Time Management - Marc Mancini

The Art of Anticipating 101
complete personal organizer boasts numerous features to
streamline your personal and business activities. An added benefit:
it’s affordable.”
4. Be specific. Vagueness invariably spawns unsatisfactory or
incomplete results. Consider this vague request: “Please see me
soon about the project I assigned to you.”
More precise so much better: “Please see me tomorrow at 9
a.m. to discuss the budget for the Forbin project.”
5. Organize your writing via dashes, numbers, bullet points,
bold print, underlines, italics, and punctuation. Too often, people
have little time for patient, thorough reading of business
communications. To “predigest” what you write for your reader
achieves two results: it maximizes comprehension and it helps
you organize your thoughts. Indeed, this book has deployed
such organizational tactics throughout.
Here’s an example: “We should for security establish a policy
that no one can issue refunds in any situation unless the person
is a vice president, manager, or supervisor.”
This version would be far easier to absorb: “For security, we
should establish the following policy: No one can issue refunds
in any situation unless that
person is a:
• Vice president
• Manager
• Supervisor”
The Wallenda Effect
As he was getting on in
years, Karl Wallenda, the
still-skilled patriarch of the
famous “Flying Wallendas”
family, opted to try one
more stunt. He would walk
a tightrope between two
skyscrapers.
Keep It Casual
A conversational style is usually
best for modern communication.
Everyone uses contractions (“he’ll,”
“doesn’t,” “that’s,” etc.) in speech
because they’re easier (and quicker).
The same tendency applies to writing.
Unless your communication is intended
to be formal, using contractions
and casual language can transmit your
ideas better. They help to “speed up”
the reading process because of their
familiarity, and they help make the act
of reading complex material less
intimidating.