Always allow enough time for your top priorities. Figure
out how much time it is going to take to do the job and then
add 30 percent as a cushion, to take into account unex-
pected interruptions, emergencies, and responsibilities.
With a 30 percent cushion, you will probably be quite close
to correct in your estimate of the time necessary to do the
work. This is one of the secrets to achieving high levels of
productivity in your work.
Earl Nightingale said that “every great accomplishment
in life has been preceded by a long, sustained period of
concentration.”
Practice Single-Handling
Single-handling is one of the most important of all time
management techniques and life management principles.
Once you start a task, you stay with it until it is 100 percent
complete. Single-handling requires that you do not con-
tinue picking up and putting down the same task, over and
over, going off to something else and then coming back.
With single-handling, once you pick up a task and begin on
it, you discipline yourself to bring it to completion before
you go on to the next task.
Apply single-handling to your mail and correspondence.
Deselect unimportant items immediately and then deal
with the important documents only once, either by filing or
responding to them right away.
The principle of single-handling—made famous by time
management expert Alan Lakein—comes from time and
CONCENTRATE SINGLE-MINDEDLY 63