Use your waiting time
4.1 Deal with people distractions
4.2 Deal with other distractions
4.4 Beware the Seven Wastes of Time
4.7 Practise ‘good housekeeping’
5.1 Don’t say “yes” to every request
6.5 Choose a quick fix, then a long fix
7.4 Learn the art of delegating
This book is dedicated to Margaret Ellen Slater
(1922–2009)
Getting things done is the way to get on in life
If you want to get on in your career or your home life you will need to get things done. In the modern world, however, there are lots of different people wanting lots of different things to be done, and you can’t do everything for everyone unless you get much better at a number of different things.
I’ve been working for over 15 years with individuals and organizations to help them to find ways of getting more done. This ranges from teams with enormous workloads and tight deadlines to individuals simply looking to improve their productivity. I’ve learned many secrets and tricks over the years. Some I’ve discovered myself, but many I’ve learned from others; humans are wonderfully inventive.
This book aims to help you to get better at managing your life to allow you to get more of the things done that you need to get done. It contains 50 secrets, grouped into seven themed chapters. If you follow the secrets you will find that you amaze yourself at how much you can actually achieve!
“If we did all the things we are capable of doing we would truly astound ourselves”
Thomas Edison (1847–1931), American inventor
The seven themed chapters are:
• Knowing what things to do. You need to know what it is that needs to be done. You also need to be happy that you are doing the ‘right’ thing.
• Knowing how to do things. Sometimes you have to do things in a way that is laid down by the organization; other times it is up to you.
• Knowing when to do things. You aren’t likely to have just one thing to do – you probably have loads, so you need to know how to prioritize tasks.
• Working to your plan. You know what and how you want to work, but people keep distracting you. How do you manage distractions so that you can get things done?
• Saying “no”. You could get it all done if only people wouldn’t keep asking you to do other things. You need to learn when to say “no”.
• Dealing with problems. You thought you could do that job in an hour, but something has gone wrong. Here’s how to prevent and solve these problems.
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