This is a guest post by Yvonne, another wonderful person I have the pleasure of knowing.  She offers some great advice on maintaining focus to meet your goals. I am, personally, really trying to maintain focus especially by following her advice in #2 below!

Working from home has a number of advantages but it also carries with it many distractions, which, if not controlled, can result in loss of productivity and motivation in your online business.

Another source of distraction is the very place where you may do the majority of your work: the Internet. Think of the Internet as a giant carnival with acres of attractions, all exciting and appealing. The question is which one to do first? Which one will provide the most excitement? The difference is that while those fun attractions will bring joy and pleasure to you for a day, your online business is an important part of your daily living for the long haul.

In order to reduce these distractions you must keep a narrow focus so that you can achieve the goals you’ve set for your online business. What is focus? It is concentrated effort and attention on a given task. There’s an acronym I especially like for FOCUS: Follow One Course Until Successful. Keep in mind that success is different for each person but keeping your focus will get you to whatever you determine that will be. Following are three ways to keep your focus:

1. Write Effective Goals for Your Business: For your goals to be effective they must be written down and be readily available for quick reference. When you know what you want to achieve in your business, and the timeframe that you’ve determined, you will be better able to keep a narrow focus and concentrate on the things that will bring you closer to the desired goals.

2. Manage Yourself and Your Time: These work hand in hand because you cannot manage or control your time without managing yourself. A daily schedule is essential for good time management. Some persons like to use a detailed hour by hour calendar, while others prefer to identify three or four tasks to give priority to and focus on in order of importance. Whatever method that works best for you, make sure to have it in place.

The value of having a schedule or your list of your most important tasks prepared from the previous night is that when you start your day, you will know exactly what you need to focus on for that day. This reduces time that you’d be taking to think about what you have to do and deciding on what to give priority.

Managing yourself means that you may need to train or re-train yourself to concentrate on the things you should be doing for your business in the time that you allocate for this. Many people claim that they get bored easily and need to diversify their day. There is nothing wrong with that except that it should be done outside of your office business hours. Every time you think of playing a game on the computer, responding to personal e-mails, etc. during your office hours, ask yourself, “Is what I’m doing taking me closer to my goal?”

3. Narrow Your Focus to Develop Your USP: Your USP is your Unique Selling Proposition or Point. What segment of the market do you represent? For example, Internet Marketing is a broad area that covers many topics. If you are a coach you may choose to focus on Article Marketing and become know as the Article Marketing Prince or Princess (King or Queen maybe already taken).
There are many other steps that can help you to keep your focus narrow in your online business, but they all require determination and discipline keep on working diligently for yourself as you would for someone else.

Yvonne Jones works with Beginner Entrepreneurs to develop the right mindset, create an online presence and build their personal brand. She is also a Direct Sales Consultant who focuses on building strong relationships with clients and customers so they can get to know, like and trust you, and remain loyal customers.

You can read more of her posts at http://mysuccesscircleonline.com