I’m a great believer of how you start your day will shape the rest of your day.

Start you day well…on a good positive, healthy note..and chances are…you will have a great day.

You will feel strong, fit and all ready to take on the world.

I’m very much influenced by the morning ritual of the late copywriting legend, Gary Halbert.

He wrote it in his newsletter, which you can find here:
http://www.thegaryhalbertletter.com/Newsletters/aslk_start_every_day.htm

Well…the morning routine obviously does a world of a good for him, seeing how successful he is.

I got the gist down here, as well as his rationale for his routine. I don’t follow his routine exactly…but it’s close. And I try to keep at it as much as I can on a daily basis.

Here’s the way he advocates on how to start your day (take it away, Gary!):

1. Set your alarm clock to go off 10 minutes earlier than usual.

2. The first thing, after you get up, is to immediately remake your bed.

3. Go to the kitchen, pour yourself a glass of water and drink it all.

4. Go to the bathroom, take care of "business," brush your teeth, wash the sleep out of  your face and eyes and brush and comb your hair.

5. Next, put on some exercise clothes like sweatpants, a sweatshirt and sneakers.

6. Leave the house immediately and take a 20-minute walk.

7. As soon as you get back, woof down a nutritionally-dense protein drink made by mixing the contents of a packet of Myoplex, Met-RX or Lean Body with eight ounces of fat-free milk and a banana.

8. Scarf down a packet of vitamins and minerals like Dr. Julian Whitaker’s "FORWARD PLUS."

9. Take a shower.

10. Dress in fresh, crisp clothes and go about your day.

Pretty simple stuff, isn’t it? But, I’ll tell you this: If you will do this every day in 1999, it will create a more positive change in your life than anything else you can do.

This regiment, although simple on the surface, has profound and somewhat complex and far-reaching psychological ramifications.

May I explain?

Thank you.

1. Set your alarm to go off 10 minutes earlier than usual. By getting a 10-minute earlier start, you tend to remove the "urgency" many of us experience as soon as we wake up. You’ll feel less harried, less hurried and a bit more peaceful.

2. The first thing, after you get up, is to immediately remake your bed. If you don’t do this, you will be starting your day… instantly… creating an "undone chore" which will nag at the back of your mind for the rest of the day. If you do do this, you will start the day without having added a single, niggling little thing to your "to do" list.

3. Go to the kitchen, pour yourself a glass of water and drink it all. You do NOT drink enough water. Nobody in America does. Water is the elixir of elixirs. It flushes toxins out of your body, provides an environment which lets your electrolytes and all other aspects of your biochemistry function at maximum efficiency.

4. Go to the bathroom, take care of "business," brush your teeth, wash the sleep out of your face and eyes and brush and comb your hair. You’re getting ready for battle: The battle to have a good day. Doing all the above will wake you up a little, freshen you up a bit and "set-you-up" to get going.

5. Next, put on some exercise clothes like sweatpants, a sweatshirt and sneakers. Make this a ritual. You are dressing for battle: An assault on the forces of negativism.

6. Leave the house immediately and take a 20-minute walk. You’re outside, you’re breathing fresh air, you’re getting your circulation going, you’re becoming more mentally alert. Some of the fog begins to lift from your mind. You begin to notice your environment, see the colors of the fall foliage, the bloom of a spring flower, the dew on the grass on a summer morning, the untrodden snow in mid-winter. NOTE: This is NOT exercise. This is a loosening up; a "defogging" of your mind and allowing your body to gently warm up for its daily tasks.

7. As soon as you get back, woof down a nutritionally-dense protein drink made by mixing the contents of a packet of Myoplex, Met-RX or Lean Body with eight ounces of fat-free milk and a banana. This will infuse your body with nearly all the vitamins, minerals, electrolytes, and other good stuff to help your body and mind function at peak throughout the day.

8. Scarf down a packet of vitamins and minerals like Dr. Julian Whitaker’s "FORWARD PLUS." More insurance you’re getting the minimum (at least) ingredients your body needs to run efficiently.

9. Take a shower. Part of the ritual of getting ready to battle the day.

10. Dress in fresh, crisp clothes and go about your day. Ritual completed. You’re loosened up, oxygenated, clean, crisp, nourished, starting your day with no added baggage.

Again, you can read his fabulous newsletter here: http://www.thegaryhalbertletter.com

It gives you a real education in marketing.

Jag Foo

---
Related Articles at E-MoneyMarketing:

Personal Productivity for On-line Marketers: Simple And Effective Tip On How To Beat Procrastination With The 5 Minutes Dash
Taking Stock Of Your Life And Business
Defeating Information Overload
Just Do It!

One thing you might not know about me is that I’m a voracious reader and also a seeker of knowledge (hey I take action too…not just read!).

Along the way, I’ve came across countless valuable quotes…little nuggets of wisdoms that have made significant impact on me.

So today while looking through some quotes I’ve compiled…an idea hit upon me. Why not have a “quotable quotes” series here?

It’s fast for me to write. And fast for you to read. Win-win!

In the process…I hope to add value to you as well as provide something for you to ponder on.

Well…I’m anxious to get the party started…so here it is…the inaugural “quotable quote”…

“You Don’t Have Time To Do Everything…But You Have Time To Do The Most Valuable Things”

Take Home Message:

Let’s face it.

Time is a finite resource. We only have 24 hours a day. That’s it. Nothing more.

What we do…and NOT do…in that 24 hours will determine the results we achieve.

As you will know by now…work is never ending. There’s always something to do everyday. Always!

However if we go by the Pareto’s 80/20 rule…there are the core few activities that will bring us far greater results than the majority of the work we do which always seem to take up most of our time.

What are your most valuable activities?

What are your most tedious…time consuming…and laborious low value work?

Are you focusing on the valuable few instead of the trivial many?

Love to hear your thoughts on this as usual.

Jag Foo

---
Related Articles at E-MoneyMarketing:

Quotable Quotes Series #2
Quotable Quotes Series #3
Random Finance Quotes #1
Words Of Wisdom To Success

There’s a saying…

If you love what you do…then you don’t have to work for life.

Quite true isn’t it?

Because everyday, work will be a joy to undertake. You put yourself in a position to excel.

Shouldn’t that be the right attitude to take towards life and work?

You know…I love business.

But more specifically…I love the sales and marketing side of business (hate the tedious time consuming administrative tasks though).

Everyday I wake up, I feel so privileged and happy to be doing what I’m doing.

This is what I love. And I can serve others and add value all round while at it. What a win-win.

Of course, I’ve to admit…work isn’t always a bed of roses. If you want that…go to the garden.

The truth is – if you want to reach success – you got to quit thinking so much…and just start doing it.

A wise man once said, "Everything in life worth doing is worth doing wrong – until you learn to do it right!"

How true!

Don’t think so much.

Just. Do. It.

We have to remember one thing:

In everything we do, we have a choice.

We choose to take the path we took. If you want to constantly bitch…whine…moan…and basically be a real cry baby (who is a royal pain in the ass)…then I suggest you take the action of doing something else.

Don’t throw toys out of the pram when things don’t go your way.

You have the freedom of choice remember?

Do something about it. Make it right.

If you aren’t waking up everyday, feeling intense motivation…the burning desire…the cast iron will…the fiery passion…and steely determination to work towards your goals…then I’m sad to say that you are…

Leading An Utterly Meaningless And Worthless Life!

It’s sounds brutal. But reality is harsh.

For me…I’ve an intense anger within me. Nothing negative about it though. But more of a overwhelming force within me that compels me to constantly surge ahead …to keep moving…and break down all obstacles that stand in my way of my goals.

That’s what I live for.

I wake up everyday…psyche myself up…pump iron…do push ups and go for a jog. When I’m out running, feeling the breeze brush past my hair, my mind is refreshed. And it allows me to reflect on the day ahead.

It’s very liberating and rejuvenating.

When I’m done, I bathe, have a good nutritious meal, and come back all pumped up…all ready to take on the world.

I really can’t stress how important it is to take care of your body and mind.

Your body is like a tool. You cannot imagine a good workman who doesn’t take care of his tools, right?

Likewise, if you want to be strong in your work…you have to first be strong physically and mentally.

Too often, I see lifeless zombies just going through the motions as if they had their life sucked out of their pathetic bodies.

And they still have the cheek to complain they are tired about this and that. And essentially every freaking thing in the world. But understand this. Most of it are…

Bullshit! Bullshit! Bullshit!

Do something about it.

Work hard. Work smart. Give a lot.

If anyone ever doubts you…keep in mind…the best answer is always to prove it to him. You don’t need to talk. Just show him by action and results.

That’s the best way to shut the naysayers up.

Keep going my friend. Cos the road ahead is sunny, and the future’s bright.

Your potential for greatness is within your grasp. You just need to have the courage to go for it, and break free from the shackles of mediocrity.

Move my friend. Keep going. Refuse to take shit from anyone (but embrace feedback). Don’t stop. Grab life’s forcefully by the horns and take control.

Just do it!

Jag Foo

P.S It’s been a long time I did a random rant. I look forward to hearing your thoughts

---
Related Articles at E-MoneyMarketing:

No related posts

Editor Note: I originally wrote this piece as a guest article to share with the readers from esteemed copywriter, John Forde’s Copywriter Roundtable’s newsletter.

I’m re-producing it here for your reading pleasure. I hope you enjoy reading it like I’ve writing it.

Here’s a question to think about.

How many of you read the email as virtually the first
thing you do when you turn on the computer?

Recent studies show that a whopping 65.3% of us do so.

For the longest time, that includes me as well.

And here’s the thing…

Don’t you find that once you are deep in your
reading and replying of emails,
you can be buried there for hours?

And you will soon find yourself wasting so much time that
you did not get much done?

If you are nodding your head in agreement, then
this is something you might want to address.

But first, just why are we often addicted to emails?

There’s a psychological reason for this.

And that’s our subconscious craving for attention.

You like the feeling of being communicated to.
You like the fact that others are reaching out to you.

There’s a sense of anticipation as you check your inbox.

And you feel good when you see new emails waiting for you.

There’s no doubt about it.

Email is a powerful communication tool.

We all need to use it.

The only question is how can you use email effectively
without it adversely affecting your productivity?

The simple answer lies in your ability to take control.

You have to take control of your emailing activities instead
of having emails consume you.

You see…when you start reading and replying your emails,
you are in reactive mode.

You become part of other people’s agenda.

And often, it become really easy for you to be embroiled in
"fire-fighting". You read and reply emails after emails.

And you become so used to it that you start the whole
loop again after you have finished a round of replying.

It can become so chronic that some people even develop an
obsessive-compulsive behavior towards the checking of emails.

That’s when you have a real BIG problem!

Now it’s fine being in a reactive state.

Just not at the beginning of your work day or your work time,
when it’s crucial to kick off on a productive note.

During these periods, you want to be in proactive mode if you
want to be optimal in your productiveness.

You have to start on your agenda instead of others.

Okay, you might say, "But I need emails to communicate.
It’s part of my work!"

Point taken.

Now ask yourself:

Will it have a negative impact on your results
if you just delay your checking of emails by half an hour to one hour
so that you can get some important work done first?

Chances are…for most parts…it’s OKAY to delay
your emailing activities for awhile.

It’s OKAY to wait.

Because most of your results will come from
doing really high value activities. Not by emailing.

If it’s really urgent, you can call.

Or the opposite party would have called you
if they really need you.

So try this. The next time you turn on your computer, immediately
get some work done first.

Resist the urge to open your emails, no matter how strong the
temptation is. Don’t even surf other non-related work sites
(e.g. Facebook, Gossip news etc).

Get some critical work done. Do it for half an hour. Or one hour.

Only when you have accomplished some useful tasks,
could you then "reward" yourself by starting on
your emailing.

And even then, you don’t want to continually
check your emails.

Do so a pre-determined periods.

I know this is highly counter-intuitive. But remember,
the path to success is often not obvious.

This will require you to be extremely disciplined.
But once you do it long enough, it will become an ingrained
ritual to you.

My point again is – don’t be a slave to emails.

Take control…on your terms.

And you will watch your productivity soar. Guaranteed.

Love to hear your thoughts.

To Your Success,

Jag Foo

P.S If you really must check your emails,
set a time limit to 10-15 minutes.

---
Related Articles at E-MoneyMarketing:

Quit Being Perfect.
JV With Me
Ramp Up Your Productivity – And Achieve More – In Lesser Time!
Emails Can Kill Your Business…

Want to be instantly more productive?

Here’s a simple way:

Be transparent about your work objectives to the important people around you, and then be accountable to them.

Let me go through why.

1. If you are keeping all your objectives to yourself…you may tend to cheat. No one will know your true progress. Sometimes…not even yourself.

If you miss your deadline, you may think it’s okay, because no one else is watching. You tell yourself you will make it up another time.

Is this process optimal? Not really.

But if you publicly declare your work objectives in clear specific terms to others, you are much more likely to fulfill them.

Because this time round, you feel the pressure to deliver what you say you will do. This is good pressure that will motivate you.

2. You want to be transparent to important people that matters. Get a peer who understands your work as your accountability partner.

If you are not doing your job, he will know. And he has to put you back in line.

You can return the favor by being his accountability partner. It becomes a win-win. And this promotes healthy collaboration and mutual help.

I hope this make sense so far.

Now for the next step…systemize this accountability and transparency process…

Let me introduce a great tool that will be of immense help for the process I just described.

It’s called Rescue Time => https://www.rescuetime.com

In a nutshell, Rescue Time is a tool that allows you and your team/partners to easily understand how you spend your time.

It’s a small application which you can install and it will instantly track all your activities, such as the websites you go to or the applications you use.

It determines your productivity level based on the goals that you set, and everyone on your team can view how you perform.

This is accountability and transparency at their best. And it’s brutally and ruthlessly effective to making you get things – that matter – done!

Here’s a snapshot of what Rescue Time will do for you:

• Block distracting sites to force you to be more focused
• Track all your computer activities – online and offline (e.g. phone calls, meetings etc)
• Track your projects and schedules
• Powerful reports and analytics on how you have spent your time
• Alerts to keep you on your toe
• Controls that you can customized to your team’s needs and responsibilities

Say Goodbye To “Acting Busy”

This is my pet peeve in the corporate world. Many workers like to act busy. As if they are doing real work, when they are just pretending.

Some stay back late to show their bosses they are “committed”. And when their backs are turned, many end up chit-chatting and surfing non-productive sites like Facebook.

And you know what’s worst?

Those that are really doing something but are not as good in putting up a “show” tend to get overlooked.

With Rescue Time…

…all the play-acting takes a backseat.

And only real results matter.

That’s what I love about Rescue Time.

Love to hear your thoughts.

Jag Foo

---
Related Articles at E-MoneyMarketing:

Ramp Up Your Productivity – And Achieve More – In Lesser Time!
Personal Productivity for On-line Marketers: Simple And Effective Tip On How To Beat Procrastination With The 5 Minutes Dash
Privacy Policy
Personal Development Downloads

Say what? Procrastination? Good?
Isn’t procrastination supposed to be THE big evil?

Didn’t all the gurus proclaimed that the key to success is speed of implementation?

So why procrastinate?

Here’s why…

If you remember, I used to talk about the Pareto’s rule.

And that is 80% of what you do will give you only 20% of your results.

While the other 20% will lead to 80% of your results.

So…procrastinating is good…if you do that to 80% of the stuff that gives you little results.

In another words, procrastinate on low value stuff.

Work fast, hard and smart on high value activities.

Make sense?

Love to hear your thoughts.

Jag Foo

---
Related Articles at E-MoneyMarketing:

Personal Productivity for On-line Marketers: Simple And Effective Tip On How To Beat Procrastination With The 5 Minutes Dash
Classic Negotiation Technique – Good Cop, Bad Cop
How To Turn The Table On Those Who Play The Good Cop, Bad Cop Technique On You!
Defeating Information Overload

I see a lot of people holding up projects…delaying time…all because they want to be perfect.

But recognize this. There’s no such thing as perfect.

It’s always WIP. Work. In. Progress.

It’s a never-ending road when it comes to improvement.

What you want to do is just launch. And get it out there.

Get data. Get some results. And tweak from there.

If it works – scale. If not, dump.

Don’t let perfectionism get in the way of progress.

Do up a good chunk. And let rip.

If you keep obsessing about details…about getting everything in place…you will never get done. And time just ticks away. There goes your opportunity.

What do you think? I want to hear it.

To your success,

Jag Foo

P.S 

For more information on personal productivity specially for online marketers, go here:
=> http://www.getmoreproductivenow.com/

---
Related Articles at E-MoneyMarketing:

Giving up?
Money Loves SPEED!
Niche Marketing – The Hot Spots Part 1
How To Write Captivating Headlines With The Help Of A Certain "Social Network"

Have you ever put off something you wanted to accomplish?

Perhaps it’s mainly because you felt lazy or just the idea of putting in a substantial shift to clear the workload turns you off.

Whatever your reason may possibly be, I’m certain we all have our moments of procrastination.

You tell yourself, "Okay. I am going to get it completed and over with tomorrow".

But what often happens? The next day, you find another excuse to skip the work. And again, you tell yourself the same thing to justify your laziness – that you’ll get it accomplished by tomorrow.

And thus it drags. The next day becomes yet again the next day and the next…

Make no mistakes about it.

Procrastination can be deadly especially when it concerns essential company activities. Things to do such as forming essential joint ventures, driving visitors, split testing and so on.

You are just denying your self the opportunity to further develop your company.

After all, if money loves speed, you are surely not doing yourself any favor by dragging your feet.

As John Reese says, “Movement over meditation”. Just get something moving.

So the question is – how can you beat procrastination?”

Here’s an uncomplicated and painless answer – the 5 units dash!

First, ask your self this. Are you able to just take out 5 minutes of your time to accomplish the upcoming work at hand?

I’m not asking you to take 1 hour or even 30 minutes. Just 5 minutes to get going. Definitely you’ll be able to set aside 5 minutes right?

Then GO! Get started! Take out Five minutes to do it. Bam! It’s over before you know it!

Congratulations! You have taken a little but progressive step forward. Now you are moving.

See, it’s is not that tough after all right?

As soon as we break down the complete procedure into the smallest unit, it’s no more time that intimidating.

And once you build up the momentum, you won’t want to stop! Even if you stop at some point, you could have at least, achieved some thing. And that’s a basis you possibly can develop from.

Rinse and repeat. 5 minutes start off of. And keep going. Take a brief rest right after every 30 minutes after which you can return to serious focused work once more.

If you can put into action this effortless regimen, I assure you that your company and individual productivity will skyrocket.

Yes, you can beat the dreaded procrastination disease!

For more information on personal productivity specially for online marketers, go here:
=> http://www.getmoreproductivenow.com/

All success,

Jag Foo

---
Related Articles at E-MoneyMarketing:

Ramp Up Your Productivity – And Achieve More – In Lesser Time!
Rescue Time – Skyrocket Your Personal Productivity Through Accountability
Procrastination Is Good
Marketing Experiments Exposed!

First of all, I am proud to announce to you the good news that there are no secrets to building and running a successful business online! There are no magic bullets, no big red buttons you can push to send money into your pocket.

Best of all, what you are about to read will surely help you succeed faster.

Education

If you have been online for at least awhile, I am sure that you have bought books from Amazon, courses from ClickBank and a whole lot of other stuff that is collecting dust on your shelves or collecting digital dust on your computer.

You are in the process of getting yourself educated so that you can have the knowledge of how to build and run a successful business online. This is a good thing, provided you will implementing what you are learn. If not, you need to practice more of what you know!

Action

If you have been to some personal development talks or some network marketing talks, you always hear about stuff like being self-motivated and taking massive action. Then again, what the heck is taking massive action?

You can take all the action you want and if you do not have the proper knowledge, you will fail anyway. I have seen so many people take action without proper knowledge and all of them are totally burnt out with nothing to show for their effort.

Success

Success happens when you take pieces of the puzzle and you put them together to see the whole big picture. Getting educated is where you find the pieces of the puzzle, taking action and doing your own testing is where you put the pieces together.

Education + Action = Success

Mistakes

Do you find yourself making a lot of mistakes? Mistakes can hardly be avoided because it is all part of your learning experience. Always learn from your mistakes so that you will not repeat them again. Also, if you did your research properly, you will make less mistakes and they will cost you less as well.

Pace

Do not rush, do things at your own pace, 1 thing at a time. When you do 1 thing at a time, you are more focused and it may seem slow, however when you are done, you will realize that you did a good job at a reasonable pace.

When you are rushing, you cannot think clearly and clarity of mind is the best thing you need when you have an urgent deadline or when you are facing a tough challenge in your business.

Progress

Keep a simple journal or notebook where you can track your results, progress and mistakes too. This is where you will learn from your own mistakes and you can see clearly which are the exact activities that are useful for your business and which ones are not.

Productivity

Create 2 simple to-do lists, 1 for weekly tasks and 1 for daily tasks. Use short and simple words on your to-do list so that you will not get the feeling of overwhelm and overload.

Always block out 45 – 60 minutes time slots to do your core tasks. Make sure that you take short breaks in between these slots. Do your best to have enough sleep so that you can keep your energy level up.

Focus

Stay focused and stop chasing after the latest Johnny come lately guru of the week. Their job is to distract you and get you to buy stuff from them. Your job is to avoid them so that you can stay focused on what you need to do to make money for yourself!

Last but not least, be persistent and never give up. Mistakes will happen and you do have what it takes to make it right. All the best!

Samuel Ng

“Google AdWords System” (Value: $49.97)
Are The Gurus Lying To You About Google AdWords And PPC?
Here’s How You Can Get High Conversions With Low Cost Traffic
Google AdWords System <== Click Here Right Now

---
Related Articles at E-MoneyMarketing:

If You Are Not Tracking – You Are Not In The Game…
Online Marketing Success Cycle
Unbreakable Solid Rules To Winning In The Online Marketing WAR!
Piracy Can Be Good For Marketing…

The world we lived in is increasingly wired. With the Internet, we are exposed to a lot more information than ever before.

While this can be a good thing – it also means we are susceptible to information overload.

Information overload inspires “inaction”. It kills creativity and leads to procrastination.

There’s got to be a way to deal with information overload

And in this article – Michael Masterson shows you how.

"One of the effects of living with electric information is that we live habitually in a state of information overload. There’s always more than you can cope with.""

Marshall McLuhan

Information Overload: How to Escape the Crush

By Michael Masterson

Stanley Bergen has a problem. As a regular reader of ETR and a new member of the Oxford Club, he’s getting so much good stuff from us (he’s especially interested in learning how to "eliminate some debt" and retire one day) that he "can’t figure out what to read."

"Don’t get me wrong," he says. "I love ETR and the Oxford Club publications, and I look forward to reading them. But it’s too much information all at once."

"What should I do?" he asks.

What should any of us do?

We live in a world that is absolutely flooded with information. Consider these facts:

· The average person receives 32 e-mail messages per day.

· There is enough scientific information written every day to fill seven complete sets of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

· The world’s production of print, film, optical, and magnetic content in just one year would require roughly 5 exabytes (5 trillion megabytes) of storage, about 800 megabytes per person.

So if you – like Stan Bergen – are feeling overwhelmed by information, you’re not alone. Information overload is a serious problem for just about everyone.

"One of the most anxiety-inducing side effects of the information era," Richard Saul Wurman says in Information Anxiety" is the feeling that you have to know it all." That is especially true for smart, ambitious people – people who want to improve their lives and realize that getting the right information is a big part of success.

As an ETR reader, that probably means you.

When you begin a new project or become interested in a new idea, do you have an insatiable desire to learn more about it? Do you find yourself buying – and reading – every book, report, newsletter, and magazine you can find on the subject? (That’s what I do.)

In the beginning, it feels great. You are riding high. Then, all of a sudden, you realize that you’ve become an information junkie. You’ve been spending so much time reading about whatever it is you want to do that you don’t have any time left to actually do it. You feel like crying for help.

Bob Bly calls this "analysis paralysis."

"All the information you are taking in has overloaded your circuits," he says. "You can’t process it all, sort through it, and figure out what to do first. So, instead, you do nothing. You take no action – other than to order yet another course or report to read."

Does any of this sound familiar?

Bob has a formula for preventing analysis paralysis. He calls it the 25-50-25 rule. It is based on the fact that there are only three ways to learn a process (e.g., how to start an Internet business) or a skill (e.g., copywriting): studying, observing, and doing.

The 25-50-25 rule says that you must divide your time as follows:

· No more than 25 percent of your time studying – i.e., reading books, attending workshops, listening to instructional CDs in your car.

· No more than 25 percent of your time observing – watching what successful people are already doing.

· At least 50 percent of your time actually DOING the thing you are studying and observing.

For example, if you want to sell information products on the Internet, you would spend 25 percent of your time studying material on the way it’s done, 25 percent of your time observing the way other people are doing it, and 50 percent of your time creating your first product… designing your website… and building your list.

I like Bob’s rule because it emphasizes action. And when I found out about it, I wondered if it could be applied to my daily working life. In thinking about it, I concluded that it depended greatly on what sort of work I was doing. If I was learning a new skill, Bob’s rule seemed to apply. But when I was going about my normal workday activities – creating new products and growing businesses – my time was spent very differently.

My daily working life, I realized, has three common components:

· Gathering information

· Analyzing that information and using it to make plans

· Taking action

I tend to do my information gathering at specific times. I read newspapers in the early morning, magazines during breaks, and e-mail at the end of the day. I read to encounter useful ideas. I analyze those ideas both as I’m reading them and later on, at odd moments throughout the day. I spend most of my workday – about 80 percent of it – taking action. The rest of my time – 20 percent – is devoted to gathering information, analyzing it, and making plans.

I like that 80 percent number. It corresponds with Pareto’s Law – the 80/20 rule that you can apply to just about everything.

I decided to ask some of the most successful people I know (from many different industries and countries) the following questions:

1. How much time each day do you work?
2. How much of that time do you spend gathering and analyzing information?
3. How much of that time do you spend planning?
4. How much of your day do you spend taking action?

Only half a dozen have responded so far, but their answers are interesting. In terms of hours worked, it ranges from 4.5 to 12, with an average of 9. In terms of planning, the range extends from 15 minutes to 90 minutes, with an average of 45. Time devoted to information gathering ranges from 90 minutes to 3 hours, with an average of 145 minutes.

Those numbers correspond to mine. A typical workday for me is 10 hours long, with an hour and a half devoted to gathering information and 45 minutes devoted to some form of planning.

That’s not a ton of time for inputs. And that means the minutes I spend each day taking in information must be absolutely golden.

What I didn’t expect to get from my brief survey were the comments and insights my colleagues have been sharing. They’ve not only told me how they spend their time, but have offered tricks and techniques for getting more done, faster.

Responses are still coming in. When I get all of them, I’ll be sure to make them available to you. So keep reading ETR for more details.

Next week, I’ll give you a clear and useful strategy for reading all that information you’re being bombarded with, to help you sort through the clutter. While you’re waiting for solutions, compare the way you allocate your time to the numbers above that I’ve already collected.

[Ed. Note: Information overload isn't the only stressful situation you deal with on a regular basis. For a powerful guide jam-packed with advice about how to bypass life's most difficult problems and stickiest situations, simply click here.

Get more of Michael's surefire strategies for getting ahead in business and in life inTrue Path to Profits: A Master Entrepreneur's Guide to Business Success. Find out more - including how you can get a bonus subscription to Michael's VIP newsletter, Ready Fire Aim - right here.]

As usual, let me know what you think.

All success,

Jag Foo

[tags]productivity, information overload[/tags]

---
Related Articles at E-MoneyMarketing:

Don’t think too much – Just do it!
Privacy Policy
Simple 4 Step Workflow to Online Marketing Success
5 Steps To Perform Your Market Analysis