Administrative Professional Today

The administrative professional’s guide to accelerated career development. Administrative Professional Today offers practical advice on office efficiency, politics, communication skills, time management, supervisory problems and technology. The monthly issues and weekly electronic forum give special attention to the changing duties of administrative professionals in today’s business environment. Learn more about Administrative Professional Today and the two free reports you’ll get when you subscribe...

New business books are constantly popping up, each promising to change the way we work. Keeping up with the reading is challenging enough. But how do you get the most out of each book? Three tips from Fast Company:

1. Take advice with a grain of salt. No single strategy is likely to be an exact fit for your situation. So don’t try to replicate every example.

2. Focus on the central ideas. Even a long book full of examples is likely to have just a few main ideas. Figure out what those are, then mull over them to determine whether those ideas might be helpful for you.

3. Add what you learn to your “toolbox.” Think of yourself as a mechanic who’s collecting a box of tools. You should know what the tools are good for, and when they can be damaging if used in the wrong situation. Ideas work the same way, and you need to gather them from all sorts of sources. The more you read, the more you learn.