Does this mean that you must meet your goals every single day? No - rather it is a guide. If there is a cook-out planned with company coming over, should you ignore your guests just to meet your goals? Of course not! But those goals have to be met under any circumstances. While you can delay them for a day, next day you will find yourself with a double load. I prefer to try to meet goals that I know I won't meet on a certain day in advance. That way, I can relax in social session without having that "Sword of Damocles" hanging over my head.

Let's take a real life example. Suppose you are in network marketing, and of course one of your goals should be to enroll new recruits. This can be done a number of ways, and making calls to new prospects will be one of your daily chores. Set a goal of how many calls you will make on any given day. Once you meet that goal, you can either do other things to promote your business, or simply relax. If you "goof off" however and don't meet that goal for whatever reason, you are only hurting yourself if you don't make it up.

Personally I prefer working seven days a week. Granted, I don't work a full work day, but by spreading work out like this, it gives me a lot of free time everyday. Others might prefer having definite days off, but you have to adjust your goals accordingly. In other words, if you are going to work at home, and have all of its benefits, you have to be in control.

If you are "out of control" your home business will not prosper, and you just might find you have to return to that regular job, from which you so desperately tried to escape.

If you are not tied to a telephone, it is still important to maintain regular hours. More importantly, you should have daily goals. If you meet those goals, rest of day is yours. But many people always think there is tomorrow.

For far too many, tomorrow never comes, and things that should have been done aren't. Maybe when kids are at school will work for you, or possibly late at night. You might even have to pass up on your favorite "soap". Don't deal with hours - you're not being paid by hour - deal with goal oriented results.

Working in your pajamas sounds great, and many of offers you may hear state that you can. If I get an idea in wee hours, I may hop on computer dressed like that, but for normal business hours that is simply a myth. Who wants to spend their life like that?

You must have an effective work space, which is free of distractions. You should have quiet office space in your house, which is out-of-the-way, and off limits during your work hours. Treat this like an office. Keep it neat. While I am not neatest person in world, I do know where everything is. If I get a call from a client, I'm not fumbling about looking for information I need. A filing cabinet next to your desk goes a long way.

When you get an email, take appropriate action same day, then file it in a place where you can find it. Delete all emails in your "in-basket" older than 30 days. If they're older than 30 days, they're not worth anything anyway.

If you don't fall into "trap", which many folks do, you just might make it in your own home business.