II. ELIMINATION
Apply Pareto’s Principle and Parkinson’s Law
Pareto’s Principle is also known as the 80/20 Principle.
Review your life and find your priorities from these 2 questions:
1) Which 20% of sources are causing 80% of my problems and unhappiness?
2) Which 20% of sources are resulting in 80% of my desired outcomes and happiness?
Parkinson’s Law suggests that by having less time for a task, the result can be of equal or higher quality due to higher focus.
Combining both Principle and Law, you have a powerful system that is both efficient (most economical way) and effective (move closer to goals):
1) Limit tasks to the important to shorten work time
2) Shorten work time to limit tasks to the important
Be ignorant to irrelevance
In this current world, we are overfed with irrelevant, unimportant and unactionable information that you and I do not need. Besides not value adding to yourself, they consume your time. Timothy advises you to adopt a “low-information diet”. He practises the following and urges you to do the same:
- Only read newspaper headlines (people will discuss if the news is important)
- Read one third of one industry magazine and one business magazine per month, up to a total of 4 hours
- Read an hour of fiction prior to bedtime
Prevent interruptions
There are 3 major interrupters and you should deal with them:
1) Time wasters
Tasks that have little or no consequence if not done; like unimportant emails and phone calls.
Timothy suggests you check the email only 2 times a day, and at specific timings. To do so, you need to train your boss and colleagues by setting up an auto responder to inform them the timings that you will check your mailbox. It is important not to ask for permission to do this, but rather craft your auto responding email begging for forgiveness and mention the ultimate aim is to be more effective and efficient in your work.
As for voice call, callers on your office no. should be directed to a voicemail with much of the content similar to the auto responding email. When handling a voice call, you should control the conversation and prevent the caller from chitchatting or digress from the purpose of the call. Find out the purpose and get done.
2) Time consumers
Repetitive tasks that need to be done but reduces time for high-level work. Examples include responding to emails, returning phone calls and running personal errands.
Using an analogy of T-shirt printing, where “batching” is practised – you will consolidate a larger number of orders before sending for printing; so as to reduce the cost per T-shirt. Likewise, batching repetitive tasks in your life will reduce the cost of your time.
3) Empowerment failure
Approval is required in order for subsequent tasks to proceed.
The right way to empower employees or even yourself (if your boss micromanage you), is to derive a set of rules to assist in making decisions. For example, XXX can make the decision to spend on items less than $200 without seeking approval.
Rest of the summary:
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Nice Site layout for your blog. I am looking forward to reading more from you.
Tom Humes
Nice Site layout for your blog. I am looking forward to reading more from you.
Tom Humes
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