When working from home, how do you manage your day? Do you have a schedule you follow? Breaks?

I work from home exclusively. That means that you are *always* working. There are no breaks, just interruptions. There is always work to do. Day starts around 8 AM with catching up on email, Facebook, etc. until my brain gets in gear. Then it is work on client projects, take briefings from vendors, calls from clients, until about 6 PM. Evenings are for updating web site, posting blogs, school work, etc.

Biggest issue is that I spend 12-14 hours a day on the couch. A sure way to get out of shape. So it is important to get up and move around often.

The best working-from-home plan really depends on your work process, personality and environment. The actual work you are doing makes a difference, too.

For some, working from home means structuring the day with a schedule and routines. Others work best with looser, less restrictive plans. The key is to find what fits your needs the best and enables you to be as productive as possible.

In many cases, working from home requires flexibility because you may face added distractions and interruptions. And in all cases, working from home requires self-discipline. With those two things, the details of working from home will usually fall into place.

I always work from home, unless I'm out meeting with clients or performing a major infrastructure project.

I find it's important to get dressed in the morning. Breaks and lunch I usually don't take, preferring to nibble as I go. But setting a start time and a stop time is important to me. Otherwise I would tend to just work all of the time.

Getting dressed is important, it make me feel like I'm at work. When I give a webinar I prepare just as if I were standing in a room full of people.

If you thrive and work best within structure, you'll need a schedule and a routine.

If you thrive and work best under pressure, you need a task list and deadlines either real or artificial.

If you thrive and work best within a collaborative or team environment you need to call or meet with peers almost daily.

You get the idea.... know what works best for you. As Shakespeare wrote "To thine own self be true."

The underlying common theme to everyone's answer seems to be that each person needs to find what works for them. One person mentioned self discipline. This is not an issue for me. If I was working for someone else it might be, but since I work for myself, building my own "baby" self discipline is not an issue at all. If anything I have to rip myself away and force myself to spend some time away from my computer. Otherwise I am up at 4am working and I don't stop until 10 or 11pm, and I have been known to push myself beyond that. So here's what works for me:

- I plan my days in advance using Google Calendar.
- I have 2 set times during the day to respond to e-mails and voice mails, one in the afternoon around lunch time and one in the evening. I usually also go through my e-mails first thing in the morning to be sure that no one is "on fire" so to speak.
- I use Evernote to keep track of ideas, conversations, and any other information I need.
- I have developed a "Social Media" calendar using MS Excel that let's me plan when I will execute ideas / blog posts / screen casts.
- I bill by the hour so for me it means that I know from 10am - 6pm I need to be on the clock. I also try to plan a break every 2 hours to eat something light.
- Ideally, every Mon / Wed / 7 Fri I am at the gym working out by 5am.

I lay out all of this structure with one really important thing in mind. Most of the time things won't go as planned. Sometimes I wake up and decide that I don't feel like doing the "billable" work so instead I can spend an entire day recording. Other times I decide that I need to bill more so I don't place emphasis on getting screen casts recorded and my entire focus is on ignoring the "interruptions" and staying focused on paying work.

So it all comes down to balance for me. It's a big challenge. The one thing that I do more than anything else that helps when I stick to it is that I have written out a page in Evernote that lays out my goals in every major area of my life; Spiritual, Health and Fitness, family, and Career and Finance.

I have this all laid out in this order because I think that this is the order in which I need to take care of things. First and foremost I need peace of mind, and I am not a religious guy but I do believe in a power greater than any human power that guides us. Then if I don't have my health, I am of no use to my family. If I don't focus on family then what good is my career and finance going to serve?

On an ideal day I read this every day when I get up and every day before I go to sleep as my reminder of what is important and in what order.

The most important thing to me is that when things don't go as planned (and they often don't) I don't beat myself up.

PS I love the idea that I don't ever have to go to an office ever again.

I find a schedule helps and in that schedule I include breaks. It allows you to refresh and give 100% to what you are doing at the time. A schedule keep you on track and is a way to monitor your progress. The breaks allow you to do the same with your personal life, thereby, keeping the two in sync and moving forward.

Schedules allow you to be Captain Focus It instead of Captain Wing It provided you are committed to following it. My schedule is in alignment with my strategic plan and specifically to my sales and marketing plans. Given that marketing does take time, I scheduled from 5:00am to 7:30am to clean up emails, take care of marketing (writing my sales blog - www.increase-sales-coach.com, posting on Facebook, Twitter, etc.) as well as updating contact list from any new business cards or other contacts. (I arise at 4:30am and the first 30 minutes if coffee, reading the paper and have some quiet devotional time.)

Also I do take breaks and monitor how much water I drink to ensure I drink 8 glasses each day. When working at home and weather permitting, I take a 20-30 minutes walk around lunchtime. This gives me an energy boost to keep me going until 5:00pm.

Finally, I have made a conscious decision not to work after 6:00 pm unless there is a major project. Instead I have down time with my husband and will do some reading.

I read a really great book a few years ago called The Seven Minute Difference by Allyson Lewis and init she talks about her system of 5 before 11. Before ending your day you should make a list of 5 priorities to get done the next day before 11am. I use this system, and it really works for me. As entrepreneurs, we have 10-13 jobs all at once so it is very difficult to schedule yourself to the minute. By starting the day knowing your priorities, you can actually run your business as opposed to it running you around like a chicken with your head cut off.

Melinda Emerson
@SmallBizLady
http://www.succeedasyourownboss.com

The only differences, for me, about working at home vs an office are:

1. I don't have to get dressed
2. I probably take less breaks
3. I get less interruptions (good or bad)
4. I get more accomplished (because of the decrease in interruptions).

The "correct" answer really depends on self-awareness of how your own brain works, what your thinking styles and working preferences are. To over-simplify, a left-brain anal retentive can't handle the variability and uncertainty of some approaches, and a right-brain free spirit will become either suicidal or organize a jail break if stuck in a more structured environment.

But, simply saying that isn't enough - you've got to genuinely understand yourself, how you think and work, and how you interact with those of other persuasions. That is, knowing that your strengths may be perceived as weaknesses by others (and vice versa).

Full disclosure: I seldom know what the day will ultimately prove to hold, and can't wait to find out. I break when I feel like it, when the focus is too intense, and when a film I've been waiting for opens. Or, when Dr. Phil promises to have a truly exploitative show. That said, I don't miss deadlines, and am usually early - never late - in meeting and exceeding client needs.

Working from home can be both a blessing and a curse depending on your environment, your organizational skills and self discipline.

If you can view working from home as just going to another "office' you are way ahead of the game. Both in our own organization and with our clients, we get the majority of success reports when people say they have developed a system and a schedule.

Below are some tips for making the "work from home" experience more productive.

* Establish a set time to be in your "office" each day -- and follow it. Get up, clean up and go to work.
* Maintain an office like space in your home that is ready for use each day when you arrive.
* Don't try to do day care and work at the same time. It seldom turns out well.
* Take regular breaks and move from your work space to another part of the house or talk a short walk outside.
* Take advantage of the situation by being flexible about your hours once you have "gone to the office". For example, use part of your lunch break to run an errand or two or fit in a Doctors appointment.
* Integrate your work and home situation that allows for maximum flexibility while maintaining a barrier between the two.
* Meet a friend or colleague for lunch once in a while just as if you were at a regular office.
* DO NOT spend evenings, weekends and all your waking hours in your work space. It's OK to check email once in a while but you definitely need regular, extended breaks from work.

I have no set schedule except for doing routine, mundane tasks like accounting, e-mails, etc. when I first start my work day. My "schedule" revolves more around my clients' schedules and needs. For instance, when I work with overseas clients, I may be working with them at 2 am in the morning because that is when they are at work. We can call or e-mail each other for immediate responses rather than a long delay because of time zone differences. It makes it far more efficient and current. For years I worked with one domestic client who was a very early riser. We worked out a great schedule for ourselves that worked perfectly for us. He would send me his needs about 8 or 9 in the evening before he went to bed. I would work on them and send him the results before I went to bed so he would have the work first thing in the morning.

For me flexibility is vital.

I've been working from my home office for more than ten years and wouldn't want to return to a traditional office space. I agree with most of the comments that your routine depends on your personality. I started working out of the home office when I joined a company that required it. I would say it took me a year to develop the self-discipline to be most productive at the expense of that first company. While I do not need a schedule nor need to dress in office attire, I do like to draft a list of priority items that need to be completed every day and crossing off items is a pleasure.

During a downtime with that first company, I built myself a wired home office with all the amenities. Shortly thereafter my wife started her own business at home so I found myself building another home office. We have separate offices on different floors of the house and don't really bother each other unless we're asking for assistance. We usually communicate by email or instant messaging. We joke that the messages leave one PC, go out the front door, around the globe, back in the front door and into our spouse's PC. Infrequently, when we are annoyed with each other we CAPITALIZE our messages!

I now sell for a software support and services company where all employees work from home offices. We have the tools and infrastructure to support all home offices including Salesforce CRM, MS Live Messenger (instant messaging), phone call queuing and follow-me systems, company intranet, etc. Our company hours are 8:30 AM to 5:30 PM so that is my start time but rarely my stop time. While I may work longer hours than I would in a traditional office (trying to avoid the rush hour), I do have the company-encouraged flexibility to run errands, take a kid to the doctor, and go to my kids' school functions.

I love working out of home and feel like I've really been there for the family when I need to be while being a successful marketing and sales executive who routinely exceeds my employer's expectations.

I actually do keep a schedule but I don't always stick to it :)

Generally I go for a run in the early morning. This helps kick-start my energy for the day and ensures that I do not have to feel guilty or distracted about finding time to exercise later.
Then I scan through email before getting ready and dressed. I never where purely casual clothes as I feel that these give me too much of a sense of being at home on recreation time. There are also times when I have to leave at short notice to visit with a client or prospect, so being in business casual as a minimum helps prepare me for that.
The first hour or two of my actual work day are spent reviewing my calendar for the day, checking and responding to email, making phone calls, and generally getting the ball rolling for activities that can take on a life of their own for a few hours.
I will then turn to short-term deliverables which are either small tasks or larger tasks that I need to complete.
Once those things are done, I will turn to the more strategic activities, having given myself a goal of what I plan to achieve that day. I will then not end my day until those things actually have been achieved. I am normally successful with that 9 times out of 10.
So the general pattern is, start with the shortest, most reactive tasks, and ramp up to the longest, most time-intensive tasks as the day progresses.
I have an office area that is separate from the rest of my home, which is important to avoid distractions (inbound and outbound).

Set your alarm clock for interim breaks. Then take the break. Your head will be more clear. No excuses allowed.

Well, I think if we want to work from home then we have maintain a good schedule for this. We need to static for every minute which we are working from here. Planning is the most essential thing to get success in any business. If it’s through home or office!!

I`m working from home for about 6 months now, and in the beginning it was quite a mess, but I talked it through with my colleagues from office and I managed to do a schedule that now seems to be working fine: in the morning I check the e-mail and make sure to solve what`s urgent, then I`m solving my own tasks ( "prepared" a day earlier ), then my one hour lunch break, when I preffer to cook something light and then have a cup of tea or lemonade ( depending on the season ) to relax my brain, and for the last hours of the day I work with my colleagues on common tasks and finish the day reviewing what I managed to do and prepare the things I have to do the next day.

The important part in this plan was the "working with others", because at the beginning I used to promptly respond to any request they had, and without realising the day was almost gone and I couldn`t get any of my stuff done. So I`ve made a "open for public" program, I give feedback and respond to their questions or anything like this after my lunch break.

This could work for someone who`s an employee, and has to report periodically about their tasks and objectives, but also has to coordinate some other activities of other people in a department.