Читать книгу Up Against The Clock: How You Can Double Your Time? - Ronald C. Mendlin - Страница 8

The time-saving techniques in this book will:

Afford you new opportunities to be successful at your job.

Allow you to lead a more balanced life.

Give you more spare time in which to channel your energies in different positive directions.

This book is for people who take time management seriously, and know that they need to take it seriously. Consider this book an amicable companion. If you like, read it cover to cover, but if it suits you instead to treat it as a reference guide, by all means please do. Many of the ideas in this book are universally applicable, but not all of them will fit your particular situation. Take what you find useful and adapt it to your needs.

Throughout the book you’ll be prompted to do a number of writing exercises, and to make various lists. The interactive assignments in this book are intended to help “concretize” the book’s ideas and, occasionally, to jog your creativity. Cognitive research has conclusively demonstrated that writing things down helps to sharpen thinking and illuminate issues at hand. I believe you will derive maximum benefit from this book if you take the time to do all or most of the exercises. (The last thing I would ever do is waste your time with useless busy work!) You may even want to repeat some of the exercises in six months or a year, depending on how valuable they prove for you, and if they lead to any useful changes in your work habits.

I also have a “secret agenda”: I hope that the concepts in this book will do more than improve your work efficiency; I hope they will ultimately provide you with enhanced fulfillment in your life. When you put down this book, I want you to be happier than you were before you picked it up. If that sounds overly ambitious (or, forgive me, grandiose) for a book on time management for managers, consider again that time is our most precious currency. How much is an hour worth? Or a day? Regardless of your hourly or yearly salary, the truest answer is that each day and each hour is priceless, and scarcely anything in this world will make you happier than the knowledge that you are putting your time to good use, that you are using your days and your hours well, that you are in control of your time — insofar as control is desirable and possible.