Not Enough Hours by Owen Fitzpatrick

Poolbeg

Can’t talk to you! No time!
Disorganised, eh? Always catching up? Not oriented in time and space? You need this book.
Haven’t got time to read it! I just -
Less mouth, more ears! Owen Fitzpatrick, who wrote this, organises people on the RTE programme. Follow his guidelines and you’ll never be late again. All your work will be done perfectly, and on time. You’ll be happy -
All right, bossy-boots, what do I have to do?
“We are what we repeatedly do,” he says. “Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit. (Aristotole)”
Say again?
Set up a routine and you’ll get things done. I know, don’t look at me like that - they all say that. But Fitzpatrick says different people need different ways of organising, to suit their own way of seeing the world.
Here’s my list
Let’s see: ‘get the toilet fixed, make more money, bring the dog to the vet, save mankind, get married’ -
Eeek! I’m late for work!
Fitzer says you have to look at how you see time. Is the past behind you or on your left? How do you visualise the present?
Go on outa that
He swears it works. Actually he got one person to change totally just by reversing the order of how she planned her day. Look at your own list - some things are more urgent than others. All of them need different actions. You have to do the urgent ones first - then concentrate most of your work on the ones that matter most to you.
It all sounds very… controlled
Nothing wrong with control, my girl. Fitz managed to untangle a couple of workaholics on his TV show, and get them back spending serious time with the family. That can’t be bad.
But isn’t workaholic good?
Nope. Not efficient to spend every hour of your life working - you use up time in a flurry of emails, phone calls, meetings. You get more done if you work shorter hours, but organise your work.
So I should read it?
Put it at the top of your list.
Author's site