Changes to your schedule, a doctor's appointment, looking after your children or even taking the dog for a walk in the middle of the day… all of these things are simple everyday tasks that become an issue when they need to be built around a strict working schedule at a set location.

When you work from home, these things are not issues. In fact, some people find that it makes a nice break in the working day to sort out some household chores. But there is another side to this in that working from home greatly increases the number of potential distractions.

To help tackle this, we've built up a round up of motivational tactics from homeworkers to help you get a good day's work at home:

- Keep to a schedule and try to start and finish work around the same time each day. While it can be tempting to roll out of bed late, your business will suffer if your not putting in the hours during your most productive times of day.

- Plan breaks. These could be something like taking the dog for a walk, or watching the news with a cup of tea. Whatever you choose, try and get away from your desk to refresh your mind.

- Make a to do list. Write down everything that needs to be done at the start of the day and work your way methodically through each task. It can also be helpful to have a long-term task list to ensure you don't forget about anything – sites like www.toodledo.com can help with this.

- Establish a designated work space. This could be a room or an area if you're short on space; either way, let your family or house mates know that it is a working space and ask them to respect this by not disturbing you unnecessarily.

- Try and work somewhere with plenty of (preferably natural) light to help keep up positivity levels.
Stay hydrated. Studies have shown that our concentration levels dip noticeably when we don't drink enough fluids. Unfortunately, coffee doesn't count, so have a glass of water with your cuppa too.

- Close your internet browser when you're not actually using it for something work related. This should help limit 'browsing time'. If you want to read an article, schedule this in as a break.

- Consider wearing office clothes even if you're not planning on leaving the house that day. It's a bit of a cliché, but there is a lot of truth in the power of telling yourself to “dress for success”.

Unfortunately, not everywhere in the UK has such a service and some people are having to fight to get the investment required to develop their infrastructure.

Thomas Horton, a pupil of Oasis Academy Immingham, is working with the local community group One Voice, Councillor Darren Billard and assistant principal Paul Manarin to fight for North East Lincolnshire's fair share of government broadband funding.

Jean Keyworth, a parish councillor and One Voice Member, told the Grimsby Telegraph that a lot of people in the area work from home, so the improvements is “not a luxury, it's a must really”.

Mr Horton's campaign has so far received 287 signatures from local residents stating that they are not happy with their broadband speed despite the fact that they are paying the same prices as those living in nearby towns where speeds are significantly better.

It appears that support is widespread within the community with people from across the generations keen to encourage companies such as BT and Virgin to invest in the area. If not, it appears that not only will the current residents lose out, but the area will also fail to attract new residents to live in the area if the infrastructure is substandard when compared to alternative locations.

Recent research found that Hampshire is one of the UK's most popular counties when it comes to working from home and the county actually has around 25,000 home offices. With this in mind, Taylor Wimpey has built its latest set of houses in the region with extra space to incorporate a working area.

Sarah Pasco, regional sales and marketing director for Taylor Wimpey Southern Counties, explained: "We understand that working from home is becoming increasingly popular and as such many house hunters are looking for a spacious property which lends itself well to changing needs over time."

The firm's recent development, the Glaciers at Everest Park, offers town houses with open plan kitchen/dining rooms, a separate study and a varying number of bedrooms depending on how much space people require for their lifestyle and family.

While homeworkers often dream of having extra space to spread out and get to grips with their daily workload, those living in smaller properties needn't be put off by their lack of space. With a bit of clever thinking and negotiation, it is perfectly possible to run many types of home businesses from a one-bedroom flat or similar so long as the desire to succeed is there.

The poll, conducted by Shedworking for Asda, revealed that home-based businesses are showing strong levels of growth, despite the wider economic difficulties present in the country. In fact, the £8 billion figure is an increase of almost £2 billion from the same poll in 2010.

Furthermore, the majority of businesses were confident about their expansion prospects. Almost 79 pre cent expected to work from indefinitely, but many were also looking at expanding out of the home, with 13.5 per cent of those predicted turnover growth of 20 per cent or more.

Just five per cent of those questioned expected no growth or a decline in sales, while 35.1 per cent were looking at growth of between five and ten per cent.

Alex Crow, homeworking specialist with Asda, commented: “Many households are taking a go-it-alone approach to business and are reaping the rewards.

"The low cost of starting up a business means that many households are pursuing the entrepreneurial dream. With the value of the back garden economy reaching an amazing £8 billion, home-based businesses are now lending a whole new meaning to the term 'home economics'.”

But there are downsides and distractions when working from home on a regular basis. One of the main issues is simply finding somewhere quiet to work.

While it's nice to be around family all day, many homeworkers note that it is difficult to get children to understand that their parents need peace and quiet to work. One solution to this is to assign a room to work and ensure that children understand that this is not a play space.

Alternatively, some homeworkers find it useful to look for a space outside the home that they can use when they need a change of scene or some distance between themselves and their families.

And it isn't just children that can make things difficult when there's work to be done. Some homeworkers find things difficult if their partner is also at home all day; spending all their time together can be a strain, especially when there are things that need to be done.

Again, the key is to ensure you have dedicated working space and keep to it. Don't spread out all around the house, or work together in the lounge to be friendly, chances are you will just end up bickering over space and your productivity will be affected. Working from home around with a partner and a family is certainly possible and offers many benefits, just be sure to be disciplined about it.

The list of tube stations set to be affected might help businesses decide whether or not their employees should be allowed to work from home during the Games this summer.

Included in the stations that are set to be 'exceptionally busy' are Canary Wharf, Waterloo, Brompton and Clapham North, signalling that there will be disruption right across the city. A couple of stations will also have restricted operations, while stations that are serving venues themselves will probably face particularly high levels of traffic.

A number of businesses have implemented work from home schemes already and tested them out to ensure their technology is up to the challenge of allowing employees to access their networks from remote locations.

Those businesses that are yet to look into the possibilities of allowing staff to work from home could find themselves caught out if their workers are unable to get into work on time. However, several other alternatives are also being trialled, including the championing of cycle to work schemes and staggered hours to help commuters avoid rush house times.

This is the view expressed by Mark Bramwell, CIO of the Wellcome Trust. Speaking at a HP networks event in London, Mr Bramwell explained that the trust is already set up to deal with any potential technology issues and that the group has adopted a “common sense” approach to the issue.

PCAdvisor reported him as saying: “My personal view is that the Olympics could turn out to be a non-event from a technology perspective. Logistics and transport are going to be a bigger problem than the technology. Rightly or wrongly, I'm not anticipating it being an issue.”

He added that the network at the trust will have “sufficient bandwidth to support streaming and internet access, but the policy will stipulate reasonable use”.

The biomedical charity also has systems in place to allow for remote working: “The technical solutions are already in place to allow people to work from home … they have been tested and they have been proven. They get tested every year because of our disaster recovery and remote working policies.”

A study conducted by Telappliant revealed that 22 per cent of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) surveyed stated that they are looking into the technology in order to “allow staff more flexibility to work from home or from another location”.

This was the second most popular reason for upgrading telecommunications systems. The primary reason listed was to “reduce overall telephony costs for our business”, which was listed by 68 per cent of firms surveyed.

However, there are still difficulties in persuading business leaders that it is worthwhile making the switch. In fact, 42 per cent of firms said that they perceived VoIP as “delivering [a] poor quality or unreliable service”, while 32 per cent said that they management team did not fully understand the benefits of making the switch.

Tan Aksoy, chief executive at Telappliant, commented: “VoIP is also extremely scalable – and is not just limited to the office.

"Staff can use a special SIM card to extend their office phone extension to any 3G mobile handset, meaning they can carry their desk phone in their pocket. This is ideal for staff that spend a lot of time on the road, home workers or any employee that does not want to be tied to their desk.”

According to reports from the PA, John Lewis saw sales of office desks and chairs rise by 14 per cent so far this year in comparison to the same period last year. The retailer noted that it appears that its customers are preparing themselves for a summer working from home.

Indeed, several businesses have already begun to implement their plans for home working during the Olympic Games as congestion and travel problems are expected. O2, for example, has been conducting trials to double check that its employees are prepared for working from home.

Sally Hudson, from John Lewis, told the news agency: “We've seen more and more of our customers getting their homes ready for home-working – either for the Olympics, or longer term.

"Despite the advent of laptop computers and Wi-Fi, most of us still require a designated work station in order to work from home productively."

Demand for office furniture has been highest in the South East, with London and its commuter belt showing buying a lot of home office furniture.

Ahead of the Olympic Games, the mobile phone company announced that those that can will work from home during the event. To test this, the company conducted an experiment to see if the required systems were in place.

Around 3,000 employees from the head office in Slough took part in the experiment to test the systems. The company found that 88 per cent of its staff were just as productive working remotely, while a third claimed that they actually got more done when they were working away from the office.

Ben Dowd, business director at O2, commented on the test day: "The success of O2’s experiment extends much further than just allowing some of the workforce to stay at home and work. It proves that with the right thinking and planning, even the largest organisations can protect themselves from the most severe disruptions to their business."

He added that "intense preparation" was required to facilitate the change in working practices, with adaptations made everywhere from HR and internal communications to IT and property services.