Perhaps the gains attained going from incompetence to mediocrity aren't worth the time? Know thyself In my experience there's tons of low-hanging-fruit at the bottom, and reaching the top is a game of diminishing returns. It takes far more energy and work to improve from incompetence to mediocrity than it takes to improve from first-rate performance to excellence. Waste as little effort as possible on improving areas of low competence.

I have a section in OneNote for a 'decision journal'. Nine or twelve months later, compare the actual results with your expectations. Whenver you make a key decision, write down what you expect will happen. The only way to discover your strengths is through feedback analysis. These are mostly paraphrased or quoted directly from the book. The following are rough notes I took while reading. Understand how your coworkers operate, so you can all play off of eachother's strengths. Put yourself in an environment that aligns with your strengths, working style, and values. Use feedback analysis and reflection to learn about yourself. If you want to be an excellent knowledge worker, you need to become your own CEO. Anyone looking to become excellent but unsure of where to goīuy 'Managing Oneself' on Amazon or check it out at the library.The book/article serves more as motivation to reflect, especially on things that you might've assumed you don't need to think about. Drucker's writing is clear, and prompts you to take action.

Originally an article for The Harvard Business Review, this short volume covers how to create your career path by understanding yourself.Īs it's not really a full book, there aren't any how-to guides or in-depth tactics for figuring out who you are or how to manage yourself. A short but incredibly useful impetus to learn about oneself.

Managing Oneself by Peter F. Drucker