The 7 Real Secrets to Work-at-Home Productivity

I often get asked how I manage to stay productive working at home. I wonder that myself sometimes! I do seem to be productive most of the time and I haven't had a day job in nearly five years, so I guess I must know a few secrets.

In the Internet Marketing world, the word "secrets" in your title guarantees that people will read your article, so I thought I'd call them secrets, even though they're just common sense. But then common sense ain't so common, if you know what I mean!

Anyway, here they are:

Secret #1: Set some personal hygiene standards for your home and office. Make your bed, clean your house, tidy your desk, do your dishes. Crap and clutter will make you feel like a failure right out of the gate. I guarantee it will undermine your productivity.

I don't mean spend six hours a day scrubbing the grout in your shower, but at least do the basics, even if it's what we women call "surface cleaning." And at least shove the clutter out of sight.

Secret #2: Set some personal hygiene standards for yourself! Shower, clean your teeth, get dressed. You might think you can be productive working in your underwear, but I doubt it. I doubt you'll feel good about yourself, and I really doubt you'll be happy when the UPS guy shows up at the door.

Imagine a client coming on Skype with his webcam turned on and he looks professional... and more successful... than you do. You can't even turn on your webcam because your hair is greasy and your striped pj's don't exactly look like a striped button down shirt.

I don't really care if other marketers tell you they made their fortune in their underwear. You don't know if it's true, I don't know if it's true. It sounds good in their sales letter; that's all we know. Get over it and get dressed!

Secret #3: Unsubscribe from all those gazillion product launches and hyped up sales pitches. You know what I mean. 'Nuff said.

Secret #4: Find a real mentor. Yes, it might be one of those Internet Marketing gurus whose emails you unsubscribed from in #3, but do your homework first.

Head over to the Warrior Forum and lurk for awhile. Watch and listen until you either find a mentor there, or you get some really good ideas about who you can trust, who really delivers and who will kick your butt! Not just a little kick, but the butt kick of all time, the butt kick you will surely need at some point.

Go to the XSitePro forum, too. Ask around and find out who people are using as mentors. Dig down and find out what their results were, was it worth the money, etc. Dig down as far as people will allow you to go. Ask for percentages, conversion rates, their guru's phone number!

Secret #5: Follow your chosen mentor. I know, duh! But really this is a lot harder than it sounds. There's so much distraction online... with that whiz-bang program that'll make you a million bucks overnight, and that ADHD, banana-addicted chimpanzee who just cracked the secret to pay-per-click advertising. Oh, spare me, please!

I say again, follow your guru (get tunnel vision, if you have to). There is nothing to be gained from being scattered, jumping from guru to guru and not following through on your assignments.

By the way, not following through on assignments makes us all feel horrible about ourselves, so don't undertake something you know you can't finish. You want successes, not failures! Choose something you can manage, but that's still valuable to your growth.

Secret #6: Set goals. Oh, I hate this one, I hate setting goals; it's just not me. If it's you, jump to Secret #7. If it's not you, let me remind you what Wayne Gretzky said, "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take." I think that quote has something to do with goal setting. If not, this one does...

"Keep your big goal in mind, but take little steps each day to keep from freaking out." That's my quote. Use it or not, but find a way to set goals and the tasks it takes to reach them.

Tasks are important. They're the little steps you take each day to reach your big goal: buy a domain name, set up a hosting account, get a header made, build a Web site, find a mentor, brush your teeth (you thought I forgot about that, didn't you?), get a Twitter account, research affiliate products.

The list of tasks might seem endless if you think about it too much, so make each day's list manageable. Maybe ten things to start with.

Big secret coming up... If a task seems daunting, it's too big! Break it down further: walk to bathroom, pick up toothbrush, unscrew lid on toothpaste, squeeze toothpaste onto brush, run brush under tap, turn off tap (water conservation!), apply brush to teeth.

Secret #7: Budget wisely. While you can find most things free online if you look long enough, be prepared to spend money to save yourself time and energy. The trick is to limit the amount you spend each month and stick to your budget! Wait at least 24 hours (and preferably seven days!) before making any purchase. That rule has saved me a squillion dollars.

Bonus Secret: Do not neglect your family. Period. Do not try to excuse working eighteen hours a day by claiming you're "doing it for them." It's a lie. Online marketing is addictive, pure and simple. Yank that monkey off your back and keep your home life safe.

That's it. There are probably 500 more secrets to working at home productively, but I don't know what they are. These work for me. Now go clean your teeth and then get to work on that list of tasks for today. Go. Go!

Andrea Wilson of Able Webs is a Web designer with an odd sense of humour who specializes in custom XSitePro templates. You can find her at http://www.xsiteprodesigns.com. Follow Andrea on Twitter http://www.twitter.com/ablewebs.