People ask me why I like business and motivational quotes (That's most of what my Twitter and Linkedin Stream is). Quotations are a way to express a view and impart wisdom without sounding conceited.
The irony is, it almost does not matter who said it. People figure if it is a quote, the person must be someone insightful and they just don't know the person. The person who is quoted can sometimes help and sometimes hurt the impact depending on whether the reader has high respect and likes the individual quoted or not.
Nicolas Soergel wrote a book called Happy About An Extra Hour Every Day. Of course being a Time Management student and author myself, I was really looking forward to learning a few new gems.
I agree with the gist of everything he said in the basis of Time Management. Have clear goals. Goals come before action. Then have a to do list and prioritize it. Write things down. Habits are one of the best ways to gain effectiveness. Plan. All simple but effective. What I was looking for was new tips. I am a bit of a tough customer for new tips since I have read most books published in the last 10 years on the topic.
The book is not advocating a particular system, rather it is a compendium of tips.
Much of the book seemed fairly junior. Perhaps I am too studied and practise too much of it? Many of the tips seemed too obvious. Some seemed too trivial.
Some of his tips:
1 - Chaining as a way to build a habit. Think of building a chain for each day or week you do something. EG. If I want to run daily, each day I run is a new link. Perhaps I build 20 links then skip a day. I then start a new chain and try to break 20 etc.
2 - In cleaning, use 2 hands. Why not use 2 cloths instead of 1?
3 - Less credit cards or bank accounts means less paperwork, less reconciling etc.
4 - Have a don't do list. (one of my favourites)
5 - Buy in large quantity (EG Business Cards) to save the time of re-buying
6 - Pay annually rather than monthly - EG insurance.
I liked the list of websites the book has. They are good resources.
The book is short (which I like - see In Praise of Brevity)- 100 pages.
I actually think buying in bulk can be a bad idea, as it can create all the overhead of sorting, storing, and retrieving the left overs. Maybe this isn't applicable to business cards (you usually have a drawer in your desk for them) but I find it to be true for many other things, such as office supplies that you use infrequently. In these cases I find it better to buy a small quantity, use it, throw the rest out, and move on. Not only saves time, but cuts down on clutter too.
ReplyDeleteTed