Let’s be honest - working from home is AWESOME!!! It was one of my favorite parts about blogging and freelancing full time. There is no need to get dressed, you can simply do all your work wrapped up in a blanket on your own bed. But really - you can’t do that and be really successful. That unrealistic ideal is more a trap than reality. If you work from home - full time or even one day a week - here are three things to keep in mind to stay productive and keep crushing your goals.

The Right Attitude

First of all, get it out of your head that this is your opportunity to relax. If you want to be an effective blogger or any other kind of home business or freelancer, you have to start creating habits that help you get into the working mindset. This includes getting up and getting dressed in the morning, having breakfast before work. It also means setting yourself real hours, helping you create a firm divide between work-life and home-life.

Time management is crucial, too, such as prioritizing and scheduling your workload for the day. If you let work life and home life bleed into each other too much, you can end up ruining both of them. You’re too distracted by the home to work and you’re unable to switch your working brain off to relax after it’s done. The years I worked from home I set alarms and a schedule of events throughout the day to make sure I managed my time well and maintained a balance. Afterall, when your work is always in front of you it can be tempting to keep fiddling with it at all hours of the day or night.

The Right Space

Try to avoid, if possible, working in the same room you sleep in. You might not need a whole lot of room to create a functional office space, but it’s about more than finding a place to put a desk and a chair. Having some boundaries between where you relax and where you work is important. When I first started working from home my desk was in my room, but I found myself constantly getting sleepy at just the sight of my bed. I needed a space that was clearly for rest and a space that was clearly for the hustle. The same space can’t meet both purposes.

Similarly, you need to think about whether your existing home is a good environment to work in or whether you might need to move into a new property or even tweak an existing room to something more functional. Click here now for some info on how to make that process a little easier. You have to be aware of your need for space, a lack of disruption, and an environment you actually like. If your current home isn’t giving you that, it’s time to address that issue. It’s an investment in the business or career, after all. When I finally moved out of my bedroom, I did so by re-purposing attic space that was being used for storage. A bold coat of paint, some sturdy office furniture, a few pictures on the wall and I had a work space perfect for me.

The Right Tools

Working from home might be a lot cheaper than running a business from an office, but it’s not free. For instance, it’s a good idea to invest in the software that reduces the amount of time you spend taking care of administrative tasks. Click here to see the project management tools that can help you keep track of different work for different clients. Invoicing and accounting software ensure your cash flow is smooth. Even social media management tools can take a lot of the time out of your branding. I use so many scheduling tools so that I can plot out an entire week’s worth of posts on all my social media accounts in one sitting. It makes my life so much easiest.

There are a lot of real advantages to working from home but taking it easy isn’t one of them. The flexibility to decide when and how you work, the reduced costs of running a business or commuting to an office, these are the real advantages. Plus being your own day-in-and-day-out boss is pretty amazing.

This is a collaborative post.