7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
...and I thought I was organized, August 18, 2005
This review is from: The Instant Productivity Kit: 21 Simple Ways to Get More Out of Your Job, Yourself and Your Life, Immediately (Paperback)
Len Merson has crafted the perfect companion piece for his outstanding seminars and training programs. "The Instant Productivity Toolkit" is a no-nonsense handbook that will make you more organized. Merson makes a simple, intuitive observation that borders on the brilliant: No one really taught us how to deal with the new media...e-mail, voice mail, electronic files.
It all starts with the "Clear 180", keeping your desk clean and your eyes focused on one task and one task only. The use of seven "terminals" for all information will give you the tools to instantly retrieve critical data while mercilessly dealing with the mountains of junk that either cross our desk or assualt our electronic in-box.
It took me longer to read this book than I anticipated. It's hard to read when your busy rearranging your desk, organzing files, preparing a "Turtle pile" and designing a pending system that really works.
If you do nothing else follow Merson's pointed and practical advice on dealing with e-mail. The power of going home each evening with this message in my e-mail is worth the price of admission: "There are no items in this view."
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
N O -- M O R E-- "T O - D O" L I S T S ! ! ! !, February 5, 2006
This review is from: The Instant Productivity Kit: 21 Simple Ways to Get More Out of Your Job, Yourself and Your Life, Immediately (Paperback)
I am an Architectural Intern with project management experience.
I knew that my work load would continually increase with more and more projects coming at me. I knew I would have the added responsibility of leading more people.
I also knew that my present method of handling information (although organized) would not be as effecient or as error free as I needed it to be. I needed to find a better way to handle the information that would be coming at me.
I found it here.
I have always been "neat" and "organized". Yet, somehow, I still couldn't keep up with the information and tasks that were coming at me.
I thought being organized alone (having a detailed filing system for both email and papers, and having a "neat" desk top) was all I could do to battle the onslaught of information.
Then I found Mr. Merson's book and that all changed.
His techniques for dealing with the information thrown at you allows you to keep an E M P T Y desk in front of you. And yet, you still know exactly what tasks you have to do...and you still know exactly where all the information needed for those tasks are located when you need them (even though they are out of sight...).
It's incredible the feeling of control you will acquire over your workload.
And as my title says...you will no longer write "To-Do" Lists! I almost thought this was crazy when I first saw that...but I was open to new techniques. And this works SO MUCH BETTER. I knew that my list making was something that was dragging me down but I didn't know what to do about it...Mr. Merson has the answer.
And his technique allows you to PRIORITIZE your work almost effortlessly. This is something that I have been struggling with trying to do...Lists just didn't make it very easy to do. You actually end up with longer and longer lists as you re-write your new list with items that you didn't finish on your previous lists...AAACK...it just doesn't work!
And not only does his technique allow you to prioritize your work but it allows you to get better at judging THE AMOUNT OF TIME a particular task will take. This comes in very handy when scheduling the work for your week.
And his book doesn't just deal with your office environment. You can apply his techniques at home. I have and now I don't feel anywhere near as swamped as I used to by the overflowing mailbox and projects of a house.
Picking up his book and reading it all the way through was one of the best decisions I have ever made.
Thank you Mr. Merson!
Eddie Hamilton
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Wonderful Book, March 20, 2006
This review is from: The Instant Productivity Kit: 21 Simple Ways to Get More Out of Your Job, Yourself and Your Life, Immediately (Paperback)
I recently purchase this book and found it was just what I was looking for. I have been suffering from clutter and the inability to find files, folders or action items that my boss had given me to complete. Although it sounds drastic, what the book recommends does work. I spent about the last month going through all of my office and throwing a great deal away. Now I can find my action items in the Turtle pile, get through all of my emails before I go home and have a much better filing system. It was hard to throw a lot of things away, but believe me it's worth it.
I highly recommend this book. It's straight forward and direct to the point. I have read a lot of other books on getting things done, but this is the first one that really seems to work.
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