Do it and you can beat procrastination

Chapter 23
When a company held a management talent recruitment fair, they asked the candidates a question: On a stormy night, you drove a car and passed a station.There are three people waiting for the bus: one is an old man who is dying, very pitiful; the other is a doctor who saved your life and is a great benefactor, you want to repay him in your dreams; there is a woman/man, she/he is The kind of person you want to marry/marry in your dreams, maybe if you miss it, you will be gone in this life.But your car can only accommodate one person, how would you choose?And use the most sufficient reasons to convince the examiner.

The people who participated in the interview put forward different answers, because each answer has its own truth.

Someone said: The old man is dying, he should be saved first.However, the examiner will refute that every old man can only regard death as the end of their life in the end.

Someone said: Let that doctor get in the car first, because he saved you, this is a good opportunity to repay him.Similarly, the examiner refuted that you can repay him at any time in the future.

Some people also said: I want to seize the opportunity and get close to the person I love, because if I miss it, I may never meet another person who makes my heart move so much.The chief examiner retorted even more fiercely that people should believe in fate, what is yours will always be yours... In the hall, among the two hundred people who applied for the job, only one was hired. He believed that there is nothing in the world that is more important than life. important.He said the following: "Give the doctor the car keys to take the old man to the hospital while I stay and wait for the bus with the man of my dreams!"

This exam question pushed most applicants into a dilemma.In fact, why is our working environment not like this?Among a series of to-do things based on the achievement of goals, how many people can clearly know which things should be dealt with first, which things should be postponed, or even not dealt with?

When dealing with these problems, people who know how to do things often point out sharply: things should be arranged according to the importance of things, and the priority of things should be judged according to the principle of "whether what you are doing now is conducive to getting closer to the goal".The degree of importance mentioned here refers to the contribution of one thing to the realization of the goal.That is to say, if one thing contributes more to the realization of the goal, then the matter is more important, and the more it should have the privilege of priority treatment; if one thing is meaningless to the realization of the goal, then It's such an unimportant thing that a sensible person would just put it off.

·Put the first things first

After clarifying what is important, how to "put the first thing first" is the most important thing.

If you want to be an efficient person, you must overcome your past habits. When you start every job, you must first let yourself understand which thing is the most important, which thing should be the most worthwhile Focus on completing the energy, and develop a good habit of dealing with the most important work first every day.

Bethlehem Steel President Charles Schwap met with efficiency expert Ivy Leigh.When we met, Ivy Leigh said he was fully capable of helping Charles Schwap run his steel company better.

Ivy Leigh said that he could give Charles Schwap something that could increase the performance of the opposing steel company by at least 10% within 50 minutes.Then he handed Charles Schwap a blank sheet of paper and said, "On this sheet of paper, write down six big things you will do tomorrow in order of importance." About five minutes later, Ivy Leigh said: "Now all you need to do is put this paper in your pocket until tomorrow morning, and the first thing you do tomorrow is take this note out, don't look at the others, just do the first thing, and then use the same The way to do the second thing, the third thing...until you get off work. Even if you may spend the day only doing the first thing, then it doesn’t matter. Because you have already done the most important thing.”

A few weeks later, Charles Schwap sent Ivy Leigh a letter along with a check for $25.He said in the letter that the meeting with Ivy Leigh was the most valuable lesson of his life.

Five years later, this little-known small steel plant became the largest independent steel plant in the world. With the help of Ivy Leigh, Charles Schwap earned a full $5 million.

When people do things, it is easy to make such a mistake: using various methods of decreasing importance, the schedule of the day is fully arranged, so that it is impossible to spare a little "flexible time" to deal with the problems that may arise in the work. of various emergencies.If unexpected accidents occur, you have to give up the important work in the plan to deal with these emergencies, then, of course, the work that was not completed in time today will inevitably be added to tomorrow's work list.In fact, work is not a one-time [-]-meter sprint, but a long-lasting marathon. If you constantly pressurize yourself, you will not last long.Therefore, even if there are no emergencies, you should set aside some flexible "mobility time" every day, because you can also use these times to deal with some minor issues well; or communicate and contact your subordinates. Feelings; You can also take a break and recall the gains and losses in a day's work.In this way, you can not only complete the established work calmly, but also face tomorrow's challenges calmly.

Taking the time to determine the importance of things will help you develop good work habits.

The art of procrastination: Prioritize tasks and set priorities
Many times, people are always bound by habits, and when dealing with problems, they always arrange the order of things according to the urgency of things, rather than according to the importance of things. Such an approach is passive rather than active. Successful people cannot This works.The essence of time management is: there is a distinction between primary and secondary, and setting priorities.That is, divide the things to be done into levels and categories, do the most important things first, and then do the secondary things.By prioritizing the time for the most important things, you can give priority to ensuring that the most important work is done well, so that you can control your work completion time from the overall situation.

Bill Gates believes that those highly efficient people, no matter what they do, must prioritize and coordinate their work.

How to prioritize and greatly improve your work efficiency, Bill Gates summed up three criteria for judging:

1. Should know what you have to do

This has two meanings: whether it must be done, and whether it must be done by yourself.It must be done, but it is not necessary for you to do it yourself. You can assign others to do it, and you are only responsible for supervising it.

2. Understand what will bring you the highest return
You should spend 80% of your energy on the things that bring you the highest return and 20% on other things.

The so-called highest rewarding things are things that meet the requirements of the goals or that you can do more efficiently than others.

A few years ago, most entrepreneurs in Japan regarded those who worked overtime after get off work as the best employees, but now it is not necessarily the case.They think that an employee who completes his work by working overtime means that he probably does not have the ability to complete the task within the specified time, and his work efficiency is low.

3. Be clear about what brings you the greatest satisfaction

Not all the things with the highest rewards can bring you the greatest sense of satisfaction, only a balance can bring you a sense of satisfaction.Therefore, no matter how busy you are, you need to allocate time to do things that make you satisfied and happy. Only in this way, work will be interesting and it will be easier to maintain enthusiasm for work.Through the above "three layers of filtering", the priority of things is very clear, and then, prioritize the importance (note that people always have a tendency to do things not in the order of importance), and stick to this principle, you will I found that there is no other way to use time more effectively than to act on importance.

In people's daily life, we will encounter many things of one kind or another. Although some of them are not the most urgent things in front of us, they are of great significance to the long-term and overall situation.For example, exercising, whether or not exercising does not make much difference at present, but it is extremely important and has far-reaching significance in the long run.It is unwise for some people to be reluctant to spend time on such matters.

In terms of efficiency management, it is necessary to take both long-term and urgency into account, and attach great importance to the handling of matters that are not urgent but have far-reaching impact.This requires raising efficiency management to a strategic level.

To become an efficient person, one must not only master various efficiency management rules and skills, but also need to overcome the habit of laziness.Efficiency management and emotional management are mutual constraints, complement each other and develop simultaneously.

If there is no positive emotion, even if you have mastered many efficient management rules and techniques, it will not help.How can those people who are full of negative emotions towards work and life, those who are lazy to strive and do not seek to make progress, improve their efficiency and successfully do everything well?

(End of this chapter)