For many of us, working from home is the best option to continue our working lives [1]. There are children who need taking care of, and chores and tasks that need to be done between nine and five. Working from home is a flexible solution, and also has been beneficial for some businesses throughout the recession as costs are reduced in some areas. Less employees in the office can mean less milk needing to be delivered for the daily rounds of tea, less water being used, and less business gas and electricity being used.

However, working from home isn’t suited to everyone; distractions are presented in many forms: phone calls, television shows, a bird flying into the window, noticing that the toilet needs a bleach and a scrub... While working from home is a flexible solution, you must still remain focussed on the task at hand, and remain in contact with your boss and employees to stay in the loop.

Plan your day

If you make a plan for each day you work at home, you will be able to keep focussed on the task at hand. Making a checklist can be extremely efficient as you can tick tasks off as they are completed; this saves racking your brains at a later point if you got distracted soon after by that elusive bird.

Schedule breaks

Even though you aren’t at work, you are still working; to get you in the right frame of mind, create a coffee break, lunch and afternoon tea break. There is no point trying to work straight for hours in a row as you will probably end up being even more distracted by the end of the day.

Avoid the TV

The main distraction for many: the TV. While you may have a beautiful 37" flat screen in the lounge that is calling to you, do not turn it on! One programme turns into two, and so on. You’d be much better off finding space to work either in a study or on the dining room table. Plus, when you turn on the TV in the evening it will feel far more rewarding.

Think of your kids

If you are a parent working from home, remember how important it is to get things done while they are sleeping or at school. Putting off tasks until later can get you into a flap if you need to sort out dinner, bath and bed times.