Common Sense: Using the Power You Already Have

Common Sense: Using the Power You Already Have

There’s a project I’ve been working on for a long time now and given that it’s coming to an end and will soon be ready to see the light of day, I thought I’d write about it.

Since 1991, when I started ETP, I’ve spent much of my time trying to simplify project management and time management.  The books I’ve written, the courses I’ve taught, the consulting work I’ve done, have all been based around that basic idea.

But I realised some time back that project management and time management as I’ve presented them, are just specific examples of a much more general thing – namely, the application of common sense thinking to specific problems.

This shouldn’t really have come as a surprise to me as, way back in 2001 I wrote a book called Simply Brilliant [now in its fourth edition https://www.amazon.co.uk/Simply-Brilliant-common-sense-guide-success/dp/0273768085/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8] which was about exactly that – common sense thinking.

The book identified seven ideas or principles which if one were applying them, one would be using common sense.  The book then went on to give examples of how these principles could be applied and used.  (Simply Brilliant turned out to be my biggest seller and has been translated into fourteen languages, so there would seem to be an appetite for common sense thinking.)

All of which brings me to this new project – Common Sense: Using The Power You Already Have.

I’m in the final stages of putting together a course in common sense.  It’s called Common Sense: Using the Power You Already Have.  The course:

  • Is not face to face but rather, delivered online.
  • Is not expensive – it’s currently priced at US$ 150 per person with discounts for more people.
  • Requires almost no study – rather, it presents a whole menu of techniques that you can draw on and start using from the day you sign up for the course. (That’s one of the beauties of common sense – it’s not difficult or complicated.)

The course consists of two parts.

Part 1, called The Eight Principles of Common Sense takes you through the eight principles (I found one more!), describes each one in turn and shows its application.  Most importantly it gives you tools that you can use to try out each of these principles in your daily life (work or personal).  Each of these eight modules begins with some multiple-choice questions to get you into the right frame of mind.

The most important thing I discovered in doing this project is that, by using these common sense principles in various combinations, you can very quickly become expert in a whole variety of really useful areas – areas like project management, time management, shortening time to market and others.  The way I like to think about this is that, by using common sense as a basis, you can become ‘expert in becoming expert’.

Thus, Part 2 of the course, entitled Expert in Becoming Expert will show you how, by combining the eight principles in various combinations, you can very quickly develop a whole range of really useful skills.

The course will be available from November 22, the same day that my new project management book, The Project Management Book https://www.amazon.co.uk/Project-Management-Book-successful-projects/dp/1912555042/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8  is published.

I’ll be posting more about the course in the next week or two.