Doing too many things at once doesn’t save any time, and could be harming your health and career success. “Hurry, bustle, and agitation are the never-failing symptoms of a weak and frivolous mind,” Lord Chesterfield wrote to his son in the 1740s. It’s still true today. Multitasking isn’t a substitute for setting sensible priorities; nor will it allow you to produce the results you are capable of giving — if only you give yourself the time needed. One of the best routes to success, in almost any endeavor, is to learn the skill of paying close attention only to what matters. The fashion for multitasking needs to go the way of crinolines and powdered wigs.

The three essential steps in leadership can all be defined by the act of looking: first within, then to the future, and finally behind, to see who is willing to follow you. Do this, again and again, and you won’t go far wrong.

Life in the 21st Century should be getting easier to manage, not harder. Our working hours have increased in line with jobs being vacated but not filled, and employers expecting overtime as the norm instead of the exception. All of which is leaving us with less time for anything else but work. Do we have to stick with this gloomy way of living? Maybe there is another way.

What destroys a business is able people making enough unforced errors to give the competition a free run. Unforced errors are the ones you make regardless of the actions or skill of your competition. They’re the ones that result from taking too many risks, trying to do things too quickly, cutting costs to the point where you harm your own prospects, focusing on short-term wins and ignoring the consequences, and sticking to old habits when external circumstances have already changed enough to make them useless. Only by slowing down, paying better attention and investigating the alignment between what you say you want and what you do to get it can you find the answers.