How to Get Things Done?

Photo Courtesy: Ed Yourdon

If you desire to get things done by others, there is a certain way to go about it. Neither can you be too demanding, for people will not tolerate your superfluous dominance, nor can you be too feeble when you ask someone to do your work, for then you might not be taken seriously. Follow these 4 simple steps and learn how to get things done with ease!

1. Evaluate your options

By ‘options’, we refer to the people who are at your disposal to do your work. Evaluate meticulously who stands where, who owes you how much, what you have done for whom, what others have already done for you, who is vulnerable, who is rude, so on and so forth. You will have a picture in your mind as to who stands where with respect to doing your work. Unless someone is obligated to work for you, for instance an employee, you will have to be very careful in estimating upon whom you can rely to get your things done. The trick is to always select people who will only be too happy to help you, not people who will demand payback in future.

2. Allot work suitably

Allotment is a very crucial stage. This is where you know who the people are who will be able to work for you. You must now be able to suitably distribute the work among the people whom you have shortlisted. Now you must assign or allot the work to these people in a way that they have enough scope, both in respect of time and resources, of completing the task given to them.

3. Remind

After you have allotted work to appropriate people, your job does not cease. You now need to remind them on a timely basis about the work which needs to be completed. You must be very careful at this stage for you need to take care not to annoy the person who is supposed to do the work. When you remind the person, do it in a way that does not make the person feel that you do not trust in his/her sense of responsibility. Make a casual phone call, for example, and then in passing, mention the job that needs to be done.

4. Express gratitude

Now that you have made sure your work is done, you need to show that you are grateful to the persons who have actually done it. Thanking is a very critical stage and your success in getting your things done is accomplished only when you express gratitude and thank the person who did it, may be with a tiny thank you gift.

If you successfully follow these four steps, you will get your things done with ease. And in future you will find people more eager to work for you.