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Extracted from 30 Minute Reads: The business skills collection
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Contents

1 Back to Basics

2 Hang On. Whos in Charge

3 The Big Breakthrough:

4 Multiple Breakthroughs

5 We Need To Talk

6 Admit It, Youre an E-holic

7 Fix It! Overcoming Obstacles

8 Great Work Practices

9 Great Home Routines

Here?

Find Your Zone

10 Your Action Plan

About the Author

Back to Basics

The Challenge

t came from nowhere. It started small and was once

restricted to work and a computer. Now it is a big
very big part of our lives and accessible anywhere
and everywhere, even the remotest part of our honeymoon holiday in Vietnam. And yet we would be very
unusual if our organization had any kind of email etiquette. It would be surprising if we had received any
real instruction at school or college on how to cope in
The World of the Digital Interrupt. And we might
instruct our children in their Ps and Qs but what guidance can we should we give in a world in which their
social life, peer recognition and much academic work
seems to revolve around the digital connection?
So lets start our conquest of email, which at its best is
life enhancing and at its worst is soul destroying. Lets
get back to basics in order to make sure we can go
home email free.

Go Home Email Free

The Detail
Whats email good for?
At work, email is brilliant for fast, responsive aroundthe-globe connections. Its good for distributing facts
and relaying anything structured, such as an agenda or
a plan. Its good for summaries, checklists and preparation notes. Its good when you dont want to disturb a
person now, require a full conversation from somebody
or are seeking any kind of feedback. In essence, its good
for facts.
In our personal lives, its great for connection, sharing
plans and photos, and for making arrangements happen. And doing it now and on the move and across
the world.
Whats it not so good at?
At work, its not easy to see the full story from an email,
as you have to be prepared to write a novel to cover all
the nuances: it is thus SO easy to be not understood. Its
particularly tricky at handling feelings and emotion
unless you are a Mills & Boon novelist. Its always there,
it never goes away and its never done. Its ALWAYS
nagging. In essence its poor on emotions and where
things are not at all clear-cut.
At home, curiosity for the ping and/or the buzz can
become an addiction, quick and easy communication
can become the norm and can replace slow and deep.
The fleeting experience and buzz of a Facebook posting
can take us away from the most important of our

Go Home Email Free

relationships and stop us spending decent time, for

example, with one of our children.
Why and how is it screwing us up?
Its screwing us up because there is no absolute with
email. One could easily argue the case to give up smoking
or to moderate alcohol. But wheres the line with the
digital interrupt (a term we will use to cover everything
such as email, text, Twitter, Facebook interrupts)? No, it
needs a bit of discretion, some intelligence and balance.
Lose any one of the three and we get stressed, feel we
have no life of our own and the value of our real job
(which for few of us is just answering email) plummets.
Putting it bluntly: it screws us up.

The Story
Jon works for an international company, which is based in
the UK but he heads up the Netherlands operation. He and
his family moved out there a couple of years ago. His personal motto: have Blackberry, will travel. In fact he has a
Blackberry for work and an iPhone for personal family and
friends. It is rare that one of the devices is not in one hand.
In meeting rooms the machines sit on the table in front of
him, blinking. In coffee shops they are shuffled as he starts
another quest for email zero. His chiropractor has warned
him that he is developing SPN or Smart Phone Neck caused
by a tendency to stand, sit and work holding the neck permanently at the optimum viewing angle for the small screen.
Sadly, though, not such a perfect angle for a healthy spine
and thus his nervous system.

Go Home Email Free

Jon is ambitious and doing well, but at a cost. His health is

nowhere as good at it should be for a 32 year old. He always
feels stressed. His relationship with his wife of eight years is
severely strained and he feels he never has time in the evenings with his two young children. He knows much of it is
to do with email. But whats to be done? The world revolves
around it now?
Jon is a good guy: were going to give him some serious
help. Hell be back in Section 3.

The Q&A
Isnt it down to an organization to put in place some
kind of email etiquette?
Its worth hoping. Its certainly worth lobbying. People
do work in different ways, are at different stages in their
lives and projects. However, probably some fundamentals such as no emails at the weekend are worth
lobbying for. More later.
Im willing to go with many of your ideas. In fact
I want to make the changes you are detailing. But
how on earth do I get my kids to stop staring at
screens all the time?
More later. Much more later. But remember the power
of example. However important you are, you do not
need to answer email at meal times. If your children are
young, start with the power of example e.g. no technology at the family meal.

Go Home Email Free

The Solution
1.
2.
3.

Get back to basics. Understand what its good for.

And what its not.
Its down to you to get the changes you seek, but
thats OK as that is 100% under your control.
There is a range of simple strategies and tactics to
help you and you are going to pursue those now.

Contents

2 Meditation: Relaxing Your

3 Exercise for Boundless

4 Nutrition for a Healthy Body

5 Blissful Sleep

6 Hands-On

7 Understand the Journey

8 Group Connect

9 Switch Your Perspective

10 Your Action Plan

Boosting Your Physical and

Mental Energy
Mind

Energy

About the Author

Boosting Your Physical

and Mental Energy
The Challenge

aving energy can appear elusive and

complicated. We certainly remember a
time when we had loads and we can still
have our great days. Holidays do help but too often we
simply come down with the flu. An extra coffee is OK
in a meeting but one in the evening spoils our sleep.
We dont allow the kids cola, so why do we knock it
back several times a day to try and keep alert? And
sometimes wed like to push back on a daft idea in the
marketing meeting but to be honest we simply cant be
bothered. Yes, that mental buzz and that physical drive
seem horribly elusive.
In this first section, lets simplify the concept and understand how it can be within your grasp.

The Detail
Firstly, the two kinds of energy, mental and physical,
are interrelated. So the good news is that anything
you can do to improve physical will help mental and
vice versa.

Bags of Energy Now

And for each kind of energy, there are four main drivers
or initiators of great energy.
Firstly, physical the drivers or components of
great physical energy are:

1.

Sleep. Ask your family doctor whats the biggest

worry for which his/her patients seek help and they
will reveal that it is TATT or tired all the time
syndrome. And thats because for an increasing
number of us, sleep is not doing what its meant
to, i.e., taking a pleasantly tired body, allowing
it to drop into that wonderful state called sleep for
around eight hours and waking up totally refreshed
and ready to face an exciting brand new day.
Instead, sleep has become a troubled, low-quality
experience, which seems increasingly problematic
as we get older and/or take on more responsibility.
Were going to show you how to get great sleep,
consistently. And thus boost your daily energy
reserves.

2.

Exercise. This wont surprise you. You know how

fitness not only gives you strength and stamina, but
also helps you feel good. But there are so many
challenges: finding the time, the possible expense
of a gym and/or pool and not least, the pain of
getting fit again. Well show you how to overcome
every one of those apparent problems and much
more easily than you might currently suspect.

3.

Diet. Most of us would probably agree that too

much alcohol the evening before an important

Bags of Energy Now

busy day is not a wise move. But if alcohol is the

most obvious one, what else affects your energy?
What does boost your energy without cheating?
(A coffee, as you will see, is an example of a cheat.
Nothing wrong with that so long as you are aware.)
4.

Meditation. Time out. Increasingly recognized as

critical in a world of interrupt, distraction and too
little time to just be. We show you a simple form
of meditation and answer all of your questions.
From I have no time with my young children to
you wont catch me doing something as weird as
that. It will also be revealed that meditation is a
particularly powerful energy booster in that it not
only helps you to feel physically better, but mentally, too. So it really does bridge the two approaches.

Each of these processes supports the other; just a little

moderate exercise will help your sleep. With sound
sleep you find it easier to resist junk food. A balanced,
integrated approach is far better than going overboard
on any of these. We have all met people obsessed with
one particular approach, be it running or a certain food
or the latest yoga. A healthy, well body will provide
stacks of energy and its pretty straightforward. Well
actually look at these in the order Meditation, Diet,
Exercise and Sleep and will refer to the MEDS approach.
And mental the drivers or components of great
mental energy are:
1.

Switch perspective. Were naturally going to talk

about stress and youll be aware of how much harm

Bags of Energy Now

it can do to your mental energy i.e., your focus and

will and simple sense of perspective. However, there
is a powerful tool, which is often intuitive but with
practice can save you so much heartache and that
is to switch your perspective, to change your perception. Thus: its the biggest argument ever with
your girlfriend about mismanaged finances (debilitating) or its an opportunity to sort out your shared
money and responsibilities and start saving for the
future (enlivening). Mmm ... powerful! But perhaps
you are thinking, its not as easy as that though is
it? Stick with us.

2.

Hands on, brain off. One of the many attractions of alcohol is that at the end of a demanding
day we can get out of our head. More and more
of us do spend our days in our head. Staring at
screens and PowerPoint slides. Handling email.
Huddled in meetings. Reading the Metro or a book
on our iPad mini on the tube. It was never meant
to be so. Were a mind-body creature. We love the
physical side of things: we need to bake more bread!
Seriously? Sort of; much more coming up about
how getting more physical paradoxically gives us
more mental energy.

3.

Understand the bigger picture. Its tiring when

you feel you are merely a cog in a machine. You
become dulled: you commute, you drink coffee,
you go to the gym. But whats it all about? We need
a bigger picture. No you need your bigger picture
because when you do, youll fully come alive. TBC!

Bags of Energy Now

4.

Group connect. A friend or two. A lover maybe.

Possibly some family. A listening ear, a sympathetic
word, a supportive hug ... these are the people who
put things in proportion; keep you grounded; help
you get through the tricky times. Everybody needs
to connect. More in a later section.

Again, each of these processes supports the other: some

hands-on, e.g., baking bread can help keep your mind
from overworking and generating extra anxiety. With
some work on your bigger career goals you will find you
are much calmer about the coming re-org at work. And
again, a balanced, integrated approach is far better than
going overboard on any of these: ruthlessly setting goals
which MUST be hit for every aspect of your life will
simply set stress levels soaring rather than what you had
hoped. Well actually look at these in the order Hands,
Understand, Group connect and Switch and will refer
to the HUGS approach.
MEDS will support HUGS and vice versa. If you do a
little on each of the eight directions there is no reason
why you cannot get the healthy reserves of energy you
seek. And if any particular aspect is having a hard time,
e.g., there is a newborn in the house and sleep in understandably broken, then the other strands of MEDS and
HUGS will compensate.

Bags of Energy Now

The Story
Marcus is tired. Hes tired of life. Tired of his job. Tired of
his teenage kids. But most of all hes tired of feeling tired.
And he doesnt know whats wrong. He remembers himself
as a graduate trainee starting out some fifteen years ago in
corporate banking as someone who could drink anyone under
the table and still do a stunning pitch and win the deal at
9:00 am the next morning. But no longer. Life is about airports, email, PowerPoint and quarterly reviews. And his
demanding teenagers; did he mention those? Er, yes hes
married. Sort of.
Marcus is tired. Sometimes he can hardly get out of the business lounge chair, join the conference call on time or be
bothered to celebrate his own birthday. Oh, what he would
give for some serious energy.
But were going to help.

The Q&A
You havent mentioned illness at all. Surely that
affects your energy?
You are right of course. What we can say is that if you
follow the strategies we will talk about in MEDS and
HUGS youll have more energy to fight such illness.
And if you do go down with the flu, youll bounce back
up more quickly.

10

Bags of Energy Now

Of course when you are ill the main thing is to respect

that illness and if you feel tired, then that is for a reason:
the body seeks rest, so rest!

The Solution
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Decide that you are going to get your energy back.

Or increase it.
Or make it more consistent.
Be willing to tackle both the mental side.
And the physical.
Start.

11

Contents

1 Why Present?

2 Structure

3 Why You Should Create a

4 Become a Good Storyteller

5 Slides: Less is More

6 Gaining Confidence

7 Challenges

8 The Other Presentations

9 Media: What Else is

10 Your Action Plan

Storyboard

Available?

About the Author

Give Great Presentations

Why Present?

The Challenge

odern presenting has developed a well-run

formula: open PowerPoint and start typing
the words you are going to say into a series of
frames, which will become slides. Add features and a
picture or two. Run through the timing a few times and
hey presto: you have your presentation. Present the
slides by using them as if they were an auto-prompt and
at the end make the slide deck available as necessary.
Its OK. Its rarely better than that. Its often really dire.
And its actually not presenting. Its a read-along.
Presenting has increasingly become about the slide
deck. We need to remind ourselves that slides or videos
or guest speakers or anything we might throw into the
mix should not detract from what is our message?
Mmm: lets just think about why we are trying to present?

The Detail
We present to get something to happen. The nature of
putting a body of people in a room and somebody (the

Give Great Presentations

presenter, the facilitator) guiding them through to conclusions can be remarkably powerful. Nothing else can
do it. An executive summary cant. Nor an email. Nor
a video, however exciting. No, put a good presenter
in a room and you are much more likely to get the
action you seek. And if you throw in a great presentation too, then you are on to a winner.
Action? Yes: to buy the product or approve the headcount. Or sign off the health and safety regulation. A
presentation is intended to create and to get action. If
you are running a training module, you want people to
change: there is always an action. If there isnt an action
then youve guessed it why are you wasting the valuable time of all these good people? Just send them the
information and be done with it.
But a presentation motivates. It can cajole. It answers
questions, overcomes fear, ensures that there is real
buy-in. Its perfect. So long as it is done well. Because a
poor presentation does more harm than good: the dullness, the boredom, the confusion, the poor handling
of questions becomes associated with the message you
are trying to put across. So decision-makers reject a
very good proposal because it was badly presented, for
example.
And where does the power of a presentation come from?
Eyeball-to-eyeball connection, from words that are said,
from pace and from connection. And thus we get to the
heart of the matter that slides, and in particular the slide
deck, can destroy all of that if we are not careful. And
thats why, as we get into this process of helping you

Give Great Presentations

become an even better presenter and help you create an

even better presentation, we will be very wary of the
slide and the slide deck.
Slides have several problems:

They encourage reading: it takes a strong speaker to

wrest the attention away from the written word.
And so you are no longer in control.

They encourage data overload. What does an audience participant do? Listen to the speaker, read the
words ...?

They remove joined-up thinking and replace it with

a series of bullets. PowerPoint slides have become
increasingly attractive as they allow a series of
words to be thrown at a screen. But rarely is much
attention given to how such words are connected
or fully explained. The bullets look good, they look
definitive until they are given closer study ...

They quickly replace communication with content.

And most critically, instead of a presenter concentrating on how he/she will get the message
across, he/she becomes distracted by PowerPoint
features.

They are everywhere and because so many people

have experienced such poor sessions, they are a
little wary as they settle down to yours.

Give Great Presentations

The Story
Sam hated giving presentations and she hated attending
them. Nobody at her firm seemed to talk any more. They
wrote and circulated slide decks. She sat through endless
meetings, which in themselves were not that organized but
they were excruciating because of poor planning and rapidly
thrown together slides. She had been suspicious for a long
time that there was a better way and had even managed to
book herself on the companys Presentation Skills course but
was shocked to discover that all they did was design bigger
and brighter PowerPoints.
The thinking in this section was all a bit of an epiphany.
Things were going to change.

The Q&A
My company loves slide decks. How am I going to
persuade my company to change its way of thinking?
Your company, their company, everybodys company!
Theyre all at it. A suggestion is to start small. Try a team
meeting without everything on PowerPoint (were going
to show you how). Notice how everyone is more engaged
and comments are much more favourable at the end of
the meeting. Start small. Drop a few slides. Notice the
positive reaction. Were going to give you lots of help
and ideas.

Give Great Presentations

But surely slide decks are also a great record of

the presentation? Lose the slides and you lose the
handouts ...
Well, we will debate later whether a slide deck is a great
record. Just briefly, have you noticed how because of
their bullet nature many slides dont really make much
sense after the event? Well show you how to create a
much more powerful record.

The Solution
1.
2.

Look afresh at the purpose of presenting.

And thus look afresh at the approach
presenting.

to

Contents

1 The Decision Process

2 Tools to Decision Making 1:

3 Tools to Decision Making 2:

4 Tools to Decision Making 3:

5 Tools to Decision Making 4:

6 Tools to Decision Making 5:

7 Decisions at Work 1:

8 Decisions at Work 2:

Data and evidence

Analysis

Brainstorm and incubation

Boosting creativity
Take action

Teamwork

Persuading, convincing and

selling

9 Decisions at Home
10 Your Action Plan
About the Author

Make Better Decisions More Often

The Decision Process

The Challenge

ost of us never really think about how we make

a decision. If we were challenged we might
mutter something about looking at pros
and cons and perhaps thinking about it for a while.
Maybe add something about not rushing an important
decision. It sounds logical. And yet many of us know
that some of the biggest decisions in our lives such as
finally buying a flat, deciding who we might spend the
rest of our life with or to become a police officer was a
gut decision. And is that so bad?
Lets understand the decision-making process. Then we
can get better at it!

The Detail
Making a decision will generally go through these five
stages:
1. The data/evidence stage. This is the stage that
kicks off the decision-making process. It might be
proactive or reactive. You need facts, you need

Make Better Decisions More Often

evidence if you are going to make a decision. How

can you choose your next job if you do not know
what is important to you and/or you know nothing
about the organization? If either of those areas is
weak you are likely to make a bad decision. How
can you be improving the diet of your children if
you know nothing about nutrition and/or little
about the content/background of the food you are
buying? Some data is proactive, i.e., you go out and
get it: data on the best creative writing course or
nicest Scottish island for your holiday. This is especially true in business, of course: what data do you
have on your competitors product margins? Some
data is reactive and the slow accumulation of that
data prompts a decision. No longer can you get into
your favourite jeans, your 6-year-old daughter is
increasingly disliking school, your franchisees are
defecting to a competitor: you need to make some
decisions.
2. The analysis stage. Good. Now you have some
facts. Your competitors margins are not as high
as you thought. The Isle of Mull seems to be
well liked by those with young children, probably
overall Spanish is most appreciated by international
employers seeking a second language. Once you
have your facts you can then begin to do some
analysis in preparation for your decision. Which
raises the issue of decision criteria. You want a new
carpet for your main living room. You can get all
the facts you like on prices, quality and colours. But
you cannot proceed unless you have some criteria
which might be: (1) it must be very hard wearing

Make Better Decisions More Often

(2) it must be a dark colour as you have toddlers

spilling things all the time (3) it must be from a fair
trade supplier. OK, now you are starting to get to
serious decision time. You have criteria. And you
have facts. Lets see how they match.
3. The incubation stage. Most decisions are better
quality if they have a period of reflection or incubation. Of course some decisions can be made now
and thousands of every day decisions and the occasional emergency decision do need to be made now.
But the power of the brain when allowed to digest
the meeting of criteria and data can throw up some
interesting possibilities. Lets forget the carpet and
have a wooden floor. For large decisions and certainly
most business decisions it is critical to allow reflection time.
4. The creativity stage. Certainly if you wish to be
creative with your thinking, then incubation is
crucial. There is no doubt we can all be creative
under pressure. And a speed approach to a decision
can actually expose enlightening ideas. But overall,
creativity is more likely to be guaranteed through
this process. And through creativity, a better decision. But apart from allowing time, how do you
encourage creativity?
5. The action stage. There is no more. You have the
facts, you have the criteria, you did your reflection.
And you were creative. Now you must realize a decision is not a decision until you take an action. How
easy it is to say I will get fit. Very. Some might

Make Better Decisions More Often

say you have made a decision, others might argue

not until you do something. We will argue the
latter!

The Story
Kozue had a lot of challenges in her life at the moment. Born
in Tokyo but currently living in London with her English
boyfriend, at age 27 she felt she needed to sort out her career
(working as a graphic designer doing really boring end-ofthe-food-chain logos and stuff), needed to sort out her love
life (she and her boyfriend were not getting on well) and she
really, really wanted to get her furniture business (now that
she was passionate about) off the ground. And crikey, she
needed to stress a lot less.
But at the moment she either couldnt make a decision or
seemed only to make an appalling one.
She was keen to learn more.

The Q&A
So is there a perfect formula to better decision
making?
Perhaps formula is too strong a word. Perhaps strategy
or even methodology is a better word. Follow these steps
and you are likely to have a better decision.

Make Better Decisions More Often

You did allude to it the gut-based decision but

then seemed to forget about it and concentrate on
the logical side. I dont think I have made a logical
decision in my life. But I am really happy with pretty
well all the choices I have made.
Were with you. We all know decisions involve the
emotional side as well as the logical side. The strategy
outlined above attempts to use the best of both.
Logic and emotion. Left brain and right brain. Read on:
youll see!

The Solution
There are five stages to a great decision:
1. Data. You need facts. They may come proactively
or reactively.
2. Analysis. You need criteria so that you can filter
the facts.
3. Incubation. A bit of reflection normally ensures a
better decision.
4. Creativity. This is needed to generate alternate,
perhaps more powerful, solutions.
5. Action. A decision is not a decision without an
action.

Contents
1

ThePhilosophy

DecideYourBiggerPicture

SetYourCompass

4
5
6
7
8

MaketheRightStuff
Happen
BeingMoreProductiveat
Work
GettingThingsDone
DespitePeople
GettingThingsDoneina
VirtualWorld
BeingMoreProductiveat
Home

ParadoxicalProductivity

10

YourActionPlan

AbouttheAuthor

Boost Your Productivity

The Philosophy

The Challenge

o, please dont 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: its not so bad.
Youll 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.

Boost Your Productivity

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

Boost Your Productivity

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 its pretty easy but it will require
you to be different?
Much of time management methodology was first
created in that simpler world. A world where we did less
multi-tasking, where we had far fewer interrupts and
putting it more bluntly our expectations of what we
might do and achieve were much lower. But such
approaches are no longer powerful enough: we need
something that works for our very different lifestyles.
And heres the tough bit: to be truly productive we will
have to say no to a lot of things; we will have to
address the digital dilemma of a world which floods into
our brain at every opportunity. We will need to recognize that productivity is as much about our personal
wellness as it is about our willingness to create a
great list.
Thus, you are productive if:

You hit your work goals, as that is what you are paid
to do ...

but at the same time you maintain your health ...

and in particular, stress is at a minimum.

Boost Your Productivity

You have a longer-term picture of where your career

is going: you have set your

Personal Compass with its consideration of all aspects

of your life: relationships, future finances, simply
having fun ... .

You are not just efficient (i.e., getting things done)

but also

effective (getting the right things done).

And the approaches you use to being productive are

not only

top down, i.e., consideration of the big picture

Personal Compass but also

bottom up, i.e., the day-to-day practicalities, for

example, of running a family.

You are feeling good, and

you are contributing to your business and your

community.

The Story
Things had not been at all easy for Karl since 2008. He and
his family lived in Detroit, Michigan, USA and he had
always been the main bread-winner. But from a well-paid
job in the automotive industry he had been effectively

Boost Your Productivity

downsized to a job that was well below his skill level and,
particularly worryingly, had no real prospects of promotion
or a secure career. And this with three growing children and
college fees looming. There had been no family holiday for
the last four years, the household food budget was really
straining at the seams and the house needed significant
repairs. Karl and his wife, Barbara, had always been pretty
organized: there was a family board in the kitchen with the
kids timetables, general shopping list and a list of repairs to
be done on the house. But it struck them that they were really
not thinking deeply or creatively enough: they had to do
something to get out of this rut. They were both frustrated
that they seemed to have no time to think about what they
really wanted or how to get what they needed. In fact,
perhaps they could be a lot more productive.
Well return to Karl and his family in future sections.

The Q&A
To be honest Ive never been that brilliant at time
management. Isnt this philosophy just going to
make it even more complicated?
Bear with us: itll ultimately make it simpler. Guaranteed!

Boost Your Productivity

Isnt that story about Karl and Barbara more to do

with how they can become successful?
And thats the point. Real productivity is not just about
a well-managed diary, a well-listed Moleskine notebook
and a well-categorized inbox. It is about getting the
success you want, otherwise you simply become a
machine managing lists.

The Solution
1.

2.

In a very demanding New World of Work, being

productive is no longer just about a well-managed list.
It is about your philosophy of how you will cope
in an ever-more demanding world!

About the Author

Nicholas Bate is a thought leader in
Personal Excellence. He is the author
of 15 books on the subject including
You, Only Better and How to be
Brilliant. Nicholas runs a consultancy
specialising in creating long-term
leadership competitive advantage for
high profile clients. He is also a lecturer
at Warwick University Business School.
www.nicholasbate.typepad.com

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