The rhythm in which most of us live can hardly be called calm and measured. Lack of time, emergency situations and tight time constraints are challenges that not everyone can cope with. Being constantly in a state of "I don't know what to grab" is hardly appropriate when it comes to personal effectiveness.
Emotional stress blocks productivity, leading to rapid fatigue and apathy. Therefore, in order not to become a victim of stress or, even worse, chronic fatigue syndrome, we will take up time management or time management.
All successful people do this
All successful people are very productive. They work hard and have a lot of time, and this is not the same thing. Productivity, first of all, means the result, not the process. If you are determined to improve your productivity, you are determined to do so. People are wasting their time because they never decided to improve their productivity.
And if you've made up your mind, then don't back down and repeat what all successful people do until it becomes second nature to you. The main secret to personal effectiveness lies in the correct allocation of time. Time management helps to avoid the unenviable fate of a hostage to your own business or career.
Planning frees up time
Those who are successful in their lives devote a lot of time to planning. Daily planning is essential to improve your productivity and manage your time effectively.
Rule 6 "P" states: Proper pre-planning prevents poor performance.
You should always plan and think on paper. If the goal isn't on paper, it doesn't exist. The task list is a kind of map that will not let you lose your way to the intended goal. Peter F. Drucker, in his book "Effective Manager", gives a good analogy that encourages you to write down tasks on paper:
"People kept in a dark room quickly lose their sense of time. But even in total darkness, most people retain a sense of space. When you are in a well-lit but enclosed space, you will no longer feel the movement of time in just a few hours. And if you want to calculate how long you have been in such a room, you will make a big mistake in your calculations. So if we rely on our memory, we don't notice what our time is being spent on..."
Working with your to-do list on the first day increases productivity by 25%. From the evening, prepare a list of tasks that need to be done tomorrow. When you arrive at work, you will always know where to start your day.
Continue working on your list throughout the day: when a new task appears, add it to the list, taking into account its priority in relation to previously scheduled tasks. After completing the next task from the list, be sure to cross it out. This will give you a sense of satisfaction with your work, increase your enthusiasm and boost your energy.
Plan from more to less, from long-term to short-term, from your life goals to your daily plan. Set fixed deadlines for each task.
Always divide a complex task into small subtasks. Here, a decision tree helps well, where the key task is a tree, and the subtasks for its implementation are branches. Continue "branching" until the process of completing the entire task is simple and transparent.
Before you start doing anything, remember the 10/90 rule: 10% of the time spent planning before starting a task will save 90% of the time spent solving it.
The most important thing is to determine the main thing
The task of time management is to determine the main task in time. Prioritization allows you to effectively manage your to-do list by assigning a different level of importance to each task.
After identifying an important task, evaluate the consequences if it is completed or not completed. An important task has serious consequences if it is not completed on time.
The ABC method is well suited for setting priorities. This is a very simple way to plan, and it consists in assigning a priority to each task in the to-do list.
So, a task marked with the letter A indicates the most important task with the most serious consequences if it is not completed. The main rule of the method is not to take on task B until task A is completed, but to take on task B while task B is open, and so on.
The letter D means "down with it!" This letter should indicate minor tasks that do not affect anything. To set priorities in each task group, use numbers that will indicate the sequence of tasks performed. So the most important case on your list should be labeled A1.
The Law of Forced Efficiency
The main secret of time management is focus and focus. Start by addressing your top priorities and do everything consistently, i.e. one thing at a time. Dropping a task and returning to it again and again reduces your effectiveness by 5 times.
Mozart could work on three compositions at once and create real masterpieces. But this is the exception rather than the rule. Bach, Haydn, or Verdi could only work on one piece at a time. They didn't start working on the next piece without finishing the previous one.
Use the law of forced efficiency, which says that there is never enough time for everything, but there is always enough time for the most important things. Therefore, it is important to get together and force yourself to do first of all what will bring the greatest benefit and result.
This classification is named after the American president and is called the method (window, principle) Eisenhower.
What does it mean to eat a frog?
An old parable goes like this: if you have to eat a live frog first thing in the morning, the consolation is that it's the worst thing that can happen to you all day.
Brian Tracy, a successful business consultant, compares the frog to the most unpleasant and important thing to do today. By delaying it, you create unnecessary emotional stress and undesirable consequences. You need to act without unnecessary hesitation and delay — just take it and do it. This will give you a boost of energy for the whole day.
The word "no" saves an unexpectedly long time
The most important word for organizing your own time is a polite "no". Learn to refuse and say "no" to tasks that are not among your chosen priorities. Be tactful and refuse so that the person understands that you are not rejecting him personally, but the task.
Keep track of what you spend your working and free time on. Note activities that consume your time (for example, discussing news with colleagues, aimlessly switching TV channels, or reading flyers and newspapers).
Make a rating of such useless activities, calling it "I will never do this again", and enter there those things that do not bring you any benefit and do not bring you closer to the goal.
3 questions for your efficiency
Always ask yourself what the long-term consequences of a particular task are, and what happens if you don't complete it at all. Ask yourself the following 3 questions throughout the day::
Answering these questions will double your productivity.
What can a trash can do?
People who show good results work at a clean desk. Unproductive and unassembled people have wild chaos on the table. Develop the habit of sorting out papers in a timely manner, throwing out unnecessary ones, and working at a clean desk. It is noted that up to 30% of the working time is spent searching for the right paper. The trash can is one of the most effective time management tools.
The principle of equilibrium
The easiest way to avoid panicking at the ever-increasing amount of work is to take a deep breath and say, "I can only do what I can," and start calmly making a list. When you analyze the tasks that you face, you will always see that you have enough time to solve vital issues.
Be careful to keep your life in balance. Working to the point of exhaustion, you can't fool the body, it will still take its toll, and if you don't stop, it will do it forcibly. And this is clearly not part of your plans.
But in order to be effective, just time management is not enough. It is important to monitor your health and keep yourself in good physical shape. Your life should be full, and there should always be time for your family and recreation.
The basic principle of balance: the amount of time at home and the quality of time at work are important.
You and the main people in your life should always come first, and that's why you should work on your own effectiveness.
Emotional stress blocks productivity, leading to rapid fatigue and apathy. Therefore, in order not to become a victim of stress or, even worse, chronic fatigue syndrome, we will take up time management or time management.
All successful people do this
All successful people are very productive. They work hard and have a lot of time, and this is not the same thing. Productivity, first of all, means the result, not the process. If you are determined to improve your productivity, you are determined to do so. People are wasting their time because they never decided to improve their productivity.
And if you've made up your mind, then don't back down and repeat what all successful people do until it becomes second nature to you. The main secret to personal effectiveness lies in the correct allocation of time. Time management helps to avoid the unenviable fate of a hostage to your own business or career.
Planning frees up time
Those who are successful in their lives devote a lot of time to planning. Daily planning is essential to improve your productivity and manage your time effectively.
Rule 6 "P" states: Proper pre-planning prevents poor performance.
You should always plan and think on paper. If the goal isn't on paper, it doesn't exist. The task list is a kind of map that will not let you lose your way to the intended goal. Peter F. Drucker, in his book "Effective Manager", gives a good analogy that encourages you to write down tasks on paper:
"People kept in a dark room quickly lose their sense of time. But even in total darkness, most people retain a sense of space. When you are in a well-lit but enclosed space, you will no longer feel the movement of time in just a few hours. And if you want to calculate how long you have been in such a room, you will make a big mistake in your calculations. So if we rely on our memory, we don't notice what our time is being spent on..."
Working with your to-do list on the first day increases productivity by 25%. From the evening, prepare a list of tasks that need to be done tomorrow. When you arrive at work, you will always know where to start your day.
Continue working on your list throughout the day: when a new task appears, add it to the list, taking into account its priority in relation to previously scheduled tasks. After completing the next task from the list, be sure to cross it out. This will give you a sense of satisfaction with your work, increase your enthusiasm and boost your energy.
Plan from more to less, from long-term to short-term, from your life goals to your daily plan. Set fixed deadlines for each task.
Always divide a complex task into small subtasks. Here, a decision tree helps well, where the key task is a tree, and the subtasks for its implementation are branches. Continue "branching" until the process of completing the entire task is simple and transparent.
Before you start doing anything, remember the 10/90 rule: 10% of the time spent planning before starting a task will save 90% of the time spent solving it.
The most important thing is to determine the main thing
The task of time management is to determine the main task in time. Prioritization allows you to effectively manage your to-do list by assigning a different level of importance to each task.
After identifying an important task, evaluate the consequences if it is completed or not completed. An important task has serious consequences if it is not completed on time.
The ABC method is well suited for setting priorities. This is a very simple way to plan, and it consists in assigning a priority to each task in the to-do list.
So, a task marked with the letter A indicates the most important task with the most serious consequences if it is not completed. The main rule of the method is not to take on task B until task A is completed, but to take on task B while task B is open, and so on.
The letter D means "down with it!" This letter should indicate minor tasks that do not affect anything. To set priorities in each task group, use numbers that will indicate the sequence of tasks performed. So the most important case on your list should be labeled A1.
The Law of Forced Efficiency
The main secret of time management is focus and focus. Start by addressing your top priorities and do everything consistently, i.e. one thing at a time. Dropping a task and returning to it again and again reduces your effectiveness by 5 times.
Mozart could work on three compositions at once and create real masterpieces. But this is the exception rather than the rule. Bach, Haydn, or Verdi could only work on one piece at a time. They didn't start working on the next piece without finishing the previous one.
Use the law of forced efficiency, which says that there is never enough time for everything, but there is always enough time for the most important things. Therefore, it is important to get together and force yourself to do first of all what will bring the greatest benefit and result.
- Urgent and important events;
- Important, but not urgent;
- Urgent, but not important;
- Not urgent and not important.
This classification is named after the American president and is called the method (window, principle) Eisenhower.
- Primary tasks are urgent and important matters. Trying to postpone such things for later will create unnecessary problems for you — you need to start them yourself and immediately.
- Then there are things that are important, but not urgent. Such tasks can be postponed, but they can have a strong impact in the long run. Non-urgent and important tasks have a habit of becoming urgent and important if they are constantly postponed. To prevent this from happening, set up a temporary reserve for them in advance.
- Urgent but not important tasks have little impact on your success. Doing things that are urgent but not important doesn't work and can have a big impact on your performance. Such cases take up most of your time reserve. These are exactly the tasks that should be delegated or reduced if possible.
- It is logical to assume that non-urgent and unimportant cases do not matter in principle and do not bear any consequences if they are not fulfilled. Such cases can be safely deleted from your list.
What does it mean to eat a frog?
An old parable goes like this: if you have to eat a live frog first thing in the morning, the consolation is that it's the worst thing that can happen to you all day.
Brian Tracy, a successful business consultant, compares the frog to the most unpleasant and important thing to do today. By delaying it, you create unnecessary emotional stress and undesirable consequences. You need to act without unnecessary hesitation and delay — just take it and do it. This will give you a boost of energy for the whole day.
The word "no" saves an unexpectedly long time
The most important word for organizing your own time is a polite "no". Learn to refuse and say "no" to tasks that are not among your chosen priorities. Be tactful and refuse so that the person understands that you are not rejecting him personally, but the task.
Keep track of what you spend your working and free time on. Note activities that consume your time (for example, discussing news with colleagues, aimlessly switching TV channels, or reading flyers and newspapers).
Make a rating of such useless activities, calling it "I will never do this again", and enter there those things that do not bring you any benefit and do not bring you closer to the goal.
3 questions for your efficiency
Always ask yourself what the long-term consequences of a particular task are, and what happens if you don't complete it at all. Ask yourself the following 3 questions throughout the day::
- What are the most important and valuable things to do?
- What can I and only I do that will significantly improve the situation?
- How to make the most of your time?
Answering these questions will double your productivity.
What can a trash can do?
People who show good results work at a clean desk. Unproductive and unassembled people have wild chaos on the table. Develop the habit of sorting out papers in a timely manner, throwing out unnecessary ones, and working at a clean desk. It is noted that up to 30% of the working time is spent searching for the right paper. The trash can is one of the most effective time management tools.
The principle of equilibrium
The easiest way to avoid panicking at the ever-increasing amount of work is to take a deep breath and say, "I can only do what I can," and start calmly making a list. When you analyze the tasks that you face, you will always see that you have enough time to solve vital issues.
Be careful to keep your life in balance. Working to the point of exhaustion, you can't fool the body, it will still take its toll, and if you don't stop, it will do it forcibly. And this is clearly not part of your plans.
But in order to be effective, just time management is not enough. It is important to monitor your health and keep yourself in good physical shape. Your life should be full, and there should always be time for your family and recreation.
The basic principle of balance: the amount of time at home and the quality of time at work are important.
You and the main people in your life should always come first, and that's why you should work on your own effectiveness.
