Do you find you don't have enough time to manage all of your daily tasks? Trying to keep pace and get on top of all of the things you need to juggle in life definitely elevates the blood pressure. It's so hard at times just to remain focused even on the "simple tasks" like writing a two sentence e-mail. For example, I had two tasks in front of me: write the email and then write the newsletter. I got to Yahoo!, accessed my account and was immediately distracted by the feature article and captivating headline. You guessed it, I started reading the article. Sound familiar? We are bombarded with thousands of distractions every day, so focus becomes key.

Now I can write the stereotypical 10 steps to avoid distraction or the same old 10 tips to creating structure, but with today's real-time information highway, the distractions are never going to disappear anytime soon. It is time to create new strategies to tone down the controllable distractions and recognize what is really important. I gave myself a personal time-out :) to address the issue. First, I realized I can only do one thing at time and trying to think of two things at time is called multi-tasking which actually gets me into real trouble. When we multitask we may get a bunch of things done, but they are never done with 100% purity because each task is clouded by information used for the other tasks. No true effort on any one task results in a bunch of so-so results. So, next time I will pick the most time sensitive task and tackle that one first. Second, I let a controllable distraction get the better of me. I need to constantly ask myself, "How is this going to help me move toward my goals?" In terms of that Yahoo! headline article I have decided to keep my in-box open on my computer so I don't have to re-open my browser to see the headline distractions each time. This will avoid the temptation and keep me focused on what is really going to move me forward.

The same tensions and distractions arise when you turn your attention to investing. With thousands and thousands of things to buy and sell, people telling us their next hot tip and the media scaring the you-know-what out of us, how do we know what to do? Should I listen to this or that? As you shoulda, woulda, coulda all over yourself, you will soon find that you need to give yourself a gift. You guessed it, a personal time-out. Try asking your favorite expert. People always ask me, "What is the best market to trade?" I say, "Before we get to that, what is your patience tolerance?" I usually get a puzzled response. I explain it this way; when I am waiting for somebody, my mindset typically works like this: 15 minutes late, blame it on LA traffic; 30 minutes late, they should have been here by now; 45 minutes late, where the #@$% are they?; and 1 hour late, you better have a good excuse or bye bye, never again. Sound familiar? How you answer my question helps me understand what your patience tolerance is and allows me to best answer your question for you.

The overall, on-time solution is to keep your patience tolerance in mind when you begin to trade. If a trade doesn't give you what you want within the hour, it's likely there is a reason for it and the market is giving you a hint to close up shop on the idea. Experience will also show you that market price movement potential offers 3 key time zones throughout the 24 hour financial clock that matches a traders patience tolerance. Just as normal 9 to 5er's are most productive in the first couple of hours of the day, the same is true as the key financial centers around the world start their day. Asia kicks it off and will produce moderate potential between 4p and 7p Pacific each evening. The London open will offer strong potential between 10p and 1a Pacific. The U.S. offers strong potential between 5a and 8 a Pacific. Try to get it done in the most productive times. If you are trading during the flat-line zones (all hours outside of those mentioned) and putting in non-productive over-time hours, save yourself time and get out or simply set a stop loss / profit on the trade and go do something else. It is feasible to get productive results trading during the London open or the U.S. open for just 3 hours a day (part-time) and create full-time results.

Remember: Work smarter, not harder. Don't keep giving yourself time outs!

Prosperity is at your fingertips!! All you need to do is grab it!!

For more RDS articles on trading, visit www.rdstrader.com.