It’s so tempting to get distracted when you have a special challenge to conquer.

It looks like this.

One minute you’re sitting down at your desk with the intention of following up with potential clients. Suddenly an hour has gone by and all you’ve done is written on your Facebook Friends’ walls or surfed a bunch of websites that have nothing to do with your home staging business.

Having worked as a solo entrepreneur for the last 20 years, I’ve fallen into the trap of easy distractions more times than I care to admit.

Some things I have found helpful in staying focused and getting stuff done include:

• Turning off automatic downloads or any alert feature on your email program, so that you only know about new messages if you specifically check for them (which you should only do once or twice a day). Better yet, if you’re not supposed to be in your email, close the program so you can focus on what you planned and avoid the temptation of a quick peek.
• Setting certain times to check Facebook or Twitter and ignoring it at all other times.
• Setting a timer for 30 minutes and forcing yourself to focus on only the task at hand for that amount of time.
• Turning on background music to make tasks, like filing or paying bills, more bearable.

For more survival strategies for being an entrepreneur, especially as they relate to being a home stager, check out course 1 of the Staging Diva Training Program.