Kitabı oku: «Getting Things Done», sayfa 2

1.4 Identify what’s relevant to you

In work you need to be sure that the things you do are really part of your job (and that means your boss’s view of your job). Similarly, outside work you want to be sure that doing things for others doesn’t stop you doing things for yourself.

There are many reasons why people find themselves doing things at work that aren’t their job. The same goes for non-work life; whether it is doing things for your family or the community. For example:

• Their job is ill defined.

• The person who complains the least gets the task.

• This person will do it better than anyone else, either because they have the skill or the commitment.

• The task is something that a person likes, so they volunteer to do it.

one minute wonder Consider the proverb: “The cobbler’s children are the worst shod in town.” This is a description of someone who has become confused about what’s relevant to them personally.

• When does it matter if you are doing something that isn’t your job? If you are distracted into other activities that are not included in your formal targets, but which prevent you from achieving your targets, or stop you achieving them on time, then you have failed. Therefore, if you take on extra things, make sure that you really do have time for them and they are for a purpose that’s relevant to you. For example, your boss is looking for a volunteer to do a departmental survey. Nobody else wants to take on this extra work, but you volunteer because you want to know more about how the department works and you want to network with people, not because you feel obliged.

• When does it matter if you are distracted into doing things for others in your non-work life? Of course it is good to be altruistic and to help others. However, some people become so distracted by helping others that they leave no time to do the tasks that are important to them personally. For example, when you find you are spending far more time helping with the school committee than helping your own children with their homework, then you need to step back from the situation, identify your real priorities and arrange your time better. Also, if you take on extra things to help others, make sure this is not just because you are procrastinating on something else you ought to be doing for yourself, or using the other thing as an excuse. For example, have you agreed to decorate your brother’s flat because you really want to help him, or because you are secretly putting off committing to that evening class you’ve been talking about for ages?

For more advice on this subject, see Chapter 5 on saying “no”.

Remind yourself of what’s really relevant in your workload.

1.5 Do the ‘right’ things right

The previous two Secrets in this book discuss doing what is ‘relevant’, but you also have to do what is ‘right’. There are various levels of ‘rightness’ to judge things by: moral, ethical, legal and practical.

• Moral, ethical and legal. Your personal morality and ethics will reflect the religious teachings and codes of law in your country. If you work for a global organization you may have to bear in mind differences between the moral and ethical norms in your native country and others you might come into contact with. Likewise, make sure that what you do is legally right under the laws of your organization, your country and any international laws affecting it. For example, few people would

case study An importer was making a margin of 4% on high-volume, low-cost, perishable stock. This did not feel ‘right’ in practical terms because it was a very low margin. Not only that, some of the importer’s customers were asking for more environmentally friendly and ethically produced stock that would fulfil the ‘right’ values for them. The importer decided to introduce another line of products that were less perishable and lighter to transport, and which sold for a 15% margin. By doing the ‘right’ thing, the importer was able to continue to provide the original stock to the loyal customers while also increasing the product range and customer base, and protecting and expanding the business.

“Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody’s going to know whether you did it or not” Oprah Winfrey, American TV personality

consider that it would be doing the ‘right’ thing to sell alcohol-related products in a country that bans alcohol. That may be an extreme example, but the point is that to keep up your motivation, it’s essential that you do the things that feel ‘right’ according to your moral code, and to do them ‘right’ – or 100% correctly to the best of your abilities.

• Practical. There is a phrase in English: ‘busy fools’. This is used to describe people who are always busy and active but are doing the ‘wrong’ things. The ‘wrong’ things could be:

• Things which aren’t relevant (see Secrets 1.3 and 1.4).

• Things which your customer doesn’t want, need or value (see Secret 4.4).

• Things which are of lesser value.

Make sure that the things you do are ‘right’ in every sense of the word.

1.6 Plan for output, not activity

This piece of advice may seem obvious: we are looking at the subject of ‘Getting Things Done’ so of course we are going to plan for output (i.e. the end result) rather than the activity, aren’t we? And yet, in the real world we often plan things the other way round – for activity rather than output.

Part of this mixed up focus comes from our schooling or our parents and the way we were treated as children. “Oh yes, he practises his piano for an hour every day” is an example of the measurement of activity rather than output. Similarly, “We set half an hour of homework each day”, or “You will spend three years at university”.

All these approaches measure activity rather than output. Indeed, the output is expected to happen almost by chance. “If you spend an hour hitting piano keys each day you are bound to play a good tune eventually.” This encourages the child to become a ‘clock-watcher’: “When I’ve been hitting piano keys for an hour I can go and play.” The child then concentrates on the minute hand rather than focusing on the piano playing.

This behaviour tends to be carried on in our work life; we measure things by how long we are doing something rather than aiming to achieve a specific outcome in the available time. Of course, this is reinforced by the fact that we are often paid a salary of X per year, or Y per month, or Z per hour. Evidentally, it’s payment for the passage of time, not output!

So when you are setting yourself goals (or deciding what to do today) aim for the Outcome not the Activity.

With many tasks you will need to break them down into smaller outcomes in order to make them more visible.

This will help you to focus on getting things done, which will add a sense of urgency, allow you to measure your success and generally improve your morale as well.

It is very satisfying to see that you have achieved something, rather than just spending time doing something.

1.7 DREAM to get more done

You’ll often hear people say that they wish they had more hours in the day, or that they dream of having more time. Well now they can at least use the mnemonic DREAM to help them achieve more in the time they have.…

DREAM is a simple five-option way to manage the things that come into your in-tray during the working day – or the requests you get from your spouse/boss/customers/or staff.

When you receive a request for help or an instruction, decide immediately on one of these five courses of actions. Don’t ignore it or put off dealing with the issue.

1 Delegate it. If it is appropriate to do so, you should delegate it to either a peer or a subordinate. Delegating a job requires you to ensure that the person to whom you delegate has the skill, the time, the authority and the responsibility for completing the job to the proper standard and deadline. If you don’t ensure that they have all of these things, then you haven’t ‘delegated’, you have ‘dumped’! (See Secret 7.4.)

“One thing is sure. We have to do something. We have to do the best we know how at the moment…If it doesn’t turn out right, we can modify it as we go along.”

Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945), US President

2 Reflect or refuse it. If appropriate you should refuse to undertake this task on the grounds that it isn’t right for you to be doing it or reflect it away to the appropriate person, even if that person is the source of the request!

3 Escalate it. You can pass it straight up to your boss if it is something that ultimately she or he will need to deal with.

4 Action it. Get it done immediately if it is definitely your responsibility. Avoid simply adding it to your in-tray – action it immediately, whilst the source of the request waits if possible!

5 Make a time for it. If it is definitely your responsibility and you can’t do it immediately (either because of other priorities or reasons), schedule a time to do it. Either insert it into your prioritized ‘to do’ list (see Secret 1.10) or set a time in your diary to deal with it.

Consciously think ‘DREAM’ with each item in your in-tray and each request, then decide how to manage it.

1.8 Have a personal vision or mission

You don’t want your career to stand still; you want to be sure that what you do is relevant to moving you towards your longer term career goals. There are two elements you need to have in mind here.

What are your long-term career goals?

Most of us are simply grateful to have a decent job and a wage packet at the end of each week or month, but we also need to have a vision of where we want to be in the future. You may want to carve out a long-term career with your current employer or you may want to set up your own business in the future, but the most important thing is to know what you want out of life.

Visualize yourself at the age 50 or 60 years.

• How respected are you?

• Where do you live and work?

• What kind of family life do you have?

• What do you do for fun?

“If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there” Lewis Carroll, English author

Deciding the answers to these questions will help you to define the type of job you work in today and next year in order to get to where you want to be. Many people find it really helpful to write out their vision, either like an essay or a series of bullet points.

What medium-term actions are relevant to achieving your long-term career goals?

You now have to ensure that everything you do is relevant to you in your current and next job. Especially if you are working at a junior level, assess each instruction to ensure that it is within the job description of your current job. You are assessed against your job description, so doing things that aren’t covered in your job description is like spending time asleep, unless…a task is clearly proving your ability to be promoted to the next job up! If you are working at a more senior level, ask yourself if you are getting all the right things done, or could you be prioritizing or delegating more efficiently? Are you genuinely working each day to achieve your long-term career goals?

Look at Secret 1.4 as well since it looks in more depth at the short-term aspect of your current job.

Write down your long-term career goals and what you need to do in the medium term to achieve them.

1.9 Know WIIFM

The mnemonic WIIFM stands for What’s In It For Me? It may sound selfish, but in terms of getting things done, WIIFM is important because it can provide you with a motivation to want to do something, as opposed to doing something simply because you think you have to do it.

It may seem odd to be talking about having to find out “what’s in it for me”, but the reality is that every job has its good bits and its bad bits: things that we like doing and things that we hate doing. Usually the WIIFM good bits of a job are fairly easy to find:

• I enjoy it.

• I find it easy.

• It makes me look good/feel good.

• It moves me closer to promotion.

one minute wonder WIIFMS are very rarely about financial reward, so think outside the money-box!

“Work spares us from three evils: boredom, vice and need” Voltaire, French Enlightenment writer

Finding the WIIFM factor in the bad bits of the job is often more difficult. However, if we can identify the WIIFM it helps motivate us to do the bad bits properly and quickly.

You may find the WIIFM in one of two areas of the bad bits of your job.

Positive WIIFMs such as:

• I don’t enjoy it but it makes me look good.

• I don’t enjoy it but it brings me closer to promotion.

• I’m not very good at it but by doing it I get better.

Nastiness avoidance WIIFMS such as:

• Once I’ve done it, it is out of the way for another month/quarter/year.

• If I can get it done the boss will stop hassling me to do it.

• As soon as it is out of the way I can stop worrying about it.

• If I do this then I’m safe from the authorities/criticism.

If you can find the “what’s in it for me?” factor you can motivate yourself to do almost anything.

1.10 Make ‘to do’ lists

Some people love ‘to do’ lists and others hate them! What cannot be denied is that ‘to do’ lists help you to remember what it is that you need to do, and the more tasks you have to do, the more valuable the list.

• List all tasks. List the one-off things as well as listing any everyday, weekly or monthly tasks.

• Break down the tasks. Write as much detail as you can. This gives you a better chance of accurately estimating the time each task will take. For example, if you have to move to another workstation, break it down into the individual tasks:

• Pack boxes

• Disconnect pc & phone

• Move desk

• Move chair and filing cabinet

• Move pc & phone

one minute wonder Many software programs and even mobile phones nowadays have a ‘to do’ list function (sometimes called a ‘task’ list). These are generally nothing more sophisticated than the type of paper list recommended here.

“Organizing is what you do before you do something, so that when you do it, it’s not all mixed up”

A.A. Milne, English author of ‘Winnie-the-Pooh’

• Look at your list at the beginning of each day. Remind yourself of all the things you need to get done.

• Approach the tasks methodically. Start working your way through the list in a logical order (see Secrets 3.1 to 3.5).

• Periodically check your list through the day. Tick off or cross out the individual items on the list as you complete them.

• Keep the list highly visible. Not only do you need it to hand to remind yourself of the different things that still need to be done but you can also show the list to anyone who comes to you with a new task; this is evidence of your workload!

• Update your list daily. Last thing each day, sit quietly for ten minutes and write a list of all the things you have to do the next day. Remember that something carried over is probably now more urgent than it was before.

• File your lists. You daily lists are a record of when you did things. Lots of people write the list in their desk diary or in a notebook; this keeps the lists in date order, which is handy when you need to check back to see when you did something.

The bluntest of pencils is better than the sharpest of minds. Write it down so that you won’t forget it!