Brian Tracy - Get it Done Now!: Own Your Time, Take Back Your Life

GET IT DONE
NOW!

Other books by Brian Tracy

Entrepreneurship

Make More Money

The Science of Influence

The Science of Money

The Science of Motivation

GET IT DONE
NOW!

Own Your Time, Take Back Your Life

BRIAN TRACY

Published 2020 by Gildan Media LLC

aka G&D Media

www.GandDmedia.com

GET IT DONE NOW! Copyright 2020 by Brian Tracy. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be used, reproduced or transmitted in any manner whatsoever, by any means (electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. No liability is assumed with respect to the use of the information contained within. Although every precaution has been taken, the author and publisher assume no liability for errors or omissions. Neither is any liability assumed for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein.

Front cover design by David Rheinhardt of Pyrographx

Interior design by Meghan Day Healey of Story Horse, LLC

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request

eISBN: 978-1-7225-2267-4

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Contents

Introduction

T here is a quote attributed to that most famous of individualsanonymousthat says, Starve your distraction, and feed your focus. This is the perfect idea with which to open this book.

We live in the most technologically advanced period of history, yet the challenge of remaining optimally productive in our modern world has, in many ways, never been greater. How can this be?

With the advent of mobile phones, killer apps, broadband Internet speeds that stagger the imagination, and nearly any bit of information or product or solution available one click away, how can it be that remaining optimally productive is such a challenge for so many people? How is it that all of these technological tools have not freed us up to focus on the most important items for our professional and personal lives?

The question can be answered with one word: distraction. This amazing technology comes with a dark side. Many of us spend precious time focusing on precisely the wrong things. This goes far beyond trivia, gossip, supposedly urgent news headlines, and the like. Im talking about the incessant and numerous emails, texts, notifications, and ads that seem important, even urgent, but in reality only complicate our lives and take us further from our goals.

If you are like most people today, you are overwhelmed with too much to do and too little time. As you struggle to catch up, new tasks and responsibilities keep rolling in like the waves of the ocean. Because of this, you will never be able to do everything you have to do. You will never be caught up. You will always be behind in some of your tasks and responsibilities, probably in many of them. For this reason, perhaps more than ever before, your ability to select your most important task at each moment, and then to get started on that task and get it done both quickly and well, will probably have more of an impact on your success than any other quality or skill you can develop.

In this book, I will discuss a variety of mental approaches, skills, and strategies to enable you to select that most important task at each moment and get it done on schedule. Youll learn some of the greatest time-saving methods ever conceived; how to get organized and stay organized; why you should plan every day in advance; the difference between bad procrastination, which you should avoid, and creative procrastination, which I endorse wholeheartedly; productivity tips for the workplace and the home; and more.

Here youll discover that there truly is a science to productivitya science that has been tested and proven again and again, not just for years, but for decades, with landmark publications like The Effective Executive by Peter Drucker and my own books, Time Power and Eat That Frog.

Today we have more sophisticated data on time management and productivity than ever before, with details on how people actually spend their time in the workplace versus how they believe they are spending their time. Ill present some of those findings in this book, and they will shock you.

The goal of this book is to bring you many of the verified facts about productivity, eliminate the myths and half-formed theories, and leave you with a treasure of ideas for becoming more influential in your own life and in the lives of those you care about.

Chapter One

Productivity: Promises and Pitfalls

P roductivity is the ability to get resultsresults that help other people, change their lives, and help them get results as well. The great tragedy today is that people take as little schooling as they can. They take the easiest courses possible, get average gradesjust enough to get throughand fail to continually upgrade their ability to get results that people will pay them for.

Here I want to give people mental and physical tools that they can use to get better results faster. As a result, they will earn more money, be promoted faster, andbest of allfeel wonderful about themselves. You shouldnt be productive just for money or to please your boss. You ought to be productive because youll feel happy.

We want to get results for others. Many years ago, an old acquaintance, motivational teacher Earl Nightingale, said that your rewards in life will be in direct proportion to the results that you get for other people. We always get what we deserve, he said: you never get more or less than you deserve. Many peoples lives are ruined because theyre trying to get more out than they put in. Theyre trying to get more than they deserve. Earl said the word deserve comes from the Latin deservire, which is derived from servire: to serve. You get what you get from serving other people in some way.

People ask me, How can I earn more money? How can I get ahead faster?

I say, You must focus single-mindedly all day, every day, on serving other people better, on upgrading your knowledge and skills so that you can help people achieve their goals, fulfill their promise, overcome their obstacles, and solve their problems. You must always be thinking about serving other people. That is productivity.

Many people think that work is a punishment that you have to suffer to get through life. People who have this belief are always at the financial bottom of society. They earn less than others, they are often unemployed, and they are very seldom promoted. The fact is that work is what fulfills us as individuals. Our job is to find the kind of work that we most like.

Many years ago, Napoleon Hill, author of Think and Grow Rich, said that if you find a job you love, youll never work another day in your life. One of your most important responsibilities is to dream big dreams and do what you love to do. This is your responsibility.

When I was an executive, I had people come to me and say, Im thirty-five years old. Im not going anywhere in my life. Can you help me? Can you guide me? Can you take me into your company and give me the training and support I need to do good work and get paid?

Id say, Nobody can do this for you but you. Its like being a good parent. You cant farm it out. Its only youface-to-face, head-to-head, knee-to-knee, heart-to-heart with the members of your familywho can be a good husband or a good parent. Theres no other way to do it.