The Procrastination Equation: How to Stop Putting Things Off and Start Getting Stuff Done

The Procrastination Equation: How to Stop Putting Things Off and Start Getting Stuff Done Review

The Procrastination Equation: How to Stop Putting Things Off and Start Getting Stuff Done Feature

• ISBN13: 9780061703614
• Condition: New
• Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed

The Procrastination Equation: How to Stop Putting Things Off and Start Getting Stuff Done Overview

Using a mix of psychology, science, self-help, and a decade of groundbreaking research, Dr. Piers Steel, internationally recognized as the foremost authority on procrastination, explains why procrastination is dangerously on the rise and tells us how to overcome the destructive patterns that affect our health and happiness to create more positive lives.

If you think you are not one of the 95 percent of those of us who procrastinate, take Dr. Steel's test in The Procrastination Equation. Or if you think you procrastinate because you're a perfectionist—you're wrong. So, why do we surf the Web instead of finishing overdue projects? Why do we say we'll start that diet—tomorrow? Why do we stay up late watching television instead of going to bed? And how do we overcome these bad habits that we know work against our best intentions? Based on more than a decade of research, and written with humor, humanity, and solid science, The Procrastination Equation explains why we do what we do—or, in this case, don't—offering answers to such questions as:

• Are we biologically hardwired to procrastinate? If so, why?
• How does procrastination cost us?
• What tricks do we play on ourselves when we procrastinate at work, school, and home?
• If visualizing our dreams isn't enough to make them real, then what steps must we take?

Along the way, Dr. Steel dispels the myths and misunderstandings of motivation and procrastination, replacing them with a clear explanation of why we put off until tomorrow what we should be doing today. He then offers specific techniques we can use to tame and prevent the bad habits that adversely affect our health, happiness, and careers, all the while celebrating the very human foibles that make us who we are. The Procrastination Equation is the definitive and accessible guide for anyone who struggles with this age-old dilemma.

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*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Mar 12, 2011 11:05:06

Flawless Consulting: A Guide to Getting Your Expertise Used

Flawless Consulting: A Guide to Getting Your Expertise Used Review

Flawless Consulting: A Guide to Getting Your Expertise Used Overview

The second edition of the "consultant's bible" is here!

For over fifteen years, consultants--both internal and external--have relied on Peter Block's landmark bestseller, Flawless Consulting, to learn how to deal effectively with clients, peers, and others. Using illustrative examples, case studies, and exercises, the author, one of the most important and well known in his field, offers his legendary warmth and insight throughout this much-awaited second edition. Anyone who must communicate in a professional context--and who doesn't?--will use the lessons taught in this book for years to come!

"Who would have thought the 'consultant's bible' could be improved upon? Count on Peter Block--the consulting profession's very own revolutionary--to push us to confront and struggle with the paradoxes inherent in our work."
--Candace Thompson, organization development consultant, First Chicago NBD--A Bank One Company

"Block has distilled years of experience into a wise, down-to-earth, and eminently practical guide to excellence in consulting. If you are new to the practice, Flawless Consulting will chop years off your learning cycle. And even if you're an old pro, Block's insights will elevate you to new levels of effectiveness. Flawless Consulting is not simply about becoming a better consultant; it is about using consulting as a path toward becoming a better person."
--Barry Oshry, president, Power & Systems, Inc.; author of Seeing Systems and Leading Systems

Flawless Consulting: A Guide to Getting Your Expertise Used Specifications

The second edition of Peter Block's Flawless Consulting gracefully updates what many consider the best resource of its kind. New chapters on implementation, "whole-system" strategies, and ethics are included, but in general it simply fine-tunes Block's proven advice to match the transformations that business and society have undergone since initial publication two decades ago. "The days of long studies and expert-driven answers are passing," the author proclaims in his new preface. "The task of the consultant is increasingly to build the capacity of clients to make their own assessments and answer their own questions." He then subtly modifies his established recommendations accordingly for every step, from the initial client meeting and problem diagnosis through data collection and the execution of solutions. In the section on "Conducting a Group Feedback Meeting," for example, he advises: "Treat the group as a collection of individuals.... Ask each person what he or she wants from the meeting. This will surface differences and force the group to take responsibility for some of the difficulties that may arise." --Howard Rothman

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*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Dec 19, 2010 20:35:05

Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America

Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America Review

Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America Overview

The New York Times bestseller, and one of the most talked about books of the year, Nickel and Dimed has already become a classic of undercover reportage.

Millions of Americans work for poverty-level wages, and one day Barbara Ehrenreich decided to join them. She was inspired in part by the rhetoric surrounding welfare reform, which promised that any job equals a better life. But how can anyone survive, let alone prosper, on to an hour? To find out, Ehrenreich moved from Florida to Maine to Minnesota, taking the cheapest lodgings available and accepting work as a waitress, hotel maid, house cleaner, nursing-home aide, and Wal-Mart salesperson. She soon discovered that even the "lowliest" occupations require exhausting mental and physical efforts. And one job is not enough; you need at least two if you intend to live indoors.

Nickel and Dimed reveals low-wage America in all its tenacity, anxiety, and surprising generosity -- a land of Big Boxes, fast food, and a thousand desperate strategies for survival. Instantly acclaimed for its insight, humor, and passion, this book is changing the way America perceives its working poor.

Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America Specifications

Essayist and cultural critic Barbara Ehrenreich has always specialized in turning received wisdom on its head with intelligence, clarity, and verve. With some 12 million women being pushed into the labor market by welfare reform, she decided to do some good old-fashioned journalism and find out just how they were going to survive on the wages of the unskilled--at to an hour, only half of what is considered a living wage. So she did what millions of Americans do, she looked for a job and a place to live, worked that job, and tried to make ends meet.

As a waitress in Florida, where her name is suddenly transposed to "girl," trailer trash becomes a demographic category to aspire to with rent at 5 per month. In Maine, where she ends up working as both a cleaning woman and a nursing home assistant, she must first fill out endless pre-employment tests with trick questions such as "Some people work better when they're a little bit high." In Minnesota, she works at Wal-Mart under the repressive surveillance of men and women whose job it is to monitor her behavior for signs of sloth, theft, drug abuse, or worse. She even gets to experience the humiliation of the urine test.

So, do the poor have survival strategies unknown to the middle class? And did Ehrenreich feel the "bracing psychological effects of getting out of the house, as promised by the wonks who brought us welfare reform?" Nah. Even in her best-case scenario, with all the advantages of education, health, a car, and money for first month's rent, she has to work two jobs, seven days a week, and still almost winds up in a shelter. As Ehrenreich points out with her potent combination of humor and outrage, the laws of supply and demand have been reversed. Rental prices skyrocket, but wages never rise. Rather, jobs are so cheap as measured by the pay that workers are encouraged to take as many as they can. Behind those trademark Wal-Mart vests, it turns out, are the borderline homeless. With her characteristic wry wit and her unabashedly liberal bent, Ehrenreich brings the invisible poor out of hiding and, in the process, the world they inhabit--where civil liberties are often ignored and hard work fails to live up to its reputation as the ticket out of poverty. --Lesley Reed

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*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Nov 27, 2010 21:53:08

Getting Past No

Getting Past No Review

I found this a surprisingly difficult book to read.

I don't mean it's badly written, quite the opposite, or that it's too technical. In fact, it's full of practical advice, it's very well organized, and it's immediately useful. However Ury's advice also goes against our gut feeling.

The author outlines five steps to negotiating in a difficult situation to break through an impasse.

1. Go to the balcony.
2. Step to the other side.
3. Reframe.
4. Build a golden bridge.
5. Use power to educate.


These five headings summarize themes for each main section. Stepping to the other side means putting yourself in the other person's place in order to see from their point of view how they could accept a solution. Reframing means restating the issues in a way that makes agreement easier. Building a golden bridge means, among other things, offering concessions that cost you little but gives the other side a lot. It also means pointing out to the other party the advantages to them of reaching an agreement. Using power to educate means, as a last resort, to use your own best alternative to a negotiated agreement (your BATNA) to point the cost of failing to agree.

But before all that, when negotiations get difficult, one should go to the balcony. This means taking a break and not reacting in anger. When confronted or insulted in the midst of talks, it's quite natural to react in anger. Ury quotes Ambrose Bierce: "Speak when you are angry and you will make the best speech you will ever regret." In other words reacting feels good but doesn't get you what you want.

Every page gives similar principles and illustrates them with pertinent examples; so much so that I couldn't read through this book quickly as I had to stop and think all the time. And that's why I found the book a difficult read.

A little humbling and very useful.

Vincent Poirier, Tokyo

Getting Past No Feature

• ISBN13: 9780553371314
• Condition: New
• Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed

Getting Past No Overview

A guide to successful negotiation shows readers how to stay cool under pressure, stand up for themselves without provoking opposition, deal with underhanded tactics, find mutually agreeable options, and more.

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*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Oct 26, 2010 12:58:05