Here is a self-help book written by Stephen R. Covey and the habits expressed in the book.


Habit 1: Be Proactive: Principles of Personal Choice
Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind: Principles of Personal Vision
Habit 3: Put First Things First: Principles of Integrity & Execution
Habit 4: Think Win/Win: Principles of Mutual Benefit
Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood: Principles of Mutual Understanding
Habit 6: Synergize: Principles of Creative Cooperation
Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw: Principles of Balanced Self-Renewal

The chapters are dedicated to each of the habits, which are represented by the following imperatives:

Habit 1: Covey emphasizes the original sense of the term "proactive" as coined by Victor Frankl. You can either be proactive or reactive when it comes to how you respond to certain things. When you are reactive, you blame other people and circumstances for obstacles or problems. Being proactive means taking responsibility for every aspect of your life. Initiative and taking action will then follow. Covey also argues that man is different from other animals in that he has self-consciousness. He has the ability to detach himself and observe his own self; think about his thoughts. He goes on to say how this attribute enables him: It gives him the power not to be affected by his circumstances. Covey talks about stimulus and response. Between stimulus and response, we have the power of free will to choose our response.

Habit 2: This chapter is about setting long-term goals based on "true north" principles. Covey recommends formulating a "Personal Mission Statement" to document one's perception of one's own vision in life. He sees visualization as an important tool to develop this. He also deals with organizational mission statements, which he claims to be more effective if developed and supported by all members of an organization rather than prescribed.

Habit 3: Covey describes a framework for prioritizing work that is aimed at long-term goals, at the expense of tasks that appear to be urgent, but are in fact less important. Delegation is presented as an important part of time management. Successful delegation, according to Covey, focuses on results and benchmarks that are to be agreed in advance, rather than on prescribing detailed work plans.

Habit 4: An attitude whereby mutually beneficial solutions are sought that satisfy the needs of oneself as well as others, or, in the case of a conflict, both parties involved.

Habit 5: Covey warns that giving out advice before having empathetically understood a person and their situation will likely result in that advice being rejected. Thoroughly listening to another person's concerns instead of reading out your own autobiography is purported to increase the chance of establishing a working communication.

Habit 6: A way of working in teams. Apply effective problem solving. Apply collaborative decision making. Value differences. Build on divergent strengths. Leverage creative collaboration. Embrace and leverage innovation. It is put forth that when synergy is pursued as a habit, the result of the teamwork will exceed the sum of what each of the members could have achieved on their own. “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”

Habit 7: Focuses on balanced self-renewal: Regain what Covey calls "production capability" by engaging in carefully selected recreational activities. Covey also emphasizes the need to sharpen the mind.

I am personally going to start working on these.

One of my favorites...

Habit 1: Be Proactive: Principles of Personal Choice

Nice! Great reminder for us all...

Stephen Covey also has another book out called -- Daily Reflections for Highly Effective People. It's more like little encouraging sentences to reflect on for each day.

We also need a list of things successful people don't do.

IE: Channel surf... in fact, I'd venture to say they spend next to no time at all in front of a television.

That's funny Tulasu and so true!

Here are theSeven Habits of Highly Effective Slackers:


1. Don't volunteer yourself for anything.
2. Always send emails when making a request to another employee.
3. Never inform people that you finish things early.
4. Follow the instructions on How to sneak out of the office early (and often).
5. Never skip lunch or eat lunch at your desk.
6. Never allow others to take credit for your work.
7. On especially lazy days, if your office has wifi, book a conference room with other effective slackers (probably your Work Posse) for the entire day.

That's pretty cute, Charlie. Slackers do seem to have a written agenda... an actual plan in place to get out of every ounce of work they can.

Notwithstanding the tongue in cheek purpose of your post, it's worth mentioning with regards to number 5, that taking properly spaced breaks and eating properly has proven to actually increase production, so this one might be self-defeating.

Tula

I read a sociological study about successsful people many years ago. It was a study which included people like John MacEnroe, Hellen Keller, Abraham Lincoln, and many small town millionaires and heroes.
At the end of the study the researchers were unable to come to many conclusion regarding common characteristics.
One common conclusion was that most of these people worked very hard.