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  • September 16th, 2008
  • 9 Comments »
  • Management

How to work better in ten easy steps

This bit of pithy advice is floating around the web. It’s so nice, tight and simple, much more useful than many of the self-helpy business books I’ve seen in the last few years. I mean, what percentage of your co-workers do even half of what’s on this list?

Found it here, but this seems to be the original source (Much like Corita Kent’s list of creative rules, there are many unattributed postings).

  1. Do one thing at a time
  2. Know the problem
  3. Learn to listen
  4. Learn to ask questions
  5. Distinguish sense from nonsense
  6. Accept change as inevitable
  7. Admit mistakes
  8. Say it simple
  9. Be calm
  10. Smile

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9 Responses

  • Mary Treseler - September 16, 2008 at 1:09 pm
  • Pithy, yes?


  • Chris Mahan - September 16, 2008 at 2:27 pm
  • Ok, I copied and pasted into google docs, made bigger, printed to pdf, cut to size, then pinned on my pinboard next to desk.


  • Scott - September 16, 2008 at 6:04 pm
  • Chris: Sweet – let me know if it has any effect ;)


  • Scott - September 16, 2008 at 6:04 pm
  • Mary: D’oh! Fixed now.


  • Nikolay - September 17, 2008 at 1:01 am
  • I would add

    1.5 Do each thing once


  • Patrick Baumgartner - September 18, 2008 at 7:05 am
  • Did you take this photo near the mainstation in zurich, switzerland? It’s painted on a wall, on the left side, when you look out of the train window 1 minute before you arrive in zurich ;)


  • Scott - September 18, 2008 at 10:21 am
  • Patrick: It’s not my photo, so I can’t say where it was taken.

    btw: I was in Zurich in 2006. Love it. A day trip to the jungfrau was amazing!


  • david wang - September 25, 2008 at 1:24 am
  • pithy.


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