A very Happy New Year !

I hope you had a fun New Year's Eve and are now looking forward to spring and some warmer weather!

Can you believe it's January 2010? The beginning of another year. It can be a time of opportunity, hope, planning and also worry for some people.

I was speaking to a couple of people yesterday who were at a loss about how they could get everything they wanted to do crammed into their busy schedules.

I'm certain that there is enough time as long as you manage it properly (no easy task I know). 

Why do I say that it can be done?

Simple. It's because of the very well known 80/20 rule. In this case, when you look at what you do VERY closely, 80/20 says 50% of what gets accomplished happens in 1% of your time.

Which means if you replace just one hour per day of doing stuff that is not important, or *nonessential*.... or if you just pay someone to do the tasks that take a whole load of time, and instead tackle the projects that will potentially change your life, your loved ones' lives or your business - you'll double your productivity.

What is really hard is the ability, the skill, and the determination to say *no* to more people. You need to get it clear that your time is valuable.

You need to stop the time wasters - magazine subscriptions that end up sitting in piles (which you cannot bear to throw away), perhaps limit that Facebook activity, or maybe stop trying to do too much and do a small number of things really well.

Get stuff ticked on your list of things to do. Do the essential things. Set limitations (you cannot do everything). Eliminate the non-essentials, and focus. Then get into habits. (This is from the excellent Power of Less book).

Start doing this, and you will, I promise, see some powerful results.