Compare this approach with a fragmented one. You're a morning person. You need to write a sales page for your web site. You also need to read and respond to email today and you also want to schedule time, just an hour or so, to get some sun.

It's morning but, instead of starting your sales page, you decide to read and respond to your email first, to kind of ease into day. That's a breeze because reading and responding to email is not an intellectually demanding task and you're at your peak anyway. You finish reading and responding to your mail two hours later.

Now you think about writing your sales page. But you've used your peak concentration time on email and you've lost that sharp edge you always have first thing in morning. That makes writing sales copy, an already intellectually demanding task, even more difficult. You really don't feel like it right now. So you put it off. You look for something easier to do.

Maybe you could take that hour off now and use time while you're lying out in sun to get your head together. But no, you can't relax if you know you have work uncompleted. So you decide to force yourself to make a start on your sales copy. You write your copy but it just doesn't flow. It feels stilted and contrived.

You begin to get frustrated and annoyed with yourself. If only I'd got it over and done with first thing I'd be dealing with my email right now looking forward to lying out in sun for a while later on, you think. That's what I should be doing! So, you get annoyed with yourself, and become generally irritable. Which, of course, just blocks creative flow even more. Lunchtime rolls around and you feel like you've wasted half a day.

What a waste of energy, concentration and creativity! What a lack of FOCUS. Just look at energy you've wasted feeling annoyed and irritable with yourself. Just think what you could have accomplished if you'd put that energy to good use and focused!

Save yourself angst. Identify priority tasks, strategically allocate times of day to each task depending on how intellectually demanding they are, and exercise personal DISCIPLINE to do right thing right and at right time.

-> Concentrate on One Thing at a Time

When you're doing right thing at right time, dedicate yourself to that one thing and nothing else. Don't let your mind wander to what else you could be doing. You don't need to worry about that because "what else" has been allocated its own time and that time will come.

Remember, whole point of focusing is to make maximum use of your time, energy, concentration and creativity. If you can do this, you will give yourself gift of more time for yourself and your family. So remember to turn it off too. Give 100% of yourself to task at hand during time allocated to that task and then let it go.

Take care of business but always remember, life is for living!

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Elena Fawkner is editor of A Home-Based Business Online ... practical business ideas, opportunities and solutions for work-from-home entrepreneur. http://www.ahbbo.com

Elena Fawkner is editor of A Home-Based Business Online ... practical business ideas, opportunities and solutions for the work-from-home entrepreneur. http://www.ahbbo.com

So why create a product of your own? Aside from dependency issue we just discussed, there are lots of great reasons. First of all, it's YOURS. You pour your knowledge and your heart into creating a product that you can be proud of. Call it a sense of achievement.

Secondly, you know product intimately. You know what it does and what it doesn't do; you can talk confidently about benefits of owning it; you can listen to your customer's feedback and use it to improve product. And chances are, you'll be much more inclined to market it consistently -- especially since you keep all of profits, rather than just a commission!

Most importantly, though, you build a customer base of your own. You can build a long-term relationship with your customers through newsletters, special offers, new product announcements... and your customers can offer constructive feedback, testimonials, and even referral business.

Affiliate programs are a wonderful way to develop multiple streams of income. However, having your own product gives you option to concentrate on your own success, and on your terms. Now that's a goal!

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Angela is the editor of Online Business Basics, a practical and hype-free guide to building an Internet business on a shoestring budget. It's a proven hit with beginners, who love the down-to-earth style and loads of instantly useable tips! Click here for details: http://onlinebusinessbasics.com/article.html