Working form home may seem like a dream come true to many but it's a lot harder than you may think. At first I found arranging time to work online was very difficult - if I'm honest I was all over the place.

Lets first get the myth out of the way that working online ( or from home ) is a fast track to easy street - it's not. In most cases it is actually harder and longer hours than a nine to five job. Many people fall into the trap that they can take things a little easier now they are their own boss.

Arranging time to work online is one of the factors that most newbies seem to neglect. By lying in bed that extra hour in the morning you are in turn losing an hours pay. Can you really afford that - at the end of the week will you be kicking yourself for not working that hour ( in most cases - yes, you will! ).

Arranging time to work online just involves simple planning. Anything you want to do successfully should involve a little planning. This article for instance started off in bullet points of what I wanted to cover within it's content. Without the planning it would of been a scatty piece of literature not worthy of publishing.

Planning your day out can take the simple form of a timetable - like the ones you used to get in secondary school. I know it's a little dated but they really do work. I find the trick is to move on to the next subject or piece of work regardless of whether you have finished the task/work. If you have listed proof reading at 2 in the afternoon then stop what you are doing and move onto the proof reading. Lets face it - you are not going to get everything on the timetable completed in the day, but you will get close.

Distractions are my sworn enemy when it comes to working online - they still catch me out now. As I am writing this I notice I have two other tabs open on the screen - why? No idea - they only serve as a distraction. When arranging time to work online remember to remove all distractions from view. If the Facebook symbol in the corner of your eye is flashing then you will eventually click on it. If your email alert on your Blackberry keeps going off then you will eventually read it.

It's been four years since I started my journey of working online. Unfortunately I still need to be arranging time to work online on a daily basis. The further you get online and the more success you have, the more planning you will need to do. It's a simple rule of thumb - targets will have more chance of being met if a daily plan is put in place.