Scrambled Quotes: Personally Productive Part 2

Here is the answer to the last quote:

First the top task, then the Internet.

If you can stay off the internet till you finish your number 1 task for the day then you, my friend, can go places. If you are already doing that, then you must already be at a good place:)

The higher the lever of executive, the more likely it is that they observe a hour media fast for an hour or two every morning – no phones, no Internet, no email – just plain work.

A serial entrepreneur also gave this advice but in his book one should finish the top two priorities for the day before turning to the Net.

I’m still trying to take that advice. You?

The shout for today is an inspiring quote from Walt Disney:

Fi oyu nca rmade ti, uyo anc od ti

Wouldn’t this world be a different place if more people believed that and actually lived their dreams?

Scrambled Quotes: Personally Productive

Here is the answer to the last shout:

The story goes that after Charles M. Schwab took over Bethlehem Steel in early twentieth century, he hired a consultant to help increase the efficiency of his staff.  The consultant observed the executives as they worked and then made a recommendation which apparently greatly doubled executive productivity.

The recommendation was:

Plan the evening before.

If the next day is planned the evening before, when one gets into office then they are ready to go. It may seem like common sense now but how many of us manage to even plan the next day, forget about implementing the plan.

Of course in those days communication technology was not as advanced as today so people actually got work done. Which brings me to the scrambled shout for today:

Stifr het pot stsk tnhe eht ennttei

This one is guaranteed to increase your personal productivity and also falls in the realm of common sense.

Scrambled Quotes: Productive Business

Here is the answer to the last shout:

The players play only as well as their coach allows.

This re-affirms a fact of life. In many situations we can only do as well as the circumstances permit.  On some days even a middling player will hit the zone and play to the level of great. Often it will be on the days that they received encouragement from someone.

In business, it is often the culture encouraged by the boss that decided whether a company, be it large or small, will accomplish what it wants. A brutal culture, where everyone is always afraid of losing their jobs (remember  AT&T back in early ninties) will never permit a company to be great. A brutal culture will always keep the company from middling to below average.

But where bosses have the patience to figure out how to leverage the foibles of their players, there my friends, we have the makings of a great company, like Google and word has it, Amazon and Starbucks is on its way.

This holds true for small business too. But the problem with small business examples if you mention them by name then it hurts people and besides nobody knows the firms involved anyway.  And you don’t have to take my word for it. Organization behaviour literature is replete with studies that provide evidence about the importance of the boss and the culture in achieving organizational goal.

This next shout is about increasing your personal productivity or how to get more done in a day. The consultant who came up with this one tip earned, I believe several thousand dollars, way back in early twentieth century. Everybody may already know this tip but here it is all the same.

Nalp eht neneign fereob