We'll now go through those points in more detail.
The aim is to do more reading and writing of better quality in less time. This can be done if you make up your mind to practise. It isn't easy to do, but its importance cannot be over emphasised.
Many a good practical man has been held back, because he has been unable to express himself, or has taken too long to do so.
Anyone who relies on their memory, has to act while memories are fresh. The good notetaker is spared this. He can drop even the biggest problem as necessary, confident that he can pick up the threads at any later time.
This is particularly important for staff meetings and for private sessions where commitments are made, plans are discussed, or problems are outlined.
Do not let loose ends always complicate things.
Answer your correspondance at once and you will get rid of 99 percent of it. For loose ends, specify objectives.
"Now" is usually the right time
It means you may be able to handle far more problems than you do on a fast judgement basis, merely by overcoming inertia - by driving yourself to clear up minor problems.
Do it in writing. Write down all the important regular special and creative jobs you will concentrate on. You cannot do them all at once. But you won't get any of them done unless you start doing them.
Decide on the importance of all projects you have to work on. Fix them in order of importance into the pattern of your weekly time budget.
Use this with discretion. Try to arrange that incoming calls do not interrupt interviews or consultations. If messages have to be taken by subordinates, arrange that they are taken effectively and call-back times arranged and kept to.
Remember also, that if you telephone someone else, you are interrupting him. This may upset him, so be courteous.
Someone wants to discuss something, so he calls you up. When can he you and he talk about it? Anytime? Anytime may be the worst possible time for you, if he comes in the middle of an interview. Tell him "now" or "11.30" or some specific time. See him as soon as he comes - that saves his time.
Include some idea of what the meeting is about. Let people know what to bring with them. Give them enough guidance about preparation so you do not spend half the time getting started. When you are called to a meeting the same things apply. Go as well prepared as you can.
Purely social conversation is a vitally important part of business relationships. It is good for morale, but it can easily be overdone.
There is nothing worse than the manager who is so fearful of wasting a second, that he sits on the edge of his chair and seems to time every visitor. Your visitor catches the disease while he is in with you. He hurries, so he doesn't tell you all you want to know. Or he doesn't understand all you told him, because you hurried it to get rid of him.
Then you wonder what happened as you spend an hour or two straightening out some trouble that could be attributed to poor communications in the meeting, where you saved all of two or three minutes.
To know what is going on, it is necessary to listen. Make a point of listening to what other people have to say while they are saying it, instead of thinking so much about what you want to say next. They may be saying what you will say.
Typing can save a lot of time. It's considerably quicker than hand writing, which speeds up report and correspondance writing and is more legible, which saves secretarial time. Perhaps more importantly, with increased use of computers by managers, it saves direct time in systems operations.
The Diary has several uses - it notes:
All incoming correspondance requires action. The Hold-Over System assists operational control and co-ordination. It provides the dual purpose of reminding and handling pending materials. It requires little time.
This is where you make sure those good notes do not get lost - also that all the big and little things that you cannot do at once get put on your schedule of things that are definitely going to get done.