To manage others successfully, a man must first manage himself. Personal efficiency is creative self-management. It is not getting ahead of others, but getting ahead of yourself.
It is having the drive to get started on the task at hand. “Life leaps like a geyser.” wrote
Alexis Carrel, “for those who drill though the rock of inertia.”
It is experimenting to find the best, easiest and quickest ways of getting things done.
It is putting first things first, doing one thing at a time and developing the art of intensive concentration.
It is breaking big tasks down into their smaller parts.
It is not being a slave to system but making system a slave to you.
It is making notes and letting pencil and paper remember for you.
It is using Kipling’s “six honest serving men What and Why and When and How and Who and Where.
It is building the efficient mentality of balance, perception, organization, ability and stamina.
It is seeking the counsel of wise men in person and through their writings and using their wisdom and experience to help you to live efficiently.
It is weaving the cables of constructive habit so that right action will become automatic. In sport and in business good habits mark the champion.
It is having a goal and mapping out a personal program of how to reach it.
It is setting up personal incentives-promising yourself rewards for work completed.
It is guiding your life instead of drifting.
It is organizing your personal life for efficient living in all the important areas: work, play, love and worship.
It is making time live for you by making the most of every minute.
Written by (Wilfred Peterson) in 1960.
