One of the biggest problems when working online is that there are a lot of distractions that will keep you away from working and decrease your productivity. One of my biggest problem is that I get distracted from something and sometimes I forget what I was doing, losing a lot of time.

To prevent this from happening anymore, I made an exact scheduled and imposed me some rules that I will try to follow and see how much this helped me. Here is what I though of:

1. Make a well defined daily schedule and try to respect it. Do exactly what you proposed to, in the exact order. Make sure to make the schedule as reliable as possible.

2. Laziness is keeping a lot of us away from working, but if you really want to achieve your goals, this has to go. Be sure to include enough rest in your schedule, so you won’t be tired and lazy, because this can be an important factor in decreasing productivity.

3. Use instant messaging and emails only when you really need to. I figured that this was keeping me away from working and that I was spending a lot of hours with no sense, chit-chatting. The best option is to keep them closed while working, but if you need to talk with someone, stay invisible for the others or set a ‘Busy’ status. If it happens and someone disturbs you, try to keep the conversation as short as possible and get back to work. Even if you are disturbed for a very short time, it can distract you and you might lose your ideas.

4. You probably won’t want to put your cellphone on ’silent’ mode while working, because there might be someone that really needs to get to you, but like the instant messaging, don’t spend too much time chit-chatting and follow your schedule.

5. Try not to let anything on the other day and do everything as scheduled. If you start doing this, it’s a step back and you won’t reach your target on time.

6. Take short breaks. If you work for too long without a break, you get bored and tired, so take short brakes, but not while working on something. Finish what you currently have to do and relax doing something you like, then get back to work.

7. If you feel tired, take a short nap of a few hours, because it’s very important and could decrease productivity.