Focus Your Light

Written by Elena Fawkner


Focus Your Light

© 2002 Elena Fawkner

Remember when you were a kid how you could make paper catch fire by focusingrepparttar sun's rays with a magnifying glass? You'd look over your shoulder atrepparttar 117540 sun, getrepparttar 117541 angle of repparttar 117542 rays just right, and moverepparttar 117543 magnifying glass until you could see a small circle of bright light onrepparttar 117544 piece of paper in front of you. Gradually, that circle began to turn brown andrepparttar 117545 paper began to smoulder until its edges began to curl under asrepparttar 117546 flame took hold.

How did that humble magnifying glass start something as powerful and elemental as a fire? The answer, of course, is concentration. Concentration ofrepparttar 117547 sun's rays into a tiny, intense circle of heat. In a word, FOCUS.

We workrepparttar 117548 same way. If we truly focus our energy, concentration and creativity, we bring an intensity torepparttar 117549 task that we just can't generate if these things are scattered amongst several projects at once.

Now, to simply say to you, "focus your energy and you will achieve greater results" is all very well. It's quite another matter entirely to be able to do it, especially when there are umpteen different priorities constantly tugging away at you, each demanding at least some of your attention and NOW.

To bring focus to your various activities, you need to break repparttar 117550 cycle of allowing yourself to be distracted fromrepparttar 117551 task at hand.

-> Identify Priority Tasks

To start with, you should allocate your time proportionately to all ofrepparttar 117552 various tasks you need to do. Notice I said NEED to do. The first step is to decide what truly needs to be done and what doesn't. If you categorize a task as something that needs to be done, ask yourself why it is necessary. Another way of askingrepparttar 117553 same question is to ask yourself, "what will happen if I don't do this today?". Ifrepparttar 117554 ultimate consequence is that nothing will happen, why do it?

If you find yourself reluctantly concluding, well, I don't NEED to do this, I WANT to, then put it intorepparttar 117555 "need to do" category. Doing things for yourself, for your own enjoyment or satisfaction, should be a priority. Focus is not only about doingrepparttar 117556 things you should do, it is doing repparttar 117557 things you want to do as well. By including in your need to do list things that are for your own personal pleasure and enjoyment, you replenish yourself and this in turn allows you to bring even greater focus, awareness and creativity to your other activities. So, give yourself permission to enjoy yourself.

->Allocate Time to Priority Tasks

Now that you have identified your 'need to do' activities, decide when you are going to do them and estimate how long you think they will take. Then add 40%. One ofrepparttar 117558 immutable laws ofrepparttar 117559 universe is that everything takes longer than you think it will. Save yourselfrepparttar 117560 stress of running to keep up withrepparttar 117561 clock.

When thinking about when you will do a specific task, work with your body. Are you a morning person, a night-owl, a late-afternoon person or something else entirely? Whichever you are, schedule for that time your most intellectually demanding tasks. If you're a morning person, for example, and one of your 'need to do' activities is to write a sales page for your website, allocate this task to your prime time. Then allocate your less intellectually demanding activities, such as reading and responding to email, to your off-peak time.

Similarly, don't schedule your personal time for your prime time. Again, if you're a morning person, schedule your hour lying out inrepparttar 117562 sun for mid-afternoon, your 'off-peak' time.

By making strategic use of your time in this way you will be makingrepparttar 117563 most efficient use of your prime time while STILL being able to dorepparttar 117564 things that YOU enjoy, and on a daily basis!

Compelling Reasons to Create Your Own Product Even If You Promote Affiliate Programs

Written by Angela Wu


Like many people, I first started online by promoting affiliate programs. I didn't have a product of my own, and affiliate programs seemed likerepparttar ideal way to earn an income. Why bother withrepparttar 117539 hassles of creating my own product if I didn't have to?

For many months, life onrepparttar 117540 'net was wonderful. Then one dayrepparttar 117541 bottom dropped out of my income. One ofrepparttar 117542 affiliate programs I was promoting heavily closed up shop -- leaving me with nothing to show for my months of hard work. Withinrepparttar 117543 next few months, another program dropped it's commission rates by 65%, and two more cut their commissions in half.

It took me a few months to recover financially... but in that time, I realized that this dependence on another company was exactly what I *didn't* need. Likerepparttar 117544 other affiliates, I had worked hard to bring customers torepparttar 117545 company -- only to end up in nearlyrepparttar 117546 same position I was in when I first got started.

Don't get me wrong; I was grateful forrepparttar 117547 opportunity to learn how to market online, without having to worry about billing, inventory, shipping, customer service, and everything else a company handles on behalf of its affiliates. And although it was hard work,repparttar 117548 income was great.

However, it just goes to show that affiliates are atrepparttar 117549 mercy ofrepparttar 117550 company. Now, with more experience under my belt, my opinion is that creating a product of your own is a far better way to do business. I still use affiliate programs, of course -- just not as my primary source of income.

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