tasks, some of which are relevant to the bigger picture and some of which are irrelevant. Make sure you know the level of importance to attach to the irrelevant ones.
1 Approach your boss in private, not in front of other people, when you want to check the relevance of the tasks requested of you.
2 Ask ‘open’ questions, which cannot be answered simply with a “Yes” or “No”. Ask how, why, what, where and who questions rather that do/does, will, can. For example, “I need to understand how this contributes to the departmental sales activity” or “Where does this feed into the manufacturing process?”
3 If necessary ‘sell’ the benefits to the manager of taking the time to explain this: “I want to do this job really well for you, so can you explain…” or “If I understand the value of this task, I can ensure that it gets the priority it deserves…”
4 If the task isn’t actually relevant to the bigger picture, but the boss still wants it done, ask what its priority is in relation to the tasks you have that are relevant.
5 Thank your boss for explaining it. You’ll quickly ‘train’ your boss to ensure that you only get relevant tasks without asking!
Knowing how your tasks relate to the bigger picture helps both you and your boss to organize the workload.
1.4 Identify what’s relevant to you
In work you need to be sure that the things you do are really part of your job (and that means your boss’s view of your job). Similarly, outside work you want to be sure that doing things for others doesn’t stop you doing things for yourself.
There are many reasons why people find themselves doing things at work that aren’t their job. The same goes for non-work life; whether it is doing things for your family or the community. For example:
• Their job is ill defined.
• The person who complains the least gets the task.
• This person will do it better than anyone else, either because they have the skill or the commitment.
• The task is something that a person likes, so they volunteer to do it.
one minute wonder Consider the proverb: “The cobbler’s children are the worst shod in town.” This is a description of someone who has become confused about what’s relevant to them personally.
• When does it matter if you are doing something that isn’t your job? If you are distracted into other activities that are not included in your formal targets, but which prevent you from achieving your targets, or stop you achieving them on time, then you have failed. Therefore, if you take on extra things, make sure that you really do have time for them and they are for a purpose that’s relevant to you. For example, your boss is looking for a volunteer to do a departmental survey. Nobody else wants to take on this extra work, but you volunteer because you want to know more about how the department works and you want to network with people, not because you feel obliged.
• When does it matter if you are distracted into doing things for others in your non-work life? Of course it is good to be altruistic and to help others. However, some people become so distracted by helping others that they leave no time to do the tasks that are important to them personally. For example, when you find you are spending far more time helping with the school committee than helping your own children with their homework, then you need to step back from the situation, identify your real priorities and arrange your time better. Also, if you take on extra things to help others, make sure this is not just because you are procrastinating on something else you ought to be doing for yourself, or using the other thing as an excuse. For example, have you agreed to decorate your brother’s flat because you really want to help him, or because you are secretly putting off committing to that evening class you’ve been talking about for ages?
For more advice on this subject, see Chapter 5 on saying “no”.
Remind yourself of what’s really relevant in your workload.
1.5 Do the ‘right’ things right
The previous two Secrets in this book discuss doing what is ‘relevant’, but you also have to do what is ‘right’. There are various levels of ‘rightness’ to judge things by: moral, ethical, legal and practical.
• Moral, ethical and legal. Your personal morality and ethics will reflect the religious teachings and codes of law in your country. If you work for a global organization you may have to bear in mind differences between the moral and ethical norms in your native country and others you might come into contact with. Likewise, make sure that what you do is legally right under the laws of your organization, your country and any international laws affecting it. For example, few people would
case study An importer was making a margin of 4% on high-volume, low-cost, perishable stock. This did not feel ‘right’ in practical terms because it was a very low margin. Not only that, some of the importer’s customers were asking for more environmentally friendly and ethically produced stock that would fulfil the ‘right’ values for them. The importer decided to introduce another line of products that were less perishable and lighter to transport, and which sold for a 15% margin. By doing the ‘right’ thing, the importer was able to continue to provide the original stock to the loyal customers while also increasing the product range and customer base, and protecting and expanding the business.
“Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody’s going to know whether you did it or not” Oprah Winfrey, American TV personality
consider that it would be doing the ‘right’ thing to sell alcohol-related products in a country that bans alcohol. That may be an extreme example, but the point is that to keep up your motivation, it’s essential that you do the things that feel ‘right’ according to your moral code, and to do them ‘right’ – or 100% correctly to the best of your abilities.
• Practical. There is a phrase in English: ‘busy fools’. This is used to describe people who are always busy and active but are doing the ‘wrong’ things. The ‘wrong’ things could be:
• Things which aren’t relevant (see Secrets 1.3 and 1.4).
• Things which your customer doesn’t want, need or value (see Secret 4.4).
• Things which are of lesser value.
Make sure that the things you do are ‘right’ in every sense of the word.
1.6 Plan for output, not activity
This piece of advice may seem obvious: we are looking at the subject of ‘Getting Things Done’ so of course we are going to plan for output (i.e. the end result) rather than the activity, aren’t we? And yet, in the real world we often plan things the other way round –
