Conclusion: Putting It All Together

Here is a summary of the 21 great ways to stop procrastinating and get more things done faster. Review these rules and principles regularly until they become firmly ingrained in your thinking and actions, and your future will be guaranteed.

NOTES

1. Set the table: Decide exactly what you want. Clarity is essential. Write out your goals and objectives before you begin.

2. Plan every day in advance: Think on paper. Every minute you spend in planning can save you 5 or 10 minutes in execution.

3. Apply the 80/20 Rule to every thing: Twenty percent of your activities will account for 80  percent of your results. Always concentrate your efforts on that top 20  percent.

4. Consider the consequences: Your most important tasks and priorities are those that can have the most serious consequences, positive or negative, on your life or work. Focus on these above all else.

5. Practice creative procrastination: Since you can’t do every thing, you must learn to deliberately put off those tasks that are of low value so that you have enough time to do the few things that really count.

6. Use the ABCDE Method continually: Before you begin work on a list of tasks, take a few moments to organize them by value and priority so you can be sure of working on your most important activities.

7. Focus on key result areas: Identify those results that you absolutely, positively have to achieve to do your job well, and work on them all day long.

8. Apply the law of three: Identify the three things you do in your work that account for 90  percent of your contribution, and focus on getting them done before anything else. You will then have more time for your family and personal life.

9. Prepare thoroughly before you begin: Have every thing you need at hand before you start. Assemble all the papers, information, tools, work materials, and numbers you might require so that you can get started and keep going.

10. Take it one oil barrel at a time: You can accomplish the biggest and most complicated job if you just complete it one step at a time.

11. Upgrade your key skills: The more knowledgeable and skilled you become at your key tasks, the faster you start them and the sooner you get them done. Determine exactly what it is that you are very good at doing, or could be very good at, and throw your whole heart into doing those specific things very, very well.

12. Identify your key constraints: Determine the bottlenecks or choke points, internal or external, that set the speed at which you achieve your most important goals, and focus on alleviating them.

13. Put the pressure on yourself: Imagine that you have to leave town for a month, and work as if you had to get your major task completed before you left.

14. Motivate yourself into action: Be your own cheerleader. Look for the good in every situation. Focus on the solution rather than the problem. Always be optimistic and constructive.

15. Technology is a terrible master: Take back your time from enslaving technological addictions. Learn to often turn things off and leave them off.

16. Technology is a wonderful servant: Make your technological tools confront you with what is most important and protect you from what is least important.

17. Focus your attention: Stop the interruptions and distractions that interfere with completing your most important tasks.

18. Slice and dice the task: Break large, complex tasks down into bite-size pieces, and then do just one small part of the task to get started.

19. Create large chunks of time: Organize your days around large blocks of time so you can concentrate for extended periods on your most important tasks.

20. Develop a sense of urgency: Make a habit of moving fast on your key tasks. Become known as a person who does things quickly and well.

21. Single handle every task: Set clear priorities, start immediately on your most important task, and then work without stopping until the job is 100  percent complete. This is the real key to high performance and maximum personal productivity.

Make a decision to practice these principles every day until they become second nature to you. With these habits of personal management as a permanent part of your personality, your future success will be unlimited.

Just do it! Eat that frog!