Hi Brenda and Rick!

Brenda, that's a great question -- almost everyone has this kind of problem.... It's so easy to spend too much time on doing things which aren't worthwhile.

There's something called the "Pareto Principle," also known as the "80/20 Rule" or the "80/20 Principle." You can apply it many places.... For example....

80% of your results come from 20% of your efforts.

80% of your income comes from 20% of your customers.

80% of advertising results come from 20% of your campaign.

80% of the outfits we wear come from 20% of the clothes in our closets and drawers.

80% of our personal telephone calls are to 20% of the people in our address book.

While the real numbers may not be precisely 80% and 20% (they could be higher or lower), the general principle is true.... It's almost always true that a disproportionate amount of your success comes from only a small percentage of your activities.... As Rick pointed out, the key is to identify these activities.

Here's one method I've used.... I'd make up a "To Do" list, of things to do. I'd list next to each item how long I expected this task to take. Then next to that, I'd write down the benefit I'd get from each activity. And lastly, I'd rank how good this benefit is....

For example, I'd put "A" if I got a lot of benefit from this activity, "B" if I only got a medium amount of benefit, and "C" if I only got a little bit of benefit.

Then, once you have a list of things "To Do" and rankings by benefits to you, you can prioritize. Make the "A" items your highest priority, and the "C" items your lowest priority. Often, you will find that you can skip many of the "C" items altogether and it will make little difference in your life.... That's one approach.

If you apply this, you could find that you have MORE free time than before, and you're producing more results as well, because you've eliminated the "time-wasting" activities. :)

However.... I'm human too. I must admit I do this, then after a while I lapse into my bad habits again (and my free time disappears). But thanks for your posts Brenda and Rick -- I'm going to make up my prioritized list again and get back to a more efficient lifestyle (and claim back some of this time!).... :)

One thing about time is that we are only given so much of it, so it's good to use it wisely!

- Dien Rice