Nov 12, Wale Legunsen rated it really liked it. Good Book I'd read it again Oct 18, Ariel added it Shelves: non-fiction. Aug 16, ahmed rated it liked it Shelves: dev. A good-enough book to read but not the best. You can select some chapters to read or re-read later and you don't need to follow the order of the book. I found that the chapter that discuss organization "rules" is the best as it abstract the organization system into ideas that you can implement to whatever system or niche.
The book could be made shorter in just 80 pages.. Lisa rated it it was ok Jun 24, Richard Starrett rated it it was amazing Oct 31, Zhoor rated it really liked it Nov 15, Molly Moorman rated it liked it Jan 09, Ghdo rated it it was amazing Jul 03, Moody rated it it was ok Dec 17, Radu Costinas rated it really liked it Jun 28, Nguyen Manh rated it it was amazing Jun 17, Nada Alay rated it it was ok Jul 01, Boyana Konar rated it liked it Dec 20, There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one ». Readers also enjoyed. Self Help. A full-color Henry Fayol, 'To mange is to forecast and plan, to organize, to compound, to co-ordinate and to control. Japanese decluttering guru Marie Kondo has revolutionized homes—and lives—across the world.
Now, Kondo presents an illustrated guide to usingher acclaimed KonMari Method to create a joy-filled home that works the way you need it to. You must be logged in to post a comment. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. Best regards Daniel P.
Thanks for this work, Luc. Thanks again for this great work. On the practical level, you can avoid the following time-wasters and cul- tivate the time-savers.
Multitasking Are you surprised? For some of us, multitasking never meant much more than playing Free Cell while we were stuck on hold on the telephone. But others of us believed that we could file papers while talking with a client and fold clothes while debriefing our kindergartener. Studies have proved us wrong. Doing two things at once, it turns out, means that both Not all speed is movement. One annoying little outcome of multitasking is what happens when you receive a telephone call from a Nonstop Talker.
This sets a precedent. The person henceforth knows. Some multitasking works. We accomplish nothing whatsoever by one second or one hour or one month of worry. And this mental squirreling around eats at our concentration and takes up mental space that we need for either Never go out to meet trouble.
Make a list of what is preoccupying you. Under each item, note what you need to do to attack that issue. Then, choose one item—no matter how insignificant—and do it. Chipping away at something that worries you—accomplishing even one part of what needs to be done—allows you to stop worrying.
It may take some time to con- quer the worry habit, but when There is usually an inverse pro- you do, you will avoid hours of portion between how much useless anxiety, inattention, and something is on your mind and unhappiness over your lifetime. Thinking is not worrying. Thinking produces more actions, different actions. Worrying is no Stress is an ignorant state.
It more productive than chasing your believes that everything is an tail. Let your dog take care of that emergency. When you find yourself feeling panicky, determine whether you are indeed in the midst of an emergency.
If you are not, sit down and list steps that might take you out of whatever hole you are—or imagine you are—in at the moment. Then choose the smallest step, and take it.
Plan how much time and money you expect the task to require. When necessary, speak first with the people who can help you or who need to be involved. Know what steps you must take to accomplish the task. Break the job into small, manageable bites. Much can be said of those energetic individuals who see what needs to be done and dive right in.
Group similar tasks, errands, and equipment. Make your phone calls. Gather your materials. Our heroes have modeled stiff upper lips, and they have not given up the ship.
None of us likes being called a quitter. And yet. There are few easy ways to know when a project or endeavor is not worth pursuing. You can, however, get into the habit of questioning yourself frequently.
Too many bad feelings, too many negative omens, or too many things going awry are sometimes signals that this particular scheme is not meant to be. Quitting is sometimes the right thing to do. When in doubt, ask yourself whether you are being persistent or stubborn. Hardworking or hardheaded. Determined or close-minded.
Ask several people who are familiar with the situation what they think. No one likes to admit failures and mistakes, but sometimes you need to stop while they are still small failures and little mistakes. Nielsen Co. This amounts to 28 hours per week, or 2 months of nonstop TV-watching per year, or—in a year life—9 full years in front of the television. Can you imagine what you could do with nine full years? Millions of Americans are so hooked on television that they fit the cri- teria for substance abuse as defined in the official psychiatric manual, according to Rutgers University psychologist and TV-Free America board member Robert Kubey.
Heavy TV viewers exhibit the following depen- dency symptoms two more than necessary to arrive at a clinical diagnosis of substance abuse : 1 using TV as a sedative, 2 indiscriminate viewing, 3 feeling loss of control while viewing, 4 feeling angry with oneself for watching too much, 5 inability to stop watching, and 6 feeling miser- able when kept from watching.
If television viewing is your biggest comfort in life and you feel you use it wisely, skip this section. However, if you are uneasy about the amount of time you spend watching television, you might think about trading up.
What else would relax you as much as watching television? For many people, a book or a magazine is equally restful and leaves you a little smarter than you were when you picked it up. Keep two piles of books going—the interest- ing ones and the fun ones. Most of us could use all the exercise we can get. Again, the problem is forethought and fore-action.
The exercise has to be as accessible as the tele- vision and almost as entertaining. Or get a family member or neighborhood friend to go for an after-dinner lope. Any exercise is going to do more for you than sitting in front of the television. Make it easy for yourself: stock up on whatever accessories you need, find a space to dedicate to your hobby, and set up that space so that all you have to do is pick up the stamp tongs or choose your next piece of colored tile.
It takes a little planning to use that television time, but it will gain you hours and hours of time to spend on activities that make you feel more energetic and alive.
Some days, getting in that after-dinner walk or reading that magazine may be your biggest accomplishment. Check the television and cable listings once a week and mark anything that you really want to watch. But turn it off as soon as your show is over instead of picking up the remote to see what else is going on. Interruptions The last chapter suggested ways of dealing with people who interrupt you with their drop-in visits, phone calls, and e-mails.
But what about that great interrupter. Yes, you. It could be answering the phone, checking e-mail, responding to an instant message, clicking over to YouTube, or posting something amusing on Facebook. For most of us, any interruption will do.
You call the com- pany lawyer. Her assistant says that Marian will call back as soon as she gets off the phone.
Or, midway through washing the windows, you think about shining your shoes for a Saturday wedding. But now your bucket of vinegar and water looks scummy, the light has changed, and you see streaks on two of the windows you already did. Tough it out. It takes only a little effort to repress the desire to do some- thing else. Peter Drucker, often considered the founder of modern business man- agement, determined that working concentratedly for 90 minutes allows you to accomplish more than you can in twice the time if you are inter- rupted.
He found that 90 minutes is ideal for attention span, focus, and dealing with multiple ideas at the same time. I know, you wanted a break. Procrastination Postponing, delaying, or avoiding a task makes us uncomfortable, and we get mad at ourselves. For starters, it can sometimes smarter than what we keep you from working on tasks see on the surface.
When you keep that ultimately turn out to be putting off a chore—especially if less important than you thought. Creative people especially know the value of keeping things on the back burner until their ideas are ready to be deployed. What most of us mean by procrastination, however, is picking up some- thing, putting it down, picking it up again, returning to it later, thinking of something better to do, knowing Sometimes you end up using that we ought to do it, picking it up more energy stressing over your again, and finally, in a burst of irri- unfinished tasks than you tation, going swimming or visiting would if you took a few minutes the refrigerator.
According to Psy- to accomplish them. If 15 minutes is all you can do, you are still ahead of the game. But usually, 15 minutes into the job, you are. So it will get done. But the time you waste procrastinating. You can never recover that time. Added to the time wasted by procrastination are other costs. If you delay mending a small crack, it will soon be a large crack. Most of us suffer from a misperception about feeling and doing, about motivation and action. You simply do it. In the act of doing it, you will feel like finish- ing it and you will be motivated to finish it.
The act of doing something can come before you feel like doing it. Jotting something down when you think of it is fine, but transfer it to the central list as soon as you can.
Arrange the list in categories: gro- cery, department store, hardware store, pharmacy, office supply store, garden center. The idea is not that you need to get everything on your list, but when you have a central list, you can see at a glance which items are critical, which can be combined, and which can be picked up along your route. Never allow yourself to get down to the last ream of copier paper, bottle of shampoo, Band-Aid, printer cartridge, or bag of dog food. In theory, you should never have to make an expensive, time-consuming run for one or two needed items.
Running out of something is not only irritating but time consuming, especially if it happens often. You have only one set of movements to locate the items, load them onto the counter, bag them, stow them in the car, haul them into the house, unbag them, and shelve them.
Because it costs more initially to buy in bulk, stagger your shopping. One time, stock up on bathroom supplies. The next time, stock up on condiments and soups. Another time, stock up on CD blanks and software. Rotating groups of similar items helps you remember simi- lar items that you may have forgotten to list. Look for things that are fairly important Band-Aids, 10 envelopes, dental floss , that you would hate to make a special trip to buy, and that you know you will always use eventually.
In many cases, you can find an offer for 10 percent off or free shipping. In fact, part of your comparison should include the existence of coupons—although an item at X is more expensive than the identical one at Y, with free shipping Y becomes the less expensive way to go. If you regularly order office supplies from the same company, you can often obtain special discounts, and most items can be delivered to your door within 24 hours.
Your metabolism, circadian rhythm, and biological chemistry have a pattern that is uniquely yours. There are hours when your brain whirs and cranks and spits out ideas that astonish even you.
Many people find that their mental energy and their ability to concen- trate are at their peak when they first get up. You might consider get- ting up an hour early, going straight to a home desk or a laptop computer, and getting down some of the dynamic thoughts that seem to come to you at this hour.
Do the big stuff. During the down time of day, when you want a nap or keep looking at your watch, do mindless work everyone has a little of this. You can set yourself up for trouble if you use that time to get anxious about everything you have to do tomorrow or to make yourself miserable by thinking about everything you did wrong today.
Tell your subconscious, in whatever words you like, to address this issue while you sleep. Knowing that part of you is working, the rest of you can imagine yourself on a beach or flying your own plane or whatever happy scenario will put you right to sleep.
The minute span has also been identified as the ideal unit of sleep. You know the difference As all clocks need winding, so all between waking up alert and being human brains and bodies need dragged from the depths of sleep to be wound up by sleeping. In the second case, you have awakened somewhere in between. For you, the optimum work or sleep period might be an hour and fifteen minutes or two hours.
Your life will go more smoothly if you can identify your own personal pattern and use it. Go to bed at a time that will give you cycles of 90 minutes of sleep. You might also be more effective if you plan a mix of tasks. After doing a piece of writing, returning phone calls might be a good change of pace.
You are putting out fires, and you take what comes. But when you can alternate sit-down writing work with stand-up filing work with walking-around delivering work, it makes the day go faster, and you tend to do each piece of it more easily. Chances are that you may have to return to your desk several times before you can bring yourself to start.
Starting up from the very beginning is difficult and requires lots of energy. But if you do happen to stop working at a logical end point, before leaving your desk, determine the next step and leave yourself a note spelling it out.
Use a Timer The point of being organized is to feel better, to go to bed at night and sleep the sleep of the just, knowing that you have accomplished a few things that day. One way to make your satisfaction concrete is to use a timer. Bet- ter yet, you know that you have put in a solid chunk of time working on something that needed doing. Despite more laws mandating hands-free cell phone use while driving,.
The advantages are tremendous: time to read or daydream or listen to your iPod, lower auto insurance costs, less wear and tear on your car, and less expense. Organizing a group to carpool has been a boon for many.
Some local newspapers list those looking for people who are traveling their route at their hours. Research in your community might turn up a vanpool, which takes car- pooling one step further and costs much less. If there are 6 to 17 com- muters on your route, each person pays only for gas and for the monthly lease of a van through a reputable corporation that is responsible for insur- ance, maintenance, and registration. Your auto insurance premiums can be lowered because of your lowered yearly mileage, and you save wear and tear on your own car.
Vanpool driving is shared among the commuters after their driving records have been checked. And then there are feet. Walking is consistently the best all-around exer- cise, the best present you can give yourself. You might have to make a few adjustments keep toiletries at work to freshen up after you arrive, for example , but once upon a time most people walked to work. Get into the habit of verifying all appointments the day before or at some other reasonable interval.
People forget. Airlines double-book. Doctors have emergencies. Be sure anyone you have an appointment with has your number so that they can find you if something comes up.
If you need to drive more than 15 minutes to purchase something, call first to see if the store has the item you need. Ask the store to set it aside for you. Conversely, try never to get booked on the last flight of the day. From early in your relationships, establish and maintain a be-there policy. Rendezvous with family and friends should be as respected as business meetings.
Deadlines and Tickler Files Deadlines work for some people, but have no effect except to increase stress and deepen guilt on others. Deadlines that you set for yourself feel artificial, and any reasonable person can persuade the person who estab- lished the deadline you to give them a break. However, most of us respond to natural deadlines filing estimated taxes, repapering the den before the holidays, turning in your end-of-year numbers, or buying a birthday gift for your mother.
You record or file papers or tasks in one place in your life, a place that you check routinely. You are your own assistant. The three basic ways of organizing these reminders are. But if it works for you, go for it. A handy aspect of this is that you can highlight items and move them from this all-purpose tickler file to your file for the week or the day.
Get into the habit of checking your tickler file every day so that nothing catches you unaware. Delegating The do-it-yourselfer is a great American cultural icon. But sometimes. In the long run, you save time by spending time. It takes less time to train five people to do some of the work than it would take you to do the work of five people.
Train someone to do the job or help another person get up to speed on it. You owe it to yourself or to your company not to do things yourself that someone else should be doing. Be the yeast. The sharpest knife in the drawer may not meet deadlines.
The one who meets deadlines may not have many original ideas. Always give detailed written instructions, and then trust the person to carry them out. Remember that nothing grows very well if you keep pulling up the plant to see how the roots are doing. If you need to delegate some of your trivial, repetitious work, see if you can give the person a project with some meat on its bones at the same time, something that will—if completed successfully—do the other person some professional good.
Within the family, small children can be taught to make their beds, put away toys, and generally be responsible for their immediate surroundings. Over the years that a child lives at home and does these tasks, a parent can save hundreds of hours of time. And you will both be winners: the child at the independence game and the parent at the time-saving game.
At work, it will be more difficult for you to overlook poorly done, slowly done work, but if you keep in mind the long-term savings in time, you will kindly and effectively reteach the task until you are mostly satisfied with it.
If you truly have no gift for teaching, see if someone else can teach the task. The button- impaired person who claims that the fax machine and the copier are mys- teries and who is constantly jamming their paper feeds does not, you will notice, ever have to send faxes or make copies. Ask the most patient person in the office to demystify the machines and the paper feeds for your cleverly inept coworker. Some people think that persuasion involves talking very fast and cleverly.
On the contrary, it is better done by listening. They may not have been aware of your struggles. Now they can be more sensitive about asking for your time. They may see possibilities for small fine-tuning of your use of time.
Or they may mention unthinking habits of yours that consume minutes and hours. At the very least, discuss- ing this with someone who cares about you may produce some good brainstorming.
But at least do the math. If you are self-employed, know what your time is worth so that you can compute whether it makes financial sense for you to continue. Marketing and productivity consultant Gary Bencivenga www.
Despite calling ahead and despite verifying an appointment, we often end up waiting for someone or something. Use that time. This little habit will do you more good than squeezing in a few minutes of reading or making phone calls. Or daydream. Shut your eyes and look at the big picture of your life. Imagine success; imagine happiness; place yourself mentally in a beau- tiful place.
You might look at perfec- I think perfectionism is based on tionism, for example. In some areas the obsessive belief that if you of life, perfectionism may be some- run carefully enough, hitting thing to aim for. Or, anyway, in our airline going to do a whole lot better pilots, doctors and nurses, and than you, and have a lot more emergency technicians.
Does the doctor have to serve five-course dinners? Figure out where it will pay you, literally and figuratively, to aim for the best possible job you can do. An added benefit is that your brain can be playing with that list while you sleep, possibly developing additions, elaborations, and solutions.
You can then put work completely out of your mind and enjoy the evening ahead. For a family trip, pack the car with as much as you can the night before. You may be unrealistic about how much you can accomplish within set time limits. A burnt-out lightbulb? Replace it now. The grand- father clock has stopped?
Wind it now. A report that needs routing? Slap a sticky note on it and put it in your outbox now. If you did all these things at once, it would take a chunk of time. Be nice to yourself.
Minimizing choices in your life can free you from some pedestrian business. So if you find socks that you like, buy the same brand and size and type all the time, ordering them online in bulk. Once you become aware of the complexity of choice in the United States, you can understand why some of us are too busy. The decision-making part of our brain, which we badly need for work and for survival, is being used up on, yes, socks.
If standardizing some of your choices makes you feel. Some people have standing orders for some office and home supplies. Rein- venting the wheel is a waste of time. If you write monthly reports, you no doubt always use the same form or format. Carry this over to all the jobs that you have to repeat. Try not to become obsessed with minutes and hours. You want to give a task all the time it needs—but no more. Use the time you save gratefully and gracefully.
You will not feel so harried if you can remember a leisure hour that you spent the way you wanted to spend it. It is curious how any making of order makes one feel mentally ordered, ordered inside. Y should be pleasant, practical, and efficient—helping you to do your best work, rather than hindering you from doing so.
The most important decision you make—if you get to make this one— is the shape of your work area. All other things being equal, a U-shaped workspace is probably the most sensible. You can, of course, buy lovely office furniture in the U shape, but you can also create your own using a basic office desk, a computer desk, a bridge or connector or return, and a set of bookshelves. The shelves take the burden off your desk as far as books, paper trays, accessories, and other accoutrements go.
Think about how you work, and take a little time in the beginning to arrange things to your satisfaction. But mentally divide your office into dedicated work zones.
This is, once more, a case of grouping like functions or like activities. For example:. The top of your desk and perhaps part of a computer return is your main work area. It needs to be kept as clear as possible. This is where you keep a few items that you reach for constantly. A clock, desk lamp, or your business cards in a holder might be here. A pad of scratch paper and a pencil are all you need near the phone. However, one of the most important items in your entire office is your address book.
For all of us today, our list of family, friends, and business contacts is more important than ever. It needs to be complete and accessible.
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