Managing Oneself: The Key to Success by Peter F. Drucker
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
In just 100 pages, Peter Drucker has packed a wallop. Although not a businessperson, I can apply many ideas to my family and my writing career. Examples:
*Understanding and building on your strengths produce bigger, better results than building on a weakness.
Technology and I are near mortal enemies so spending a great deal of time learning to code or build web pages doesn’t make as much sense as developing my competent writing skills. Just as encouraging my teen to develop her building skills will produce greater results than pounding at her writing weakness. A good idea except for sports and phobias.
*There is a best work environment for different people.
Appreciating that teens can have different ideal work environments helps me allow them more independence (writing essays while listening to music or coding with a tv show on in the background) as long as their homework gets done. I write alone at my desk listening to classical, Hawaiian, or jazz. If I try to write at the kitchen table, I get distracted and do chores or talk to the family.
Helpful Effective Executive points:
*Focusing on only one or two tasks instead of an entire list focuses me on what’s important and best for the family (the business or enterprise). Going to the farmers’ market is best for my family today, not vacuuming or weeding (ha ha).
*An action plan with specific tasks, deadlines, and timelines determines time management. Therefore, my desired writing results (making a certain $ per month by the end of 2019) should dictate how I allocate my time (looking for paid writing gigs and honing my craft).
*Most helpful for business people was how to run productive meetings: decide beforehand on the type of meeting and stick to specific meeting formats, goals, pre-distributed reports, and time limits. Maybe government people could apply this to avoid never-ending task forces and work group meetings.
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Thought Ripples by Wendi 