Opportunities to work from home can be both a blessing and a curse – something I am all too familiar with. Creating your own office space gives you much more freedom to work on your own and in your own way, but your own home can also be chock-full of distractions that prevent you from being productive.

Whether you’re a freelancer or business owner who works from home regularly or you split your time between your home and your office space, here are a few tips to getting the most out of your time when you work from home:

1. Find a designated spot

If you have an office space in your home, great. You’re set. If you’re like me and you work anywhere you have your laptop and a Wi-Fi connection, then listen up. I know it’s tempting sometimes to sit back in your recliner and relax with your laptop keeping your lap warm, but no one completes their best work in this position.

Find a spot that your brain can familiarize as your place to work – at a desk, your breakfast table or at your favorite coffee shop. If you need to move around or find a new spot after a while to refresh your mind, that’s great! But be deliberate in your positioning so you can train your mind to expect to get to work.

2. Dress to Impress

Even when I work from home, I still tell myself that I should dress so as to be prepared to interview someone at the last minute. You should dress prepared for the same thing – whether it’s interviewing someone for an article or meeting with a potential investor.

Not only is it wise to be prepared for last-minute meetings and interviews – but dressing up for work can help you to be in the right state of mind to focus when you work. When you’re dressed in your pajamas, it’s easier to slack off and start watching Netflix rather than get work done.

3. Set a schedule

Set goals throughout the day to help you stay on schedule. Create for yourself a to-do list to motivate productivity. If you don’t have goals to set throughout the day, it’s easy to tell yourself you’ll just “get it done later.” Believe me, I’ve been there.

The schedule thing shouldn’t just be set for the day, either. Set a schedule for the week and month if you have to. Otherwise, you’ll just find distractions and excuses to put things off until the last minute. Suddenly, it’s Friday and you have a week’s worth of work to catch up on.

Create an organized schedule and stick to it. Be sure to give yourself down time in that schedule, too. Otherwise you’ll burn yourself out!

We live in a day and age where almost anyone can work from home – with a world going almost entirely digital, it makes it so easy to get work done anywhere. But that also means that distractions constantly surround us. Sticking to these tips can help you get the most out of your home work experience.