GUIDELINES TO NRDC feb 24 2014

Doing Things One at a TimeIntroductionDefinition:the rule ofsevenCautionOne at a timeThe secretThis section explains why we should do things one at a time.The Rule of Seven refers to the optimum number of things we can keep track ofat any one time. Most people can focus on about seven (as few as five or asmany as nine) before losing concentration.x If watching children at play, one could watch about seven.x A list of seven items is easier to memorize than one of fourteen.Apply this rule to your daily work. If you have twelve jobs to do, break themdown into related groups (perhaps into groups of five, four, and three). Thismakes your workload less intimidating and more manageable.The Rule of Seven is a good tool for controlling work. However, it doesn't applyto doing the work. While we may be able to work on seven tasks, we can't workon them all at the same time. More likely, we can only work on one at a time.Why should we work on things one at a time? Because if we're to do it well,most of us can do only one thing at a time. Some can do two at a time and dothem well; a rare few can do three. However, the rest of us can only do one.Trying to juggle several things at once dilutes effort, leads to errors, and achieveslittle. Giving equal priority to all things means giving priority to none.Read the words of eminent management guru, Peter Drucker:This is the 'secret' of those people who 'do so many things' and apparently somany difficult things. They do only one at a time. As a result, they need muchless time in the end than the rest of us. The people who get nothing done oftenwork a great deal harder.In the first place, they underestimate the time for any one task. They alwaysexpect that everything will go right. Yet, as every executive knows, nothingever goes right. The unexpected always happens--the unexpected is indeedthe only thing one can confidently expect. And almost never is it a pleasantsurprise. Effective executives therefore allow a fair margin of time beyondwhat is actually needed.In the second place, the typical . . . executive tries to hurry--and that only putshim further behind. Effective executives do not race. They set an easy pacebut keep going steadily.Finally, the typical executive tries to do several things at once. Therefore, henever has the minimum time quantum for any of the tasks in his program.If any one of them runs into trouble, his entire program collapses.NRDC GRC – Staff Handbook 3-17