Action 4 ASK: WHAT IS THIS MOMENT ABOUT? -Master your initiative, boundaries and yourself
Remind yourself the hardest part of time management isn''t making a plan-it''s the day-to-day follow-through To get more done, concentrate on mastering all the distractions which you encounter To do that:
Master your initiative-Learn how to overcome procrastination and initiate movement.
Master your boundaries-Resist distractions by responding to requests from others.
Master yourself-Combat interruptions by creating a few productive ones yourself.
The first category of distractions is when you know what you need to be doing to be productive and yet you fritter away your time on inconsequential stuff This is where getting started is the challenge So how do you fix that?
■ Design your physical environment so it naturally propels you towards your goal-make it easier to do what you want to get done and harder not to.
For example, if you want people to communicate with each other, have Skype installed on everyone''s computer and permanently attach a video camera to their computers. That way, there''s no setup time required and the equipment is always sitting there impossible to ignore. More often than we realize, our actions are dictated by our environment. Create an environment where doing what''s productive is easy and natural.
Be aware you need less motivation that you realize-so figure out practical ways you can motivate yourself for just a few seconds at a time. If you can just get rolling, you''ll find it easy to keep going so tell yourself you''ll just give it a try and see what happens. Remind yourself you will evaluate your day later on and change things if needed so for now, just do it.
Have fun-perhaps make what you''re working on a competition with a great prize. It doesn''t have to be expensive, anything will do. If something is fun, you''re more likely to get started than if it''s not so find ways to make what you must do fun. In practice, fun is more efficient than efficiency so get creative.
Use fear as a catalyst for change-but keep in mind fear only works in the short-term. Once you do get going, you need to focus on the pleasures of achieving what you''re doing. Use fear to make a start and then stress the positive impact of your choice to keep going.
Ask: Am I the kind of person who will put off doing something important for something inconsequential? -and then answer the question by getting stuck into what you''re supposed to be doing. Self image can be a powerful motivator. If you tell the right story about yourself to yourself, you can and will do the right things.
Get out of your own way-pretend and act as if you are productive until you are. The mind is superb at making self-fulfilling predictions. Focus on being productive and acting that way and that''s what you will become. Don''t be your own worst enemy when it comes to getting great stuff done.
Key Thoughts"The sooner we get started in making valuable use of our time, the more fully we''ll live our lives. Getting started doesn''t have to be hard. We can design our environment so it naturally impels us towards our goals. Once we realize that it only takes a second to get going, we can simply will ourselves through procrastination. Or we can make the task so fun that we won''t feel hesitant at all. If that doesn''t work, then a little fear, a good story, or the productive use of our imagination can all help."
"If you want to lose weight, shut your eyes before taking the first bite of ice cream and imagine, for a brief second, what you would look like if you were twice your current size.
Think about how you might get diabetes. Really visualize it.
Exaggerate it even. That''s your stimulus. The spark plug that will start your engine of change. And then, after a few days, as you begin to feel healthier, more energetic, you can let go of that fear and hold on to the feeling of a looser belt."
—Peter Bregman
The second kind of challenge to following through on your plan comes from other people. You might be heading the right direction but well-meaning people who don''t even realize what they''re doing can sidetrack you. These people aren''t malicious-they just need your attention for a few minutes.
To stop people becoming a distraction, there are a few ideas you can try:
■ Learn to say yes appropriately-so you can avoid the time sucking aspects of unnecessary collaboration. When you work in an organization, people will come at you from all directions seeking your perspective or inviting you to work on their pet project. That''s flattering but potentially unproductive. Resist the temptation to say yes. Instead, ask yourself three questions whenever someone makes a request:
1. Am I the right person for this?
2. Is this the right time?
3. Do I have enough information to contribute?
If your answer to any or all of these questions is no then don''t do it. Pass it on to someone else, reschedule it for a better time or wait until you have more information. Be slow to say yes and your personal productivity will soar.
Say no convincingly-and never break your word. It''s hard to recover from interruptions so your best defense is to make sure they don''t happen in the first place. If people do need to interact with you and give you feedback, schedule an appointment and then be relentless in insisting they stick to their appointed time. When you do decide to say no, mean it.
Don''t wait too long to bring something up-talk to people about what''s frustrating you. A realistic rule-of-thumb is if someone brings something up three times, talking to them might be helpful. That takes away those ambiguous situations where you wonder whether talking to them will be more trouble than it''s worth. Trying to decide when to talk to someone and when to ignore a minor point can consume surprising amounts of time. Avoid it by sticking to your three strikes rule.
Sometimes, to enhance productivity, you''ve got to increase your transition time-take five or ten minutes to figure out how you can make the meeting shorter, faster and more productive. With a bit of luck, that quick break may spark an idea that shaves thirty minutes or more off the task you''re trying to do. Spending your transition time plotting how to maximize your outcome can work wonders. So much so, in fact, you might even schedule five or ten minutes of transition time into your calendar in the first place. Or you might finish a meeting ten or fifteen minutes early and use that time to prepare for the next one.
At other times, decreasing transition time boosts productivity-like when you have a major change coming up you''re better off taking the plunge immediately and moving forward rather than trying to delay. If you have something difficult to do, try and get it over and done with first thing in the morning so it doesn''t impact on your entire day.
When you take a vacation, schedule regular times when you will be contactable-and then unplug completely the rest of the time. There''s nothing worse than being on vacation and feeling the need to check in at the office all the time. That circumvents the idea of a vacation in the first place. Instead of sitting around worrying, tell your office you will be available by phone or e-mail at these specific times.
Use those periods to plug in and catch up and then unplug completely the rest of the time. You''ll be amazed at how many problems resolve themselves without you.
Key Thoughts"Knowing when to say yes and how to say no. Knowing when to confront someone and how to draw boundaries with them and, in many cases, with yourself. That sets the foundation to master distractions set before you by others."
"Spend your transition time plotting how to maximize your outcome. Need people''s ownership? Think about how you can involve them more openly, get their perspectives, and engage them. Going to a dinner? Ponder how you can have more fun. To make this work, we need to schedule it-literally put transition time on our calendars."
—Peter Bregman
Key Thoughts"Even when we''re working alone, behind closed doors maybe, with no one to distract us, somehow, someway, we''re often able to find creative ways to distract ourselves.
Maybe it''s the allure of an incoming email. Or the overwhelming desire for perfection that subverts our efforts to stick with hard work when it looks ugly. Maybe we''re working hard, but the effort doesn''t seem to be producing results, and we''re not sure what to do differently, so we feel the almost overwhelming urge to quit. These are common distractions we experience whenever we try to accomplish something meaningful and demanding."
—Peter Bregman
What''s the best way to maintain your commitment to being productive when you feel like giving up? A few tools you might try:
Fight fire with fire-meaning combat distracting interruptions by creating a few productive ones. If you get distracted, go whole hog. Read a book. Watch a movie. Tell yourself you won''t think about what you should be working on and you will find you won''t be able to stop yourself thinking about the project. Distraction, when used intentionally, can sometimes be a great asset.
Avoid multitasking like the plague-it doesn''t work and your productivity will plunge. Most people switch between tasks rapidly to give the impression they are multitasking but that''s inefficient too. To avoid any temptation to multitask:
Turn off anything which may interrupt you.
Create unrealistically short deadlines.
Cut your meeting times in half.
Give yourself less time to accomplish things.
Make it obvious you''re in a hurry.
Remember you''re not perfect so relax a little.
Keep reminding yourself the world doesn''t reward perfection-it rewards productivity. Therefore, be prepared to fail.
Perfectionists never get started on things because they can''t do them perfectly and then never ship because they''re not happy with what they''ve done yet. To avoid that:
Expect to make some mistakes while learning.
Set some clear expectations and get started.
Do what feels right for you, even if others disagree.
Remember if you do things often, you''ll get better.
Realize good-enough is usually all that''s required.
Overall, perfection is over-rated. The only way you''ll be productive is if you make a decision and then follow through and get your stuff out there. So do it.
Understand the value of getting things half right-which applies most of the time outside of life-or-death situations. To build ownership for a new idea, tell the other person you only expect them to get it half right first time around and that will be fine. Sit down and work out ways you can make the new idea work for them even if it''s not optimized at first. You''ll find far less pushback to this approach than if you come in with a long list of specifications which must be met. This is a pretty savvy approach to getting people to do something worthwhile.
Be flexible-or in other words don''t use a basketball on a football field. Life changes all the time. Consistency is overrated. The people who do well are inconsistent so they can go with the flow as the business environment changes.
Be prepared to modify what you do to match the changing terrain. Before you decide what to do, ask:
What''s the outcome I''m after here?
Who else is involved?
How can I help?
When changes come along as they always will, pause and work your way through those three questions. Figure out what you can do to convert the change into an asset you can leverage in the future and move forward.
本书评论