Manktelow James. Mind Tools. Essential skills for an excellent career

Mind Tools Ltd, 2003. — 214 p. — ISBN: 0-9545586-1-8.Welcome to Mind Tools!This e-book is a tool kit for your mind.On its own, a screwdriver will only help you in a small way. Although it can be very useful, there are only a few jobs that you can use it for. When, however, you use this screwdriver as part of a complete tool kit, the range of options open to you is enormous. A craftsman with a good tool kit can make many different, useful things.Similarly, individual thinking skills used on their own may help you in a small way. When, however, you use many different thinking skills together, your ability to solve problems increases significantly. Mind Tools is a tool kit of thinking techniques. It will help you to think and live excellently.The first four modules of Mind Tools cover the techniques that will make you a more effective business thinker. Module 1, Creativity Tools, shows you how to generate fresh and innovative ideas reliably. The next two modules, Tools for Understanding Complex Situations and Techniques for Effective Decision Making, give you the skills you need to understand many difficult problems, and make the best decisions possible with the information available. Module 4, Project Planning & Management Skills, shows you how to plan, schedule and implement complex projects.Modules 5 and 6 explain how to study and remember information. These techniques will help you to study more effectively when you need to master a new subject or when you want to pass examinations. The section on Memory Techniques also explains useful ways of remembering people’s names, lists of information, foreign languages, etc.The final two modules explain the time and stress management skills that you will need as you become increasingly successful. They explain how to control and dissipate the pressures that will build around you. These tools will help you to live a happy life as well as a highly successful one.The best way to use this e-book is to skim through it quickly so that you get an overview of what is contained within it. Then read through the sections that are useful to you in more detail, so that you remember the bones of the methods. Finally, keep Mind Tools on your PC desktop, and refer to it whenever you need a new approach to solving a problem. It will be worth skimming through it periodically to keep the range of tools you now have available fresh within your mind.The Tool List at the start of the e-book will help you to select techniques, as you need them. Whenever you begin to feel out of control or feel that you are not being fully effective, try scanning this list to see if there is a technique that can help you. Once you understand the basic tool, adapt it and refine it to suit your circumstances and the way that you think.Welcome to powerful thinking!