Rus Slater - Getting Things Done

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First published in Great Britain in 2010 by HarperCollins Publishers

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FIRST EDITION

Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers 2010

SECRETS and BUSINESS SECRETS are trademarks of HarperCollins Publishers

Rus Slater asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

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Source ISBN: 9780007324460

Ebook Edition © MARCH 2010 ISBN: 9780007360413

Version: 2018-07-16

Cover Page

Title Page

Copyright

Author’s note

Getting things done is the way to get on in life

Knowing what things to do

1.1 Check your bank balance of time

1.2 Ask for clear instructions

1.3 See the relevance of the bigger picture

1.4 Identify what’s relevant to you

1.5 Do the ‘right’ things right

1.6 Plan for output, not activity

1.7 DREAM to get more done

1.8 Have a personal vision or mission

1.9 Know WIIFM

1.10 Make ‘to do’ lists

Knowing how to do things

2.1 Decide if ‘how’ is important

2.2 Fit into a bigger process

2.3 Find out how others do it

2.4 Set quality measures

2.5 Know how to KISS

Knowing when to do things

3.1 Prioritize this – or that?

3.2 Look at effort versus pay-off

3.3 Go for quick wins

3.4 Use your body clock

3.5 Schedule your tasks

3.6 Schedule for task dependency

3.7 Schedule for resource dependency

3.8 Schedule for concurrent activity

3.9 Use your waiting time

Working to your plan

4.1 Deal with people distractions

4.2 Deal with other distractions

4.3 Use technology

4.4 Beware the Seven Wastes of Time

4.5 Manage your meetings

4.6 Fight fatigue

4.7 Practise ‘good housekeeping’

4.8 Avoid procrastination

4.9 ‘Sharpen the saw’

Saying “no”

5.1 Don’t say “yes” to every request

5.2 Just say “no”

5.3 Use 5Y questioning

Dealing with problems

6.1 Assess risks sensibly

6.2 Manage risks well

6.3 Define problems

6.4 ‘Appreciate’ problems

6.5 Choose a quick fix, then a long fix

6.6 Find the root cause

6.7 Learn how to improvise

Asking others to do things

7.1 Work to YOUR strengths

7.2 Influence others

7.3 Give good instructions

7.4 Learn the art of delegating

7.5 Use WIIFYs

7.6 Say “thank you”

7.7 Learn from doing

Jargon buster

Further reading

About the Author

About the Publisher

This book is dedicated to Margaret Ellen Slater

(1922–2009)

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.

• Asking others to do things.Sometimes the best way to do something is to get someone else to do it for you. This shows how you can successfully enlist the help of other people.

Learn the secrets of planning, prioritizing and managing workloads.

Firstlyit is critically important to recognize that you are responsible for your own destiny. This chapter aims to help you set out your personal mission or vision, to recognize the value of using your time wisely and to develop some foundation strategies to help you manage your time. You need to ensure that the things you do are of value both to you and to your organization.

Imagine you have an account at a bank where you automatically get credited each morning with $86,400. Every evening the bank takes back whatever part of the balance you failed to spend during the day. Nothing can be carried over or transferred. What would you do? Well, I’d try to spend every cent, and I bet you would too!