The Way to Wealth by Steve Shipside Read Free Book Online

in turn, examining it in a lot more detail. Now the team can focus on the effect that the category ‘objectives’, for example, has on something like the content, design and function of websites. That, in turn, leads neatly on to a discussion of the disciplines needed (which could be technical, creative, strategy, planning and media in this example) in order to get the whole project off the ground. As often as not, it is at this point that it becomes clear exactly what outside help is needed and precisely which roles should fall to which people or teams. With everyone much more assured of what their individual responsibility is, the whole job starts to slowly rumble forwards—and people stop running around in circles like clockwork mice and get on with chewing that cable.
HERE’S AN IDEA FOR YOU …
    If you’re given an elephant to eat it’s often because someone higher up has looked at it and decided they’re not hungry. Don’t procrastinate; break the job down. If you can come up with a reason why at least part of it is really the responsibility of those further up you can delegate upwards.

20 DO BE DO BE DO…
    Franklin is no friend of procrastinators. One of the recurrent themes of The Way to Wealth is the need to get on the case right now and not put things off. ‘Work while it is called today, for you know not how much you may be hindered tomorrow,’ he intones.
DEFINING IDEA …
    I am definitely I am definitely going to take a course on time management…just as soon as I can work it into my schedule.
    ~ LOUISE. BOONE, ACADEMIC AND AUTHOR
    This is all very well in an ideal world. Sometimes, however, you have no choice but to leave some items of work until tomorrow, perhaps because those kids aren’t going to pick themselves up from school, or perhaps because the alternative is to run screaming from the building and security have already warned you about doing that. In these circumstances—and in many others—the simple to-do list can become your friend.
    Now, some people see to-do lists as just a means of putting things off. After all, it’s a lot easier to write down items on a to-do list than it is to actually do the things you have written on it. Others baulk at to-do lists simply because once you start detailing everything you’re supposed to be working on, there is a strong impulse to fake your own death or run away to sea, or both. However, for the true to-do blackbelts there is a mastery and mythology about the to-do list that repays the effort of learning.
    Typically people compile their to-do lists in the morning, often as a way of putting off actually starting work. If it helps you to organise your day then that’s not in itself a bad thing, but it is often far more productive to write your list at the end of the day when the pressing tasks and problems are far more fresh in your mind. On top of that, you’ll be more relaxed about the tasks that you have already committed to your to-do list, as the act of organising your thoughts and writing your list calms you down. It helps you to focus on the next day, while also helping to ensure the good night’s sleep you will need to deal with that day to come. So finish your day with a today/tomorrow to-do list.
    Don’t just jumble everything up in the list like a shopping list; prioritise the order of tasks by grading them depending on exactly how critical it is that they be done on that particular day. You can use an A, B, C or a traffic-light colour-coding system, as you wish, but make sure that the end result is visually clear—those truly important items should leap right off the list at you when you scan it, even in passing. Finally, be careful about that grading when carrying items over to the next to-do list. Don’t just copy it without thinking, as items which were unimportant on one day may well end up being time critical in another day or so.
HERE’S AN IDEA FOR YOU …
    Your to-do list can shield you from those delegating task