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

1. The executive’s time tends to belong to everybody else.

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?”

the knowledge worker, the man who puts to work what he has between his ears rather than the brawn of his muscles or the skill of his hands.

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

The less an organization has to do to produce results, the better it does its job.

The larger the organization, therefore, the less actual time will the executive have.

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.

Finally they consolidate their “discretionary” time into the largest possible continuing units. This three-step process: recording time, managing time, and consolidating time is the foundation of executive effectiveness.

“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.”