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July 16, 2004:
Time
Management II
Interview
with Brian Tracey author of the book,Time
Power
Mike
Carruthers:
A very important rule in being a better time manager is....
Brian
Tracey:
Never
give into the temptation to clear up small things first, discipline
yourself to do big things.
Brian Tracey
author of the book Time
Power says it's human nature to put off the big important
tasks.
The important
tasks are always big and hard and require discipline. Unimportant
tasks are always small and easy and are kind of fun. So what
people do is since people always follow the line of least resistance
is people will start off their day and they'll start off with
the little tasks. Without realizing that whatever you do repeatedly
becomes a habit. And pretty soon it's a habit to start of the
day with your little tasks.
And how
do you tell the difference between the little and the big tasks?
The best
way is to ask what are the possible consequences of the task.
And high value, high priority task is something that can have
significant consequences. A low value task is a task that usually
has no consequence at all. You can tell what a person's future
is going to be like by listening to what they talk about in
the moment. So if you go to work and you listen to people you’ll
hear them talking about what time they’re going for lunch, what
time they’re going for their coffee break or what time they’re
leaving the office. Well, these are people who have no future
because none of those have any consequences. Then successful
people are talking about getting a particular proposal out,
getting in touch with a customer, going and seeing somebody,
finishing a task. These are all tasks that have high consequences
these are the people that have a great future.
At somethingyoushouldknow.net,
I’m Mike Carruthers and that’s Something You Should Know.
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