Boost Your Productivity E-Book

Nicholas Bate

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 57

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2014

Beschreibung

You're half an hour away from a more productive life! Why not use your next spare half an hour to skill-up? Each of these short e-books can be read in just 30 minutes. Addressing those painful work problems, and giving practical tools and expert advice to overcome them, the 30 Minute Reads series will make your work-life more productive, less painful and more successful! Too much to do and not enough time to do it in? Spend 30 minutes boosting your productivity with this succinct, pragmatic guide then blast through your to-do list and leave everyone else trailing in your wake. Also available in a digital bundle with 4 other titles as part of 30 Minute Reads: The business skills collection. Boost Your Productivity will help you: * Identify the problem and what isn't working * Discover the 10 Big Strategies * Put in place your super-structured, super-easy, 5-day count-down plan to no more pain.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Title page

What will this book do for you?

1: The Philosophy

The Challenge

The Detail

The Story

The Solution

2: Decide Your Bigger Picture

The Challenge

The Detail

The Story

The Solution

3: Set Your Compass

The Challenge

The Detail

The Story

The Solution

4: Make the Right Stuff Happen

The Challenge

The Detail

The Story

The Solution

5: Being More Productive at Work

The Challenge

The Detail

The Story

The Solution

6: Getting Things Done Despite People

The Challenge

The Detail

The Story

The Solution

7: Getting Things Done in a Virtual World

The Challenge

The Detail

The Story

The Solution

8: Being More Productive at Home

The Challenge

The Detail

The Story

The Solution

9: Paradoxical Productivity

The Challenge

The Detail

The Story

The Solution

10: Your Action Plan

The Challenge

The Detail

About the Author

Copyright page

What will this book do for you?

Everybody has too much to do; the call centre operator trying to clear the backlog of calls, the CEO running for her plane to JFK, the single mother juggling the school run and her home-based proofreading service.

Nobody has enough time: not the vicar trying to produce a great sermon for Sunday and see all those who need his attention; not the nurse trying to cover a large ward, nor the manager of the small corner shop.

A lot of people are worried. They can't say “no” as their job is on the line. They are already working very long hours. They are exhausted, the email won't go away and Twitter, which seemed so much fun at first, is now just a right pain.

Relax, help is at hand. Thoughtful, yet pragmatic. Practical and easy. Home and work. That's Boost Your Productivity: a primer for getting your life sorted, getting everything back on track and doing what is really important to you, not just who or what is shouting at you loudest.

Here's the structure of Boost Your Productivity

Section 1: The Philosophy. We're not going to dive in with lists, plans and continually saying “no”. We know it's got to be deeper than that. This will be a vital introduction.

Section 2: Decide Your Bigger Picture. It'll all come together if we know what the bigger picture is: that starts here.

Section 3: Set Your Compass. And continues here.

Section 4: Make the Right Stuff Happen. And this is how we make our goals, plans and vision a reality on a day-to-day basis.

Section 5: Being More Productive at Work. The simple ideas that really do make a huge difference at work.

Section 6: Getting Things Done Despite People. It'd be so easy if it weren't for other people. How to get them thinking your way.

Section 7: Getting Things Done in a Virtual World. How to use the cleverness yet ignore the demands of the digital and virtual worlds.

Section 8: Being More Productive at Home. How to get it all done and be happy in your personal life.

Section 9: Paradoxical Productivity. Now you have a great system, a few little curiosities to add to your skill portfolio.

Section 10: Your Action Plan. Your personal checklist to success.

The majority of the sections will start with the big idea (e.g., stopping other people taking up your time unnecessarily) and then explain how to address that challenge in more detail. There will then be a mini case study: those at home or work with the same challenges you have, that we all have; this gives you a chance to see how they practically implement the concepts. We'll also make sure your toughest questions are answered before a final summary. Everything in this book is tried and tested: it is both pragmatic and practical. We encourage you to start using the ideas immediately as that's the way this digital version was designed.

Read on …

1

The Philosophy

The Challenge

No, please don't skip this section! The word “philosophy” is perhaps a little daunting especially when you were just seeking some simple, pragmatic methods of getting more done, reducing the torrent of email and having some quality time with the children during the working week. The latter – practical tips – we will definitely, absolutely provide. And soon. But if you truly, deeply want to achieve – or return to – a state of peak productivity where you are achieving what you want to achieve, living the life you wish to live and not feeling exhausted doing it, a bit of philosophy is important. Go on: it's not so bad. You'll see!

No? Really, no? Then skip to Section 4 where you will find practical tips galore. But please, do come back to this section when you have been reassured that such practical help is provided. This is the section that will ultimately allow you to understand where the real breakthrough in your personal productivity will be made.

The Detail

Philosophy? Yes, because there are some deeper questions we need to answer:

What do you mean by productivity?

Most begin to look at the field of “time management” and question their productivity because of overload: they find they simply cannot keep up with assignments and tasks without digging into their personal time and although they are willing to do that for a while, the consequent cost for quality of output, their most important relationships and their health increasingly becomes something they are not willing to accept. And much time management advice attempts to solve such challenges with “quick fix” tips, which rarely solve the true dilemma: the problem simply keeps coming back. We do want to solve it once and for all and it does require a robust answer to “what do you really mean by productivity?”

Thus: are you considering the bigger questions?

Because clearly at one level “being productive” is doing what you are paid to do if you are an employee. Or successfully running your business if you are self-employed. However that is only one dimension; in a simpler world it was reasonably straightforward to consider it in that way. But in the New World of Work – to which we are all exposed – of severe competition, 24 by 7 working and increasingly less distinction between “home” and “work” there are other implications we need to ponder, such as: Where is your career going? And how are you maintaining important friendships? And looking after your health? And managing your finances, not just for now, but also for the future? Perhaps if you are delivering on your quarterly targets you are being efficient (getting things done). But if you have become ill in the process you have not necessarily been effective (getting the right things done).

Do you know that it's pretty easy but it will require you to “be different”?