Getting Things Done

Collins

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First published in Great Britain in 2010 by HarperCollinsPublishers

Published in Canada by HarperCollinsCanada.www.harpercollins.ca

Published in Australia by HarperCollinsAustralia.www.harpercollins.com.au

Published in India by HarperCollinsPublishersIndia.www.harpercollins.co.in

FIRST EDITION

Copyright © HarperCollinsPublishers 2010

SECRETS and BUSINESS SECRETS are trademarks of HarperCollinsPublishers

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.