NOTE: Check out this post for more game-changing tips on becoming hyper productive as an entrepreneur working from home!

Working from home is awesome. I spend approximately 90% of my ‘work time’ in my home office, visiting my team at our company HQ just once per week for just a couple of hours. But, for some it’s a struggle.

However, making sure that your work space at home is as productive as possible is sometimes all that’s needed to give you that business boost and you’ll be pumping out great work in no time!

Whether you’re running a small online business, building your brand through blogging and podcasting, or setting up and managing brick ‘n mortar businesses from a distance – the benefits are endless in my mind, but here are just a few reasons why I believe every solopreneur should be focused on working from one spot, at home, instead of darting around from one coffee shop to another co-working space and everything in between:

• You can spend more time with family.
• It’s a quieter, calmer atmosphere.
• You’ll completely eliminate commuting.
• Less distractions throughout the day.
• More focus on our work / life balance goals.

I had my Graphic VA create this infographic to explain a few strategies that I used when designing and creating my own home office, so that you can potentially use them for yourself.

Click HERE to Download Full Resolution Image

Pretty cool, huh?! All I need to do now is get that goldfish… and the cat!

Along with the standing desk (which is absolutely essential to your on-going entrepreneurial health in my mind) there are a couple of points I’d like to elaborate on are the boundaries and playlist / music.

Setting Proper Boundaries

I can’t stress this enough. When I’m at home in my office working – that’s exactly what I’m doing… working. My family knows it. Especially my 6-year old boy, Charlie. There’s nothing more he’d love to do than spoil my work zone with some good old-fashioned Lego playtime.

Now, don’t get me wrong… I love a good Lego session as much as the next man – but, there’s a time for building spaceships and cool battle squadrons… and when I’m supposed to be building my business, it isn’t that time!

Having a solid working schedule in place will put you on the right path when it comes to working from home with family around. For example, I work between 12noon and 5pm, Monday to Thursday – I do this currently (it’ll change in a few months when my boy graduates from Kindergarten to Primary) because it’s when my youngest is at school. It allows me time to truly focus. My wife, Erz who runs the business with me will sometimes be in the office with me, sometimes she’ll work from our living room – whatever ‘catches her fancy’ (a very intricate decision making situation that I don’t get involved with!).

If I have any calls I need to do to the USA, I do so in the evening, after 9pm my time, which is when Charlie is wrapped up in bed. At all other times, if I am on the odd occasion in the office at home, it’s okay to disturb me. That’s our guidelines in the house and they work brilliantly.

Using Music Proactively

One thing that I’ve done for years and years while working, is play music.

I don’t play anything with words, however, as it distracts me. I’ve tried everything from jazz, to classical – but, my go-to genre of sounds for the last few years has been ambient music. I have several playlists set-up in iTunes, and if I ever want something different I’ll pop over to Focus @ Will and give that a stab.

Having music in the background seems to spur me on. It just allows me to truly focus on what tasks I’m supposed to be working on, almost controlling my mind, to a certain degree. It’s strange and I can’t really describe it, but it just works – try it.