Учебное пособие: English in business
Which items would you never include into your list of time-management tips?
What is your personal time-management achievement?
What is your worst time-management sin?
What five points out of three lists do you consider the most important and useful?
What five points would you put into your personal list of time-management tips?
Penny Ferguson
Сагу Cooper on their time management
Timothy Ferris
My time management
routine: I start the day by prioritizing. Then I force myself with the things that are important and don't allow myself to be distracted. I choose a quiet time in the day to delete unimportant e-mails.
What's on my desk that shouldn't be there: Sweets. Bits of paper that I have picked up more than once and then put down again, rather than dealing with them. Private photos that have been there for a month and that I haven't yet sorted out.
Biggest distractions: E-mails. People don't distract me because I am good at politely getting rid of those who disturb me.
My biggest time-waste: Thinking about private things I can't do anything about at work, especially things that happened in the past and that might happen in the future.
Top time-management tip: Decide what is important by asking. If this was never dealt with, would it matter? We tend to think of ourselves as two people - a work person and a private person. But we should integrate the time-management skills we learn at home at work, and vice versa.
The first thing I do in the morning: Prioritize! I open my e-mails, print out the ones I need, walk to my secretary's office, where the printer is, collect them and then order them on my desk Then I use them to write my "things to do " list. My time-management sin: Waiting until the last minute to do smaller writing jobs. This is bad time management. But I haven't yet let anyone down. The biggest nuisance on my desk: The pile of papers I don't really want to throw out but don't quite know what to do with. At some stage, I'll go through them and throw most of them out. My biggest time-management achievement: I've stopped trying to change colleagues who are negative. This caused me more stress than anything else. Top time-management tip: Set an exit time every day. If you know that you have to leave at a certain time, you'll make sure you get the important things done. You won't get everything done, but you have to stop somewhere if you want to have a life outside work.
Focus on doing only those things that bring income: Ask yourself, "If I had a heart attack and had to work two hours a week, what time-consuming activities -e-mail, phone calls, conversations, paper work, meetings, dealing with customers, etc. - would I cut out?" Used even once a month this question can keep you san and on track. Fold a standard piece of paper three times to make a small to-do list: Never have more than two critical items on it.
Decide which items are the most critical: Ask yourself, "If this is the only thing I accomplish today, will I be satisfied with my day?" Put a post-it on your computer screen with the question, "Are you inventing things to do to avoid the important things?" Accomplish more in less time : Leave work at 4 p.m. and take Monday and/or Friday off. This will force you to prioritize and work more quickly. Use short deadlines to force immediate action and ignore unimportant things.
Answer e-mails twice a day: Have the automated message telling people the two times in the day you read your message and refer them to voice mail they need you urgently.
Unit 3
DECISION MAKING
1 W e cannot not make decisions. Even when we decide not to decide, this is a decision . Read the questions below, think and answer them:
Have you ever been taught decision making? When, where and for what reason?
What exactly is decision making?
What are the key steps in decision making?
What makes people take bad decisions?
What kind of decision maker are you?
2 Read the article by Bob Dignen from Business Spotlight (6/2008).Pay special attention to and memorize the vocabulary in bold type.
TAKING THE PLUNGE
International business is a world of complexity, ambiguity and paradoxes. Decisions are often made on the basis of limited information, which makes risk management an essential discipline. And instead of the clear top-down decision-making structures of the past, organizations now expect individuals and teams to work autonomously at all levels. Greater cultural diversity has also widened the range of decision-making styles and processes, and increased the potential for conflict.