Time is money. By saying this we mean we understand the importance of time management.
But how do we actually use this valuable resource given to us by the universe?
Are we using our time profitably or are we wasting it on unimportant things?
There are ten simple and effective ways to use your time effectively, which will allow you to get the most out of your available working hours and significantly speed up your efficiency and moving up stairs.
Often we we try to avoid difficult or tasks that are unpleasant to perform. This is the kind of work that should be done first.. As an incentive, you can reward yourself for this approach.
Important! Don't waste time on minor details and things that you consider unimportant. Work hard and persistently towards your goal. Select the most important thing and get to work. This is the most effective way to use time.
Set yourself deadlines to complete your work so you can use your time effectively.
The closer you set to finishing time, the faster you will achieve your goal.
Concentrate completely on what you are doing now
For while we are engaged in one task, we often allow our thoughts to leisurely move on to other tasks that must be completed in their own time. Cultivate discipline in yourself; this does not require much willpower.
After all, you are the master of the situation. Additionally force yourself not to react to external stimuli, and just turn off your phones.
Train yourself to conduct telephone conversations rationally
First, prepare for the conversation, make a list of questions to which you must receive an answer. Be sure to imagine your interlocutor and predict the flow of the conversation.
Healthy! Perhaps your interlocutor is too talkative or reluctant to answer the questions asked. Sketching out a conversation plan in advance and having preparations in case there are any hiccups in the conversation will help avoid wasting time.
Try to get as much benefit from the telephone conversation as possible for yourself., and not for the interlocutor.
If you answer a call, then try to get as much useful information as possible: write down your full name. the interlocutor, his place of work, contacts for communication with him, possibly a mobile phone number.
Consider this information your spoils, and remember that obtaining the information did not cost you a penny.
Don't hesitate to respond to emails
If you read your mail (including email), then try to figure out what you have to do right away. If you can give an answer, then answer immediately so as not to waste your working time.
If you need information to respond, set yourself a reminder about the deadline for responding to a specific letter. If you give an instruction to your employee, immediately set a deadline for it and other details of preparing the answer.
Destroy unnecessary letters or send them to the appropriate departments.
Either way, don't let unread and unprocessed mail cause you stress.
Be sure to record the thoughts that come into your head
Even at night, be able to write down thoughts and ideas. If a valuable idea comes to you in the process of work, transfer it immediately to paper and do not lose it. If you are currently focused on one thing, this does not mean that you can waste your creative potential in the form of thoughts that come from time to time.
Be alert when interacting with visitors
Attention! If you are dealing with a “talker,” then be able to interrupt your conversation so as not to waste precious time.
This does not mean that you should block other people from accessing you, but set a rule for yourself to accept visitors rationally.
This rule will eventually become a rule for your visitors: talk only to the point!
Train yourself to participate only in activities with maximum profit.
Take a few minutes to be honest analyzing what you spend your time on. Your most productive hours should benefit you, not someone else.
Use travel and waiting time
At the airport, in the reception area, in a traffic jam, keep yourself busy with something useful. This will relieve you of nervous anticipation and remind you of pressing matters. Read important materials, listen to useful audio recordings, make calls to the right people.
To spend time effectively, find time to relax
From point of view it is very important to take breaks. Vacations and days off are not a waste of time if you are looking to recuperate during this time. You need to take a break from things from time to time if you want to succeed. This is the most enjoyable way to use your time!
Useful video
In the video you will see Brian Tracy's time management tips:
The people who achieve the most success never waste a moment of the time they are given. Become a person for whom time is the most valuable resource. Learn to manage your own and other people's time, because it is beneficial for you and for your business. Good luck to you!
Ecology of life. All inhabitants of the planet are equal in one thing. Regardless of financial situation, status and other characteristics, everyone has the same amount of time
All inhabitants of the planet are equal in one thing. Regardless of financial situation, status and other characteristics, everyone has the same amount of time available every day. However, not everyone is able to manage their 24 hours correctly.
Entire volumes are devoted to time management; its basic principles are taught by many truly successful people, who have repeatedly been convinced of their effectiveness through personal experience.
However, there are many who do not even suspect the existence of such a subject as the theory of time management. At the same time, learning how to use it in your own life will not hurt anyone.
How to manage time
Various time management theorists, as a rule, agree on several basic principles, without which it is impossible to learn how to use time effectively. One of the main rules is planning your affairs. Many modern people, who are in a state of permanent time pressure, simply have to visually imagine what exactly they have to do on each specific day.
To do this, you should create task lists. They can turn out to be quite extensive, and there will not be enough time to implement them. The principles of the so-called Eisenhower matrix will certainly come in handy here. According to it, all cases are systematized according to their importance and urgency and distributed into four categories.
Systematization of priorities simple. The first group includes important and urgent matters, the second – important, not urgent, the third – unimportant, urgent, and the fourth (also called the “trash can”) – unimportant and not urgent. The priority, oddly enough, will be the tasks of the second of the above categories. If a person concentrates specifically on them, then extremely rarely - and even then mainly not due to his own lack of organization - he will encounter tasks that require speedy completion.
In practice, important non-urgent tasks can be coursework or a diploma, which the student must submit at the end of the semester. Or a task assigned to an employee by his superiors with a deadline in a month. If you immediately take on them and slowly complete them, while simultaneously dealing with other, more urgent matters, then they will be completed long ago by the appointed time. Setting deadlines– another important principle.
Another well-known principle of time management is combining various tasks. Unfortunately, many people underestimate him. For example, an effective housewife can load laundry into the washing machine, dirty plates and cutlery into the dishwasher, and at the same time deal with lunch/dinner.
Also, while the dish is being prepared (if you don’t need to monitor it at the moment), you can do the cleaning. While waiting for an important fax, it will not be difficult for an office worker, for example, to draw up a contract or draw up documents for the shipment of goods. Already in connection with a completely different task from my must-do list.
What are the mistakes of those who do not have time?
At the same time, You shouldn't be a notorious perfectionist. Of course, any task should be done well. However, this does not mean that they need to be literally “licked.” There is a huge gap between doing a job well and finishing it carelessly, and it is not so easy to cross.
Anyone who wants to learn how to use their time effectively Shouldn't be a workaholic either. Undoubtedly, there will be situations in which you will have to stay late at work, but for a person who actively applies the rules of time management, this happens extremely rarely. In addition, he will remember that at the end of the working day it is important to rest both mentally and physically.
The evening should be spent with family members, friends, with your favorite hobby - in a word, with those and those things that bring mental satisfaction and are not related to your main job. And you should definitely highlight enough time to sleep.
No less important is proper organization of the workplace. All documents and other items should be arranged there in an orderly manner so that you can easily find what you need. In addition, disorder in the surrounding space contributes to a significant decrease in enthusiasm and productivity.
If a person has other employees subordinate to him, then he it's worth learning to delegate him some of the tasks assigned to him and periodically monitor their implementation. Then the work will be completed in a timely manner, and you won’t have to stress too much about it. published
Here are some tips on how to manage the time you have available wisely:
Find out exactly how you spend your time
Take a little time to track exactly how you use it. It is very important to immediately identify areas that are absolutely unpromising and those in which it is worth “investing” energy. This will help you set your priorities correctly.
State your goal
Do you put a lot of energy into something, but have no idea what you want to achieve in the end? Many people waste valuable time trying to become more efficient without having an end goal in mind. In other words, they are not focused on what is truly important to them. Having a goal in front of you will allow you to focus on ways to achieve the desired result. The goal itself can also be a good motivator.
Make a to-do list
You can make a to-do list in your head, but it's much better to write it down on paper. You can access this list at any time during the day. Choose for yourself how it will look: printed on a piece of paper, written by hand or saved on the computer. Crossing off completed tasks from your list will give you a certain pleasure and a charge of inspiration for new achievements. At the same time, you won’t have to waste time remembering what other tasks need to be completed.
Set your priorities
Making a list won't be effective if everything on it is in the wrong order. You will always be tempted to do what you want first, and not what is important. Set priorities and focus on solving the most pressing problem first. This way, if there are some things left undone at the end of the day, they won't be very important.
Do it right the first time
If you are going to do a task without being in the right mindset, it means you won't do it properly. Make every effort to do everything right the first time. This way, you'll make fewer mistakes and won't have to waste time redoing it. Tackle the most difficult cases first, this will increase the likelihood that you will do everything right.
Stop procrastinating
Most people prefer to procrastinate or mentally think about ways to do an action instead of taking action. This happens especially often when you are surrounded by numerous distractions that can serve as excuses. Try to control your environment by eliminating things that distract your attention. If you are faced with a difficult task, you will subconsciously try to avoid solving it, using all sorts of excuses to do so.
Get Organized
Disorganization is the thief of your time. Just imagine how much time you spend trying to locate something at work or at home. You may need to cope with the chaos in your work or living space in order to work more efficiently. Put away those things that you don’t need, or simply get rid of them, and give those things that you use constantly a specific registration; finding them quickly will not be difficult.
Share things
It seems obvious, but you can free up a lot of time for yourself by delegating some of your work to someone else. The idea is to delegate a task to someone that that person can do faster or as well as you can. This applies to both work and household chores. Why not ask the kids to do the laundry in exchange for some relief later on. At work, do not hesitate to contact a colleague, who knows, maybe he will only be happy with an interesting task, especially if he is good at it.
Multitasking
In some cases, an excellent solution would be to perform several tasks at the same time, which will allow you to effectively use the time at your disposal. We're not talking about massive overloads, just combining tasks whenever possible. For example, when you are on the road, do not lose the opportunity to listen to an audio course of a foreign language that you have long dreamed of mastering. And if you're traveling by train, this is a great opportunity to read a book or do some work on your laptop.
Learn to say no
The ability to not shoulder the entire burden of tasks, learning to say “no”, will allow you to significantly save time. If someone comes to you with a request, ask yourself the question: “is this really my responsibility?” or “Am I really the best candidate to solve this problem?” If the answer is negative, do not take up this matter. We don't encourage you to make excuses for not doing anything; you certainly shouldn't constantly refuse when you are asked to do something. You just shouldn’t become a dumping ground for other people’s problems, this will help you significantly free up your time.
Stay focused
When you are completely focused on a task, you will be able to complete it faster. The only way to maintain concentration is to protect yourself from all distractions. It is not enough to focus on doing something at the start; it is also important not to lose this focus. If you have a serious task ahead of you, get some privacy, turn off your phone, and don't turn it on until you're done. Later, you will have enough time to respond to all messages or missed calls.
Take care of yourself
It is impossible to work continuously, so you can burn out. It's important to take the time to observe yourself from the outside so you can learn your limits. By maintaining a healthy balance in your life, you will feel that you are moving in the right direction and are effectively dealing with problems and tasks that arise, without spending more time on them than they deserve.
Instructions
If you go to bed late and get up early, there can be no talk of any productivity. However, just because you have the opportunity to get enough sleep does not guarantee that you will be alert. Even if you wake up, have a cup of coffee, and seem to be ready for work, distractions will find you. For example, you can go to a social network and talk with friends for several hours.
TV has the same effect: you turn on the news, go in to watch for 5 minutes, but then decide that it’s worth allowing yourself 30 minutes to watch an interesting program. If you start clicking through channels, you won’t find anything, and your time will be wasted.
Almost everyone uses the Internet and almost everyone has social networks. It's hard to resist watching the news and checking your email. Of course, it seems to you that you can spend no more than 5 minutes on this, but in the end you stay there for several hours. As a result, stay up late.
Go to bed on time. This way you will wake up refreshed and you won’t have to waste time waking up.
Stop boring and pointless conversations if you have an urgent matter. Don’t be afraid to offend your interlocutor, because your reason is valid.
If you watch TV, choose something specific. Limit such pleasure to a minimum. The same goes for the Internet. There is no point in surfing websites without anything to do.
The idea of time tracking is not new, but it is extremely effective. To understand why there is always not enough time, you need to understand where it flows. Time tracking techniques can help with this.
The concept of time is very abstract, so the first thing to do is to define time as something concrete, for example, relating time and food. Wasting time is the equivalent of eating fast food and junk food, while tracking it is a kind of food diary. This is very disciplined. Once you see on paper that each “harmless” episode of your favorite TV show costs you 20 hours a week, you will feel motivated to change that.
The advantages of time tracking include the ability to identify appropriate techniques for increasing your productivity, the ability to determine overestimation or underestimation of time spent on any task, the development of a sense of responsibility, the ability to accomplish more and better concentrate on the task at hand.
To make the most productive time tracking, follow these three rules: honesty, constancy, pettiness(measure time in minutes, not hours). There are two approaches: chronography(when you write down what you are doing right now every 15 minutes) and time tracking using tasks(where you record the time each time you move on to a new activity).
Of course, it is possible to track time using digital means and without your participation, but this approach will not yield good results. So buy a nice notebook and track your time for 168 hours straight (that's exactly a week).
Thus, by understanding where your time actually goes, what you spend too much time on and what you spend too little on, you can wisely adjust your approach to time and become a more productive person. In addition, by getting into the habit of keeping a “time diary” and spending time correctly, at the end of the day, reviewing your notes before going to bed, you will feel more satisfied, you will know that you deserve this rest.
Create your individual time management system and incorporate the techniques that are most effective for you. The techniques are described below. Success will come when you use this system constantly.
1. Don't rely on memory
Write down your tasks and relieve your brain.
2. Make a list of priorities
This will help you concentrate on the main thing and will not allow you to waste time on trifles and secondary tasks.
3. At the end of each week, set aside time
To make a plan for the next week. This is not wasted time; it will pay off handsomely by increasing your productivity.
4. Don't expect to remember an interesting idea.
Always have a notepad handy to jot down your ideas. Alternatively, carry a voice recorder.
5. If the other person's demands don't match your goals.
Say no. You need to learn this.
6. Before you take action, think, but not for too long
A little reflection will save you from rash actions and wasting time.
7. Improve yourself!
Make time in your plans for self-improvement.
8. Be aware of what you are doing
You must understand what you are spending your time on. Your deeds should move you towards your goal.
9. Effective techniques
Include in your individual time management system those techniques that are most effective for you and use this system constantly.
10. Assess yourself for bad habits
They waste your time. Make a list of such habits and get rid of them one by one. The most effective way is to replace a bad habit with a useful one.
11. Don't do other people's work to make yourself look better.
So, you will waste time that you could use for your own promotion.
12. Keep a journal
Where you can record your progress towards your goals. Complete and review this journal regularly to ensure you are moving in the right direction.
13. Not every problem can be solved in the best way
There is no need to become a perfectionist and, for example, rewrite a business letter 20 times to achieve the style of Leo Tolstoy.
14. Don't overload yourself with too many tasks.
If you have urgent matters and important tasks that will take up all your time, then secondary tasks can be postponed until a more favorable time.
15. Don't be fooled by efficiency
You can effectively complete a task that is not currently a priority. In this case, you cannot say that you are using your time effectively.