Chapter 3　Four Good Working Habits That Will Help Prevent Fatigue and Worry

Good Working Habit No. 1: Clear Your Desk of All Papers Except Those Relating to the Immediate Problem at Hand.

Roland L. Williams, President of Chicago and North-western Railway, says:“A person with his desk piled high with papers on various matters will find his work much easier and more accurate if he clears that desk of all but the immediate problem on hand. I call this good housekeeping, and it is the numberone step towards efficiency.”

If you visit the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., you will find five words painted on the ceiling-five words written by the poet Pope:

“Order is Heaven's first law.”

Order ought to be the first law of business, too. But is it? No, the average business man's desk is cluttered up with papers that he hasn't looked at for weeks. In fact, the publisher of a New Orleans newspaper once told me that his secretary cleared up one of his desks and found a typewriter that had been missing for two years!

The mere sight of a desk littered with unanswered mail and reports and memos is enough to breed confusion, tension, and worries. It is much worse than that. The constant reminder of“a million things to do and no time to do them”can worry you not only into tension and fatigue, but it can also worry you into high blood pressure, heart trouble, and stomach ulcers.

Dr. John H. Stokes, professor, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, read a paper before the National Convention of the American Medical Association—a paper entitled“Functional Neuroses as Complications of Organic Disease”. In that paper, Dr. Stokes listed eleven conditions under the title:“What to Look for in the Patient's State of Mind”. Here is the first item on that list:

“The sense of must or obligation; the unending stretch of things ahead that simply have to be done.”

But how can such an elementary procedure as clearing your desk and making decisions help you avoid this high pressure, this sense of must, this sense of an“unending stretch of things ahead that simply have to be done”? Dr. William L. Sadler, the famous psychiatrist, tells of a patient who, by using this simple device, avoided a nervous breakdown. The man was an executive in a big Chicago firm. When he came to Dr. Sadler's office, he was tense, nervous, worried. He knew he was heading for a tailspin, but he couldn't quit work. He had to have help.

“While this man was telling me his story,”Dr. Sadler says,“my telephone rang. It was the hospital calling; and, instead of deferring the matter, I took time right then to come to a decision. I always settle questions, if possible, right on the spot. I had no sooner hung up than the phone rang again. Again an urgent matter, which I took time to discuss. The third interruption came when a colleague of mine came to my office for advice on a patient who was critically ill. When I had finished with him, I turned to my caller and began to apologise for keeping him waiting. But he had brightened up. He had a completely different look on his face.”

“Don't apologise, doctor!”this man said to Sadler.“In the last ten minutes, I think I've got a hunch as to what is wrong with me. I'm going back to my offices and revise my working habits.... But before I go, do you mind if I take a look in your desk?”Dr. Sadler opened up the drawers of his desk. All empty—except for supplies.“Tell me,”said the patient,“where do you keep your unfinished business?”

“Finished!”said Sadler.

“And where do you keep your unanswered mail?”

“Answered!”Sadler told him.“My rule is never to lay down a letter until I have answered it. I dictate the reply to my secretary at once.”

Six weeks later, this same executive invited Dr. Sadler to come to his office. He was changed—and so was his desk. He opened the desk drawers to show there was no unfinished business inside of the desk.“Six weeks ago,”this executive said,“I had three different desks in two different offices—and was snowed under by my work. I was never finished. After talking to you, I came back here and cleared out a wagon-load of reports and old papers. Now I work at one desk, settle things as they come up, and don't have a mountain of unfinished business nagging at me and making me tense and worried. But the most astonishing thing is I've recovered completely. There is nothing wrong any more with my health!”

Charles Evans Hughes, former Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, said:“Men do not die from overwork. They die from dissipation and worry.”Yes, from dissipation of their energies—and worry because they never seem to get their work done.

Good Working Habit No. 2: Do Things in the Order of Their Importance.

Henry L. Dougherty, founder of the nation-wide Cities Service Company, said that regardless of how much salary he paid, there were two abilities he found it almost impossible to find.

Those two priceless abilities are: first, the ability to think. Second, the ability to do things in the order of their importance.

Charles Luckman, the lad who started from scratch and climbed in twelve years to president of the Pepsodent Company, got a salary of a hundred thousand dollars a year, and made a million dollars besides—that lad declares that he owes much of his success to developing the two abilities that Henry L. Dougherty said he found almost impossible to find. Charles Luckman said:“As far back as I can remember, I have got up at five o'clock in the morning because I can think better then than any other time—I can think better then and plan my day, plan to do things in the order of their importance.”Franklin Bettger, one of America's most successful insurance salesmen, doesn't wait until five o'clock in the morning to plan his day. He plans it the night before-sets a goal for himself—a goal to sell a certain amount of insurance that day. If he fails, that amount is added to the next day—and so on.

I know from long experience that one is not always able to do things in the order of their importance, but I also know that some kind of plan to do first things first is infinitely better than extemporising as you go along. If George Bernard Shaw had not made it a rigid rule to do first things first, he would probably have failed as a writer and might have remained a bank cashier all his life. His plan called for writing five pages each day. That plan and his dogged determination to carry it through saved him. That plan inspired him to go right on writing five pages a day for nine heartbreaking years, even though he made a total of only thirty dollars in those nine years—about a penny a day.

Good Working Habit No. 3: When You Face a Problem, Solve It Then and There if You Have the Facts Necessary to Make a Decision. Don't Keep Putting off Decisions.

One of my former students, the late H.P. Howell, told me that when he was a member of the board of directors of U.S. Steel, the meetings of the board were often long-drawn-out affairs—many problems were discussed, few decisions were made. The result: each member of the board had to carry home bundles of reports to study.

Finally, Mr. Howell persuaded the board of directors to take up one problem at a time and come to a decision. No procrastination— no putting off. The decision might be to ask for additional facts; it might be to do something or do nothing. But a decision was reached on each problem before passing on to the next. Mr. Howell told me that the results were striking and salutary: the docket was cleared. The calendar was clean. No longer was it necessary for each member to carry home a bundle of reports. No longer was there a worried sense of unresolved problems.

A good rule, not only for the board of directors of U.S. Steel, but for you and me.

Good Working Habit No. 4: Learn to Organise, Deputise, and Supervise.

Many a business man is driving himself to a premature grave because he has never learned to delegate responsibility to others, insists on doing everything himself. Result: details and confusion overwhelm him. He is driven by a sense of hurry, worry, anxiety, and tension. It is hard to learn to delegate responsibilities. I know. It was hard for me, awfully hard. I also know from experience the disasters that can be caused by delegating authority to the wrong people. But difficult as it is to delegate authority, the executive must do it if he is to avoid worry, tension, and fatigue.

The man who builds up a big business, and doesn't learn to organise, deputise, and supervise, usually pops off with heart trouble in his fifties or early sixties—heart trouble caused by tension and worries. Want a specific instance? Look at the death notices in your local paper.

第三章　预防疲劳的四种良好工作习惯

良好工作习惯No．1　清除办公桌上除了手头需要的文件以外的所有纸张

芝加哥与西北铁路公司总裁罗兰·L．威廉姆斯曾说过：“桌上各类纸张堆积成山的人一旦清理了桌子，只留下解决手头问题所需的文件，就会发现做事轻松多了，也高效多了。我把这称为持家好习惯。这是提高效率的第一步。”

如果你参观过华盛顿的国会图书馆，你会看到顶部有诗人蒲柏的一句名言：“秩序是天堂的第一定律。”

秩序也应是商界的第一定律。不过现实中并非人人都遵守这个定律。人们的办公桌上常常堆积着几周都没碰过的文件。新奥尔良一家报社的出版人就告诉过我，有一次，秘书在收拾他的桌子时，竟然找到了丢失了两年的打字机！

仅仅看着桌上堆放得满满的未回复的信件、报告和备忘录，就足以产生困惑、不安和焦虑，但这还不是全部，这些文件时刻提醒着你：还有无数件事要做但时间远远不够。这一切不仅会令人不安与疲惫，还有可能导致高血压、心脏病和胃溃疡。

宾夕法尼亚大学医学院研究所的约翰·H．斯托克斯博士曾在美国医学会上宣读过他的论文，题目叫《与机体疾病并发的功能性神经症》。在论文中，斯托克斯博士提到了“从病人的精神状况中寻找什么”的主题并列出了十一个症状。第一个便是：

一种绝对的义务感或负担感——前方有无穷尽的事必须被完成。

但是收拾桌子、做决定这样的简单措施又怎么能帮你减压、减少负担感呢？知名精神病专家威廉·L．塞得勒博士提到过，他正是用这个简单办法治好了一个精神崩溃的患者。这个病人是芝加哥一家大公司的总裁，他刚找到塞得勒博士时紧张兮兮、满脸忧虑，充满了不安。他知道自己快挺不住了，但又不能离开工作，他只能寻求医生的帮助。

“就在病人给我讲他的故事时，我的电话响了。”塞得勒博士说，“电话是医院打来的。我一点儿也不拖延立刻就做出了决定，我尽可能地立即处理每一件事。刚挂电话不久，电话铃声又响起了，又是紧急事件，于是我花了些时间在电话里讨论问题。后来，第三次打扰出现了，我的同事进来咨询如何处理一个重病患者的情况。全部处理完之后我转向我的访客，为让他久等而道歉。然而他的心情却明快起来，脸上也露出了与进来时截然不同的神情。

“‘医生，不必道歉！’他说，‘在刚才的十分钟里，我觉得我知道自己的问题出在哪里了。我要回我的办公室，我要改变我的工作习惯。但是在我离开前，您介意让我看看您的办公桌吗？’”

于是，塞得勒博士打开了桌子的所有抽屉，里面除了办公用品以外没有其他的东西。病人问：“您没处理完的事项都放在哪呢？’”

“都处理完了！”塞得勒说。

“那没回的信呢？”

“都回了！”塞得勒告诉他，“我的规矩是：绝不拖延没回的信。我会在第一时间向秘书口述回信内容。”

六周后，这位总裁邀请塞得勒博士去他的办公室。他完全变了一个样，他的桌子也是。他打开办公桌抽屉，里面没有任何未处理的工作。“六周前，”这位总裁说，“我有两个办公室，三个办公桌，而且全都被各种文件盖得满满的。永远都有工作在等着我。与您见面之后，我一回来就清走了一车的旧文件。现在我只有一个办公桌，工作一来立马解决。我不再被堆积如山的工作所纠缠，也不再紧张、焦虑。然而最让我震惊的是——我痊愈了，所有的健康问题都消失了！”

前美国最高法院首席法官查尔斯·埃文斯·休斯说过：“人不会死于过量的工作，却会死于消耗与焦虑。”是的，精力的消耗及焦虑来源于看似永远无法完成的工作。

良好工作习惯No．2　按事情的轻重缓急排序

全国城市服务公司的创始人亨利·L．多尔蒂说过，不论开出多高薪水，同时具备以下两种能力的人都是极难找到的。

这两种无价的能力是：独立思考能力和按轻重缓急办事的能力。

查尔斯·拉克曼是一个白手起家，在十二年内攀升至白速得公司总裁，年薪十万美金并有百万其他收入的小伙子，他曾经说过，他的成功很大程度上源于亨利·L．多尔蒂推崇的极为难得的两个能力。查尔斯·拉克曼说：“从记事起我都是早晨五点起床，因为那是最适合我思考的时间。我在那时可以进行更好的思考，然后计划接下来的一天，安排做事的优先顺序。”

弗兰克·贝特格，美国最成功的保险销售人，他从不会等到早晨五点才起来制订计划。他会在前一个晚上为自己定下第二天的目标：要卖出的保险份额。倘若达不到，差额便会被加到下一天的销售额目标中，以此类推。

丰富的经验告诉我们，人们永远无法总按轻重缓急的顺序做事，但是我们也知道，制订出做事顺序的计划的确比“即兴演绎”要好得多。

如果萧伯纳没有制订严格的规定来控制做事的优先顺序，那么他或许也不会成为作家，而是做一辈子的银行出纳。他在那令人心碎的九年中强制自己每天写五页作品，虽然在这九年中他一共只赚了三十美金——差不多每天收入一便士。就连小说中的鲁滨逊·克鲁索都会按每小时该做什么来制订一天的计划。

良好工作习惯No．3　必要信息齐全时，立刻做决定，绝不拖延

已故的H．P．豪威尔——我以前的学生——曾经告诉我，他作为美国钢铁董事会成员参加董事会议时，发现会议总是拖拖拉拉的，讨论了很多问题却做不了几个决定，结果每个成员都要把很多报告带回家进一步研究。

最后，豪威尔先生说服了董事会，每次在会议上只着手解决一个问题、做一个决定，不拖延、不推迟。这个决定有可能是需要获取更多信息，有可能是做某事或不做某事，但不做出一个决定便不转移到下一个问题。豪威尔先生告诉我，这样子改变以后，效果是有效且惊人的：记事表清空了，日历干净了，董事会成员再也不用带一堆报告回家了。那种因问题永远解决不完而产生的焦虑完全消失了。

这条规矩不仅适用于美国钢铁董事会，对你我也会有所帮助。

良好工作习惯No．4　学着整合、委派和监督

很多商业人士正在过早地把自己送往坟墓，因为他们不懂得如何下放权责，总是包揽一切工作。结果呢？各种细节纠缠着他们。他们永远感觉不安、焦虑、紧张、匆忙。我知道，学会下放权责不容易。一开始对我来说也很不容易，困难重重。我也经历过把权责下放给错的人所造成的灾难。但不论如何，管理者必须学会下放权责，才能消除一些不安、紧张和疲惫。

很多不懂得整合、委派和监督的总裁五六十岁就患了心脏病——都是紧张和不安导致的。如果你认为这是危言耸听，那么看看报纸上的讣告便知真假。

若想减少不安和疲惫：

1．把桌子上与手头那项工作无关的纸张全部清理走。

2．按事情的轻重缓急排序。

3．必要信息齐全时，立刻做决定。

4．学会整合、委派和监督。