have set hours and give yourself deadlines. It is extremely easy to get distracted when you are working from home: chores need to be done, you haven’t caught up on your favorite show that’s been on your DVR for weeks, Netflix just released a new series that you’re excited to watch, Facebook notifications keep popping up on your phone. Here are a couple of ideas to eliminate distractions and boost your productivity.

1. Set up specific break times. There are some people who can just sit down, focus and knock out a project in a few hours (I envy these people). For the rest of us, we need break
   1. Break times can be at specific times during the day, you may need to schedule a break every 2 hours.
   2. Break times can also be set around the tasks you have to do for the day, once you finish a specific number of tasks then you can take a break.
2. Have a home office
   1. Designate an area of your home solely for working. Only use that space for working and do not work from any other area in the house
   2. Create an actual office environment. Multiple monitors if you need them, your printer, a comfortable chair, office supplies etc… You should never have to leave your home office to do things related to work.
   3. Ensure that others in the home understand that is your personal are. No one should use that space to check their Instagram account.
   4. Having a home office allows you to claim a home office tax deduction as long as you use the space exclusively for business.
3. Make a daily or weekly to-do list
   1. Having a list written out in from of you makes it easier to remember everything that needs to be done and to stay focused on those tasks.
   2. Some may prefer using something like a dry erase board. Either way it is something that will allow you to stay focused on tasks at hand.