If you are like me, then you probably waste a lot of time browsing here and there while you are on the internet. There have been many times I sat down to do a task but was distracted as I ended up reading this webpage, going to that webpage etc. It is so easy to get distracted on the internet, specially when you are visiting forums or social sites like Facebook etc as many people would share something interesting and you would not want to miss it out and end up checking that and very soon you realize that many hours are up and you still haven't completed what you wanted to. In order to get more work done in less time and to improve the quality of that work, you should avoid multi-tasking. Keeping just one or two tabs open is the key for producing more focused work. You can be amazed by how quick you can get important tasks done compared to earlier times when you tried to do too many things at once. Yet, a lot of Internet Marketers seem to be involved in this waste habit of keeping too many tabs open. But there are times when we happen to come across some page which we would want to read later on in more detail. Simply bookmarking the page will not work as we tend to forget about it. That page gets lost in hundreds or even thousands of already existing bookmarks. We forget the whole thing later on. So, here is a good solution in such a case. There is a plugin available at laterloop.com There is free signup and you need to drag a button onto your firefox toolbar. By the way, if you are not using firefox you should start using it. It is one of the best browsers for Internet marketers due to the huge amount of useful plugins available. Whenever you come across any page which you would like to check out in detail a little later on, instead of keeping that tab open in your browser, just click the laterloop button sitting on your browser toolbar. It gets instantly saved. Whenever you have free time after completing your work, login to your laterloop account and you will have the whole list of temporary bookmarks, which you can go through at your leisure and then delete from the list after you are done, or permanently bookmark them. But don't forget to periodically check and clean up your laterloop list. Otherwise, soon, it will get cluttered up and become a mess. Maybe once or twice a day is recommended. Try this one out for a few days. I am sure your productivity is going to be doubled or tripled. You will be able to focus on your main tasks without the worry of losing webpages which you would like to have a loot at later on
It is quite difficult to keep focus when you work from home. There are so many distractions out there that keep us from being more productive and efficient at what we do. I think, the key to this problem is to time ourselves and try to spend less time doing things that takes our focus from the main task. Many people time themselves. They spend 30 minutes to 1 hour working on what they need to do without losing their focus. I think, if you time yourself you can achieve a lot more than those who do not. Try to set a time frame for each task you are trying to accomplish. For example, if your goal is to write an short article, you should say to yourself; this article should take me 45 minutes no more than that, in that manner your productivity should start increasing slowly over a period of time. I hope this helps a little bit.
I try to get out of the house 2-3 times a week. I usually go to either Panera or a local book store. Although I have a nice office at my home, somehow my productivity level goes up when I get out.
Good one, time management is very important not only in IM but in every aspect of life. Marketers who are good in time management are more successful.
For me, focusing on one task at a time helps to increase my productivity. Because sometimes when I start to do things, I want to accomplish so many things within the shortest time possible that I easily lose track of my progress as i will do a little of everything. So for me, it would be more of a concentrate on 1 thing at a time and finish things systematically that helps.