12,99 €
GAIN MORE TIME FOR WHAT YOU LOVE Are you constantly juggling multiple tasks and operating at 100 per cent or more? Do you feel you are permanently on the treadmill and can't get off? If you needed extra capacity for something urgent, could you find it? In The 1-Day Refund, best-selling author and time management expert Donna McGeorge shows you how to recover an extra 15 per cent of your time--10 minutes per hour, 1 hour per day or a full day each week--to think, breathe, live and work. By creating more space, you'll discover a new ability to focus on what's truly important to you. In this book, you'll also: * Learn to achieve more by doing less and create more space across all areas of your life * Stop being at the mercy of other people's agendas and learn to say 'no' when you truly don't have time. * Develop your capacity to cope with change and unpredictability and rid yourself of that feeling of overwhelm A fantastic resource for middle managers, supervisors, and those on the frontlines of work, school, sports, and family, The 1 Day Refund is one of the best investments any busy person can make. With The 1-Day Refund, you'll be on your way to getting back a full day, so you can take advantage of any opportunity that comes your way. The 1-Day Refund is the third book in Donna McGeorge's It's About Time series. With The 25-Minute Meeting, you'll learn to give your meetings purpose and stop them wasting your time; with The First 2 Hours, you'll find the best time of the day to do your most productive work; and with The 1-Day Refund, you'll discover how to give yourself the extra capacity to think, breathe, live and work.
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Seitenzahl: 155
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
About the author
Acknowledgements
Introduction
How to use this book
PART I: WHY WE NEED TO TAKE BACK TIME
CHAPTER 1: We're busy addicts
Trading time for money
Reframe laziness
CHAPTER 2: We need the capacity to adapt
Are you at max capacity?
CHAPTER 3: We perform best with less
Small things, consistently
Give yourself a break
PART II: HOW TO SPEND YOUR TIME WISELY
CHAPTER 4: Thinking space
Purple patches
Decelerate
Decompress
Decide
CHAPTER 5: Breathing space
Disengage
Disconnect
Devote
CHAPTER 6: Living space
Design
Declutter
Decomplicate
CHAPTER 7: Working space
Define
Defrag
Delegate
Final chapter bonus!
Your savings plan
Where to now?
Work with me
Sources
Introduction
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Index
End User License Agreement
Chapter 2
Figure 2.1: the energy/time matrix
Chapter 4
Figure 4.1: thinking space
Figure 4.2: Kanban
Chapter 5
Figure 5.1: breathing space
Chapter 6
Figure 6.1: living space
Chapter 7
Figure 7.1: working space
Figure 7.2: defragging
Part 2
Figure A: space framework
Final chapter bonus!
Figure B: The First 2 Hours framework
Figure C: The First 2 Hours template
Your savings plan
Figure D: The 1‐Day Refund Savings Plan
Cover Page
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright
About the author
Acknowledgements
Introduction
How to use this book
Begin Reading
Final chapter bonus!
Your savings plan
Where to now?
Work with me
Sources
Index
End User License Agreement
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STOP what you're doing and read this. And then stop doing the things that are sucking your time, head space and creativity. Donna once again brings practical, fluff‐free guidance to regain space and time to spend on what matters most.
— Steph Clarke, facilitator, designer and podcaster (Steph’s Business Bookshelf )
Organisations have always asked ‘how do we get the most done in the shortest amount of time?’. The question for us as individuals is, ‘how can I best spend my own time?’ Donna makes work work and in this brilliant addition to her productivity series, she tackles the relationship between work and time, and shows us how to get a refund of our most valuable commodity – time.
— Matt Church author of Rise Up: an evolution in leadership and founder of Thought Leaders
We all remember a great teacher. Holding attention. Caring to make important matters practical and bringing joy to life. Donna is such a teacher. She brings care, attention and practicality into her teaching and writing about time, every time. In her latest book The 1‐Day Refund, Donna puts a powerful promise on the cover, that's not left hanging. It's great to know there's a bit of science behind the 85% that yields flow, Donna then delivers the ideas, tools and techniques to think differently about how we achieve this. How we govern time ourselves makes for a better leader in each of us.
The 1‐Day Refund completes Donna's ‘Trilogy on Time’ — it's a great bookend to her teaching and writing on being effective with the time we have available and making life better for everyone.
— Dr Richard Hodge, This Century Leadership and Governance, DrRichardHodge.com
The productivity section of the self‐help bookshelf has never been my cup of tea. The genre has always been so intensely focused on maximising our ability to produce stuff that it rarely seemed conducive to actually enjoying a full and balanced life.
For that reason, Donna McGeorge's contributions deserve to be a category unto themselves. The 25 Minute Meeting and The First 2 Hours are each a gift to those of us that want to unshackle ourselves from the busyness of the status quo and embrace a life of calm and control. In that vein, I think the book you hold in your hands might be Donna's coup‐de‐grace. The stand‐out quote from the introduction is ‘Instead of trading time for money, we need to trade energy for impact’, which resonates down to my soul, and in true Donna McGeorge style the pages that follow describe and unpack a strategy for helping you achieve exactly that.
Since reading this book I'm trying a number of the experiments Donna suggests, with some very encouraging results. If you too deserve a day of your time back, I heartily endorse Donna and the ideas shared in this book.
— Col Fink, speaker, author of Speakership and Tribe of Learning, head of programs at Thought Leaders
Anyone who can give me back an extra day each week is a total genius! Thanks Donna.
— Kieran Flanagan, speaker and author of Selfish, Scared & Stupid and Forever Skills
DONNA McGEORGE
First published in 2022 by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd
42 McDougall St, Milton Qld 4064
Office also in Melbourne
© John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd 2022
The moral rights of the author have been asserted
ISBN: 978‐0‐730‐39820‐2
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the Australian Copyright Act 1968 (for example, a fair dealing for the purposes of study, research, criticism or review), no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, communicated or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission. All inquiries should be made to the publisher at the address above.
Cover design by Wiley
Cover and part opener image: © Ankudi/Getty ImagesInternal illustrations by Donna McGeorge
Disclaimer
The material in this publication is of the nature of general comment only, and does not represent professional advice. It is not intended to provide specific guidance for particular circumstances and it should not be relied on as the basis for any decision to take action or not take action on any matter which it covers. Readers should obtain professional advice where appropriate, before making any such decision. To the maximum extent permitted by law, the author and publisher disclaim all responsibility and liability to any person, arising directly or indirectly from any person taking or not taking action based on the information in this publication.
Donna McGeorge makes work work.
She is passionate about enhancing the time we spend in the workplace (too much, for many of us) to ensure it is effective and productive, and enjoyable.
Donna has worked with managers and leaders throughout Australia and the Asia–Pacific for over 20 years. In 2020 she, like many of us, transitioned her work from live, in‐person to online. She delivers productivity programs, keynotes and webinars globally across a mix of industries.
Her CV is as eclectic as her record collection (yes, classic vinyl). In addition to roles at Telstra, Qantas, Ernst & Young and Ansett, she has managed Theatre, Sports and Concert Tours for the UK‐based travel company Keith Prowse and been the Asia–Pacific Organisational Development Manager for the Ford Motor Company in Shanghai.
Donna also shares her knowledge for good through appearances on The Today Show, radio interviews across Australia and writing articles for publications including The Age, Boss Magazine, Smart Company, B&T Magazine and HRM. The 1‐Day Refund is the third book in her ‘It's About Time' productivity series. The other two are The 25‐Minute Meeting and The First 2 Hours, published by John Wiley & Sons in 2018 and 2019 respectively.
She runs her business from her home in Hope Island, South East Queensland, a region known for its world‐class beaches, but her most creative moments come while sipping tea on her balcony and gazing at the meandering waterways with her husband, Steve, and her dog, Prudence.
Donna believes that while workplaces are complex, they are not hard. More often than not it's getting the simple things right, consistently, that has the greatest impact.
She also knows that when we decide to be intentional, we can surprise ourselves with what we can achieve.
www.donnamcgeorge.com
In 2018 I published my first ‘proper' book, The 25‐Minute Meeting. It was a super‐steep learning curve, and I couldn't have done it without the team who supported me. In 2019, just a year later, I published The First 2 Hours and, following the global pandemic, here I am in 2021, publishing my third book. Again, it has been a team effort.
Lucy Raymond, Chris Shorten, Renee Aurish and the team at Wiley — thank you for offering me the opportunity to turn two books into a series and working hard with me to get the title and message right for this one. You have opened up my work to the world and I'm forever grateful.
Kelly Irving — legend. We worked at a rocking pace for this one! I have come to rely heavily not only on your editing skill but on your intellect, your deep knowledge (no doubt from reading HEAPS of books) and your no‐nonsense approach to writing great business books. Blessed to have you in my world.
Janine Garner — you loved my stuff so much you started sharing it far and wide before it was even fully developed in my head! Thank you for putting me in front of your valued inner circle and clients.
Anne Marie — once again your honesty and humour in applying your exquisite knowledge of the Queen's English are appreciated and loved. It was during our regular morning walks, where I shared, mused and debriefed many of the concepts in this book. Thank you.
Emma McGeorge — you continue to be the inspiration for much of my writing as I strive to create a better corporate working environment for everyone and, particularly, for you. I love you, my darling girl.
And finally, there is nothing I could do in my professional or personal life without the loving support of my husband, Steve. Our location has changed since the last time I wrote acknowledgements for a book, but nothing else has. You are still of service. You still swap out empty cups of tea and bring me snacks without my noticing. I'm still blessed. Thank you, my love.
In 2020, Kim, like many workers around the world, found herself either in lockdown or being encouraged to work from home as authorities tried to get a handle on the pandemic.
Based in Victoria, she experienced one of Australia's toughest and longest lockdowns as it affected not just her but her family.
Prior to the pandemic, she would take her three‐year‐old son to day care. Mornings were chaotic for everyone. A far from relaxed breakfast, often eaten on the run, was followed by a half‐crazed drive for the drop‐off and the daily heartbreak of her son crying and clinging to her legs.
When lockdown hit and she had to work from home, Kim had time to walk her son to day care because she no longer had to commute. The tears and clinging stopped immediately. The dawdling morning walk allowed for a slower and calmer transition.
Kim had been refunded her commute time. The two hours a day gifted to her by COVID‐19 restrictions were hers to use however she wished. She could simply have continued the upsetting morning routine, but she decided instead to spend the time wisely, and the return on that investment was huge.
If you were affected by lockdown, or had to work from home, how did you spend the commute time that was refunded to you?
Let's pause for a moment and do the maths. A commute of around one hour each way was common. Two hours' travel a day translated into ten hours a week that weren't spent in a car or on public transport. That's a whole extra day saved! Even if you caught the train and worked for part of the commute, the time saved was still yours to spend as you chose.
If I had asked you in 2019 what you would do with an extra day every week, how would you have answered?
You might have said you'd spend more time with your kids, read more, meal plan for the week, take up a hobby, study remotely or learn to navigate the new world in which many people work from home. Or maybe you would have said you'd simply catch up on sleep.
I don't think any of you would have said you would fill the saved time with more email and work‐based projects.
Unfortunately, however, many of us perpetuated our already hectic lifestyles. Instead of recognising the time refund as a gift, we simply absorbed it back into our busy, out‐of‐control, overwhelmed lives. This meant many of us were more exhausted than when we commuted.
This book will help you take back time, get a refund if you will, build a time margin into your world so you are not operating constantly at 100 per cent-plus capacity, and rack up some room to move, breathe and think!
How good does that sound!?
People constantly tell me they are tired, exhausted and overwhelmed. They can't keep up with the pressures of modern‐day living.
It's like we are always ‘on' and have no idea how to hit the off switch — we don't even know there is one!
In Australia we work 3.2 billion hours a year in unpaid overtime, we have 134 million days of accrued annual leave, and 3.8 million of us don't take lunch breaks. And 7.4 million Australians don't get enough sleep.
We seem to have become ‘rest resistant'. We are addicted to being busy and it's preventing us from getting the rest we need to perform at our best.
Wellbeing and productivity adviser Thea O'Connor reminds us, ‘The simple fact is, if you don't give your brain a break you'll start to work more slowly and you'll make more errors.'
One of the things I learned in 2020 was that I didn't have to be ‘on' all the time. I could actually organise my life so I started my first meeting at a time that suited me and I delivered sessions and workshops at a time that suited me.
I'm not sure why it took a pandemic for me to make that connection, but here I am. I spent a year protecting approximately 15 per cent of every day for time to think. I took time to reflect on what my customers needed rather than on what I was currently selling them. I spent time reading lots of articles online about what others were saying, and I began to craft my own story about what I had to offer. It led me to initiatives I had never thought of before. An Instagram account called ‘Daily dose of Donna' provided simple tips and pick‐me‐ups for people in lockdown. I gained a heap of followers very quickly, and from those tips I began to develop programs that led me to a dozen new clients.
I believe that's why my practice was able not just to survive when others were folding or struggling, but to grow in a number of different directions. The investment of time saved gave me the ability to take advantage of opportunities.
For Kim and her son, that means never going back to the way things were before the pandemic. She considers the time she spends with him on the walk to the day‐care centre sacrosanct and immovable.
That's my wish for everyone reading this book. I hope that by the time you've finished reading it you'll have implemented some simple strategies that will give you both the capacity and the space to think, breathe, work and enjoy your life even more.
Are you ready to see how?
This book mirrors the way I run my webinars, workshops, corporate programs and hands‐on sessions. It is practical and easy to read and navigate, so you can quickly implement real yet simple changes in the way you work.