"I guess I seem a jumble," says Cooper, an American who lives with his British wife in Poynton, near Manchester. "But I am actually quite organized. I know what the big things are that I have to achieve. It's the things in between that I juggle." But he likes it that way:"I would have huge problems if everything was planned for me."
That's why he gives out his telephone numbers. "I like to be disturbed! I find the interruptions stimulating. I like it when a journalist calls me. They often ask, "Cooper, what do you think about X?", and I think "Oh, that's fascinating!" Then I jump back into my writing again. I can't write at home; it's too quiet. But I guess I'm unusual this way."
Yet Cooper gets his work done. Today, for example, aside from his normal university duties, he finishes editing three chapters of a book he is writing on managing stress, he did two live BBC interviews, and gave an interview for both The Times and The Daily Express. What's his secret? "I always start the day by prioritizing, and plan the big items well. But I am lucky because I can process input fast, I write quickly, and I am able to talk off the cuff.
"I don't want work to dominate my life," says Cooper, adding that his first marriage suffered because he spent too much time at work. "I wasn't there for my two oldest children. So, after I remarried, I decided to work bloody hard so I could get home early." Now, when he stops working, he really stops, he says.
4 Answer the questions about Cary Cooper's story:
What nationality is Cary Cooper?
Is he easy to access?
Why did Cooper's first marriage suffer?
Can Cary Cooper improvise easily when communicating with people?
Does Cary like to share his views with other people?
Do you agree that Cary Cooper is the guru on work-life balance?
Can Cooper type fast?
Is the family important for Cooper?
What can stimulate Cary Cooper?
10Can we say that Cooper is a well-known person?
TIMOTHY FERRIS, author of The 4-Hour Workweek and owner of a dietary-supplement business.
Timothy Ferris claims you can run a global company and do all your work in four hours a week - if you want to. One way is to outsource most of your life. Ferris uses service providers for more than just to help run his dietary-supplement business, Brain-QUICKEN. According to his bestseller, The 4-Hour Workweek (Random House, ISBN 978-0-307-35313-9), he has also outsourced private jobs to an Asian company called "Your Man in India". Asha, his contact there, has paid his bills and bought toys for his son. He once even wrote an e-mail to Ferris's wife when she was angry with Timothy, who also outsourced our interview request to his book publicist. The author is tango dancing in Buenos Aires - so instead of an interview, the publicist refers us to his book.
"Most of us work like hell to save for a future dream," writes the crusader of living-for-now. He says an investment banker friend once said that, if he worked an 80-hour week for nine years, he could become an MD(managing director) and make up to $10 million a year. "Dude, what would you do with that money?" Ferris asked him. "take a trip to Thailand," the
banker answered. "Guess what?" writes Ferris in his book. "You can do that for less than $3,000!"
Ferris himself takes many "mini-retirements" a year, when he combines a burning interest with a destination. So, for example, when he lived in Rio de Janeiro, he learned Portuguese and Brazilian jujitsu, and while he was in Hong Kong he even acted in a very popular television series.
Ferris says the concept of working nine to five is totally arbitrary. "It means we have to plan things to keep us busy all day." To manage his time, he applies the 80/20 "Pareto principle", which says that 80 per cent of results flow from only 20 per cent of inputs. "I found out that only five of 120 wholesales customers were ordering regularly and bringing in 95 per cent of revenues. Yet I was spending 98 per cent of my time chasing the remainder. All of my problems came from this unproductive majority." Ferris also takes note of Parkinson's Law, which says that the more time you have to finish a task, the longer it takes.
It may be too early to say the young Ferris has found work-life heaven: his life has been filled with crazy, failed initiatives. But his time-saving ideas are worth noting. One of the top tips in this day of information overkill is never to read a newspaper, but to outsource this task, too. "I ask people what's new, and the do the job for me," he says.
5 Complete the sentences below:
Timothy Ferris runsbusiness.
Timothy wrote a bestseller "".
Timothy is sure that one good way to manage time is toto other people.
Timothy's friend had a dream
Ferris has a rest from his business
Timothy doesn't take the conceptas obligatory for everyone.
Pareto principle says that
Ferris found out that onlybrought him 95 per cent of revenues.
9from unproductive majority.
10is never to read a newspaper.
6 Comment on the word combinations which you came across when reading three stories. Go back to the context to explain and illustrate:
To have a reflective mood, step-children, at one stage, clockwork, to detox, to declutter, to process input fast, to talk off the cuff, to outsource, dietary-supplement, to combine a burning interest with a destination, the concept of working nine to five, information overkill.
7 The table below contains a list of personal time-management recommendations and tips coming from Penny Ferguson, Cary Cooper and Timothy Ferris. Read all three lists, think and say:
Whose list fits you personally the best?
Which items given in three lists do you consider of major importance?
Which items would you never include into your list of time-management tips?
What is your personal time-management achievement?
What is your worst time-management sin?
What five points out of three lists do you consider the most important and useful?
What five points would you put into your personal list of time-management tips?
Penny Ferguson
Сагу Cooper on their time management
Timothy Ferris
My time management
routine: I start the day by prioritizing. Then I force myself with the things that are important and don't allow myself to be distracted. I choose a quiet time in the day to delete unimportant e-mails.
What's on my desk that shouldn't be there: Sweets. Bits of paper that I have picked up more than once and then put down again, rather than dealing with them. Private photos that have been there for a month and that I haven't yet sorted out.
Biggest distractions: E-mails. People don't distract me because I am good at politely getting rid of those who disturb me.
My biggest time-waste: Thinking about private things I can't do anything about at work, especially things that happened in the past and that might happen in the future.
Top time-management tip: Decide what is important by asking. If this was never dealt with, would it matter? We tend to think of ourselves as two people - a work person and a private person. But we should integrate the time-management skills we learn at home at work, and vice versa.
The first thing I do in the morning: Prioritize! I open my e-mails, print out the ones I need, walk to my secretary's office, where the printer is, collect them and then order them on my desk Then I use them to write my "things to do " list. My time-management sin: Waiting until the last minute to do smaller writing jobs. This is bad time management. But I haven't yet let anyone down. The biggest nuisance on my desk: The pile of papers I don't really want to throw out but don't quite know what to do with. At some stage, I'll go through them and throw most of them out. My biggest time-management achievement: I've stopped trying to change colleagues who are negative. This caused me more stress than anything else. Top time-management tip: Set an exit time every day. If you know that you have to leave at a certain time, you'll make sure you get the important things done. You won't get everything done, but you have to stop somewhere if you want to have a life outside work.
Focus on doing only those things that bring income: Ask yourself, "If I had a heart attack and had to work two hours a week, what time-consuming activities -e-mail, phone calls, conversations, paper work, meetings, dealing with customers, etc. - would I cut out?" Used even once a month this question can keep you san and on track. Fold a standard piece of paper three times to make a small to-do list: Never have more than two critical items on it.
Decide which items are the most critical: Ask yourself, "If this is the only thing I accomplish today, will I be satisfied with my day?" Put a post-it on your computer screen with the question, "Are you inventing things to do to avoid the important things?" Accomplish more in less time :Leave work at 4 p.m. and take Monday and/or Friday off. This will force you to prioritize and work more quickly. Use short deadlines to force immediate action and ignore unimportant things.
Answer e-mails twice a day: Have the automated message telling people the two times in the day you read your message and refer them to voice mail they need you urgently.
Unit 3
DECISION MAKING
1 We cannot not make decisions. Even when we decide not to decide, this is a decision . Read the questions below, think and answer them:
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