Focus or Fail: 50 tips for Organizing Your Stuff, Prioritizing Your Activities, and Becoming More Effective

Why are some people more effective than others? What do very successful people do differently than everyone else? How do they get more of the right things done quicker? This concentrated book of simplified business strategies – written for any experience level – answers those questions and provides immediate tools and strategies for your use. These 50 tips were distilled from 30+ years of experience (both successes and failures) leading significant projects and organizations in the nuclear industry. However, they can be used by a soccer mom, student, or entrepreneur just as easily as by an experienced project manager or corporate leader. Things don’t have to be complicated and technically challenging to work. Why describe something in 20 pages if you can clearly describe it in 1?This book cuts to the chase – the stuff that really moves your needle – and doesn’t waste your time with pages (and pounds) of filler. While it’s organized by topical area so you can consider several tips that will help you with planning, or prioritization, or attitude, etc., they’re also stand-alone tips so you can just focus on those that will give you the most benefit right now. A few suggested steps or actions that you can take to start becoming more effective immediately follow each tip.Whether it’s for you, a subordinate, a graduate, or business partner, this powerful little book will give you 50 down to earth tips that can be immediately implemented to improve organizational skills, the ability to prioritization, and most important – to become more effective in everything you do. Who wouldn’t like to be a little bit more effective?

Steve Norton, PMP is an internationally recognized trainer, speaker, author and the founder of Project Management Skills. He gained his project management credentials through a 30-year career in the nuclear industry. As a senior manager for Fortune 500 companies, he directed project management activities, strategic planning, financial planning, scheduling, plant operations, and facility startups. He was responsible for portfolios of projects valued in the hundreds of millions of dollars and led the Project Management Offices for two major U.S. companies. He has trained with America’s #1 Success Coach, Jack Canfield, co-creator of the Chicken Soup for the Soul book series and author of the best-selling book, The Success Principles. Working with Jack, Steve assisted in teaching The Success Principles to students from 11 countries around the globe. He is co-author (with Jack Canfield) of the Amazon.com best-seller, The Success Secret: The World’s Leading Experts Reveal Their Secrets for Success in Business and in Life. He is an industry-leading project management expert and a popular and experienced PMP® Exam Prep Boot Camp trainer, dedicated to helping business professionals earn PMP® / CAPM® Certifications. Throughout his corporate career, Steve mentored, coached and guided junior staff. Ultimately, the satisfaction he found in developing project managers inspired him to make it full-time occupation. He established Project Management Skills, LLC and has been teaching boot camps since 2009 to students from hundreds of companies. Through his training and consulting business, he helps corporations lead their people to greater project and personal effectiveness. Steve has a Master of Sciences degree in Project Management from Boston University, earned his Project Management Professional credential in 2005, stays actively involved with Project Management Institute chapters internationally, served 4 years as a PMI® Chapter VP of Professional Development, and was once named global PMI® chapter Volunteer of the Year.