Here is a short list of strategies you can use to vanquish the chaos in your home office. Some if not all of these may seem basic. However, for those that work out of our home, we do face some interesting problems our downtown office counterparts don’t face.

1. Spend some time figuring out what type of storage you need for your work space.

2. When you pick up a piece of paper, decide what you’ll do with it.

3. Each night before you stop working, take a moment to write down the six most important things you need to do the next day.

4. Put yourself on an email diet.

5. Turn off the feature in your mail client that tells you each time a new email arrives.

6. Get a date book or planner. (Most likely a no brainer, but lets not forget this important one. I for one use an iPhone and sync with my MacBook. I also print out my calendar weekly for the entire year for a paper backup.)

If any of you have other tips or hints, please post a comment to this blog so we can keep the conversation going. If enough are added, I will do an updated post containing all the tips and hints I receive in the comments.