One of the most common major pitfalls that most new home-based business owners face is a lack of scheduling know how and discipline. This one skill can make or break your business. 

This usually causes problems in one of two ways, under working or overworking. 

It's very easy to sit at home, on the ol' PC surfing the web. You might intend on doing research for your new website or article, but, before you know it, you've spent the entire day reading email and surfing for the latest news and checking out recreational sites. Sure, you were online and you were doing something, but the things you were doing are not the things that will put even a nickel in your bank account. Be honest, if you had an employee that did the same thing you would fire him!

Then we have our 'Type A personality'.  

If you spend all your time working, you'll soon feel that you're never getting any "down time," and burnout is sure to follow. Some people simply don't know how to keep business hours and follow the temptation to "work 'til you drop." If you've ever awaken to find a keyboard stuck to the side of your face, this could be you.

 Believe me, I know all about this one. 

Here's the solution. You must be very disciplined in planning your day. Write down what you need to accomplish every day and how long you will work on each item. Be sure to include downtime in your plan - time for your family, relaxation, and exercise. 

There are several computer programs that allow you to put in your daily itinerary and will remind you with a beep or bell when it's time to do something. I use the task feature in Outlook that seems to work very well for me.

Think about it. 

Your main purpose in having a home-based business to build a lifestyle, not to become the richest guy in the cemetery! 

Your daily plans and goals need to be very specific. It won't do you any good to write something like, "Work on web site x." What does that mean? That's like saying "Fix the car." 

You need to break your schedule down in to doable projects with a  a definite finishing point, such as "write a new article on marathon training diet for page one of the website." See the difference? You can "work on" a project for years and never finish because there is no ending point defined. By contrast, when you "write an article on topic A," you know you're done as soon as you've typed the final period. 

Try to delegate or outsource as much of the work that is mundane or not your field of expertise as you can afford to do. Your attention needs to constantly be where you can make the most money. If your talents lie in customer service management, it might be beneficial for you to hire someone to help build and maintain your website. The money you'll spend to have someone else do it will be more than offset by the amount of time it will free up for you to do the marketing. 

Think about other areas that you can outsource to better use your time.

Be realistic when planning your day.  Remember to include commute time and don't schedule a four hour task to be completed in one hour. It won't happen. If you have huge tasks, break them up as much as possible and schedule your time accurately. This will allow you to have a feeling of accomplishment and you'll get a lot more done in the long run. 

About multi-tasking... 

There are degrees of multi-tasking and you will find that when you are working from a home office the multi-tasking opportunities are endless and seem to call you.

Do your household 'chores' before you go to work. Take the kids to school, load the dish and clothes washers and turn them on. Pour the toilet bowl cleaner in the commode and close it, tidy the community rooms and feed the pets.

Once at work, be the employee that you would hire.

You can work on more than one project during the day, but you shouldn't work on more than one project at the same time. It's very difficult, if not totally impossible, to serve two masters at the same time. Give one project your undivided attention and when you've completed that task, move on to another task. 

You should also be a little flexible in your scheduling. 

In any business, there are bound to be interruptions that you couldn't possibly have planned for. In home-based businesses, the chance of distraction goes up exponentially. You'll be working on that hot new project, only to have the toilet overflow or a friend, neighbor or family member ring the doorbell. Plan on it.  That's why your schedule needs to include a little cushion. 

What I like to do is plan out the items I want to get done and overestimate the time it will take to do them, by say 10%. Then, I have other items which are "on deck." These items aren't quite on today's schedule, but I want to do them soon. If I complete all of my scheduled tasks for the day, I simply look to see what's on deck and start on one of them.

It's a bonus!

Sometimes, no matter how well you plan, you just won't finish what you schedule. It happens to everyone That's when you simply revise your schedule for the next day to include the missed item(s).  Now, if you find yourself routinely missing your deadlines, you'll need to reevaluate your scheduling, and perhaps your work ethic. 

Adjust accordingly. 

By scheduling you are holding yourself accountable and can see what's working and what's not to adjust where you need to.

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