The Crazy Busy Cure: A productivity book for people who don't have time to read productivity books

by Zena Everett

Overview

How we spend our time is one of the greatest indicators of how successful we will be. We achieve our goals when we ruthlessly prioritise tasks and people that are important to us.

If we focus our time,
energy and attention on the wrong things we will never achieve the success or happiness that we aspire to. The problem is that these wrong things,
the low value,
low impact tasks that distract us from our priorities,
are hard to ignore. They scream out at us all day: digital distractions,
other people's urgent demand for 'five minutes' that's never five minutes,
the meetings that you shouldn't be in,
the pointless email chains,
the reports you write that don't get read.

We get a dopamine hit from ticking these tasks off a list. It's got us hooked on crazy busyness. But all we are doing is scratching off a layer of fake work on top of the real,
valuable work.

The Crazy Busy Cure is full of intensely practical tips to save people from this addiction and instead become productive again. Jammed with practical productivity solutions to use immediately,
the book introduces concepts such as being like lions and chasing antelopes not field mice; Lawn Mower Managers who clear the path not clog it; the PIMP process for prioritisation and the Head Space model for understanding where your time goes.

In this lively read,
executive coach and organisational psychologist Zena Everett draws from her many thousands of hours and coaching and speaking to people and organisations about productivity blockers and how to shift them. She advises how to manage other people's work as well as your own and explains how these practices apply to virtual working,
including chapters on staying energised and productive when working remotely and influencing on Zoom.

The chapter on neurodiversity also offers productivity hacks for people with learning and thinking differences like dyspraxia and attention deficit disorder.

Read this book and regain your productivity.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781529367133
Publisher:	Quercus
Publication date:	11/16/2021
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
File size:	698 KB

About the Author

Zena Everett is as executive coach and popular speaker on Crazy Busyness and overwhelm. She delivers Crazy Busy personal effectiveness sessions in organisations around the world and for Cranfield School of Management and Henley Business School. She is a speaker for the London Business Forum has coached on the Executive MBA programme at Oxford University's Said Business School.

An organisational psychologist and psychological coach,
Zena is ex-recruitment entrepreneur who has worked with thousands of professionals to ensure that how they spend their time reflects their career goals.

Table of Contents

How certifiably Crazy Busy are you? xiii

Who do you want to be? xix

Introduction: Crazy Busyness destroys productivity and happiness xvii

Part 1 Diagnosis 1

1 How you became hooked on Crazy Busyness 3

2 What eats up your time? 9

Part 2 Cure 15

3 Summary (if you don't have time to read a book) 17

4 Start with the future you want to create and work backwards 21

5 Know what your boss wants from you 30

6 Chase antelopes, not field mice 35

7 One thing at a time 42

8 Get high on work 45

9 Meetings: much to say about nothing 50

10 Email less, talk more 58

11 Corridor kidnappers and drive-by distractors 61

12 What Aristotle would say about cat videos 67

13 The dopamine hit of a list 72

14 Quit faffing and trying to be perfect 76

Part 3 Staying productive 79

15 Don't wait to feel motivated, just start 81

16 Invisible productivity problems 87

17 Zoom Zombies and flexible working 91

Part 4 Leading others out of Crazy Busyness 97

18 Are you a Control Freak, Superstar or Mother Hen? 99

19 Lawn Mower Management 105

20 Performance comes from trust 108

21 Reclaim the workplace for, like, actual work 111

22 Spot the red flags of burnout 115

23 Crazy Busy bullying 123

Part 5 Freedom 129

24 If you aren't a Crazy Busy person anymore, who are you? 131

References 135

About the author 141

Index 143