As someone who works from home, I’m always looking for ways to increase my productivity. Right now, during the summer, it is especially difficult to manage my son at home. While I do have some childcare options, it doesn’t compare with hours spent at school. However, my son pales as a distraction in comparison to the distractions available online in the form of social media. Your home business productivity probably suffers as well, due to the Internet.

Kyle at the Suburban Dollar wrote an interesting post for Moolanomy. It is about improving your work from home productivity. One of the points he makes is that Twitter is a distraction. But Twitter isn’t the only social media distraction. Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon, Mixx, Propeller and other social media outlets can sap your time. Answering requests for help from others can be distracting and time consuming. Here is what I do to help limit my social media distractions and work more efficiently:

* Start out the day by clearing my inbox and answering all social media requests.

* Decide which post will be my focus for social media, write that, and then submit and promote it.

* Do my other writing, avoiding social media.

* Check my inbox (briefly) once an hour while working, and only take care of the important messages.

* Choose one time during the day (after lunch, usually) to clear out the inbox and handle social media requests.

* Finish my projects and end my work day.

* Before shutting down for the evening, clear out the social media once more.

How do you handle the distractions of social media?