PLAN: lay out the work

By Eugene Halliday

 

PLAN: lay out the work components and put them in hierarchical order. Time spent planning saves time in work. Use geometry. 

 

CONCENTRATE: focus; do not scatter energy. 

 

TAKE BREAKS: do not work in one position or on one subject too long. Stretch, walk. 

 

NO CLUTTER: have trays. Immediate action; low priority; pending; reading material. Only immediate action tray should be on desk; others out of sight. 

 

DO NOT BE A PERFECTIONIST: aim to excel, but do not destroy for failure in little things. 

 

HAVE COURAGE TO SAY NO: tactfully decline whatever does not lead to the goal(s). 

 

DO NOT PROCRASTINATE: Change Now. Do not do too much too quickly. Do the one thing needed. Take what has been put off and do it. 

 

USE RADICAL SURGERY: cut out activities that bore, sap energy, and do not attain real goals. 

 

ELEGATE: educate potential workers to take over; then give them full authority over routine processes. This frees one for more important decision-making. 

 

DO NOT BE WORK-MAD: remember family, friends, play time, holidays; manage time. 

 

BE HERE-NOW: The past is only on records; the future is non-existent. Here and Now is the only time of action. 

 

A plan is a rational statement of what is possible and profitable to do. Often a geometrical diagram can be used to simplify and record it. This is the function of a yantra or mandala, to hold in mind the possibilities of action and show the most economic way of realising them. 

 

Concentration is a centring process in which one focuses attention on the essential of a problem to be solved, or a goal to be achieved. A symbol set up in the visual or mental field aids retention of the purpose. 

 

Breaks are needed to allow energies to circulate in the organism. If one position is physically held too long, the body suffers, health deteriorates, concentration fails, because impeded circulation means anoxia. Move, change position, stand up, walk, etc. then return to work refreshed. 

 

Clutter of papers, unanswered letters, etc., wastes energy, scatters the mind, impedes concentration, lowers efficiency. 

 

Perfectionism is excessive insistence on faultlessness. Accept minor errors and aim to correct them, without niggling. 

 

“No” must be said tactfully to whatever does not lead to the attainment of the defined goal, or to the solution of a problem. 

 

Procrastination creates clutter, wastes energy and time. The unattended-to problem irritates the mind. Every matter attended to releases energy for use elsewhere. 

 

Cut out whatever uses energy unprofitably. The unprofitable activity diverts energy from useful things, bores the mind, tires the body. 

 

Delegation of routine jobs to trained persons releases one for higher activities and for discovery of more efficient modes of doing what is to be done. 

 

Excessive continuous work makes relational living with others very difficult, and routinises one’s mind and body activities. One becomes a machine, unconscious of humanity, friends, etc. 

 

Here-nowness is the essential of good concentration and efficient action.

 

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