Whenever I read of a great personality with a special flair for getting things done, I make it a point to research his life to find out how he (or she) does it. The answers, I have found, are rules of the thumb which belong in the category of practical wisdom rather than scientific research - but they have worked.
Here are some techniques that those great people have taught me.
Get started
Adlai Stevenson, United States politician and diplomat, said, “There are two steps in getting any task done. The first step is to begin. The second is to begin again.” He managed to write all his own speeches, in addition to carrying on his official duties as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.
Making a beginning on any new assignment or work is like taking your first parachute jump - it requires nerve and boldness.
Look at Winston Churchill. At 40, he took up painting as a hobby. “Very gingerly,” Churchill recalled, “I mixed a little blue paint with a very small brush, and then with infinite precaution made a mark about as big as a small bean upon the snow-white canvas.” At that moment, a friend entered the room and exclaimed, “But what are you hesitating about?”
Seizing a brush, she daubed the canvas with large, fierce strokes. “‘The spell was broken,” Churchill concluded. “I have never felt an awe of the canvas since. This beginning with audacity is a great part of the art of painting.”
It is also a large part of tackling and mastering any new job. Just getting into the posture for work may put you in the mood.
Choose a pacesetter
Every coach knows that the best way to improve the performance of a player is to expose him to pacesetters - outstanding players who set high standards of skill and endurance. In tennis, for example, it is impossible for even an ace to show what he can do if he is matched with a dud.
Dennis Ralston, the top- ranking U.S. amateur tennis player before turning pro recently, says, “In training, the main problem is to find the opponent who’s a little better than you are, and learn how to beat him at his own game.”
In every office, in every endeavour, there’s at least one pacesetter. Just watch him work. It can inspire you to do more.
Manage your time
“Managing time is everybody’s No. 1 problem,” says the well-known management consultant, Peter F. Drucker, in his book -The Effective Executive. “Those who really get things done don’t start with their work; they start with their time.’
Like money, time has a way of disappearing - a dribble here, a dribble there, until you find yourself asking at the end of a busy day, “Where did it go?” It’s only by budgeting the hours and minutes of the day that you can have time left over for your own personal use. It’s this “discretionary time” that buys freedom from harassment and a sense of mastery in getting a job done.
Years ago, along with two friends, I spent a week in the hill country. We had to do all the housework, but we put off doing the domestic chores until the house was a mess. One night, I bet my friends five hundred rupees I could finish washing all dishes and plates in thirty minutes. They took me up on it, and I finished within time.
Next night, my friends saved two minutes off my record. We assigned time limits to the other daily housekeeping tasks, and found that we could keep things shipshape with no more than two hours of concentrated work. The rest of the day was ours to do with as we pleased.
Leave it and come back
My first job after graduating was on the research desk of a national magazine. When the editor gave me my first big chance to write an article, I worked day and night, trying one approach after another. The harder I tried, the more confused I became.
One day, the editor dropped in to see how the work was going, and, realizing that I was getting nowhere, said, “Have you ever noticed that one of the first things that strikes you about a girl is her perfume? After you’ve been with her a while, the perfume seems to disappear. But, if you leave her and come back, the scent is as vivid as ever. Maybe, that’s what you should do with this article. Leave it for a day and do something else. Then come back to it.”
I took his advice, and the article was finished within three days.Since then, I’ve noticed that seasoned managers who work with ideas use this same device. It worked for them
Find your own work rhythm
The conventional way of breaking up the day is, so many hours for work and so many for play, relaxation and sleep. But, if you feel like waking up at 4.00 am and work. - why not? A lot of creative work can be done at odd times and places.
The great Canadian physician, Sir William Osler, between his teaching, writings and practice, had little time to pursue his interest in books. However, he set aside 15 minutes every night to compile an annotated bibliography of his huge library. When he died his ambitious Bibliotheca Osleriana contained 7,787 entries.
Finish the job
Jobs and daily chores, like stories, have a beginning, a development and an end. For example, having started on daily chores, many of us don’t know when or where to stop.
We keep on going, complaining to the whole world. The solution is to plan your work in advance so that when you come to the point where your plan is fulfilled, you can say, “That’s that for the moment.”
For many of us, work is just a “happening”; the secret is to turn it into a production. The exciting thing is that this approach makes work a most stimulating, rewarding and satisfying part of life.