The Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done (Harperbusiness Essentials)

2. The next question is: “Which of the activities on my time log could be done by somebody else just as well, if not better?”

“Delegation” as the term is customarily used, is a misunderstanding—is indeed misdirection. But getting rid of anything that can be done by somebody else so that one does not have to delegate but can really get to one’s own work—that is a major improvement in effectiveness.

For all these reasons, the demands of the organization, the demands of people, the time demands of change and innovation, it will become increasingly important for executives to be able to manage their time. But one cannot even think of managing one’s time unless one first knows where it goes.

People-decisions are time-consuming, for the simple reason that the Lord did not create people as “resources” for organization.

3. A common cause of time-waste is largely under the executive’s control and can be eliminated by him. That is the time of others he himself wastes.

the difference between time-use and time-waste is effectiveness and results.

And the executive time scarcity is bound to become worse rather than better.

1. First one tries to identify and eliminate the things that need not be done at all, the things that are purely waste of time without any results whatever.

“No secret—I have simply accepted that the first name I come up with is likely to be the wrong name—and I therefore retrace the whole process of thought and analysis a few times before I act.”