We internet marketers have one of the greatest jobs in the world. Work from home, be your own boss, set your own hours, work on whatever you want, take vacations whenever you want without having to ask for permission from a boss. After all if you are your own boss it' not like you're going to deny your request to take a coffee break or when to have your lunch or to take a day off and play golf or whatever your hobbies might be.

The problem with being your own boss is if you don't have discipline in time management. We all have our distractions from the internet, I personally have a weakness for Mafia Wars on Facebook. There's nothing wrong with recreation or taking breaks during the middle of the day. In fact breaks are a necessity in order to stay focused.

It might seem like an oxymoron to say that but our attention span does have its limits. And you do need to take time to clear the cobwebs when you're start getting distracted.

The first thing to remember with time management is The Pareto Principle. Also know as the 80/20 rule where 80% of your activities yield 20% of your results and 20% yield 80% of your results. Determine the 20% of your efforts that yield 80% of your results and you can safely let the rest slide.

While working on your 20% here are some things to remember.

1. Use a timer. You can get an inexpensive egg timer at your local Dollar Store or use the one on your watch or cell phone/smart phone. Set it at 60 to 90 minutes and then work on a task.
2. Focus on that task at the exclusion of anything else except for emergencies of the life or death variety.
3. Don't answer the phone or email while you are working. Only set aside two times a day when you will respond to phone calls and emails. It's your time guard it wisely.
4. At the end of the 60 to 90 minute task reset the timer to 10 to 15 minutes. After working hard you deserve a break for coffee, tea or whatever else you need to refocus and reenergize.
5. Have all the tasks that you need to get done for the day scheduled out the night before. The Franklin planners by Franklin Covey are my favourite ones. They have two pages and several sections for each day. One page has your prioritized daily task list and an ABC for the level of priority. Plus an appointment schedule and a page for daily notes.

Time management falls under the things that are easy to do but are also easy not to do. A concept addressed in The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson, a book I reviewed in an earlier article.

Easy to do as it only takes several minutes to organize your life to focus on your priorities. But also easy not to do with all the distractions we have today. But if you take the several minutes to organize your time you should find you'll be able to do all your important tasks and still have the time to enjoy all your fun activities.