Managing Yourself

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I generally think management books are a waste of time. But occasionally I come across some advice I think is worthwhile. Such as this:
Conscious organization is the great spiritual task of man. We speak of the “composition” of a picture; it is the way the artist has organized his material. The harmony of a piece of music depends on the way the musician has organized his material. The statesman organizes social facts into legislation and administration. The greater the statesman, the greater power he shows in just this capacity. It might be fun to try to do it in one’s own life, to say: “Here are the materials of my life. How would the artist arrange them in order to make the composition the most significant? How would he subordinate lesser values to higher values? How would he manage to give everything its fullest value? Or we might ask ourselves the craftsman’s question, “How can I make of my life a whole whose beauty and use shall be one?” Organization is what separates mediocre endeavour from high endeavour.”
Mary Parker Follett, Dynamic Administration, 1924.

See related posts "Almost Everything a Manager Needs to Know" and "A Moment of Clarity".

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