Smart Work

Smart Work

by Dermot Crowley
Released May 2016
Publisher(s): Wiley
ISBN: 9780730324362

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Book description

Organise your way to renewed focus and calm

Smart Work is the busy professional's guide to getting organised in the digital workplace. Are you drowning in constant emails, phone calls, paperwork, interruptions and meeting actions? This book throws you a lifeline by showing you how to take advantage of your digital tools to reprioritise, refocus and get back to doing the important work. You may already have the latest technology, but if you're still swamped, you're not using it to your advantage. This useful guide shows you how to leverage the technology you have to centralise your work into one integrated tool. You'll develop a simple and sustainable productivity system to organise your actions, manage your inputs and achieve your outcomes. The highly visual nature of the book helps you quickly grasp the ideas you need most.

Like most professionals, you want to do great work and achieve great things. But when half your day is spent on emails, phone calls and 'extra' duties, you rarely get a chance to shine. This book changes that. Get back in control so you can start performing like a star.

  • Get organised, focused and proactive
  • Conquer the daily incoming deluge
  • Spend more time on important work
  • Leverage your desktop and mobile technology

When work is coming at you from every direction, it's difficult to focus and prioritise. Things get lost in the shuffle. But when you channel everything into a single stream, you settle into a flow and get more accomplished in less time. Smart Work is your guide to finding your flow— and the bottom of your inbox.

Table of contents

  1. About the Author
  2. Acknowledgements
  3. Preface
  4. Introduction
    1. Productivity in the 21st century
    2. The integrated productivity system at a glance
    3. Making the system work for you every day
    4. The Smart Work roadmap — nine productivity skills
    5. A note on leveraging technology
  5. PART I: Centralise Your Actions
    1. 1 Consolidate your Work
      1. Meetings vs tasks
      2. Meeting tools — the shift from paper to electronic
      3. Task tools — stuck in the 20th century
      4. Centralise absolutely every action
      5. Consider — Capture — Commit
      6. Types of actions — hard to soft
      7. Zoom in, zoom out
      8. Use undated task lists
      9. Capture mind clutter
    2. 2 Schedule it Forward
      1. Decide when and schedule
      2. Plan your time using a weekly workflow
      3. Use action horizons
      4. Focus on the start
      5. Balance your workload
      6. Don't dilute your task list
      7. Next steps only, please
      8. Track it back
      9. Information at your fingertips
    3. 3 Focus your Day
      1. Start each day with a daily plan
      2. Highlight the critical work
      3. Manage the change
      4. Update the progress
    4. Key practice: Prioritising
  6. PART II: Organise Your Inputs
    1. 4 Reduce the Noise
      1. Reduce email noise
      2. Turn off the alerts
      3. Check email proactively
      4. Batch information emails
      5. Delete decisively
      6. Tell them to SSSH
      7. Reduce the disruption of interruption
    2. 5 Keep it Simple
      1. Simplify your filing system
      2. Learn to search
      3. Make important emails easier to find
      4. Take the pain out of archiving
      5. File on the run
    3. 6 Process to Empty
      1. Treat your inbox like your letterbox
      2. Clear the backlog quickly — the Mount Rushmore technique
      3. Schedule email actions
      4. Be decisive
      5. Process all your inputs
    4. Key practice: Processing
  7. PART III: Realise Your Outcomes
    1. 7 Identify your Value
      1. Clarify your critical roles
      2. Reconnect frequently
    2. 8 Make Time to Plan
      1. Build planning time into your schedule
      2. Monthly planning
      3. The Good, the Bad and the Great
      4. Weekly ROAR planning
    3. 9 Fight for Importance
      1. Make it visible
      2. Watch out for the procrastination pixie
      3. Blocking strategies
      4. Delegate early and well
    4. Key practice: Planning
  8. Next Steps
  9. Index
  10. Advert
  11. EULA

Product information

  • Title: Smart Work
  • Author(s): Dermot Crowley
  • Release date: May 2016
  • Publisher(s): Wiley
  • ISBN: 9780730324362