By Tom Ottaiano, CEO, Today’s Business

I’ve always been an advocate for working from home. Some of the greater strides that I’ve made in my personal and business life I’ve achieved during work from home days. It’s necessary to separate yourself once a week from the chaos of your normal day to day and have a change of scenery.

Use your work from home day as a way to refocus and be as productive as possible without the daily distractions that may arise in the office.

It’s important to design your day around the week’s priorities and set a routine that gets you to your highest level of productivity.

Here are my top tips for getting the most out of your work from home day.

1. Set a routine.

It’s important to set a routine for your work from home days to make sure that you’re getting the most work done.

Determine what morning ritual puts you in the best mindset for work. Make sure you have a good breakfast. Enjoy a cup of coffee or tea. If exercise gets you in the right frame of mind, go for a run or hit the gym. Meditate. Take your dog for a walk. Everyone’s perfect morning looks different. Figure out what gets you pumped for the day, and stick to it.

For me, my most effective morning routine starts with sending out a motivational quote to the team to start the day right and going straight into a hard workout at the gym. Only after I check those tasks off my list do I create my agenda for the day and start checking boxes.

2. Stay in contact.

A morning touch-base is a great way to start the day and communicate with your team before jumping into the first item on your to-do list.

Google Hangouts, Teamwork Chat, and email are communication tools that should be utilized to check in with necessary people and respond to messages at least every thirty minutes to an hour. It will keep you focused on your goals, and it will help set benchmarks for expectations throughout the day.

3. Don’t skip lunch.

I cannot stress this enough. Never underestimate the power of taking a break. You will burn out quickly if you don’t step away from your computer at least once during your work from home day.

Lunch is the best way to clear your head and prevent exhaustion. When you come back to work, you’ll be able to look at your problem or task with a fresh perspective, and sometimes that’s where the best work comes from.

4. Set some time aside to perfect your craft.

We are all about self-improvement and perfecting your craft here at Today’s Business. Whatever your individual goals are for your position, do something on your work from home day to push yourself closer to those goals.

Read an industry article to keep yourself up to date. Watch a Ted Talk about how to communicate and connect more effectively with your clients. Take a video course on how to decrease your cost per result on your ad campaigns. The list goes on.

The quiet time you will get during your work from home day is perfect for focusing on yourself and looking into something you may not have been able to get to while in the office.

5. Go for a walk during a call.

If possible, step outside for that internal conference call or go outside for your lunch break. Take it even a step further by setting up your workspace outside on a nice day, if your environment and scope of work allows for it.

Fresh air is so healthy for your productivity and well being. Working from home allows you the freedom to be able to have more outdoor time. Take advantage of it!