Читать книгу Getting Things Done - Rus Slater - Страница 14

You’ll often hear people say that they wish they had more hours in the day, or that they dream of having more time. Well now they can at least use the mnemonic DREAM to help them achieve more in the time they have.…

DREAM is a simple five-option way to manage the things that come into your in-tray during the working day – or the requests you get from your spouse/boss/customers/or staff.

When you receive a request for help or an instruction, decide immediately on one of these five courses of actions. Don’t ignore it or put off dealing with the issue.

1 Delegate it. If it is appropriate to do so, you should delegate it to either a peer or a subordinate. Delegating a job requires you to ensure that the person to whom you delegate has the skill, the time, the authority and the responsibility for completing the job to the proper standard and deadline. If you don’t ensure that they have all of these things, then you haven’t ‘delegated’, you have ‘dumped’! (See Secret 7.4.)

“One thing is sure. We have to do something. We have to do the best we know how at the moment…If it doesn’t turn out right, we can modify it as we go along.”

Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945), US President

2 Reflect or refuse it. If appropriate you should refuse to undertake this task on the grounds that it isn’t right for you to be doing it or reflect it away to the appropriate person, even if that person is the source of the request!

3 Escalate it. You can pass it straight up to your boss if it is something that ultimately she or he will need to deal with.

4 Action it. Get it done immediately if it is definitely your responsibility. Avoid simply adding it to your in-tray – action it immediately, whilst the source of the request waits if possible!

5 Make a time for it. If it is definitely your responsibility and you can’t do it immediately (either because of other priorities or reasons), schedule a time to do it. Either insert it into your prioritized ‘to do’ list (see Secret 1.10) or set a time in your diary to deal with it.

Consciously think ‘DREAM’ with each item in your in-tray and each request, then decide how to manage it.