reading this book with a pen and a highlighter close by. Underline what resonates; what you want to remember. The action of underlining key phrases will fix them better in your mind and enable you to come back to the principles, materials and tools which resonated with you.
Once back at your desk, review the sections you have highlighted and the things you have decided to apply, and just do it!
Don’t be a perfectionist. I used to be one, and nothing gets done because perfection is not achievable. Do not put off trying a new way of doing something just because now is not the perfect time. There will never be a perfect time. Try new skills as best as you can. Practise, persevere, and little by little you will improve.
I once read about some research done in the US by a psychiatrist who specialises in education, Doctor William Glasser. What he found out is very important in any learning process. Glasser demonstrated that we remember 10% of what we read, 20% of what we hear, 80% of what we practise and 95% of what we teach someone else.
If the only thing you do is read this book and that’s it, you are likely to remember only 10% of it. In a one or two day training session where you hear a lot of good principles, you are likely to remember only 20% of it.
You can see the huge gap between only reading the material as opposed to hearing and practising the ideas. Your learning jumps from less than 20% to 80%. This is why simply reading a book or doing a training course often does not produce the results it should.
I heard once that on average we retain 12% to 15% of the learning from a simple training course. And this does not surprise me. However I find it amazing that we accept this from training. Imagine you buy a brand new car for $50,000 and on the day you are supposed to get it, you are given only four wheels — 10% of the value. No one would accept this. Why should we accept it from learning?
Whatever you find of value and relevance for you in this book, practise it back at your desk or in your workspace straight away.
If you want to see real change in your work habits, if you want to be more in control of your workloads, to work smarter and not harder, you need to read this book as if you were going to teach it to someone else and you need to practise the principles until they become new habits.
Persist to change the new learning into habits
My role will be to suggest some simple principles and challenge some of your work habits. Your role if you want to progress will be to do two things: practise and persist. You understand the importance of practising. Let me explain why I mean by persisting.
There is a joke which says, ‘Do you know the difference between a hassle and a habit? … two weeks.’ For two weeks, doing something differently is a hassle. After two weeks of practice, it becomes a habit. There is a lot of truth in it. Changing some of your work habits will feel awkward to start with. You will be tempted to come back to your old work habits which are easier and more comfortable.
Just be aware of it. Changing your work habits will be hard for about two weeks. Studies on habits show it takes about twenty-one days to change a habit. If you are to persist every day with a new work principle, within twenty-one days it will have become a habit.
Be persistent. The rewards, which I see so often in the lives of those I coach, are clearly worth it.
Read, practise, persist and celebrate with me
My ambition is for you to take away something valuable from this book. I hope you will enjoy this book, learn a few things from it, apply those things and change some of your work habits.
Once you have made some progress, write to me and share what you have learnt and how you feel. Take a photo of your desk before and after practising new habits and send it to me. Let me know the number of emails in your inbox (read and unread) before and after. Share with me the impact these new habits have had on your performance, your stress level and your life.
I really enjoy receiving feedback. This is what drives me, hearing that our approach and methodology have made a difference. You may also have some ideas and tips you would like to share. Please do not hesitate to send me an email at [email protected]
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