Stever Robbins has recently released a new book: 9 Steps to Work Less and Do More.
Get-It-Done Guy’s 9 Steps to Work Less and Do More is a playful, yet serious guide to working less and doing more. In other words, creating a more productive life. Yes, it’s about getting more done at work. It’s also about getting more done in life. It lays out nine skills that apply anywhere you want to get greater results with less work. (For the buzzword-inclined, you can think of the book as business process re-engineering applied to individual productivity. I wouldn’t say that aloud, however.)
The book’s nine steps build a foundation for streamlining how you get what you want out of work (and life). The material is based on ideas I learned or developed during my years coaching, both coaching tools and techniques to help clients work less and do more.
The Nine Steps to Work Less and Do More
Step 1: Live and work on purpose
If you’re anything like me, a lot of what you call work has very little to do with getting anything important done in life. Like when I compulsively check my social media sites every hour. That kind of thing must go.
Step 2: Stop procrastinating
What is procrastinating except the very art of not doing the very stuff you know is most important? We’ll cover how to nip this in the bud, or at least arrange for someone to kick you into action when you’re delaying. And just in case you’re someone who claims being kicked into action doesn’t work for you, we’ll get out an Ostrich feather and tickle you into action instead.
Step 3: Conquer your technology
Our supposed savior, technology, is for many of us, the greatest obstacle we have to being truly productive. You’ll learn how to use your technology to help you focus, instead of hey, hang on a second. There’s an instant message coming in.
Step 4: Cultivate focus
Do you have any idea how much time is wasted multi-tasking? A lot. If you keep yourself focused and eliminate distractions, you can toss yourself into the kind of flow where the results come fast and easy. And you’ll do it entirely without the use of pharmaceutical supplements.
Step 5: Stay organized
When you have a place for everything and everything in its place, it’s no work at all to find what you need, when you need it. I’m not just talking about physical clutter; this is also about organizing your thinking, your projects, and your processes. Reclaim all that time you otherwise spend hunting for the next step, the next paper, or the next person by knowing exactly where to go and what to do when you need it.
Step 6: Don’t waste time
Sometimes you appear to be doing exactly, precisely what you should be doing, but are actually wasting time that could be spent doing something more meaningful, like eating bon-bons and sipping fruit flavored beverages in a hammock strung between your computer and your doorframe.
Step 7: Optimize!
As I mentioned before, doing things twice bores me silly. Especially when it comes to making mistakes. In Optimize, you’ll learn how to do things once or twice, streamline them to the point where the task is completely brainless, and Let’s just say that I’ll leave you to connect the dots. Think, “brain-eating Zombies.” The implications will jump right out.
Step 8: Build stronger relationships
You can’t get there alone; you need someone to program the GPS while you’re trying to read street signs. Relationships are, ultimately, how everything gets done. Together, we can do far, far more than we can alone. For example, one of us can measure while the other mixes, and then we can both eat the cookies when they’re ready. You’ll learn some excellent ways to create and deepen the relationships that matter most.
Step 9: Leverage!
The ultimate in Doing More, our final destination of leverage will give you several ways to make sure when you do get results, you get better, stronger, and faster than you’d ever dreamed possible.
You can read the first two chapters at: http://getitdoneguynews.com/ along clips of Get-It-Done-Guy’s podcast and videos.
