How to be a Productivity Ninja - FREE SAMPLER E-Book

Graham Allcott

• Herausgeber: Icon Books
• Kategorie: Ratgeber
• Serie: Productivity Ninja
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 47

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2014

Beschreibung

THIS IS A FREE EBOOK SAMPLER. IT INCLUDES THE FIRST 42 PAGES OF THE FULL BOOK. If you would like to purchase Graham Allcott's How to be a Productivity Ninja in full, you can do so with all good ebook retailers. In the age of information overload, traditional time management techniques simply don't cut it when it comes to overflowing inboxes, ever-expanding to-do lists and endless, pointless meetings. Thankfully there is a better way: The Way of the Productivity Ninja. Using techniques including Ruthlessness, Mindfulness, Zen-like Calm and Stealth & Camouflage you will get your inbox down to zero, make the most of your attention, beat procrastination and learn to work smarter, not harder. Written by one of the UK's foremost productivity experts, How to be a Productivity Ninja is a fun, accessible and practical guide to staying cool, calm and collected, getting more done, and learning to love your work again. If you enjoy this free sampler why not check out the complete book and learn the ways of the Productivity Ninja!

Leseprobe

Printed edition published in the UK in 2014 by

Icon Books Ltd, Omnibus Business Centre,

39–41 North Road, London N7 9DP

email: [email protected]

www.iconbooks.net

This electronic edition published in 2014 by Icon Books Ltd

ISBN: 978-184831-684-3 (ePub format)

Text copyright © 2012, 2014 Graham Allcott

The author has asserted his moral rights.

Originally published in longer form by READ Press.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, or by any means, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.

Typeset by Bernadette McDonagh and Marie Doherty

Cover logo and illustrations by Burrell Design

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Graham Allcott is a productivity trainer, social entrepreneur and founder of Think Productive. Think Productive run public workshops throughout the UK and also run in-house workshops for staff at a diverse range of organizations including the Cabinet Office (UK government), The National Trust, eBay, Heineken, BT, GlaxoSmithKline and the University of Bristol.

Think Productive workshops include:

Getting your inbox to zero

Email etiquette

How to get things done

Making meetings magic

Smells like team spirit

How to be a productivity ninja

Prior to founding Think Productive, Graham’s career has been primarily in the charity sector and focused on social action. He ran community volunteering projects for the University of Birmingham before becoming Chief Executive of the charity Student Volunteering England and then setting up his social enterprise consultancy, Fruitful Consulting.

He was also co-founder of Intervol, the founding Chairman of READ International and has advised Governments, both red and blue, on youth and community issues, most notably The Russell Commission and National Citizen Service. He is a trustee of the youth homelessness charity, Centrepoint.

Despite an intolerance of failure elsewhere in his life, he is an Aston Villa season ticket holder.

Graham lives in Brighton, UK.

For Chaz, my Ninja partner-in-crime

CONTENTS

Title page

Copyright information

About the author

Dedication

PREFACE

1. THE WAY OF THE PRODUCTIVITY NINJA

2. WHY WE GET STRESSED

3. ATTENTION MANAGEMENT

4.NINJA EMAIL

5. NINJA PRODUCTIVITY: THE CORD PRODUCTIVITY MODEL

6.THE CAPTURE AND COLLECT HABIT

7.THE ORGANIZE HABIT

8.THE REVIEW HABIT

9.THE DO HABIT

10.NINJA PROJECT AND MEETING MANAGEMENT

11. MOMENTUM

APPENDIX:

Five other books you need to read

Buy a book, change a life

Bring a project ninja to your office!

Contact information

DEAR HUMAN BEING …

Do you want to do everything and change the world, yet also find yourself feeling quite lazy from time to time? Yes, me too. We humans are hunting animals that have evolved to such an extent that we no longer need to hunt, so we perhaps have a right and an excuse to be lazy. Yet that doesn’t stop us being ambitious and driven either.

I would define productivity as the ability to achieve what you want to achieve, for the least effort. Certainly I don’t want to burn myself out and I definitely like still having time for relationships, friendships, passions, hobbies, rest and whatever else floats my boat.

So a few years ago, while juggling a hundred and one things – some paid, some voluntary; some work-related, some not – I developed a new obsession in my quest to change the world: productivity. Creating the most change or impact – whatever that means for you – for the least effort is what this book is all about.

I want to thank you for buying this book. By choosing to read How to be a Productivity Ninja you’ve already shown a desire to make things happen, make an impact and find easier and better ways to do what you do. Over the past few years since I founded Think Productive, we’ve been working with some of the UK and Europe’s biggest companies, government organizations and charities to help them eliminate the information stress that seems so endemic in the modern workplace. So this book is about helping you to do just that.

My approach to productivity is 100 per cent human. Too often, we label those who achieve great things as being somehow separate from us mere mortals. The great figures of our history all undoubtedly had unique talents, charisma and vision. However, none of them were really any different from you or me in a whole host of ways: even the bravest get scared, even the strongest leaders occasionally lack direction and even the greatest human beings suffer from bouts of self-doubt or have other hidden character flaws. And yet there’s a common theme running through so many time management books and business books, through the wider personal growth industry and indeed through much of our society: it’s the cult of celebrity, the cult of personality.

As we go on to explore the characteristics of the Productivity Ninja in this book, we’ll look at how a Ninja creates a mindset of Zen-like Calm, Ruthlessness, Weapon-savviness, Stealth and Camouflage, Unorthodoxy, Agility, Mindfulness and Preparedness. But I hope one of the loudest messages is that in order to be a Productivity Ninja, you don’t have to magically become a superhero.

Too many people buy these kinds of books and never even make time to read them. Too many others just indulge in the cult of personality and get lost in the dream of perfection that is presented by the guru figure. They spend time fantasizing about being the person writing the book and buying into the often impossible dreams the guru presents, rather than planning and implementing changes for their own lives.

So just to be ultra-clear, there is no perfect guru specimen to worship here. For all my moments of productive genius there are moments of self-doubt, me screwing it up, procrastinating or doing things less than efficiently. The difference is that now I recognize these bad habits and work at changing them.