In our age of modern technology, time is not only a valuable resource, but also a luxury that you need to learn to appreciate. With the advent of new technical devices, we ourselves have ceased to notice how much time we waste. Aimless wandering through social networks, talking about nothing on Skype and mobile phone, regularly checking email without much need... We put off important things for later and, as a result, we don’t get anything done. Hence the eternal dissatisfaction with oneself, the lack of career growth, and tense relationships with colleagues and superiors. How can you allocate time correctly so that the listed problems are known only by hearsay? Let's try to figure it out.
Motivation
If you are clearly aware that you are working to achieve a specific goal as quickly as possible, even boring and uninteresting work will begin to move faster. Visualize your plans. Imagine yourself driving a luxury car or holding the keys to your own apartment. Don’t try to do everything at once, move towards your goal in small but confident steps. Prioritize and complete things in order of importance. First, determine your global plans, then intermediate ones, which can be completed within a week or month, and only then intermediate ones, the implementation of which should not take more than 1 day.
Notepad and pen
It is impossible to constantly keep a list of current affairs in your head, and it is not necessary. You can control the percentage of completion of planned tasks during the day using a diary, organizer or notepad. In the evening, in a calm environment, write down your to-do list for tomorrow in order of importance. Approximately determine the time to complete each task, taking into account your strengths and capabilities. Review your notes at the end of the day and draw some conclusions.
The most unpleasant things happen in the first half of the day
Never put off the most difficult and boring tasks until later. Come to the office and immediately start preparing reports or have a difficult conversation with management. Don’t think too long, setting yourself up for failure in advance. The “slippery” thing will weigh on you throughout the day. Time is money, and the completion of secondary tasks can be evenly distributed as you busy yourself.
Order in the workplace
With complete chaos on your desktop, it will be very difficult for you to concentrate on completing your goal. Make it a rule to distribute documents into separate folders, remove unnecessary and distracting objects from the access area. At the end of the day, your workplace should be in perfect order. Provide comfortable working conditions, this will allow you to use your working time more efficiently.
Review your list
Periodically cross out things from your notebook that are no longer important. It will be right if you learn to delegate some of your powers to employees. You are not an iron man and cannot work around the clock. It is better to complete 70-80% of the plan, but efficiently.
Use modern technologies as assistants. This will allow you to allocate time correctly and use it more rationally.
Leisure and recreation
Those who know how to rest and relax work well. A good daily routine will help you feel alert and active, keep your mind clear and act rationally. It is not necessary to visit entertainment venues every day; it is enough to set aside time 2-3 times a week for evening walks in the fresh air, meeting with friends or playing sports.
- Take short breaks between tasks and switch your attention. Just look out the window for a few minutes, make a call, or have a healthy snack;
- Don't blame yourself for unfinished tasks. Review your plans and work to the best of your ability;
- Reward yourself for successfully completing difficult and unpleasant tasks.
Time is priceless and the past day knows no return.
Make it a habit to never stop there. Plan even the smallest things and do not forget about self-control. Relax and play sports. Only in this case will each next day be more productive than the previous one.
Life allots us all the same amount of time in a day - 24 hours, but we do not always use it equally effectively. Moving along the wrong path, we waste years, waste time. “How to properly allocate time?” - a similar question sooner or later arises before each of us. And here the gender, status or education of a person plays absolutely no role. A student, a businessman, a woman raising children - each of us wants to skillfully and correctly manage our time.
This article is for a wide range of readers, which is designed to help all of us (with the art of using our time as efficiently as possible), that is, to work skillfully under high information loads.
Reasons for lack of time
Before revealing ways to improve efficiency, let's look at the most common causes of time pressure:
- Rush. In a constant rush, it is impossible to concentrate on the main thing. It’s not for nothing that people have a proverb: “If you hurry, you make people laugh.”
- Fussiness. As a rule, it arises from the inability to organize your day. In the end, everything gets out of hand. Fussiness is inherent in many people (if not innate, then definitely an acquired character trait, which clearly does not characterize a person in a positive way).
- Lack of plans. It is precisely because of the lack of an action plan that a significant part of active time is lost (time outside of sleep and illness). If things and tasks are not arranged in a strict hierarchy in terms of importance, then they will remain mostly unresolved.
- Not a serious approach to business, which implies frequent mistakes, the correction of which, as a rule, takes a considerable part of time.
- Distractions, among which are: phone calls, SMS messages, frequent snacks, TV, Internet, unexpected visits from guests.
Analysis of the use of temporary resources
So we got to time management techniques, which are based on: analysis of time spent. This analysis is aimed at identifying both stimulating and limiting forms of performance.
So, the most correct time tracking methods:
- Maintaining permanent records. Use not only a paper notepad, but also all the capabilities of modern computer technology - laptops, tablets. For example, a very interesting and visual option is a graphic representation of your work.
- Planning(time structuring). Start writing down what needs to be done and what has already been done. Planning can be long-term, medium-term and short-term. It is recommended to plan at least 60% of your time (and plans should be as realistic as possible), and leave 40% for unforeseen times (arrival of guests, traffic stops during rush hour, power outages, etc.)
- Creating material and emotional interest. Encourage yourself, make firm promises to yourself that for an excellent result there will definitely be a reward (for example, the long-awaited purchase of a camera). You can be financially stimulated only by your employer. But even here, do not wait for outside help, influence yourself - constantly strive to improve your results, working on yourself, look for all kinds of income.
- Equipping the workplace with the latest technology. Modern technology gives us a lot of opportunities to save time, the main thing is to be able to use it correctly. Study in detail the instructions offered for the equipment, apply the advice in practice.
- Scientific organization of labor (SLO) opens up new opportunities for the rational use of time due to: photography of working time (24-hour monitoring of the required object, data processing and analysis), improvement of working conditions, division of labor.
- Setting clear time frames for completing current tasks and affairs. For example: 1.5 - 2 hours for the most difficult, easier ones within half an hour.
These were general rules and recommendations that apply to absolutely everyone. But we all perform more than one role and job in this life (in addition to our main activities - business, study - we are also mother, daughter, wife, sister), and these “titles” require additional responsibility from us, and I create another "stack of things to do."
For women housewives
So, in order to make your work easier and be able to find time to relax, housewives specifically need to:
- Don’t exaggerate your cleanliness standards: divide your apartment or house into several zones, so on Monday, wash the kitchen, on Tuesday, just the living room, and so on.
- To go shopping outside of rush hour, that is, not during the lunch break or evening, the best option is during the day, when most of the population of your city is at work.
- Buy clothes from wrinkle-resistant fabrics - avoid ironing.
- On weekdays, prepare simpler dishes: buckwheat porridge with meat, light salads.
For students
And now some advice to students:
To paraphrase a well-known proverb, we can say this:
- “Write what it means, take notes on exam topics - in advance. This will also help to avoid fussiness during the “hot period”.
- Reduce your sleep time (train yourself to get up early).
- Observe the leaders (excellent students) in your group and learn from their experience.
For businessmen
Comrade businessmen, this is for you:
- Make a matrix of cases, grouping them like this: urgent and non-urgent; important and unimportant. This grouping is called the Eisenhower matrix.
- Always plan everything: the route of travel, the text of the speech, questions for your opponents, and so on (look for effective ways in everything, for example: getting to the Tax Inspectorate of your city is fastest by public transport (metro), rather than wasting time on your own - in traffic jams).
- Learn to delegate authority - to transfer some management functions or solving certain tasks to other people. This way you will be able to concentrate only on the most important thing, which means you will achieve significant results.
Remember! Time, unlike money, cannot be restored if it is wasted. Save time - use it as efficiently as possible.
Time is an invaluable resource that is always in short supply. However, it is not always worth blaming the short 24 hours for this, because most often the person himself is to blame for the lack of time. Time management will help you overcome your own laziness - a collection of rules on how to allocate time in order to get everything done. It is enough to single out just 5 simple rules for yourself to improve your life and free up time for useful hobbies and new interests.
Make it a habit every evening the next day. In the first days, this procedure will take quite a lot of time, but after a couple of weeks it will become a habit. The plan should be as clear and thoughtful as possible. Time management experts recommend not only specifying actions, but also limiting the period for their implementation.
For example:
- 8:00-8:15 – exercise
- 8:15-8:45 – preparing breakfast
The minute-by-minute distribution of time allows you to quickly get used to the schedule, but not all tasks can be determined by eye. For example, travel may require more time than you have allocated in your schedule. For beginners, such shifts are a difficult obstacle. If small changes really unsettle you, during the first days indicate only the list of things to do and note how much time it took. In the future, it will be easier to create a minute-by-minute schedule, because you will have observations that can be analyzed. You can “save” on some things, and give others an extra 10-20 minutes.
Think carefully about your plan for the next day. Do not indicate vague instructions, specify and break things down.
For example, instead of “business meetings,” indicate exactly what meetings you plan to hold and at what specific time. Thinking through the details in advance will eliminate the need to spend time on this during the day. Even if you save a few minutes from each item, by the end of the day they will add up to an extra half hour or hour.
Make a plan either in a diary, which you plan to carry with you constantly and mark completed tasks, or in your mobile phone. There are many organizing applications that will remind you that it is time to go to the gym or business training.
Don't accumulate small things
When making a plan, describe small tasks, even if they only take a couple of minutes to complete. By including them, you will at least remember them, so you will try to complete them before the end of the day. Small tasks are quickly forgotten or put off “for tomorrow,” which never comes. As a result, a pile of small things forms a snowball of unfulfilled promises, which can pile up all at once one day.
Try to complete small tasks in between major plans. For example, before you begin, sign the accumulated documents, thereby freeing up space on your desktop. Such things will become a respite between main activities.
Don't let them steal your time
We are talking primarily about laziness. The problem with modern man and lack of time is that many hours are wasted on social media. After all, it is much easier and more convenient to sit down at the news feed than to spend the same hours working with your own.
Test your own schedule before creating a schedule. Where does most of the time go, and is the activity really worth the minutes or hours spent? There is nothing wrong with corresponding with friends on social networks, but there is no urgent need to check your profile every 5 minutes, and you can respond to a message in a couple of hours.
If it is difficult to give up social networks or computer hobbies completely, allocate a specific one to them and do not go beyond the specified period. Log on to social networks while riding public transport home or to work, play your favorite games for a couple of hours on the weekend. Don't forgive yourself for deviations from the schedule!
Try to combine tasks as much as possible, but without compromising the quality of their execution. For example, combine playing sports with listening to news on the radio or driving home, or running errands with learning new words in a foreign language. The main thing is to combine things that do not require concentration.
Try to maintain order
Get organized:
- At work.
- In the house.
- In my own thoughts.
The order of the items can be changed at your discretion. Order in the workplace allows you to concentrate better. Although figurines and photographs of relatives are very cozy on the desktop, strive for minimalism. The fewer things on your desk that distract your attention, the easier it will be to get to work and complete your plan. Asceticism must be observed not only in relation to extraneous things, but also towards working tools. Have a box for working materials. If your job involves production, clean up trash after each project or during breaks. It is much more pleasant to work at a clean workplace, and you will not need to waste time correcting documents that have fallen into glue.
Clean up your house. Remember, 2 general cleanings are enough, and the rest of the time it’s enough to just maintain general order. Put things back in their place after use. This way you will always know where they are and won’t spend half an hour searching for them. Use it if you think you spend too much time cleaning. Many agencies offer their services at relatively low prices. If you think your time is worth more, seek professional help.
Get your own thoughts in order. Decide why you decided to free up a few hours a day. Perhaps you were planning to start learning a language or get a second higher education. Set a goal and move towards it.
Introduce new habits
A habit is formed by 21 days of constant repetition.
Many people who want to start a new life believe in this postulate. There is no evidence of this, but if you repeat a certain algorithm day after day, at a certain moment you will not have to remind yourself of its necessity. However, you need to remember that new habits quickly go away if they are left to their own devices.
It’s easy to decide what habits you need, just put things in order in your head and set goals for yourself. Do you want to lose weight? – Go in for sports. Do you want to go on a trip? – Start learning a foreign language. The more powerful the incentive you create, the easier it will be to introduce a new habit.
And don’t forget to praise yourself for each one. In a good mood it is much easier to find a few free minutes!
Write your question in the form below
Discussion: 6 comments
For me, the most important assistant has always been a notebook. I write down all my tasks that need to be done and distribute what to do and why. Therefore, you can always see how busy the day is and your thoughts are in order.
Answer
I value my time very much and don’t waste it. But strangers are wasting it on us left and right. Today, for example, I was in the hospital - the doctor was 20 minutes late. Then I went for fluorography - I stood outside the door for an hour! And it’s a pity for time.
Answer
The article is “for everything good and against everything bad.”
But it jarred: “Don’t forgive yourself for deviations from the schedule!” How is that? Hit your fingers with a ruler? Say ah-ah-ah? Scold yourself?
It seems to me that this will only increase internal dissatisfaction and will not help in planning time. Most likely, it will increase the accumulated stress, which we try to “cover up” with the same meaningless Internet surfing, alcohol or food.
I don’t particularly like planning and believe that tasks should be solved purely as they arise. Sometimes it’s useful to postpone a task for a day or two or three. Perhaps it will disappear on its own.
Answer
The phrase: “I don’t have time for this” has nothing to do with the amount of time, it only reflects that the importance of the task is too small to waste time on.
20 tips on how to manage time correctly and be more productive
1. Find your time before failure (resistance) to the task. You must observe yourself when certain types of tasks cause you reluctance and resistance. Then, when you find out this time, divide the tasks into intervals equal to the time before the resistance begins. You can take a quicker route; ask yourself the question, how long would you be happy to work on the task? For example: 1 hour, no, that’s a lot, 45 minutes is possible, but not that, 30 minutes is a comfortable time. Next, take, for example, a 5-minute break. You can try to alternate tasks, but the main thing is that from time to time your nervous system and mind can rest and relax.
2. Visualization and design before you start making. You can call it planning, you can just write it down. But sometimes it is very useful to imagine everything in great detail. This can seriously save your time as you can find a better solution in the process. From my experience, 3-4 hour tasks can turn into a small 20 minute activity.
3. Perhaps a diary will help you. If you don't understand where your time goes, get into the habit of writing down your daily activities and the amount of time spent on them. You will be surprised how much time is wasted on completely unnecessary things. Finding out the problem is the first step towards solving it.
4. Planning your free time. It will help you spend your time productively and have better rest, which will allow you to be more productive in the future.
5. When planning, set shorter deadlines for tasks than you really need. When we set ourselves time limits, we immediately activate additional resources and do not leave ourselves time for unnecessary activities.
6. Maybe the ideal is not what you need? Think, maybe good condition will suit you no worse than ideal, but it will take you much less time? This applies to those tasks in which a small result is achieved through enormous effort. Maybe spend this time on other tasks?
7. If an action takes a few minutes to complete, just do it right away.. There is no need to plan it or put it off, otherwise you will waste even more time.
8. The amount of energy within us reflects how productive we will be.. Therefore, it is very important to monitor your energy level. In general, there are several points that will help with this:
- Physical exercise. Yes, you've heard a lot about this, but if you still haven't started spending time on your body, stop reading immediately and start. If you are constantly low on energy and have zero motivation, it means you lack physical energy. Every time you exercise, you deplete your energy reserves; BUT after exhaustion, a phase of compensation and overcompensation begins, and as a result, each time you increase the amount of your internal strength and energy.
- Stop drinking energy drinks, including coffee, on a regular basis. By doing this constantly, we create a habit, and the energy effect becomes minimal. It’s better, of course, to give them up altogether, but if you decide to use them, then do it wisely: before important events, when you need extra energy. Note: Also read the article -.
- Avoid drinking alcohol and energy drinks before bed. Otherwise, you will not get full sleep, and you may even find it difficult to fall asleep. In the morning you will be exhausted and completely unprepared for full action.
More information can be obtained by reading .
9. Forget about television. Have nothing else to do? People waste years of their lives on empty programs. Don't repeat the mistakes of others. What about the news? Your friends will certainly tell you all the main news. And in our time, television is not the best source of reliable information. Also limit the time spent on the phone and the Internet.
10. Form the right habits. Automating actions helps save time. Watch exactly what habits you implement, get rid of habits that steal your time, energy and health.
11. Make tactical decisions based on how you feel.. When you have high levels of energy and strength, do important tasks; when you don't feel normal, but not too much, work on normal tasks; when you don't feel strong, work on easy ones. The easiest way to demotivate yourself is to start working on a difficult task, with a minimum level of your own energy. Should not be doing that. Note: I recommend reading the article on how, which will help you set the right goals.
12. Start small. A very good way to create a habit or start something is to make small changes every day. Small changes, firstly, bring you closer to your goal, and secondly, they do not take much time and motivate you.
Most of the average person's thoughts are negative. Besides being demotivating, it also creates our reality. Think now in ?
13. Reduce expectations for actions. If you get more, it will greatly lift your spirits, but if you hope for “mountains of gold,” then the slightest setback can lead you astray. When you lower your expectations, it makes you more confident, relaxed, satisfied, and reduces your anxiety levels.
14. Realize that no one cares about you. When you realize that no one ultimately cares who you are or what you have, you begin to look at the world more broadly. People care more about their own well-being, most of their thoughts are about themselves. You will be able to consider more opportunities and become more productive, realizing that no one is interested in you.
15. Control your stress levels. This doesn't mean getting rid of it completely. To fully engage our forces, we must not be relaxed. To fully immerse yourself in a task, it must be worthwhile, which means it must carry some kind of stress load. You need to find a middle ground, on the one hand you should not completely relax, on the other hand stress should not constrain you. By managing your stress levels you can control your productivity and motivation.