Time management system. Objectives, principles, rules

This technique can be used not only at work, but also in everyday life; try to accustom your children to it from childhood. Measured - analyzed - planned - executed - analyzed. A few steps at the initial stage and repeated repetition will lead to the execution of actions automatically, after some time it will become a habit and will be performed on a subconscious level.

Time management is convenient

In general, it can and should be customized for yourself. Often, organizing time is required only in cases where we do it because we have to, have you noticed? It seems like an interesting thing, but maybe you’re a little bored, maybe your mood or well-being is not right, maybe you’re just lazy, then you have to turn on the internal mechanisms of self-discipline, adjust motivation to the desired level and control your activities.

Do you remember when you don’t have to do this? In two cases: when laziness and idleness are complete, and when we are so carried away by work or business that we do not notice how time passes. In such cases they say: “I didn’t have time to look back, but the working day was over.”

Where is the truth?

The truth is always somewhere in the middle, however, if some recommendations help one person to be more effective, then they can be effective for at least several more people. Now we will not discuss how to organize our time when mother laziness has overcome us, or when enthusiasm is burning in our souls. I will share with you two simple methods that can be effective for you when you just need to work.

2 Simple Ways to Organize Your Time

First way:

Just do it.

Second way:

Just take breaks more often.

Are you smiling? I see your misunderstanding... In fact, friends, the methods are time-tested. I assure you that for some of you they will be a lifeline at the right time. It’s better to take more breaks, maybe after fifteen minutes, maybe after 10 or 5 minutes, but even in this case, you will move forward and not stand still. You will not notice how you will get involved in work and you will no longer need breaks.

About the techniques

These are very simple ways to organize your time. I know that using things like planning tasks, dividing tasks into important and urgent, the “Pomodoro” technique, keeping a diary, using, etc., will result in significantly speeding up our activities, this is indisputable.

But you still need to find the main thing that your body listens to and your consciousness does not resist too much. Find something that will help you.

Let's divide our affairs

Let's remember once again that all our affairs can be divided into 4 groups:

Urgent - Important
Important - Not urgent
Urgent - Not important
Not urgent - Not important

Find information about this Eisenhower method and learn how to use it in your planning. And do the most important things first: urgent and important. This method helped me a lot to cope with the huge turnover of cases, which had no end and end at the time when I worked as the head of a branch of an advertising company, and at the same time I was working on several areas of equal importance.

Who controls whom?

Gradually it became clear that it was no longer the turnover that controlled me, but that I managed my affairs and successfully organized my time. Artem Farievich’s advice about the “monkey” that managers constantly put on my neck helped in time; I learned to return their own “monkey” to them, they had to come to an agreement with it themselves. I learned to say “no” in a timely manner, to refuse without offending the other person, to politely end a conversation if I realized that he was stealing my time.

Friends, all this is very interesting, in fact. Now, sometimes, it is even difficult to understand what is more effective in solving and performing certain tasks. It is important to understand that you will have your own methods that will work for you.

When you realize that you know how to value your time and the time of other people, it becomes clear that you begin to get more done in the same time as before. You are gradually mastering the art of time management, the main task of which is organization of time.

In custody

Friends, you must always remember that if overload begins, you can stop and take a deep breath and exhale. This is also a great product - it helps! We always want balance: mental, physical, and material... Our life directly depends on the quality of our time, which we devote to work, family, friends, and travel.

When we know why we are working on our own, and this is certainly ourselves and the most dear people in our lives, without any doubt, the quality of our life will improve. And this is exactly what makes it worth living, creating and achieving a balance between health, wealth and happiness.

The frantic pace of modern life often leads to a constant lack of time. “Meetings, reports, planning meetings, meetings with clients, calls, projects, personal life - I’m spinning like a squirrel in a wheel, but I don’t get anything done,” some complain. So what is the reason that in the same period of time some people accomplish much more than others? The answer is obvious - in time management, in its competent planning and rational use, which ultimately results in higher productivity.

What is time management?

Time management(English time management - time management) is the process of organizing and planning your own time, which allows you to complete current tasks more efficiently and productively. Good time management allows you to work smarter rather than harder—so you can get more things done in less time, no matter how extensive your to-do list. Not being able to manage your own time not only harms your productivity, but also causes stress due to constant missed deadlines.

Experts distinguish two types of time management: personal and corporate. In a broad sense, time management as a subspecies is a mechanism for managing a company's time. In corporate time management, the main emphasis is on managing the working time of all company employees, and the rational use of time by each individual employee is the result of the correct construction of the corporate system.

Time management in the narrow sense is the organization of each person’s personal time. It is relevant in those cases and for those categories of workers who have a certain freedom of choice and have a flexible schedule. When a person is forced to make decisions independently and organize the process of his work, he needs to master technologies for organizing personal time.

What is time management for?

The benefits of using time management are enormous:

Productivity and labor efficiency increases.
Professional reputation improves.
The level of stress decreases (tasks are completed on time).
Opportunities for career advancement are expanding.
Great opportunities to achieve important life and career goals.
There is more personal time to communicate with family and friends.

At the same time, failure to manage your time effectively can have some very undesirable consequences:

Violated deadlines for completing tasks.
Inefficient workflow.
Poor quality of work.
Poor professional reputation and lack of career growth.
Higher stress levels.

Stages of time management

Time management includes a number of stages, including:

Setting goals.
Planning and time allocation.
Delegation of tasks and resource management.
Time consumption analysis.
Recording time.
Prioritization.
Implementation of tasks.
Monitoring the achievement of goals, implementation of plans, summing up the results.

Basic rules of time management

1. Make a task list

First you need to decide on a list of all the tasks that need to be completed. List not only all work tasks, but also personal ones. Make a list based on the tasks that need to be completed during the day, week, month, year. Don’t forget about your personal life, meeting with friends, visiting the clinic, include time for self-development in the list and don’t forget about vacation.

2. Take timekeeping

After you have compiled a list of tasks, you need to write next to each task the estimated time (minutes, hours, days) required to complete it. This will come in handy later when planning your daily routine.

3. Prioritize

As a rule, there are always many tasks and it is impossible to do everything at once. Therefore, it is necessary to set priorities correctly. The criteria for setting priorities can be different - these include personal motives and financial reward. You can use the Eisenhower Matrix as a guide when setting priorities.

Eisenhower Case Matrix

All tasks are divided into 4 groups:

Urgent and important - completed first and in full (critical tasks).
Important but not urgent tasks are performed second. The solution to such problems can be postponed for a certain time, but they also must be completely resolved.
Urgent but not important are tasks that, although urgent, are not critical. It is advisable to delegate the implementation of such tasks to other persons, and if this is not possible, then postpone it, because they “eat up time” to solve critical problems.
Not urgent and not important are tasks that have no significance in principle and do not carry any consequences if they are not completed. You can safely cross such things off your list.

4. Make a plan of action (tasks)

Having a list of tasks in hand, their priority and timing, you can create a task schedule for the day, week, month. Now, instead of worrying about “again, I didn’t have time to do all that pile of things,” you understand that you have completed everything that you could realistically get done, taking into account the time that exists in your life.

5. Filter information

In the modern world of information flows, it is easy to get lost in time. Therefore, learn to filter out all the information noise and concentrate on processing only the information that you really need.

6. Don't spread yourself between tasks

Bring the task you started to completion, don’t leave it unsolved. Experts in the field of time management note that repeatedly returning to a “boring task” reduces a person’s productivity by five times!

Also, don't take on multiple tasks at once (unless you're a multitasking guru, of course). This will take more time than completing all tasks separately and may reduce the quality of their completion.

7. Eliminate time wasters

Eliminate everything that wastes your time: viewing social networks, television shows, unnecessary coffee breaks and conversations with colleagues about nothing, etc. If you do a lot of routine work (for example, collecting and processing data), try to automate this process as much as possible.

8. Keep things organized

Clean up your desktop, organize and organize your documentation, organize information in your PC, contact databases, etc. All this will make your life much easier when searching for the necessary information (documents) and save a lot of time.

9. Work at specific times

Each person has their own biorhythms, determine when your peak activity is. It is during these hours that the most difficult tasks should be performed, because... Maximum concentration will allow you to solve such problems more effectively and efficiently.

10 . Don't forget about rest

Be sure to take time for yourself: go to the gym, travel, don’t forget about a hobby, spend an evening with your family. A rested person is also effective at work!

How to answer the following interview questions: How do you manage your time? How do you plan your working day? What techniques and methods do you use in planning? Give examples of how you use time management skills to successfully complete a task.

You will find out all the answers to these questions by reading this article.

What is time management?

Time management- this is a set of knowledge, skills and abilities, thanks to which a person knows how to set priorities, accurately plans his time, thereby increasing his personal productivity in organizing his working time.

“Until you can manage your time, you can’t manage anything else.” Peter Drucker

Perfectionism
Procrastination
Lack of knowledge
Lack of necessary tools and resources

1. Perfectionism makes it very difficult to complete tasks on time. Many people believe that this quality is a strength, but it is the constant desire for perfection and dissatisfaction with the results obtained that is one of the reasons for the ineffective use of time. By finding opportunities to accept the “real” outcome instead of the “ideal” one, you save significant resources for other things. There is an expression: “perfectionism is evil,” of course, all this is quite relative and in each individual situation this personality characteristic can be assessed differently, however, undoubtedly within the framework of time management: perfectionism is EVIL!

2. Procrastination- constant postponing of things until later, unwillingness to perform certain duties. The word “TOMORROW” dominates the vocabulary of procrastinating employees. Steve Jobs said very well about such people: “The poor, unsuccessful, unhappy and unhealthy is the one who often uses the word “tomorrow.”

I cannot save you from perfectionism and procrastination; my goal is to give knowledge, provide the best techniques and methods, and introduce you to resources and tools for mastering time management skills. Whether you use the information received or not - it all depends solely on your desire. However, after reading this article, you will never be the same.

First, I suggest you determine your time management skills. Pass

Cognitive dissonance lies in the fact that on the one hand, we cannot control time as such. After all, it is time that we cannot control and it seems that it is time that controls us, and not we control it. We are accustomed to perceiving time as something eternal and limitless. It seems like there is always a lot of it. On the other hand, time is one of the most valuable resources we all have. It is important to understand that time has its own boundaries, every day is a vessel of a certain capacity that you fill with things to do. You can fill it with useless things, or you can fill it with things that work for your tasks and lead you to your final goal.

We can control ourselves, how we plan our day, and how we spend our working time. The intelligent, productive and economical use of this resource is an important part of an employee's evaluation.

Time efficiency can be achieved in two ways:

Achieve meaningful results by saving time. This means that you know how to achieve a task in a minimum amount of time.
Effective planning of working time will reduce the number and volume of tasks you perform.

In this article, I have compiled a digest of the six best time management techniques. With their help, you can learn to plan and control your priority tasks on a daily basis.

How to learn to manage your time?

6 best time management methods:

Pareto principle
Eisenhower Matrix
Mind maps
Franklin's Pyramid
ABCD method
Eat the frog first

1. Pareto principle

The Pareto Principle states that a small proportion of the causes, efforts, and investments are responsible for a large proportion of the results. This principle was formulated by the Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto in 1897 and has since been confirmed by quantitative research in a variety of areas of life:

20% of effort produces 80% of results

The Pareto principle in the field of time management can be formulated as follows: approximately 20% of effort and time is enough to get 80% of the result.
How exactly do you determine what effort is enough to expend to get a good result? Imagine that you are looking for answers to questions that interest you in a book. According to the principle under consideration, you will find 80% of the information you need in 20% of the text. If you know exactly what interests you, you can quickly flip through the book and carefully read only individual pages. This way you will save 80% of your time.

2. Eisenhower Matrix

This is probably the most famous time management concept today, which allows you to prioritize. This technique, the creation of which is attributed to American General Dwight Eisenhower, allows you to sort things by both their urgency and their importance. Everyone understands that only a limited number of tasks can be completed in one period of time. Sometimes, without compromising the work, only one. And every time we have to decide, WHICH EXACTLY? American President Dwight Eisenhower used to organize his affairs into several important categories when planning his affairs.
In accordance with the so-called Eisenhower matrix, it is necessary to classify each case into one of the four types indicated in the diagram.

Eisenhower Matrix

The importance of a task is determined by how much the result of its implementation affects your business. And urgency is determined by two factors at the same time: firstly, how quickly this task must be completed, and secondly, whether the completion of this task is tied to a specific date and specific time. It is importance and urgency, considered together, that influences the setting of priorities.

Let's take a closer look at what cases can be classified into each of the four types.

Type I: “important and urgent.”
These are matters that, if not completed on time, will result in significant damage to your business (for example, renewing licenses, filing tax reports, etc.). A certain share of such cases will inevitably be present in the life of every person. However, with advance preparation (Type II matters - “important but not urgent”), many crises can be prevented (for example, by studying the law, developing good relationships with influential people).

These can also be projects with a deadline, or an emergency. For example, visiting a doctor because of health problems, submitting an article to a journal by a strict deadline, or completing a report on the results of a study. We have no choice here. The work of this group must be done, period. Otherwise there will be serious problems.

Type II: “important but not urgent.”
These are things that are focused on the future: training, studying promising areas of business development, improving equipment, restoring health and performance. Actions that lead to your strategic goal. For example, learn a foreign language in order to move to work in another, more promising organization. It’s also about preventing problems – keeping yourself in good physical shape. Unfortunately, we often neglect such matters and put their resolution on the back burner. As a result, the language is never learned, incomes do not grow, but decrease, health is in jeopardy. These matters have an interesting feature - if they are neglected for a long time, then they become Important - Urgent. After all, if you don’t go to the dentist at least once a year, sooner or later an urgent visit to him will become inevitable.

Type III: “not important, but urgent.”
Many of these things don't actually add much value to your life. We do them only because they happen to us (a long telephone conversation or studying an advertisement that comes in the mail), or out of habit (visiting exhibitions where there is nothing new anymore). It’s just that same everyday routine that takes up a lot of our time and energy.

Type IV: “not important and not urgent.”
These are all kinds of ways to “kill time”: alcohol abuse, “light reading”, watching movies, etc. We often resort to this when we don’t have the strength left for productive work (not to be confused with real rest and communication with loved ones and friends - very important matters). This is a “moth” eating our time.

As you strive for the success of your business, you first try to accomplish the things you have identified as “important”—first the “urgent” (Type I) and then the “non-urgent” (Type II). The remaining time can be devoted to matters that are “urgent but not important” (type III).
It must be emphasized that the bulk of an employee’s working time should be spent on matters “important, but not urgent” (type II). Then many crisis situations will be prevented, and the emergence of new business development opportunities will no longer be unexpected for you.

When you first start using this system for prioritizing, you will likely want to categorize many of these items as “important.” However, as you gain experience, you will begin to more accurately assess the importance of a particular matter. It will take some time to learn how to use the prioritization system. Where can I get it? Most likely, you will classify the work of mastering time management techniques as “important, but not urgent.”
In the figurative expression of Stephen Covey (author of the international bestseller “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People”), you need to find time to “sharpen the saw”, then the preparation of firewood will go faster.

Parable

A certain man saw a woodcutter in the forest, with great difficulty chopping down a tree with a completely blunt ax. The man asked him:
- Dear, why don’t you sharpen your ax?
- I don’t have time to sharpen an ax - I have to chop! - the woodcutter groaned...

Therefore, you need to “voluntarily” allocate a certain amount of time for planning your activities, refusing to do any less important things. If you can do this, you can use your new skills to free up even more time next time and use it to learn more. So, through your determination to improve your work efficiency, you will gradually free up time to develop your personal productivity.

Criteria for prioritizing
Usually, when assessing the importance of a particular task, we consider important, first of all, those things that need to be done urgently (or “yesterday”). The accumulation of unfulfilled tasks and promises creates problems for your company and also creates unpleasant feelings for you personally. It is these “urgent” matters that we strive to deal with first. But urgency should not be the only factor when writing a to-do list and determining the order in which they should be completed.
Experience has shown that while doing (or not doing) many urgent things won't impact your business much, there are many non-urgent things that can lay the foundation for future success. Therefore, in addition to urgency, it is necessary to consider how much this or that matter affects the success of the business, that is, to determine and take into account its importance.

3. Mind maps

This is the development of Tony Buzan - a famous writer, lecturer and consultant on intelligence, the psychology of learning and problems of thinking. There are also such translations of the phrase “Mind maps” as “Mental maps”, “Mental maps”, “Mind maps”.

Mind maps is a method that allows you to:

Effectively structure and process information;
think using your creative and intellectual potential.

This is a very beautiful tool for solving problems such as giving presentations, making decisions, planning your time, memorizing large amounts of information, brainstorming, self-analysis, developing complex projects, personal training, development, etc.

Areas of use:
1. Presentations:
in less time you give more information, while you are better understood and remembered;
holding business meetings and negotiations.

2. Planning:
time management: plan for the day, week, month, year...;
development of complex projects, new businesses...

3. Brainstorming:
generation of new ideas, creativity;
collective solution of complex problems.

4. Decision making:
a clear vision of all the pros and cons;
a more balanced and thoughtful decision.

4. Franklin's Pyramid

This is a ready-made planning system that helps you manage your time correctly and achieve your goals. Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) - American. watered activist B. Franklin was distinguished by a fantastic capacity for work and a unique sense of purpose. At the age of twenty, he made a plan to achieve his goals for the rest of his life. Throughout his life he followed this plan, clearly planning every day. His plan for achieving his goals is called the “Franklin Pyramid” and looks something like this:

1. The foundation of the pyramid is the main life values. You could say this is the answer to the question: “What mission did you come to this world with?” What do you want to get out of life? What mark on Earth do you want to leave behind? There is an opinion that there are not even 1% of people living on the planet who would think about this seriously. In other words, this is a vector of direction towards your dream.

2. Based on life values, everyone sets a global goal for themselves. Who does he want to become in this life, what does he plan to achieve?

3. A master plan for achieving goals is the fixation of specific intermediate goals on the way to achieving a global goal.

4. A plan for one three, five years is called long-term. Here it is important to determine the exact deadlines.

5. A plan for a month and then a week is a short-term plan. The more thoughtful it is, the more often you analyze and adjust it, the more effective the work will be.

6. The last point in terms of achieving goals is a plan for every day.

5. ABCD method

The ABCD method is an effective way to prioritize tasks that you can use every day. This method is simple and so effective that it can, if used regularly and competently, elevate you to the rank of the most productive and productive people in your field of activity.
The strength of the method is its simplicity. Here's how it works. You start by making a list of everything you have to do during the coming day. Think on paper.
After that, you put the letter A, B, C, D or D in front of each item on your list.

Problem type "A" is defined as the thing that is of most importance at a given stage, something that you must do or risk serious consequences. A Type A task might be visiting an important client or writing a report for your boss. These tasks represent the real, mature “frogs” of your life.
If you have more than one “A” task in front of you, you rank them in priority by labeling them A-1, A-2, A-3, etc. Task A-1 is the biggest and ugliest “frog” of them all. that you have to deal with.

Problem type "B" is defined as the one you should do. Nevertheless, the consequences, in case of its implementation or non-compliance, are quite mild. Such tasks are nothing more than “tadpoles” in your life. This means that if you don't do the appropriate work, someone will be dissatisfied or put at a disadvantage, but in any case, the level of importance of these tasks is not close to the level of tasks of type “A”. Making a call about a less urgent matter or going through a backlog of emails might constitute the essence of a Type B task.
The rule you should follow is: never start a Type B task while you still have an A task left unfinished. Never let the “tadpoles” distract you while the big “frog” awaits its fate of being eaten!

Problem type "B" is defined as something that would be wonderful to do, but from which no consequences should be expected whether you do it or not. A Type B task could be calling a friend, getting a cup of coffee, having lunch with a colleague, or doing some personal business during work hours. These kinds of “events” have absolutely no impact on your work.

Problem type "G" is valued as work that you can delegate to someone else. The rule in this case is that you should delegate to others everything they can, thereby freeing up time for yourself to do the type A tasks that you and only you can complete.

Problem type "D" represents a job that can be completely removed from your to-do list. This may be a task that was previously important, but is now no longer relevant, both for you and for others. Often this is work that you do day after day, either out of habit or because you find pleasure in doing it.

After you have applied ABCD method to your daily to-do list, you have completely organized your work and set the stage for more important tasks to be completed faster.

The most important condition for the ABCD method to really work for you is to comply with the following requirement: start task A-1 without delay and then work on it until it is completely completed. Use your willpower to start and continue working on the most important task for you at the moment. Grab your biggest “frog” and “eat” it without stopping until the very last bite.
The ability to analyze your to-do list for the day and highlight task A-1 will serve as a starting point for achieving truly great success in your activities, will increase your self-esteem, fill you with self-respect and a sense of pride in your achievements.
When you get into the habit of fully concentrating on your most important task, i.e. task A-1 - in other words, on eating your main “frog” - you will learn to do twice, or even triple, as much as the people around you.

6. Eat the frog first

Transition from difficult to easy

You've probably heard this question: "How would you eat an elephant?" The answer, of course, is “piece by piece.” How would you eat your biggest and nastiest “frog”? In the same manner: you would break it down into specific step-by-step actions and start from the very first.

Start your workday with the most difficult task and complete it as quickly as you can. It will help you to realize that you still have a lot to do, and the time in your working day is limited. Doing the hardest thing first will give you a huge sense of satisfaction. Use this rule every day and you will see how much energy you get and how efficiently your work day goes. Constantly postponing a problematic task until the end of the day means that you will still be thinking about this task all day, and this will prevent you from focusing on other tasks! Eat the frog first and then proceed to eat the elephant piece by piece!

Time Planning Tools

Plan your every day in advance.
Through planning we move
the future into the present and thereby we have
opportunity to do something
regarding him already now

Alan Lakin

Main generations of “planners”
The technologies and means of organizing working time known today can be divided into several generations - the differences here are in the principles of recording information and the technology of use.

Until the 20th century, working time planning was carried out using primitive methods: memos, to-do lists, etc. At the beginning of the last century, along with the development of business, new tools became widespread that made it easier for a manager to plan time.
The idea of adapting a household calendar for office work arose in the 19th century and materialized in the form of a desk calendar in 1870. For each day, one page of the calendar was allocated, on which the date, day, month and year were indicated. Having free space for notes made it possible to take the necessary notes: negotiations, meetings, expenses, meetings. For almost a century, the desk calendar has been the main time planning tool for managers.

The result of improving the desk calendar was the diary and weekly planner. A diary is a loose-leaf, continuous calendar in the form of a convenient notepad of different formats. You could take the diary with you to meetings and on business trips.
The weekly journal turned out to be even more convenient for the manager, in which it was possible to plan the working week and day, monitor the implementation of recorded tasks, analyze time spent (since an hourly breakdown of the working day appeared), more quickly search for information (after all, it was now grouped into 52 weeks, and not 365 days). In the 80s, weekly calendars practically replaced desk calendars and became so widespread that they became an element of the business style of enterprises.

The design idea of combining a calendar, notepad and telephone book in one convenient tool successfully materialized back in 1921 in the form of an “organizer” (from the English organizer). Subsequent improvement of the instrument was carried out by changing the format, design, paper quality and external decoration. Here, information storage devices and technical means (calendar, notepad, address and telephone book, business card holder, pen, microcalculator) were combined in one tool. At the same time, there was no clear classification and systematization of records.

The famous “time manager” was created in Denmark in 1975. It implemented the idea of targeted planning of personal results based on a standard classifier of functions (“key tasks”) and technology for implementing global events (“elephant tasks”). At the same time, the use of a “time manager” turned out to be acceptable only for people who were organized and disciplined by nature, and also required significant financial expenses for training and acquisition.
Nevertheless, the name of this type of “organizer” – “time manager” – has become a household word and today denotes a general approach to the active use of time as a management resource.

The development of scientific and technical progress in recent decades has led to the creation of fundamentally new electronic time planning tools from a technological point of view: an electronic notebook, various service programs for PCs, mobile phones, smartphones, etc.

The best modern time management technologies:

1.Trello is a free web application for managing projects in small groups. Trello allows you to be productive and more collaborative. Trello is the boards, lists, and cards that let you organize and prioritize projects in a fun, flexible, and easy-to-change way.

2. Evernote - a web service and set of software for creating and storing notes. The note can be a piece of formatted text, an entire web page, a photograph, an audio file, or a handwritten note. Notes may also contain attachments of other file types. Notes can be sorted into notebooks, labeled, edited, and exported.

Life sometimes sets a very high pace, and a lot of things fall on us. And although everyone has the same amount of time in a day, not everyone uses it profitably. Some people have time to exercise, work, and devote time to self-development and their loved ones. And someone may work all day and be surprised to discover that they have not accomplished anything important.

We really want to do everything. Demand creates supply: many books on personal effectiveness, productivity courses and coaching with training for success and motivation have appeared. And further-time management systems. the site understands what time management is, when it helps you get everything done, and when it turns out to be useless and ineffective.

What is time management

Time management - These are ways of managing time that increase the efficiency of its use.

There are many different time management systems: the same approaches are used to load staff and calculate work hours, for personal needs-other. Time management helps not only to complete work tasks, but also to devote enough time to relaxation, sports and communication with loved ones.

When time management is useless

Time management is important for those who have the ability to manage their time independently. If you work according to a strict schedule that cannot be changed in any way,It will only be possible to plan weekends. But there are other situations in which time management is useless.

Time management - this is not a magic pill that will help manage everything. Because really time management-It’s not about having to do everything. It’s about keeping up with what’s important and keeping away from what’s unimportant.- refuse.

Time management is not a means of motivation.Time management will not make you more productive and your motivation will not fall from heaven if you are deeply disgusted with what you are doing. The most important-make sure you really want to do these things. Perhaps you need to change your professional field, rather than try to do more and better.

Time management does not guarantee success.Some coaches convince you that you just need to learn their technique-and you will immediately get rich, solve problems in your family, and start playing sports. But it doesn't work that way. Time management-just a tool that is useless without your efforts. It's like buying a pen that a great writer used to write down ideas, and hoping that those ideas will now come to you.

Time management techniques are not universal, they are not suitable for everyone.Any author's technique-this is only the experience of its creator. But we are individual, so not all methods can always be applied. If the technique doesn’t work, then don’t force yourself-just look for another one. Even better-watch yourself. You know yourself best and how you are most comfortable working. Some people are productive in the morning, others in the evening or even at night.

Time management doesn't force you to get over yourself. Getting up at 5 am or sleeping for 4 hours and feeling bad-This is not time management. Also, don’t beat yourself up if you can’t solve problems effectively right away. Give yourself permission to make mistakes. Some methods will not work-try others. So it is possible.

How to manage time

There are different techniques and tools in time management. They help at different stages: planning, prioritizing, evaluating results.

Plan: set goals and objectives

Planning - an important part of time management and efficiency. You can plan either in the evening for the next day or at the beginning of the day. When planning, it is important to separate goals and objectives. Target-general and global. Goals are broken down into small and specific tasks. For example, goal-submit quarterly reports. We break it down into small specific tasks: collect data for 3 months, summarize it in a table, create dynamics graphs, make a presentation.

Create task lists for the day and longer periods-a week or a month. For each task, you need to determine a deadline by which it must be completed. You can use paper or electronic planners for this. A daily planner, sticky note board, or planning apps will do the trick.-for example Trello or Wunderlist.

This is what a task board looks like in Trello-This is an electronic analogue of a board with sticky notes. Lists and cards can be organized in any way that suits you.

You can also break a task down into steps and mark when you complete each one. In addition, you need to determine a deadline for the task and try not to move it. Always take plenty of time: you need 3 days-lay down 4. Things always don’t go as we plan.

Set your priorities

You can write down dozens of tasks. They need to be prioritized, and some may even be abandoned altogether.

There are two popular ways to prioritize: ABC and the Eisenhower Matrix.

ABC method

Take a list of tasks and assign a priority level to each with the letters A, B, C (some people also use the letters D and E).

A - important and urgent tasks, highest priority to complete. These are those things whose failure or delay can have unpleasant or serious consequences. For example, fixing an error that caused the website to stop working, especially if the business is losing money due to delay.
B - important but non-urgent tasks or those whose failure to complete will not lead to serious consequences. An example is to implement a development that will help increase sales. This is important, but if you move it a little, it’s unlikely that anything irreparable will happen.
C - tasks that would be nice to complete: spend an evening with friends or arrange dinner for your wife.

To level D include tasks that can be delegated to subordinates, and E- which should be abandoned altogether.

Eisenhower Matrix

The method is named after its creator-US President Dwight Eisenhower. He had a lot of tasks, so he prioritized them, distributing them into categories:

urgent, important;
important, non-urgent;
urgent, unimportant;
unimportant, not urgent.

The sheet is divided into 4 squares, into which the tasks fit.

Eisenhower Matrix: 4 squares with different urgency and importance. Some paper planners come already lined into squares like these.

Do urgent and important things first. They have direct significance for you and the future, they cannot be delegated to anyone. Important but non-urgent tasks can be carried out calmly and comfortably yourself or delegated to subordinates and cooperated with them during their implementation. Try to pass on urgent and unimportant things to others. You should completely abandon the non-urgent and unimportant.

It is most convenient to prioritize tasks immediately when you add them to the scheduler,-this way nothing unnecessary will get into it.

Complete tasks

Schedule tasks and prioritize them-only half the job. Now we need to complete them. Moreover, usually everything does not go according to plan: new tasks are pouring in, we procrastinate, do not take into account some nuances, which ultimately shift the deadlines of the task, and at the same time move subsequent tasks. You won’t be able to plan for everything, but you can still take some things into account to keep interference to a minimum.

Don't try to multitask

Brain - not a multitasking computer. We do not speed up the process if we try to do everything at the same time, but are scattered between tasks. We get distracted, miss important things, slow down, get stressed, constantly switch between tasks and delve into them anew each time.

Remove anything that prevents you from concentrating on the task

Close social networks and instant messengers, turn off the sound on your phone, clean up your workplace. If you work from home, choose a time and place when you will not be interrupted by family members. Otherwise, you will scatter your attention or even begin to procrastinate.

Don't rush into new tasks right away

First, prioritize them. If you insert a new task, you will not have time to complete the planned-and among them there may be important ones. As a rule, nothing will happen if you agree with your colleagues that you will complete the new task tomorrow. There are not many tasks that you need to rush to do right away.

Learn to refuse

Not all tasks and projects are worth taking on. Sometimes they try to blame us for something that we shouldn’t do at all. SometimesThere's simply no point in taking on a new project if you don't have time for it and you don't want to give up others. Even if your best friend tearfully begs you. Everyone has the right to"No " , remember this.

Work the way that suits you best

We all really different. We have different temperaments, different events occur in our lives, we are active at different times and in different ways. For example, if you find it difficult to concentrate on a task for a long time-try the technique"Tomato " . It is named after the tomato-shaped kitchen timer that counts down 25 minutes. Set a timer for 25 minutes and do only work during this time. Then a break of 5 or 10 minutes.

And if you have the opportunity to change your work schedule to suit you-don't give up on it.

Evaluate the result

Completed the task-analyze what was good and whatNo. Perhaps some time management tools are not suitable for you. Technique"Tomato " won't make you productive if you'd rather work for an hour and a half to two hours and then take a good break.

Pay attention to what interfered with completing the task: tired, distracted by email, or singing along to your favorite performer. Next time, try eliminating irritants.

Have a rest

An important component of time management-rest. Plan short breaks during the day, determine the time after which you will not do work. Try to have a full rest on the weekends and not take work home. No one can be productive 24/7. We need to rest and replenish our resources. Include exercise, time with loved ones, and adequate sleep into your schedule.

Also keep in mind that after an emergency you will need more time to recover.

Don't forget what's important

In addition to work tasks, projects and careers, there are many more amazing and beautiful things in life. Is it really necessary to take on the eighth project for a prestigious company or earn money for the latest car if it deprives you of time with your children and loved ones? Don't forget that not everything is measured by money and success. Plan so that you don’t regret later that you missed something very important for yourself.

In the context of the rapid development of society and the daily receipt of a large amount of information, a person needs more and more time to use the provided resources in full. The acceleration of the pace of life leads to the fact that people must either sacrifice something for the sake of their main goals, or organize their activities in the most rational and effective way, reducing time costs. Time management can help them with this as a kind of direction or time management technology that allows them to use this most valuable resource in the right way.

Chaotic structure of activities, disorder in the schedule of operations and the lack of a well-thought-out action plan lead to the fact that a person does not have time to complete all the necessary things. As a result, tension, nervousness, a waste of energy and time arise, which negatively affects the results of people’s lives.

Time management is aimed at streamlining your actions and operations, as well as building a schedule for their implementation in order to achieve your goals as fully as possible and with minimal time.

The history of time management

Even in ancient times, people tried to structure their activity regime in such a way as to complete the necessary activities in a short time and at the same time achieve maximum effect. However, time management was not given enough attention because it was not really necessary.

Interesting fact: The Roman philosopher Seneca first thought that rational use of time could increase human productivity. The concept of time management in a historical sense initially belonged to a philosophical movement, and then became a separate area of study, having not only a theoretical basis, but also a practical knowledge base.

With the development of scientific and technological progress and the acceleration of the pace of life in society, a new direction of thought appears - time management - the science of time management. The formation of this concept dates back to the second half of the 20th century. (70-80), when both scientists of the world community and our compatriots began to seriously study this issue.

In the 21st century, the theory and practice of time management is widely used by different categories and groups of people. These include employees of enterprises, freelancers, housewives, and people engaged in free creativity, that is, almost every person should study in detail the rules and methods of time management to increase productivity at work and at home.

The purpose and objectives of time management

The main goal of time management, based on the essence of this concept, is time management and achieving the most positive result. In accordance with the set goal, time management solves the following tasks:

placing operations and actions in order of priority for a person;
ranking goals by importance;
distribution of duties and responsibilities among members of a group or team;
building a schedule for performing operations as the most effective way of planning time (see?);
building the most rational model of behavior when using a temporary resource;
increasing labor productivity, and, as a consequence, its efficiency and effectiveness;
searching for hidden reserves of time that can be used more efficiently.

The listed tasks represent enlarged areas of activity, and therefore each block can be divided into many smaller subtasks. What exactly they will be is up to each person to decide individually. The main thing is that they all must obey the main goal.

By solving these problems, each person can learn how to competently manage their time, using it as efficiently as possible. This activity allows you to learn self-control and analysis, independent study of various techniques and practices, and organization of personal time for work and rest.

Like any other area of knowledge, time management is based on certain principles developed by specialists and accepted as the basis for use. It is necessary to highlight the following principles of time management:

Planning

Effective time management is only possible if it is clearly divided into specific periods for performing any actions. At the same time, for convenience, you can use various planning methods - write in a notepad or organizer, in special applications on your phone or computer. Visual planning allows you to give a visual assessment of the compiled schedule, which helps to analyze it in more detail for effectiveness.

Important: Some people, although they make a plan for the day, do not write it down, but keep all the points in their heads. This method of planning is ineffective, since, ultimately, you can miss some points or confuse the points of the plan, which can result in irrational use of time resources.

Determining the difficulty of completing tasks

When drawing up a plan, it is necessary to take into account the fact that some tasks and operations are more complex, requiring maximum concentration or a large amount of time. They should be performed first and preferably in the first half of the day, since during this period a person has more strength, he is concentrated and his productivity is much higher.

After completing complex tasks, you can already engage in simpler operations that can be performed in a semi-automatic, familiar mode. If you build a schedule in the opposite form, that is, do easy things first and then difficult ones, then with a high degree of probability a person will not be able to do hard work, since he simply will not have the strength left;

Dividing complex processes into simple ones

If, during planning, particularly complex items appear that require spending a large amount of resources, it is best to divide them into smaller ones. In this case, a seemingly impossible goal will be accomplished when a set of simple subgoals are achieved;

Finding hidden reserves of time

Often people do not notice that some periods of time could be used more productively, but instead they spend it on useless things. The scourge of modern society is social networks and the Internet, in which there is so much information (useful and not so useful) that sometimes a person does not notice how he can spend several hours in a row on a computer or phone.

This time could very well be used more effectively. It is necessary to identify for yourself those operations that are ineffective and unnecessary, and begin to reduce the time spent on them. Instead, you can come up with activities for yourself that would really give some positive results.

In addition, you can effectively combine two activities if they do not interfere with each other. For example, if a person is waiting in line, he can simultaneously read an informative scientific article on his profession or start making a plan for the next day;

Motivation

A motivated person performs activities with much greater productivity. Internal motivation is a kind of lever or catalyst, thanks to which a higher degree of perseverance, concentration, and focus on obtaining the final result is manifested (see).

Motivation can be expressed in a specific form, and most often it is a financial result, that is, receiving money for work done. To motivate yourself, you can think of what benefits the money will be spent on.

In addition, motivation can also be purely emotional, when a person receives psychological or physical satisfaction from the result of his activities (see).

Effective time management involves following certain rules of behavior, which are as follows:

use various means and techniques for planning your time;
keep your workplace clean so as not to waste time searching for documents;
do not study information that is not needed to perform a specific task;
do not waste time uselessly browsing social networks;
do not do several things at the same time, concentrate on one thing;
learn to refuse people if they ask you to do work you don’t need (see);
determine the periods during which you have the highest mental and physical activity - do difficult work at this time;
Find time to relax and learn to relax completely, not in fits and starts.

Time management rules are aimed at generally defining the tactics for organizing the work process. Their use is necessary in order to effectively increase a person’s productivity and formulate the line of his behavior during the work process.

Time management methods

Time management is a guide to action aimed at managing time, and it contains specific methods for carrying out this activity. Among them, the most commonly used methods are:

Method of creating a work schedule based on biorhythms - “night owl” or “lark”. He assumes that each person belongs to one of two types of biorhythms, the activity of which manifests itself at different times of the day. It is necessary to formulate a work plan and schedule in such a way that the most complex and time-consuming tasks are completed during a period of increased body activity.

Interesting fact: Leonardo da Vinci did not use traditional sleep-wake practices. Instead, he worked for four hours straight, followed by 15-minute breaks to sleep. During sleep, the body gained strength and brain activity increased.

First step method is based on the fact that starting a difficult business is always difficult, but to do this you just need to take the first step. Further advancement will be easier, since it is always difficult for a person to start. For the first step to be successful, a specific template should be created according to which similar operations can be carried out;
Limit method, helping to make decisions in case of uncertainty. If a person does not know what decision to make in a particular situation, he sets himself a certain limitation - for example, in 10 minutes, choose from two options or, if he does not make a decision, take this particular action;
Complex recording method assumes that all notes must be made in one notebook or organizer, and not on many scattered pieces of paper. This way it will always be easier to find the information you need, and it will never get lost, being attached to all the necessary information;
Graphic recording method suggests that it is sometimes easier and more convenient to display information using a chart or graph. This way it will be more understandable and easier to remember, and much less time will be spent on recording.

Disadvantages of Time Management

Time management planning always gives tangible results, but at the same time it also has a number of disadvantages. These should include such points as:

Force majeure circumstances may disrupt the schedule. But, if tasks are planned, they still need to be solved, and then a new search for free time begins. Violation of the established schedule can lead to nervousness and irritability, and, as a result, a deterioration in a person’s well-being;
Freeing up free time involves using it to perform new tasks, and therefore a person deliberately overloads himself with work. In a situation of increasing the volume of operations and increasing productivity, there may be an increase in fatigue that can become chronic;
Having a clear schedule is good, but it can feel like every day is Groundhog Day. Every day a person needs to do many different things, after which everything will start all over again.

TOP 5 books on time management

Work less, get more done - K. Gleason
Extreme time management - N. Mrochkovsky, A. Tolkachev
The art of keeping up - A. Lakein
Time drive. How to have time to live and work - G. Arkhangelsky
Tight time management. Take control of your life - Dan S. Kennedy