Whether you work at home or in an office, making the most of your work time is always a priority. But keeping your priorities straight is another matter entirely.

Compartments
To be productive and efficient you can maximize time by creating blocks of time, or compartments. In action this would look like a time to check email while drinking your morning coffee followed by a time to return phone calls. At the end of communication time, you complete the first task of the day – usually a small one, so that you’re off and running.

Then, get up, stretch and return to your seat for a long stretch of work. It’s best to get the worst work done in the morning when you’re most productive and best rested. This long period of work ends when it’s time for lunch. It’s best to stop work for lunch or at least take on something totally new to give your mind a break.

After lunch, you can check emails again and then do another long stretch of work before taking an afternoon break with a soft drink and snack. Another short burst of work finishes up items for the day and gets things in order for tomorrow. Then with a final check of email and phone messages, the day is done!

Avoid Distractions
Technology can be both a blessing and a curse at times. Email, instant messaging and cell phones keep us more connected than ever, but that’s not always a good thing. If you’re constantly stopping work to check the new message that came in or listening to your latest voice mail, you’re breaking your concentration and wasting time stopping and starting again.

Turn off as many distractions as you can and train yourself to ignore the others until it’s the right time to go through email all at once or you’ve reached a good stopping point and can return some calls. Check messages three times a day – when you first sit down at the desk, after lunch and before you head home for the day.

Set Limits
If there are not many deadlines and limits placed on you at work, you should always set your own. It’s a fact that given the entire day to complete a two-hour project, you’ll either take the entire day or wait until the last minute and run into a problem. Both of these are wasted time and potentially stressful.

Not sure what type of business you want to start from home? Check out the PiggyPays home business opportunity search engine to help you find the home business that fits your needs.