Ready For Anything.pdf

EADY FOR R EADY NYTHING A NYTHING 52 Productivity Principles For Work & Life DAVID ALLEN

manage agemen mentt con consul sultan tant, t, exe execut cutive ive coa coach ch and edu educat cator. or. He is the fou founde nderr and pre presid sident ent DAVID DAV ID ALL ALLEN EN is a man of his own consulting firm which over the last twenty years has worked with many Fortune 500 corporations and government agencies. Mr. Allen is the author of a newsletter (sent to more than 30,000 subscribers), Principles of Productivity , and a book, Getting book, Getting Things Done: the Art of Stress-Free Productivity (2001). Productivity (2001). Mr. Allen’s Web site is at www.davidco.com.

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Ready For Anything - Page 2

Four Major Areas of Productive Behavior 1

1

Completion

Themore thingsyou canget completed, theclearer you’llbe able to think about your new project. Clearing the decks also energizes you, and creates a feeling of accomplishment. That’s important to have at the start of a new project. You should also arm yourselfwitha tool for capturing new ideas. This needs to be something you’ll always have with you to capture new ideas the moment they occur to you. Configure it to suit your needs – a pocket notebook, three-by-five cards, miniature recorder – whatever works in with your preferences. Get into the habit of writing everything down

Too many people have jumbled thinking. To avoid this, do a “mind dump” – that is, write down everything that pops into your head, regardless of how important or how irrelevant that thought is. You can then take the material from your mind dump and evaluate it logically, deciding on some priorities. If you try and do this mentally, all you’ll end up creating is confusion. Instead, capture ideas by writing them down and then work through them, deciding what’s actionable and what’s not. 3

Make better choices by tracking your commitments

Until you know what you’ve already committed to doing, it will be impossible to agree to take on any new projects. By deliberately and consciously tracking your present commitments, you’ll also becomemore selectiveabout anyundertakings yougive to other people. What you wantto do is hit the right balance between controlsand constraints.That is, youwant to be able to concentrate on what’s important without having so many systems in place that your thinking becomes stifled. One way to achieve this is to create some simple daily processes for taking care of the important details of your life and career. With a thorough process in place, you deal with the important elements with a high level of awareness and attention. 4

5

Clean up your current projects before starting new ones

To create energy and clarity for a new project, go through and mentally clear the decks first by: • Completing all the projects you’re half-way through. • Processing everything in your in-basket. • Answering or purging all your mail and e-mail. • Clearing your desk and workspace. • Working through your stack of material you must read.

2

Four Major Areas of Productive Behavior

To achieve your goals, know your current realities

Before you can set meaningful priorities for the future, you have to take inventoryof where youare at present. Find theanswers to six key questions to do that: 1. What are your current daily tasks? 2. What are the projects you are now working on? 3. What specifically are your current areas of responsibility? 4. What changes do youanticipatehappening in thenext year? 5. What’s the big picture of changes over the next few years? 6. What do you see as your purpose for living? Once you make a thorough inventory of all your present commitments, you then have a more accurate perspective on how much time and energy can be committed to new projects that will move you towards your goals.

1

Completion

Visualize positive results and act constructively

To achieve more with your life: 

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Get things on paper – because if you try and remember everything, you’ll get muddled and confused. Make decisions when things show up – not when you’ve delayed deciding so long they become problems. Organize reminders – so you follow through and complete the projects you start rather than abandoning them. Keep your system current – so you can trust it completely rather than being out of date. That frees your intuition to help prompt you in what you should be doing. 6

Avoid conflicting commitments

Your mind is constantly tracking and reviewing all your commitments – big and small, professional and personal. Having too many open projects at any one time creates frustration and anxiety, impeding constructive actions. Therefore, to avoid this, spend time and energy clearing up all the “loose ends” before embarking on a major project. You’ll be able to focus on what’s needed to succeed far more effectively if you don’t have open loops nagging at the back of your mind. 7

Inventory all your open projects on paper

Never try and track all your open loops mentally. That will only cause confusion and stress. Instead: • Make a list of all your open projects (probably 30 - 100). • Write down the next step for each project. • Update your list regularly so it is current and applicable. Don’t worry if you don’t actually do anything on a project – that’s fine because it’s your conscious choice rather than the result of circumstance. Once you’ve specified what actions are required to move forward with each project, then you can start on the efficiency game of finding ways to get them all done. 8

Generate more energy by closing open loops

The more of your current projects you can complete, the more energized you’ll feel. Therefore, don’t worry about setting priorities. Get some projects finished each and every day. Clear out the mental clutter of unfulfilled commitments and you’ll be amazed at how great you feel. 9

If it’s on your mind, it won’t be getting done

Whenever something “bugs” you, take that as an indicator that you need to; • Do something that will progress the project; or • Decide what your next action should be; or • Put in place a reminder you’ll notice to act in the future. Don’t even attempt to keep all your self-commitments in your head. Allthat will produce is jumbled thinking or stress, neither of which are helpful. Instead, get into the habit of writing things down. Save your mental energy for bigger and better things. If you get into the habit of doing all your planning on paper rather than in your mind, you’ll be using your energy where it can produce the greatest benefits. Be smart about what you choose to think about, because that will have a large number of flow-on benefits and advantages.



1

Completion

For creative thinking, you have to make space


2

Focus

For greater clarity, shift your focus to a higher plane

Instead of saying to other peopleor yourself: “You know,if I didn’t have so many responsibilities, I could be very creative”, you need to take more control. The key is: • Write everything down. • Think about it all, not just what you get to. • Decide what needs to be done about all your projects. • Manage all your options in a consistent external system.

When things get tight or unexpected problems arise, that’s actually a great opportunity to reassess what you should be doing. To do this in practice, you have to remove yourself from your present stresses by: • Accepting your present realities. • Refocusing on what your goals are. • Decide and take the next physical move forward.

As you do this, you’ll find the experience highly liberating. The release of the pressure of trying to remember everything will create a surge of self-esteem that will cut through the fog and allow you to achieve much more. Once you get started, it then becomes a matter of being consistent as you work the system.

The sooner you get moving again, the better. There’s nothing to be gained by commiserating over bad breaks, so get back into action. Remind yourself the old battles count for nothing.

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Set up your life for expansion, not contraction

Do whatever it takes to make it worth your while, personally and professionally, to generate new business. That may mean raising your prices so you’re genuinely enthused when a new customer comes along. If you don’t do this, you will subconsciously resent new business, which is not helpful. Simplify your business systems, create the capacity for expansion, clear your mind and then go to work developing new ideas that will allow you to serve more people better than before. That way, you’ll welcome new opportunities, not shun them. 12

Periodically review where you’re heading

To think less about whatyou should be doing and thereby create more time for actually achieving, run regular reviews of the key elements of your life: 

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Every week, review all your open projects and write down a suitable next step for each. Every month or two, go over your life andcareer andcheckthe right projects are getting the right amount of attention. Every year, formulate a plan for where you want to be by the end of the next year. Every few years, sit down with other key people and think about your life’s direction and your lifestyle needs. Every so often, stop and reconnect with what your personal grand purpose of life is. 13

Be the master of your work, not its slave

By accurately categorizing and tracking everything you need to get done, you’ll have the confidence to think more about what really should be done. In other words, writing lists of actions to take is exceptionally useful because it helps you be more efficient, but effectiveness requires that you do the right things. Sometimes the right thing to do will not be something that’s on your lists, but because you’ve taken the time and thought to develop lists, you can feel confident that nothing important is being overlooked. In essence, the system works but not always in ways that you have planned. When you reach the stage where you process 100-percent of your requirements into a good system, you can then pay attention to what really counts without distraction. The true payoff will be that you’ll get the right things done, not necessarily that you’ll do everything on your lists.

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To start seeing patterns, visualize the outcome first

The human brain is actually very good at recognizing patterns. To harness this ability, visualize the outcome you desire first, in as much detail as possible. This will trigger your mind to start recognizing and noting the habits, competencies and methods which will be required to achieve that goal in reality. Mentally draw theblueprintby visualizing your outcome andthen let your mind fill in the blanks on how to go about realizing that objective. Things might not happen exactly as planned, butyou’ll be amazed at what you do ultimately end up accomplishing. 16

Do what’s most important, not what’s easiest

Always prioritize your tasks in a good system which makes sense to you. Your time should be allocated to doing what’s most important for the achievement of your goals – rather than what’s most recent, loudest or in-your-face. To do this in practice, you’ll need to develop your own task reminder and rating system. This will probably need to be more sophisticated than Post-it notes on your computer screen or phone slips left on your desk. The steps are simple: • Centralize all your tasks in one consistent location. • Setpriorities in thecontext of what’s most andleastimportant. • Make deliberate choices good about what to do next. 17

Your energy will always follow your thoughts

As a reminder system, many people leave items they have to take with them by the front door. That way, they are reminded of those items when they go to leave. The same principleapplies to what you think about. To work towards your goals, leave remindersin placeswhereyou’ll take noticeof them frequently. To achieve this, find something that suits your work style. For example, you might write down your long-term goals and affirmations on 3x5 index cards you carry with you or have displayed in prominent positions around your house. Consistentlychannel your thoughts andyour actions will followin the same direction. When you first start thinking about a long-term goal, it will be difficult because you won’t be able to visualize all the details. As you continue to think about the same goal again and again, it will become easier and easier until your mind delivers a plan to achieve what you’re thinking about. Consciously and deliberatelyfocus your thinking in this way, and you’ll be pointing your mental energy towards your goals. That will activate your thinking even more, enhancing your opportunities to find ways to deliver what’s required.



2

Focus

The clearer your thinking, the better you will perform

To enhance your creative instincts, clarify the purpose of why you are doing whatever you’re doing. Take an inventory of all your major assets and procedures. You’ll probably find many of them relateto historical needs rather than present requirements. Clear them out. Write down a purpose for each, and dispose of any that have outlived their usefulness. The more specific and unambiguous you are about your long-term goals, the easier it becomes to unleash your creativity. Clear away the clutter and move forward. 19

Aim to be the best at whatever you do

If you’re absolutely committed to doing your very best at whateveryou do ratherthan attempting to just be good enoughto getby, you’llfind previously untapped reservoirs of creativityand intelligence will open up to you. This will be refreshing but a little scary because you’ll have to leave behind your self-doubts and commit to excellence. Those who are attempting to excel in everything they attempt, however, experience incredible exhilaration and energy. This, in turn, will be highly motivational and satisfying. It all starts with a commitment to excellence. 20

Learn how to bootstrap your thinking

Always carry something with you to capture the positive thoughts that will come to you from time to time. As you mentally try and put your challenges into perspective, quite often solutions to problems with come to you out of the blue. Capture those ideas before they are replaced by different thoughts. Stimulate your thinking by carrying with you some personal affirmations and goals. You’ll be amazed at how many great ideas will come to you over the course of an average day if you only take the time and effort to encourage and then capture them. 22

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2

Focus

Trust your system

Once you’ve captured, organized, tracked and planned all your commitments, you’re then able to attack the present moment with all your energy rather than having something nagging at the back of your mind. In other words, once you have your system in place, trust it implicitly to remind you of everything you have to do. Focus on the task at hand with all your mental energy and then go on to the next task with equal fervor. This is far better than jumbled and disjointed thinking about all the elements of your life. 24

Efficiency requires certainty of direction

If you inject clarity of purpose into your life, you’ll find that you’ll have a much better perspective on the big picture issues as well. By focusing more on the reason for doing things and less on the mechanicsof thetasksthemselves,you also becomemore open to inspiration.You get a clearer sense on where everything fits in the grand scheme, rather than having your vision blurred by the actual mechanics of anything. In essence, efficiency (whicheveryonestrives for) only becomes possible when you have first determined how to be most effective in doing the right things.

To get different results in life, change your focus

How fast can you get back to a “ready” state of mind when unexpected events have occurred? Professionals get into the habit of refocusing in this way all the time, so they can be centered and balanced moving forward rather than mulling over past misfortunes. To achieve more with your life, you need to develop theabilityto getback to “ready” quicklyand frequently. 21

Four Major Areas of Productive Behavior

Think clearly about where you need to be

To increase your personal productivity, you need to get into the habit of doing three things consistently well: 1. Make decisions about what the next step is for all of the projects you’re working on. 2. Write down these actions and keep a centralized list for all the projects you currently have active. (By writing everything down, you can then concentrate witha clear mind on the task at hand rather than worrying about neglecting something). 3. Put reminders in places where you’ll see them at an appropriate time to encourage you to actually get into action on each project. These are the three master skills of productivity, and yet almost everyone will admit they can and should improve significantly in these skills.

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To get “in the zone”, focus on one thing at a time

The hallmark of high performance is an ability to give full attention to the task at hand. This is easy when something obviously has top priority, but most situations in life are far more ambiguous than that. The real key is to have everything else in order as part of a workable system. When that occurs, your conscious mind can focus on the moment rather than dedicating part of your mental capacity to trying to remember what else you have on. The key to getting more done can be summed up as: Achieving the appropriate amount of attention focused on the most appropriate task for the appropriate length of time and with the appropriate perspective applied. Do that consistently well and you’ll be “in the zone” for the bulk of your working career. You’ll also achieve more than you ever thought possible. 26

The real value of a goal is the change it fosters

The value of a future goal is not limited to what you will receive when you achieve it in the future. Rather, a goal changes what you perceive and how you act in the present. A good goal changes the quality and substance of the decisions you make today. It affects what you choose to feel, do and experience at this moment in time. This is why goals have a dual nature. In one sense, a goal specifies a destination, but in another sense it also defines the quality of the journey. Set exciting goals for your own personal future and you’ll find your present activities become equally invigorating because you know where they lead. This balance between outer circumstances and inner self-dialogue is dynamic and healthy. You can take great satisfaction from your outer activities, secure in theknowledgethat your inner thinking is also changing to align itself with the direction you want to head. Achieve this day-in and day-out and your life will become a succession of smaller victories leading to a great goal.


“Perfection of means and confusion of goals seem, in my opinion, to characterize our age.” – Albert Einstein “It might sound easy, yet it’s quite a feat to be able to stay conscious about what you’re doing, know where you’re going, identify all the things you’ve committed to, and cooperate with what’s not happening – so you can totally concentrate on what is.” – David Allen “Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of nonessentials.” – Lin Yutang “You’ve got to think about big things while you’re doing small things so that all the small things go in the right direction.” – Alvin Toofler “Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men’s blood and probably in themselves will not be realized. Make big plans; aim high in hope andwork remembering that a noble,logical diagram once recorded will never die.” – Daniel Hudson Burnham “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” – Albert Einstein “Thought is useful when it motivates for action, and a hindrance when it substitutes for action.” – Bill Raeder “The ancestor of every action is a thought.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson “An hour of effective, precise, hard, disciplined, and integrated thinking can be worth a month of hard work. Thinking is the very essence of, andthe most difficultthing to do in, business andlife. Empire builders spend hour after hour on mental work while others party. If you’re not consciously aware of putting forth the effort to exert self-guided integrated thinking, if you don’t act beyond your feelings and you take the path of least resistance, then you’regiving in to lazinessand no longercontrol your life.” – David Kekich “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” – Thomas Edison “The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled.” – Plutarch “It’s possible to owntoo much. A manwith onewatch knows what time it is; a man with two watches is never quite sure.” – Lee Segall “Lots of folk confuse bad management with destiny.” – Kin Hubbard “Before everything else, getting ready is the key to success.” – Henry Ford “There is noexpedient to which a man will not go toavoid the real labor of thinking.” – Thomas Edison


3

Structure

Stability in one area opens creative thinking in another

Many people assume organization and creativity are mutually exclusive – you can’t have one without the other. This is incorrect. If your affairs aretotally disorganizedand chaotic, it will be impossible for you to think creatively because something in theback of your mind will keep remindingyou about theproblem. Therefore, to enhance your creative output, get everything organized and in balance. Only then will you find that a natural and sustainable flow of creative energy will become available to you. 28

Match form and function for productivity

Master craftsmen know which tool is right for what job. In a similar vein, there are times when you need to be wearing your “Visionary” hat and times when you need to be wearing your “Action Man” hat. Wisdom comes in balancing these twointernal roles adroitly so you have sufficient time to come up with good ideas yet enough discipline to follow through. To keep a good balance here: • Let your visionary side fill your in-basket with new ideas. • Let your action man side ask what’s the next action for each. • Keep projects and someday/maybe lists for your visionary. • Maintaingood next-action lists foryour actionman personality. • Have a weekly review – where things are worked out. 29

Develop a reminder system your mind will trust

If you attempt to get everything out of your mind and into a reminder systemso youcan think more clearly, this will only work if your mind has confidence the system will actually work in practice.If there is anysort of doubt,your mind will keep on trying to remind you of tasks that have to be completed in the future. In practice, the best way to build this kind of confidence is through a weeklyreview.This will be where youcapture,process and organize everything you need to do in the future. If you do this consistently and in a disciplined way, your mind will start to acknowledge that everything is under control and will be acted upon. Therefore, your mind will stop tryingto nagyou about tasks and get busy focusing on the job at hand. Then you can do some real creative thinking instead of fuzzy thinking. 30

The more responsive your system is, the better

True competitive advantage comes when you put in place and maintain systems which can adapt to changes in your environment. Specifically, if you organize yourself in such a way that internal dilemmas are worked out and balanced, your response times will improve and perceived problems will go away. Do this by: 

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Becoming more adaptable – so that when the inevitable changes arise, you’re confident about your ability to respond accordingly. Balancing all your internal systems – so you avoid overreacting or underreacting to the demands of a situation. Becoming more aware of your environment – so you can anticipate the changes which will be required in the future rather than being blind-sided.



3

Structure

Realize a system is only as good as its weakest link

The whole idea behind any personal-management system is to free up resources for higher and better work. Therefore, look for bottlenecks in your system. That is precisely the point where problems will strike at the most inconvenient time imaginable. Address and strengthen that weakest link first because the system as a whole will never be able to rise above the performance in that critical area. 32

Create a smooth running, silent system

The whole objective of your system is to free up more time for creative thinking.When youhave to stop andfocus on fixingyour system, mental energy is being diverted away from the added-value creative thinking you could be doing. To avoid this, take thetime to develop a robustsystemin thefirstplace, andget it running smoothly before attempting anything else. That way, your system will become unobtrusive as it works in the background where it should be. 33

Always run a weekly review session

The key to making a personal management system work is to actually hold a weekly review meeting with yourself. Use that to clear your head of all your important tasks, clarify your goals and organize and update your lists. Make the weekly review the center-piece of your management system so it stays fresh and up-to-date. 34

Define what it means to win the game of business

Success in business is a matter of personal preference. What might be a huge win for one person or company may be nothing out of the ordinary for someone else. Create a projects list, and for each project specify an outcome. Then organize yourself to achieve as many of these outcomes as possible. This is the essence of success. 35

Make one person responsible for each outcome

Whenever two or more people are responsible for something, that usually means nobody really gets the job done. This is also true foryour own“internal committee” – thevarious facetsof your ownpersonality. Organize yourself from theinside out, so that for every project youundertake, youdecide in advance which part of your personality will be responsible – your active part or your visionary part, or so on. 36

Set principles, not policies

If youhave clear andunambiguousprinciples in place,then there is no need for you to rigorously police your policies. Instead, you can give people the freedom to make their own decisions and regulate their own behaviors. This will only work, however, if those people have brought into the standards you have put forward. To take this from the theoretical into the real-world, you might try sitting down with everyone and drafting up a document along the lines of the answerto one question: “We are atour best as an organization when....” The answer to that question will specify your collective values, and how they are actually expressed in the real world of whatyou do. Make these clear and there will be no need to micromanage people.


3

Structure

Think about your work, not of your work

The human mind is very good at collecting information and organizing it in better ways. Yet, most people try and use their minds instead to remember and remind them of the things they need to do in the future. This is a waste of mental bandwidth and capacity to achieve. To offset this, put in place an airtight reminder system – something that will capture, retain and produce the correct reminders at the appropriate time. Once you do that, your mind will then turn to its higher value tasks. Otherwise, it will keep on functioning as an internal alarm system only. 38

Your thoughts are more valuable than you realize

Get into the habit of writing down your thoughts as they occur to you so in freeform without internal censorship. Encourage spontaneity.Giveyour mind permission to come up with newand novel ideas, and jot down (on paper or on computer) the ideas that come to you. It will then be possible to come back at a later stage and evaluate those creative flashes of inspiration. Very often, the germ of something useful will be found in your rough sketch of a new idea. It may not be immediately obvious, and it certainly will need refining, but capturing ideas is very worthwhile. 39

The bigger the gap, the more you have to plan

Many times, whatyou need to do most is whateveryou most feel like avoiding. When you don’t feel like you have the time to plan, that’susually when youmost need to do some planning.Or when you most feel the need to pause and get better organized, there are usually crushing time demands thatmakes thatimpossible. In similar fashion, organizations generally only get creative when there is a huge gapbetween their objectives andtheir resources. If they have enough money to do everything they can think of, there is little incentive to think creatively. It’s only when the hard decisions are made about how to allocate scarce resources that the desire for efficiency will arise. Therefore, to enhance your own personal efficiency level, place yourself in situations where the gap between what you have and what you want is large. Then go to work trying to develop a creative way to bridge that gap. And repeat the cycle again and again. The results just may impress you. “The basic difference between an ordinary man and a warrior is that a warrior takes everything as a challenge while an ordinary man takes everything as either a blessing or a curse.” – Carlos Castaneda “Man is not the creature of circumstances. Circumstances are the creatures of men.” – Benjamin Disraeli “The primary tools that one needs in modern day culture are to know how to make things up, and how to figure things out.Thisis creativity in two of its forms. These are called imagination and problem-solving.” – Steven Snyder “The best way to get a good idea is to get lots of ideas.” – Linus Pauling



4

Action

Strive to be ready for anything

If you can deal competently with surprise developments on an organizational and personal level, you’ll do much better than those whostick rigidly to the guidelines which workedin the past. It’s when unexpected change challenges your own systems for productivity that you genuinely find out whether or not they are sufficiently robust. This is also where excellence can be achieved. In other words, manage your own game no matter what the external conditions are. Stay focused on being productive no matter what and you’ll alwaysbe notable because you’re moving forwards, not backwards. 41

Too much control is just as bad as too little

In just the same way as micromanagement stifles productivity, if you try and microorganize everything, you’ll get nowhere. You still need to allow some time and energy for thinking and making good, intuitive decisions if you are to achieve anything worthwhile. With this in mind, hit a good balance between organizing and doing. Once a week, review all your projects thoroughly and decide on the next action step for each. Then spend the bulk of your time working on those projects, rather than revisiting your planning meeting. Never let the form of your organizationalsystem detract from its function, to deliver results. 42

Trust your hunches on how you use your time

Some people set A,B,C priorities in an attempt to answer the question: “What’s the best thing for me to do right now?” The problem with that is this approach oversimplifies what is a complex and evolving question. A better idea, therefore, is to trust your judgement and intuition. Instead of working your way through a daily to-do list: 

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Prepare for the worst – by tying up the loose ends involved in honoring all your commitments and obligations. Imagine the best – that is, focus on your ideal outcomes. Shoot down the middle – meaning you favor action over analysis every day of the week 43

Practice multilevel self-management

Making good decisions about how to use your time is complex because you have to balance three different frameworks simultaneously: 1. The context – what you can actually do at this moment. 2. Your possibilities – whether you start a new project, take a next step on a current project or spend time processing your stuff. 3. Your commitments – the undertakings you have given to others and the deadlines you’ve agreed upon. Everyone has a life that exists on a number of levels. Simply being well organized won’t guarantee you are truly productive with every available minute. Instead, you need to hit a good balance. Makinga decision about howto spend a spare half hour that may crop up requires that you take into account all these frameworks simultaneously, otherwise your decision will most likely be flawed.


4

Action

To be most effective, eliminate stress and relax

Professional sports people perform best when they have the basics mastered and can relax rather than stressing over the basics. It’s the same in your own professional and personal life. You’ll operate with the greatest speed and precision if you remove anything that stresses you so you can relax a little more. To really focus on the task at hand, eliminate anything that may be bubbling awayin the back of your mind first. Invest the time to handlethesedistractions andyou will reap thebenefitsof greater focus and productivity. 45

Integrate surprises as part of your plan

A good planner will always ask: “What could possibly go wrong with this plan, and how will we handle it if that contingency eventuates?”You need to do thesame.In every project youwork on (personal or business), anticipate that some or many surpriseswill arise.That waywhenthings go wrong,you’ll accept these developments for what they are and keep moving forward towards your objectives. Doing this beforehand defuses the ability of constant changes in circumstances to derailyourplans. 46

Have a very long time horizon

The further down the road you’re looking with your plans, the more options you’ll see and the easier it will to make course changes as circumstances change. There’s also the added advantage that with a long time horizon, you can make elegant moves rather than being forced to make reactive stabs at whatever should be done. With this in mind, look as far ahead as feasible. Make your short-term decisions on the basis of your long-term objectives and you’ll get there faster than you ever thought possible. Conversely, keep chopping and changing as your environment evolves, and you’ll dissipate all your energy fighting the short-term battles but losing the long-term war. 47

Speed up by slowing down

Relax. There is never enough time and energy to do everything you can imagine. Sometimes, the most productive thing you can do is nothing at all. Then, when you get back into action, youcan use strategies that are better, or you can reengage in a more intelligent way. If you’re too caught up in the practicalities of the day-to-day operation of anything you can lose the plot of the bigger picture. When that happens, you can become more productive by slowing down and relaxing rather than attempting to increase your misdirectedphysical activities. People in a hurry sometimes become so myopic that they expend all their energy on activities of only marginal value rather than getting to the heart of the matter. Therefore, relax. Go to dinner with your spouse or someone importantin your life. Getyour team offsite andlet them hang out together. Put in the clutch (figuratively), so you can shift to a higher gear. You’ll find that after a quick break, your mental capacities and physical energy levels will return, and you’ll be able to make some genuine headway on your projects. By relaxing a little, you’ll be better positioned to play your best game rather than being forced to play your quick game.



4

Action

You can’t do a project – you do action steps

You can’t actually do a project. Instead, you do action steps. When enough action steps have been completed, your project will then reach its objective. Therefore, there really is no such thing as a “long-term project” that you’rewaitingto getstarted on. Either you have specified the next action step for a genuine project which can be completed as soon as possible, or your project really should be on a “Someday/Maybe” list of projects that might one day either get started or dropped. Never fool yourself into thinking a project should not have a short-term deliverable specified for it because of its long-term nature. Be more honest with yourself than that. A real project will have a next action specified, otherwise it doesn’t belong on your open projects list. 49

Small things, done repeatedly, can have a major impact

If you automatically invest a small percentage of your weekly incomein an investment, compound interest cangeneratea very significant returnaftera numberof years.In similar fashion, if you regularly invest a small amount of your time in achieving your professionaland personal projects,you canachieve a lotover an extended period of time. It isn’t the actual amount of time and effort invested that counts, but the consistency. For example, if you can manage your time so as to get 10-percent ahead of your demands rather than constantly being 10-percent behindon every project, you’llfind there is a quantum leap in your productivity and self-esteem levels. The small actions which are engaged in regularly day-in and day-out are the real key to experiencing positive experiences. 50

The best way to really know something is to do it

Real knowledge comes from intentional activity. It’s always easier to change direction when you’re in motion than it is to get started from a standing start.The peoplewho actually implement something are better positioned to appreciate its value than someone who looks at it theoretically. In the workplace, this often means the people who most need to manage their time are the least likely to do so, while those who arealready attempting to usetheirtime productivelyare themost receptive to new ideas. Similarly, those who don’t currently experience a level of dissatisfaction with their productivity are less likely to invest time and effort in learning how to improve. High performers are always willing to research and sharpen up their processes, while average performers are happy with their current levels of performance. With this in mind, don’t get discouraged if your co-workers, your spouse, your boss, your children or your assistant don’t get all that fired up about enhancing their own productivity as you attempt to do so. Some people will take the ball and run with it, others will not. Take personal satisfaction from making your own way forward rather than depending on the judgements of others who have different priorities and objectives.


4

Action

If you feel overwhelmed, take the helm

People who are driving a car seldom get carsick. Similarly, peoplewho have thehelm of a boat rarelyfeel queasyor seasick. The same principle applies to your life’s work.If you feel like your work is out of control, get into action collecting, processing, organizing and managing your projects. Become the cause of great accomplishment, rather than the unwilling victim of events beyond your control. If you try and avoid things that demand your attention, this willbe like attempting to stop a boat in the ocean from rocking. Instead, focus. For everything that comes to your attention, ask yourself two key questions and write down the answers: • What’s my desired outcome here? • What’s my next action to move in that direction? 52

Big successes will come from the most failures

You should never attempt to measure your own personal progress by any specific success or failure. Everyone has loads of small failures on the way to bigger success. In many ways, these small failures arethe inputsrequiredto correct your course so you can reach your intended destination. Mistakes at least show you’rein thegamerather than watchingfrom thesidelines. With this in mind, don’t beat yourself up if you swing and miss. Feeling guilty won’t help. Instead, focus on doing your best with your next swing, and the one after that. Don’t worry – you’ll get loads of turn at bat.Playthe gameto win and be preparedto lose as often as you need to get to where you want to be. “Thousands of people have talent. I might as well congratulate you for having eyes in your head. The one and only thing that counts is: Do you have staying power?” – Noel Coward “Aim for success, not perfection. Never give up your right to be wrong, because then you will lose the ability to learn new things and move forward with your life. Remember that fear always lurks behind perfectionism. Confronting your fears and allowing yourself theright to be human can, paradoxically, make you a far happier and productive person.” – Dr. David Burns “Human behavior and awareness can be at the same time really simple, really complex and infinitely explorable. As you digest and put these principles into action, there is a good chance you will contribute more to your job and your life as a whole. Reading them will likely reinforce subtle changes in your perceptions, which lead to changes in behavior.A changein behavior leads to a change in action and in results. Things spiral outward in larger and larger ways. Change occurs, and a positive shift happens. It’s most often the small things, done consistently in strategic places, that make the most difference. May these principles serve as road signs and guideposts along your way.” – David Allen

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