Did you know that you can severely limit your success by having too broad of a focus? Are you working on several projects where you’re doing a good job at all of them, but none of them can get enough of your focus to be truly great? Is the good keeping you from your best? Remember the 80/20 rule… 80% of your results will come from 20% of your effort, and that effort must be focused on your core goals to achieve maximum results.

Start dissecting your work to see if you are spreading your efforts too thin. Even within a heavy workload there are decisions that you can make to thin your workload. You may need to say no to a new project, or prioritize and let a couple of your lesser projects sit on the back burner while you focus on your top project or projects.

If you’re an entrepreneur, I would recommend working on the projects that can help increase your profits. If you work for someone else you should focus on the projects that are important to your boss, or if you are self-managed I would encourage you to think like an entrepreneur and focus on projects that increase profits for your company.

Ask yourself: How can I focus more on my core projects and push the less important projects to the back burner?

In order to help me make this website better, please take a moment to let me know what are your biggest frustrations or problems related to time management. Just leave your comment below, and thank you for your help!

True Story…

Last week one of my friends ran into a problem with her computer. While she was browsing the Internet, she went to a website that had a pop-up that asked her if she wanted to scan her computer. She is usually really good about clicking on the Cancel Button or closing the ad, but she accidentally clicked on ‘OK’. The program started installing itself on her computer and basically took over her browser, changing her home page, and popping up even more windows and ads. She had no idea how to stop it, or to get rid of it. Every time she closed her browser, a new one popped up with ads, and more windows!

Fortunately her husband is a computer programmer and she turned it over to him. After several hours (2:30AM) he got rid of all the adware and was able to go to sleep. Afterwards I talked to him about it, he told me that it didn’t damage the computer, but was more of a nuisance, but it certainly did freak both of them out. The program hid itself, and was mascaraing as Anti Virus Software… He had to go into the registry and carefully remove each item!

Now imagine if this happened to you. How would you get rid of this problem?

I have been using a program called Adaware from LavaSoft for years. It is the best anti-spyware software that I have found. I think if they would have been running this program they could have quickly killed this program and saved hours of grief during the late night hours.

This software is well trusted in the industry and has received a 5 out of 5 rating by Softpedia. It also has been heavily reviewed by CNET’s download.com and featured on Tucows.com.

Ad-Aware 2008 Pro provides advanced features for IT professionals and savvy computer users for optimal control of scans, malware removal, and damage repair.

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An Italian economist, Vilfredo Pareto, discovered that 80% of the results in any endeavor come from 20% of the efforts. This is now known as Pareto’s Principle.

For example, 20% of the employees of a company produce 80% of the results

Have you thought about how your day is constructed? You will produce 80% of your results with just 20% of your efforts. The time that you spend answering unnecessary email, checking your stocks, taking breaks, chatting with co-workers, and so forth is wasted time and does not contribute to your day

How much results you get is determined by your actions, so if you have small efforts, then you will have small results. Conversely, major efforts can equal enormous results!

What this means is that we have to concentrate our efforts, or concentrate our focus, on the key things that can return the best results. For you this may mean calling on customers, getting that report to your boss, or building your website. No matter what task is most important to you, make sure that your spending time on it first before you tackle the smaller, easier tasks.

In a nutshell: Do the important stuff first (it’s usually the hardest) and great results will follow