Time management: secrets of time management. Basics of time management and its effective use

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

1. Perfectionism
2. Procrastination
3. Lack of knowledge
4. 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 tasks for later, reluctance 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. There always seems to be 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:

1. Achieve meaningful results by saving time. This means that you know how to achieve a task in a minimum amount of time.
2. 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:

1. Pareto principle
2. Eisenhower Matrix
3. Mind maps
4. Franklin's Pyramid
5. ABCD method
6. 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 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 in 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" defined as something that would be great 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 a collection of boards, lists, and cards that help 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.

Hello, friends! Dmitry Shaposhnikov is in touch.

In my observation, a modern successful person inevitably encounters the concept of “time management.” Everyone, to one degree or another, has felt a lack of time, pressure of deadlines, and experienced stress from forced haste.

After reading the article, you will learn the most important things about time management and become familiar with the basic concepts of successful time management. All this is accompanied by my examples and comments. I hope you find this topic useful, interesting, and fun!

Let's start, friends!

1. What is time management - definition and history

Direct translation of this term " Time Management"from English - " time management" It is clear that it is impossible to manage time in the literal sense: the real function of time management is to use the time of your life with maximum efficiency.

The most accurate definition of time management is:

Time management- this is the accounting, distribution and operational planning of your own time resources.

Another definition.

Time management is a scientific approach to organizing time and increasing the effect of its use.

The motto of a professional time manager:

Work less, have time more!

People who know how to manage their own time productively live richer and fuller lives and do their work with minimal time expenditure.

By managing our time, we have more living space: the opportunity to do what we really like becomes more real.

Considering the pressure in which modern people live, the issue of managing time resources is becoming increasingly relevant, if not vitally important. Developed time management skills significantly increase personal efficiency. I realized this 12 years ago.

Time management allows you to organize your work and personal time throughout the day (week, month) in order to have time to do all the important and necessary things without being distracted by secondary or extraneous issues and problems.

Effective planning allows you to free up colossal time resources for a rich and fulfilling life. According to professionals, the size of such resources is calculated in years and decades.

History of time management

The scientific approach to organizing time is not a new problem. The history of time management goes back a long way.

Even 2000 years ago in Ancient Rome, the famous thinker Seneca proposed dividing all time into usefully spent, that is, good, into bad and useless.

Seneca also began to keep constant records of time in writing. The thinker said that when living a certain period of time, it is necessary to evaluate it from the point of view of its fullness.

In the subsequent history of time management, these ideas formed the basis of the concept of “personal effectiveness.”

Alberti, a writer and Italian scientist who lived in the 15th century, said that those who know how to manage time effectively will always be successful.

To do this, he proposed using two rules:

1. Make a to-do list every morning.
2. Arrange things in order of decreasing importance.

For many centuries, all these principles existed only in theoretical form, and only since the 80s of the last century this topic began to move from theory to practice.

Time management is necessary not only for executives and business owners: each of us must be able to manage our own assets in order to enjoy the process of life to the fullest.

Of course, not everyone needs time management. If a person has nothing to do in his life, and his main task is to “kill time,” then time management for such a person is an irrelevant and unnecessary discipline.

In other words, you first need to decide whether you really don’t have enough time and where you would like to spend your free minutes, hours and days when they appear.

Time management consists of several components:

• strict time tracking;
• optimization of time resources;
• planning the day (week, month or other period of time);
• organization of motivation.

Time management is important not only for work: people who have mastered the art of time management are more cheerful, healthy and successful in their professional and personal lives.

Effective time management allows you to comprehend all your actions and decisions from the point of view of their appropriateness for your own development and improvement.

2. Myths about time management – ​​3 main misconceptions

There are a number of social stereotypes and misconceptions about time management.

Some believe that time management is needed solely for work, that in Russia this discipline is ineffective due to the peculiarities of the national mentality, that life strictly according to plan turns a person into a robot and deprives him of free will.

All these myths are unfounded: below I will try to completely debunk them.

Myth 1. No one can manage time.

The statement is correct in form, but erroneous in content. Managing time is truly impossible. (unless, of course, you are the inventor of a time machine). No one is able to slow down its objective progress, speed it up or stop it even for a moment.

But a person can do the following : manage yourself, your decisions and actions over time, and also engage in setting priorities. This is exactly what time management practitioners talk about – about managing your own life.

Taking a smart and pragmatic approach to your actions is time management: you'll be surprised how many minutes and hours free up once you start to act more deliberately and consciously.

Remember that all successful people, regardless of their type of activity, plan their affairs and act with maximum productivity. At the same time, they work about the same amount of time as ordinary people, but they always manage to do more.

Their secret is that they manage to do more things per unit of time, which ultimately affects their life results.

Myth 2: Time management will make me work harder and harder.

Working hard and getting tired, neglecting rest is a direct path to overwork and depression. It is necessary to constantly strive to reduce the amount of work while increasing productivity. How to do it? In short, act strictly according to plan and be able to separate the secondary from the main.

Using time management techniques effectively does not mean doing more or increasing productivity by getting things done faster.

We are talking about increasing personal productivity by eliminating unnecessary tasks and eliminating the so-called “time wasters” or “chronophages”.

The category of chronophages includes hundreds of meaningless and small things that we do during the day, without even thinking about their expediency: frequently checking email, communicating and viewing news on social networks, meaningless conversations with colleagues.

A person’s commitment to matters distracted from the main task is partly explained by procrastination - the desire to postpone important and necessary events “until better times.”

However, if you discard reflection and recognize for yourself the importance and significance of your current tasks, you will have neither the strength nor the desire to be distracted by extraneous matters.

Myth 3. Using time management will turn me into a robot who will do everything according to a schedule, depriving me of freedom and choice.

People are afraid of turning into robots, but in fact they are already them, and also slaves of their own psycho-emotional habits and behavior patterns.

Time management does not limit our freedom, but, on the contrary, creates it.

Time management is necessary not only for office workers, executives and managers: managing the main resource of life - one’s own time - is necessary for everyone who takes themselves responsibly and seriously.

A practical criterion for the need to implement time management principles in life is the presence 4 or more cases in the plan for the current day (not only professional, but also personal matters are taken into account). Businessmen, freelance artists, and housewives need this.

Example

If you need to finish a project at work, talk to your boss about it, go to a phone repair shop after work, and finally pick up your baby from kindergarten, then smart time management is your absolute necessity.

Planning and allocating resources helps you achieve important goals faster and free up time for rest, recuperation, and communication with friends and family. Time control allows you to achieve results faster and at lower costs.

As for life according to a schedule, the reasonable organization of work and rest has never harmed anyone. And there is always a place for spontaneity and creativity (if any) in any work.

3. How to manage time - 7 main principles of time management

Now let’s move on to practice and find out how to manage time correctly, where to start controlling and planning your actions, what difficulties usually arise along this path and how to overcome them. Below I have described the basic principles and rules.

Principle 1: Plan your actions

Planning things for the next day (or the next week) is of practical importance in any job. It doesn’t matter whether you are sitting in an office, standing at a conveyor belt, or working as a courier in your free time from studying - a clear action plan will always bring real benefits in the form of increased productivity (personal and professional).

Even if your actions are strictly regulated by your job description, you should always have a plan drawn up in advance - this will help you cope with your work more efficiently and quickly.

Remember that all successful people plan their lives.

Remember some of the most important axioms of time management:

1. Record your goals in writing. If your goal is not indicated on paper (or in an electronic diary), then it does not exist.
2. Plan your day. A pre-compiled list of tasks and actions increases the productivity of any type of activity by 25%.
3. Break down big tasks. Time-consuming tasks should always be divided into several small subtasks - do not take on a large-scale project without thinking through the sequence of actions in advance.

You need to make planning second nature: make it a habit to make a plan for tomorrow before you go to bed. In the morning at work, you will already know exactly where to start, how to continue and how to finish.

Always leave a certain reserve of time for “force majeure” - unforeseen circumstances.

Remember that the few minutes that you spend on drawing up a plan will more than pay off in the future: you will appreciate the results of competent planning already in the first week of implementation.

Principle 2. Formulate the desired result into specific goals and objectives

Strategic and effective planning is impossible without competent goal setting. In simpler terms, you must be able to clearly formulate the main goal and be able to break it down into more specific and local tasks.

In management theory, this skill is called "decomposition of goals". The main way to put this concept into practice is to move from the general to the specific.

There is a professional tool (or principle) for formulating and setting local goals in time management and goal setting.

It is called SMART principle .

According to this principle, the goal should be:

• specific(Specific);
• measurable(Measurable);
• achievable for a certain period (Attainable);
• relevant or true - it is necessary to understand in advance whether this task will really help in achieving the goal (Relevant);
• limited in time(Time-bound).

The main criterion for the usefulness and effectiveness of a local task is its specificity. Starting towards a big goal by completing sequential tasks significantly reduces the time it takes to complete the work.

Consistency and focus on specific points is the key to future success.

Even the greatest creators did not create their works entirely at once - they first made a plan, and then carried it out point by point. One of the secrets to successful time management is the ability to focus on current tasks without losing the overall direction.

Principle 3: Fix your plan of action.

The need to necessarily record an action plan has already been mentioned above. Here we will look at how best to do this. There are several working and effective tools that allow you to make your plans and tasks more visual and specific.

One of these methods is called. Let me explain what this looks like in practice.

Example

Let's say your goal is to build a house. To begin with, you should divide the task into several stages: clear the site, dig and lay the foundation, carry out above-ground work, finish the premises, carry out communications and do landscaping.

The Grant diagram indicates all the tasks of the current large-scale project along with the timing of their implementation, duration in time and priority of implementation.

Tasks of the same type can be grouped into one item, and larger tasks should be divided into several sequential tasks.

Visually drawing up a plan not only saves your time, but also allows other employees involved in the project to quickly understand the state of affairs and get involved in the work from the right stage.

Principle 4: Prioritize

Timely and clearly defining the main goal is necessary and correct. But the main task is to move towards achieving this goal, consistently completing current tasks of varying degrees of difficulty.

To prioritize your daily planning, a simple method called "ABVGD method".

ABCD method

“A” is the most important task of the current day, “B” is less important, “C” is a task of medium importance, etc.

The first thing on the list should be done first. Usually this task is the most time-consuming and difficult. Sometimes a person feels afraid or is lazy to start the day with the main task, but the secret is that the effectiveness of your current activities depends on its completion.

A specialist in practical time management advises to resolve this issue firmly and unambiguously. His method is called “eat a frog for breakfast.” “Frog” is the most difficult and unpleasant task of the day. You constantly postpone it to the “afternoon”, to the evening, or even to tomorrow.

But the point is that this creates constant emotional stress, which prevents you from doing everything else productively. Tracy says that you should start the day with the most difficult thing, then all the other tasks will be completed almost by themselves.

A logical continuation of Brian Tracy's method here is the Pareto law or principle.

Pareto's Law

20% of our efforts bring us 80% of the results, and the remaining 80% of our efforts bring us only 20% of the results.

Thus, our task is to identify these 20% of our most effective actions and concentrate on them.

Another tool for effective prioritization is called "Eisenhower Matrix". Political and military leader, US President Dwyatt Eisenhower was a practical and very successful man.

He came up with the idea of ​​dividing all current affairs into 4 categories:

• urgent and important;
• important but not urgent;
• urgent, but not very important;
• unimportant and not urgent.

First category : Urgent and important - these are the primary tasks that must be completed today and now: postponing them will certainly create unnecessary difficulties in the future. You shouldn’t entrust them to your subordinates - you need to do it yourself and immediately.

This sector of the matrix is ​​called differently "Fire sector" being in which for a long time is fraught with adverse consequences, primarily for one’s own health.

My time management secret is to be in the sector « Important - Not urgent » .

This is the most efficient sector of the matrix. Here you are calm, here you plan, think, act competently and carefully, here you do what is really important.

Do not allow important matters to flow into the urgent sector!

Cases from 4th category (non-urgent and unimportant) can be safely crossed off from the daily list.

You can make a table something like this every day, based on the Eisenhower Matrix.

Don't be lazy and implement this simple table into your day planning system.

Principle 5: Focus on what matters most

I have already said how important it is to achieve your goals, in this paragraph I will tell you how to do this as efficiently as possible.

The ability to focus on the main thing, without being distracted by extraneous things, is the most important practical skill, having mastered which, you will solve the highest priority tasks of productive time management.

Time is a non-renewable resource, and the most valuable of all existing ones. We can spend 10,000 rubles and earn them again, but we are not able to get back the second we have lived.

We are also not able to extend the day to 25 hours, but we can free up our own space for those activities that are truly important to us.

To prevent unimportant tasks from affecting your personal productivity, you need to master specific time management techniques.

One of the most effective techniques for freeing up time is delegation. It would be more accurate to say that delegation is a component of classical management.

Delegation- This is a way to entrust some of our affairs to other people.

The most basic examples: you can not wash your car yourself, but take it to a car wash, or else: you can fix a leaking faucet in the bathroom yourself or call a professional plumber.

Remember

Any tasks that are more expedient (from a financial and time perspective) to be left to others should be left to others.

The higher the value of your personal time, the more minor and not very important tasks can be delegated.

Less important things can be done during “non-resource time.”

We are talking about that part of the day when you are no longer at the peak of your mental and physical strength, for example, at the end of the day when you are tired.

Also, for example, while in transport or in a queue, you can combine waiting with learning - listening to audiobooks on professional skills or developing one of the personal effectiveness skills.

Another important skill for real time saving: the ability to say “no”.

Do not think that you need to refuse everyone indiscriminately.

The ability to say “no” applies primarily to those people and affairs that deprive you of your energy and time resources without giving anything in return.

Say “no” to a chatty neighbor or employee, reading the tabloid press, Internet surfing on social networks and entertainment resources, and watching TV.

Remember that even a small unplanned break, when someone or something distracts you from your task, can cause plans to be disrupted.

Principle 6. Analyze your experience and create your own time management rules

Periodically, it is worth looking back and drawing pragmatic conclusions from your time management experiences. Study your mistakes and be sure to take measures to correct them.

Be sure to analyze situations in which you lost personal resources especially intensely.

You should always remain aware and look from the outside at what exactly is happening in your life - in what direction and at what speed it is moving.

If you feel like you've lost control and are too deep into solving a problem without thinking about the time spent, it's time to stop, take a break and try to optimize your own actions.

In the end, create your own time management rules, your own tricks. Your whole life, your activity is unique.

Principle 7. Plan your vacation

In pursuit of success and personal productivity, never neglect rest, I will say more than that - plan your rest, just like your business tasks! For time management, proper rest is the most important element for success.

An example from the life of Radislav Gandapas

The famous Russian business coach and speaker Radislav Gandapas, as he said at one of his trainings, plans days in his work schedule to visit the golf club. This is an important hobby in his life.

He highlights these days in red as events of the highest degree of importance that cannot be rescheduled.

Otherwise, Radislav says, he cannot play golf at all, since there are always more important things to do.

You can only remain at the peak of your psychophysiological capabilities through regular recuperation.

You can’t skimp on sleep, your own weekends, and communication with loved ones—these are just as important factors in effective time management as planning and goal setting.

4. Review of popular books and trainings on time management and increasing personal effectiveness

There is a lot of useful literature on time management. Separate publications are devoted to time management for women (young mothers, housewives), students, schoolchildren, and managers.

Seminars, conferences, master classes and trainings on time management are held.

In my opinion, the most informative and accessible books on this topic are the works of Gleb Arkhangelsky, Evgeny Popov and Brian Tracy.

Evgeniy Popov– author of the “Time Master” course, creator of video lessons on this topic, practitioner of successful online business. Has a personal network resource where anyone can purchase the author’s intellectual products.

If you want to quickly master the basics of practical time management, be sure to study Evgeniy Popov’s course “”.

Gleb Arkhangelsky– leading Russian specialist on time management. Head of his own corporate projects to introduce time management into the practice of the largest domestic companies - RAO UES, Wimm-Bill-Dann and others. Creator of bestsellers: “Time Management” and “Time Drive”.

Brian Tracy- The world's leading expert on personal effectiveness, management consultant, writer, speaker.

Other books on this topic: “Time Management by Pomodoro” (Staffan Nötheberg), “Hard Time Management” (Dan Kennedy), “Maximum Concentration” (Lucy Paladino).

5. Conclusion

Let's sum it up, friends! I personally try to use the following elements of time management:

• planning the day;
• prioritization (ABVGD);
• working with a list of tasks.

In practice, I am convinced that time planning simplifies life and helps you get more done.

The main thing is that it becomes a habit for you. A habit is formed in 20-30 days. You will need to hold on for just a little while to get used to doing the right things, and then the system of habits and time management will work for you.

Time management for a modern person is the central concept of any system of personal effectiveness and productivity, the Holy Grail for every ambitious person, be it a student, an entrepreneur or a housewife. The fast pace of life, especially in large cities, and huge amounts of data make it difficult to achieve goals that are important to each of us, whether it’s getting a promotion, raising a child, or creating our own entrepreneurial project. If you have something to strive for, you are unhappy with your results, you just want to become a little more efficient, or you need help overcoming procrastination (the habit of putting things off until later), then this series of lessons is created just for you.

The presented online training will introduce you to the basics of time management and its details, and will tell you how the most successful people on the planet manage their time and organize their lives. Completely free of charge, you will be offered various principles, methods, exercises, techniques and techniques that make up the most effective time management systems, and which will allow you, by applying them in practice, to notice positive changes in the very first days. This online course on time management will become your personal guide to a world where you will forget about eternal fatigue, constant stress and lack of time. You will learn to competently set goals and plan to achieve them, manage to do a huge number of things in record time, enjoy work and have time to find time to relax. The course contains time management tips and techniques that are truly effective.

However, despite the fact that the presented course has enormous potential, time management itself, unfortunately, is fraught with unexpectedly many uncertainties and questions. First, why are there so many different approaches to time management? What is the difference between David Allen's GTD method and Gleb Arkhangelsky's time drive method? Why does every “super-effective” author invent something new? Is there really nothing definite and precise in time management?

Secondly, why doesn’t everything proposed by experts work? The authors unanimously speak about the effectiveness of their methods and techniques, but they don’t want to follow them at all. And then, even if you follow everything exactly according to the instructions, something still goes wrong. What is the reason?

And thirdly, what to do with the reluctance to live automatically according to a once but forever established routine? How to adjust a clear system of time organization to the constant changes that our lives are so rich in?

This series of online lessons is not designed to answer all of the above questions, but is designed to help you answer them yourself. And this is its most important value. And for the same reason, having studied the materials of this training, you will be able not only to “pump up” some of your individual qualities, but also to have a complex impact on your personality.

And if you want to master time management methods as quickly and efficiently as possible, sign up for ours.

Time management (time organization, time management) is a time management technology aimed at increasing the efficiency of its use.

The very concept of “time management” comes from the English “time management” and means a technology for organizing a person’s time and increasing the efficiency of its use. More specifically, time management implies an action or set of actions to train conscious control over the amount of time spent on certain types of activities and through which you can significantly increase your productivity and effectiveness.

Time management includes a wide range of activities, including:

• Setting goals
• Planning and time management
• Task delegation and resource management
• Time consumption analysis
• Recording time
• Prioritization
• Making lists
• And many others

At the beginning of its appearance, time management concerned only the sphere of work or business. But, as it developed, the term began to expand and included various aspects of a person’s personal activity. Today, time management is a necessary component of the development of absolutely any project, because serves as a determining factor in calculating its scale and the time required for its implementation.

In Russia, the revolutionary and public figure A.K. Gastev, who in the 20s of the 20th century was the director of the Central Institute of Labor, first began to talk about time management. He began to develop ideas about personal effectiveness and the efficient use of time. Already in the early 70s, the first method appeared that made it possible to manage personal time, called “Timekeeping”. Over time, the topic began to rapidly gain more and more supporters and penetrate into various areas of people’s activities. All this led to the fact that time management became an independent area, and in 2007, the department of time management was created at the Moscow Financial and Industrial Academy (today a university).

Time management has its own structure, consisting of several important processes:

• Analysis
• Development and preparation of strategies
• Planning and prioritization
• Implementation of the process
• Monitoring the achievement of goals

It is important to note that time resource management allows you to effectively manage not only working time, which is the main part of the life of an ordinary person, but also free time, which a person uses for relaxation. By using it in everyday life, you can organize your life much more efficiently, plan your weekends, and organize various events. By skillfully managing his time, a person can even turn his weekend into a mini-vacation. All together, this has a very positive effect on a person’s emotional, mental and physical health and significantly improves his life.

Today, special schools have been created and are successfully operating to teach effective time management. Standard training takes place on the following main topics:

• Strategic planning
• Tactical planning
• Assessment of personal effectiveness
• Assessment of managerial effectiveness
• Defining a personal mission as an emotionally motivating factor
• Determining the main factors for developing your own plan
• Ability to prioritize
• Mind Mapping Tool
• Training in the basics of using software designed specifically for planning (MyLifeOrganized, MS Project, MS Outlook and other programs)
• Analysis of what has been achieved
• Studying methods for improving the process of achieving goals

To teach people the basics of competent time management, today various trainings and seminars are held, programs and courses are being developed, books and other publications are being published, and various Internet resources and online trainings are being created, such as the training presented on our website 4brain, for example.

Applying time management

In the modern world, personal time is a key human resource, often having a much higher value than money, since, unlike money, it cannot be accumulated or restored. That is why the ability to make the best use of one’s time and manage it is of essential value to any person. And it is important to learn to apply this skill in all areas of life: work, business, creativity, family relationships, etc.

The skill of time management provides a person with a huge number of different benefits. Below we list just a few of them.

So, a person who knows how to manage his time:

• Achieves set goals much more often than others
• Achieves his goals many times faster than people who do not have this skill
• Able to achieve success in any field of activity
• Has much more time to relax, be with loved ones and do favorite things
• Able to perform many different tasks in a short period of time
• Has the opportunity to increase your income, create capital and retire as soon as possible
• Can get rid of the feeling of constant fatigue and improve your health
• Much less susceptible to stress and negative factors
• Positively perceives the world around him and the events taking place in it
• Can devote more time to spiritual development and self-improvement
• Always has a clear plan of action
• Has inner freedom and has the ability to choose
• Able to create favorable conditions and independently control his life

This is just part of the positive impact that time management has on a person’s life. It is not for nothing that there is an opinion that people who do not know how to allocate their time cannot find a single free minute and are constantly busy with something, but all their busyness does not bring any meaningful results. And people who are able to skillfully manage their time resources can always make time for something or for someone, and all their activities continuously move them towards their goals and success.

If you get acquainted with the features of the life and work of successful people, you will certainly find that all of them, as one, say that the most valuable asset that a person has is his time, and you will probably notice that they all keep diaries, make up plans, think through further steps and do this constantly. They are always full of ideas, and the amount of work they do is simply amazing. But, at the same time, they are happy, smiling, positive; everything they do, they do with enthusiasm and enjoy it; and also enjoy good health. If you are a person who strives for self-development and personal growth, then there is a high probability that you would like to achieve similar results, otherwise you would not be here. And there is great news for you - YOU CAN DO IT. You just need to set yourself a goal to learn how to use your time efficiently.

How to learn this?

It's no secret that we all have a set of different abilities and predispositions from birth. But, of course, these abilities and predispositions are different for everyone, and while some people are initially inclined to effectively manage their time in life, others have to develop and hone this skill. Be that as it may, it can be done. And again good news - YOU CAN DO THIS YOURSELF, i.e. without resorting to training in specialized institutions or purchasing expensive training courses. Moreover, it is not at all necessary to have any special talent or genius, but you can simply complete the online training, the introduction to which you are now reading.

There are two important points when taking this course. This:

Theoretical basis- the information that you can get from the lessons we offer.

Practical development- putting what you learn into practice in your daily life.

Based on these important points, we developed this training. Each lesson is designed to enable you to learn theoretical material, which is presented in an interesting and completely understandable language that is accessible to anyone. And also so that you have the motivation and opportunity to apply everything you have learned, not waiting for some appropriate moment, but right “here and now.” All you need is a desire to learn a new skill and a little free time, which you will need to find for this, which we, of course, have no doubt about.

Want to test your knowledge?

If you want to test your theoretical knowledge on the topic of the course and understand how suitable it is for you, you can take our test. For each question, only 1 option can be correct. After you select one of the options, the system automatically moves on to the next question.

Lessons on time management

Having studied the experience of teaching time management to many people, we came to the conclusion that its basics, as we have already said, you can learn on your own. Having introduced some adjustments and further adapted the material for self-study, we have prepared a series of lessons aimed at developing useful competencies for full mastery of this skill. Below is a brief description of each lesson:

The purpose of this lesson is to help you understand as much as possible the features and nuances of time management, as well as to understand and feel at a deep level how effective organization of your time can contribute to the achievement of goals, help develop the potential of your personality and have a beneficial effect on life in general.

The lesson will cover issues such as the goals of time management and its prerequisites, the main stages and features of this process. In addition, you will learn a lot of tips for increasing personal effectiveness and will be able to choose those that will suit you specifically.

As you know, any human action is directly related to the fact that he spends a certain amount of time on its completion. And if the information from the first lesson will teach you how to determine and record your time expenditures and understand the structure of time resource distribution, then the knowledge that you will gain from here will help you learn to separate what you need to spend your time on from what you don’t need .

Here we will talk about the process of goal setting: you will learn to determine your true goals and secondary tasks, which means you will be able to do things that will allow you to eliminate wasting time, and even your minimal efforts will bring you maximum results.

Achieving any result is a process that always has its own characteristics and characteristics. It is important to understand that not all actions are effective. You need to be able to see perspectives, calculate your steps and set priorities. Having a goal presupposes having a plan to achieve it. This lesson is dedicated to these and other interesting questions.

From it you will learn about what the process of planning tasks is, what methods of prioritization exist, and you will become acquainted with the most effective techniques for drawing up plans and lists. In addition, you will learn several important principles that will help you learn how to save time, improve your results and avoid many mistakes that are common to people who have taken the path of proper time management.

Despite the fact that the concept of “time management” came into the Russian language not so long ago, the very fact of organizing personal time in order to achieve goals and increase productivity has been and is being paid attention by many prominent figures. Perhaps this is why they were able to achieve significant success, because a person’s ability to cope with all matters, work hard and effectively in any situations, and emerge victorious often depends on the ability to manage the main resource - time.

One way or another, everyone planned their work (artists, writers, politicians - famous and not so), but the creator of not a universal daily routine, but one of the first comprehensive time management systems was B. Franklin. He showed by his own example how important it is to set goals and develop a plan to achieve them. His and other proprietary time management systems, which combine the principles of goal setting, planning and motivation, will be discussed in this lesson.

A. Herzen wrote: “Theory inspires convictions, example determines the course of action.” In fact, time management systems lesson 4, the basics of goal setting lesson 2 and planning lesson 3 as the main components of time management would be no more than elements of a coherent theory if they were not complemented by specially developed general methodological and practical tools within the framework of individual techniques. By following them and applying them in their daily life, everyone will be able to acquire not only useful knowledge, but also create their own system for setting, evaluating and implementing strategic goals.

The recommendations, tips, tricks, techniques, as well as time management services and programs collected in this lesson are taken from various sources, but are universal tools and are equally useful both in terms of time management and for personal development in general: self-discipline training , character, attitude to life priorities and goals.

How to take classes?

All our lessons have one important feature - they are created in such a way that absolutely anyone can apply them. But you must definitely keep in mind that how well you master the material depends, to a huge extent, on your attitude. If you treat this negligently, from the position of “if time arises, then of course I will do it,” then the result will be completely mediocre, if at all. But if you approach the study of the material with full responsibility and understanding of the importance of what you are doing, the result will be your rapid personal growth and an increase in all personal characteristics, not to mention the fact that you will learn to manage your time perfectly.

To get the most out of the training, we recommend that you study one lesson every two days: on the first day you will just need to familiarize yourself with the lesson, and on the second you will use what you have learned throughout the day, using new techniques each time and combining them. In total, the entire course will take you about ten days. But what is also important here is that, having taken up the training, you should under no circumstances miss classes. Set yourself the task of completing this course to the end. This alone will become your time management practice, and in addition, it will begin to develop in you such qualities as determination, commitment, diligence and punctuality. Remember that theory and practice are two sides of the same coin. This is the only way you can learn what you want, and this is the only way all successful people have done it at all times. And one more thing: prepare a notepad and pen in advance, because planning is impossible without this.

Additional material

Books on time management

In this additional reading section, we'll look at some of the most popular books on the topic of time management. Each of them is a unique collection of useful information, practical advice and guidance, effective techniques and techniques for time management. Some of them were written by professional authors and have already earned authority not only among Russian readers, but also among readers from all over the world. Others were published quite recently, and their authors are not yet so famous, but undoubtedly worthy of attention. Any of the books discussed will be an excellent addition to our training.

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 by applying such things as planning tasks, dividing tasks into important and urgent, the “Pomodoro” technique, keeping a diary, using - etc., as a result, they will significantly speed 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.

We 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.