How to organize your day: methods of productivity geniuses. Effective planning of working time in an enterprise

Think about your biggest failures in life. Quarrels, misunderstandings that changed your whole life in a negative way. Failed exams, job interviews, etc. The reasons for such failures are similar, as a rule, they are the result of poor preparation and rash actions. Below we will look at how to manage everything and plan the day/week.

What happens if an athlete stops training a month before the Olympics - his skills and muscle strength will weaken significantly and he will take one of the last places. As in sports, in any business you need good preparation, without which the chances of success are greatly reduced.

The key factor in preparation is planning. There is "6 P rule": Proper planning prevents productivity loss.

Below I will give 7 ways to manage everything with the help of proper planning of the day and week.

Method 1: Make a list of tasks for the day

What is a task list for?

First, let's look at how our brain works. It was found that we can keep no more than 7+-2 things or important thoughts under control in our heads. To make sure of this, count how many circles are shown in the pictures:

Rice. 1	Rice. 2	Rice. 3

Rice. 4	Rice. 5

Most likely, one glance is enough to determine the number of objects in Figures 1, 3 and 4.

And for drawings 2 and 5, one glance was not enough; it was necessary to count separately. The fewer objects, the easier it is to manage them. The brain reaches its limit when the number becomes more than 7+-2.

The same is true with thoughts; at the same time we can store no more than 7+-2 tasks in our head, the rest is forgotten.

Let's imagine a real life situation

You get up in the morning and go to work, on the way you remember that:

You need to buy a gift for a loved one's birthday;
- Pay for the Internet before it’s turned off.

When you arrived at work:

Find out that you need to prepare a report today;
- I came in and a colleague asked me to send him a contract template;
- After the morning planning meeting, the boss asked me to do 3 things.

Your head is already full, but time does not stop; a client, a loved one, a colleague may call you, an unforeseen situation may happen, etc. What happens in this case? We forget something. If we forget to buy groceries in the store, then nothing bad will happen, of course, but we can forget something more important: not coming to an important meeting, taking medications, etc.

In addition, the more things we have in our heads, the worse our analytical abilities become, since energy is spent on memorizing information.

Benefits of a notebook

Notebook - eliminates all the problems described above and has the following advantages compared to working from memory:

1) Writing down is always faster than remembering. For example, writing down a cell phone number is 10-100 times faster than memorizing it. Same with business.

2) Energy Saving. In order not to forget important things, we often remember, which wastes energy. A notebook solves this problem.

3) Reliability. What is written with a pen cannot be cut out with an axe. Any task can be forgotten due to fatigue, emotions or other matters. But if you write down tasks, it is much more difficult to forget.

You can keep a list of tasks on a regular sheet of paper, a notepad, but it is better if it is a notebook, because it has a calendar. The list of tasks for the day can be on a computer or paper. The most important thing is that you have it because it is the basis for planning, like the foundation of a house. If the house does not have a foundation, then the maximum that can be built is a small one-story structure without heating made of plastic or plywood. Also in planning, of course, you can do without a list of tasks for the day or a notebook, but you will be very limited in your capabilities.

The most important thing in a task list or notebook is a list of things that need to be done during the day. The second most important part is the calendar, in it you can see the tasks that need to be completed on a given day. Therefore, a notebook is preferable to a regular list because it has a calendar.

Method 2: Work with your task list every day

The most important thing when working with a time organizer or notebook is to work in accordance with the previously drawn up plan. To do this, regularly review your notebook to find out if you have done everything you planned for today. You can view the list after you complete the current task. It is very important to list important things that need to be done today in your organizer.

Method 3: First write it down, then do it

If a new task arrives and it is not urgent, then write it down in your notebook first and start only when it comes to it. Any new tasks seem very important and we begin to take on everything: checking mail, making phone calls, etc. But as soon as you first begin to write down all incoming tasks in a notebook, you will find that next to this entry there are more important tasks.

All movements of the right side of the body are controlled by the left hemisphere of the brain, which is responsible for logic. When we write down a new task with our right hand, we activate the left hemisphere of our brain, which is responsible for logic. Activating logic when writing with our right hand will help us make better decisions.

By writing everything down in a notebook before you start work, you'll be able to get the most important things done during the day and be able to combat the unimportant tasks that constantly distract you.

4 way. First important, then urgent tasks

All planned tasks should be completed in order of their importance, and then in order of execution time. Starting with the most important ones and gradually moving on to the less important ones. Write things down in your plan for today in order of their importance, then sort them by urgency and start working on the highest priorities.

For example, an acquaintance called you to chat. A phone call, an urgent matter, because the phone is ringing right now, but it may not be important. If you have more significant tasks, say, preparing a work report, then it is better to first complete all the more important tasks, in particular the report, and then, if you have time, call back and talk with a friend. But not vice versa, otherwise, due to an insignificant call, you may not have time to do a more important thing.

Importance takes precedence over urgency. You should take on urgent matters only if you are in control of the situation and are confident that you will manage all the more important ones.

Method 5: Electronic organizer

Exists great amount electronic notebooks. An electronic diary has undeniable advantages over paper ones:

A. Time saving. With an electronic diary, you do not need to re-write tasks from the last day to the current one, and you can also work with it both on a computer and on a phone or tablet, synchronizing data on all devices.

B. Volumes and speed: You can very quickly copy a large amount of information into an electronic diary for further work. For example: You want to bake a banana cake in the evening and you need to write down the necessary ingredients before you go to the store. If you have an electronic organizer, then you can quickly copy the entire recipe from the Internet into your diary, literally in a matter of seconds. At the same time, it will take you more time to write down only the ingredients on a piece of paper by hand than to write the entire recipe electronically. And in the store it will be enough to turn on the diary on your phone to quickly understand what to buy.

B. Convenience. An ordinary notebook is inconvenient to use in transport, a store, or on vacation; in these places it is difficult to write down and look at notes because the paper diary is large and you need 2 hands to open it. But the electronic notebook on your phone will always be with you, no matter where you are: Transport, store, street. You can quickly take notes on your computer and then sync so those notes appear on your phone in seconds.

Method 6: Plan your next day in the evening

Make an action plan for the next day in advance, the best time is at the end of the working day, before you go home. This simple action will help you get a better night's sleep, because often the cause of insomnia is that in the evening we go through all the important things that we need to do tomorrow so as not to forget them in the morning. And it is these thoughts that prevent us from relaxing and falling asleep peacefully, but if you write down all your plans, you will ensure not only a restful sleep, but also an evening.

In addition, when you make a plan in advance, your subconscious mind will constantly work all night on how best to do what you planned. The solution to complex problems may come to you at breakfast, on the way to work, or even in the middle of the night. It is in the morning that new ideas most often come and you will use this time with maximum benefit, you just need to write a to-do list for the next day in advance.

By the way, if you have questions that you want answered, then before you fall asleep and close your eyes, ask them to yourself, preferably out loud, and immediately fall asleep. And in the morning, get ready to immediately write down all the thoughts that may appear the moment you wake up or later.

Method 7: Plan complex tasks at the peak of your activity

Make a plan for the day so that work that requires a lot of energy comes at the peak of your activity, when you have a lot of energy and are most productive. As a rule, the peak of activity begins in the morning, because after sleep you have a lot of strength and a fresh mind, but it happens that the peak of activity can occur in the afternoon and even evening hours.

The most energy-consuming activities are those for which there is no talent.. As a rule, these are the ones activities you most don't want to do. These tasks are called frogs in time management because these tasks are unpleasant to start doing. There is a rule in time management - start the day with a frog., i.e. from an unpleasant matter. This rule will allow you to work more efficiently, because usually it is in the morning that you have the most strength, and these forces are extremely important to do the most unpleasant work.

I’ll give an example from life, I have a technical mindset, so exact sciences such as: Physics and mathematics are easy for me, but humanitarian subjects are more difficult, so when I was at school, I often prepared for an English test in the morning. I got up 1-2 hours before school and studied English. It was in the morning that I had the most energy, so at this time it was easier for me to complete a complex task for which I had the least talent. The results of the preparation exceeded all my expectations, I received excellent or good results in a subject that I did not like.

Plan the most unpleasant tasks for peak activity, for example, in the morning, and you will see how you will get more done and your personal efficiency will increase.

P.S. If you have difficulties or questions about the article you read, as well as about the topics: Psychology (bad habits, experiences, etc.), sales, business, time management, etc. ask them to me, I will try to help. Consultation via Skype is also possible.

P.P.S. You can also take the online training “How to get 1 hour of extra time.” Write comments and your additions;)

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If you start to thoroughly understand what factors influence a person’s life in general, then you can find a great variety of them. Any area of ​​a person’s life and each sphere of his activity, of course, has a number of peculiarities inherent to them, and sometimes what is applicable to one is completely inapplicable to another. But despite this, there are certain fundamental principles that are effective in absolutely everything. One of these principles, or more precisely, laws that can be considered guarantors of success in any field, can safely be called the ability to plan and prioritize. We will find out why this is so important in this time management training lesson.

After studying this material, you will learn about what business planning is and what its features are, why it is necessary and important to compile daily lists of work, personal and household chores. In addition, we will look at several effective planning techniques and principles, some of which are designed for every day, and some have a more long-term focus - for a week, a month, a year and even several years. This online training course will be useful for people of all ages and professions, and you will be able to use the information received to achieve your goals from the first day.

What is planning? Types of planning. Prioritization

The planning process

Planning is the process of optimal allocation of resources necessary to achieve set goals and objectives, as well as a set of processes that are associated with their formulation and implementation. Planning is an integral part of time management (time management) and, when used skillfully, increases its effectiveness many times over.

In its simplest and most formal interpretation, planning is characterized by the following stages:

1. Stage of setting goals (tasks)
2. The stage of drawing up a plan to achieve the goal
3. Variant design stage
4. The stage of identifying the required resources, as well as their sources
5. Stage of identifying executives and briefing
6. The stage of recording planning results in physical form (plan, project, map, etc.)

Types of planning

Planning, as already noted, is applicable to absolutely any sphere of life, but, depending on this, it may have its own characteristics, which, in turn, is expressed in different forms and contents.

Types of planning differ:

By necessity

• Directive planning - implies the mandatory execution of assigned tasks, always has a specific addressee and is characterized by increased detail. An example is the setting of tasks related to solving issues of state/national significance, work in enterprises, etc.
• Indicative planning is the antipode of the first: it does not imply mandatory and precise execution, it has a more recommendatory and guiding nature. This type of planning is widespread in the system of macroeconomic development of various countries.

By timing of achieving goals

• Short-term (current) planning - calculated for a period of up to 1 year and can consist of plans for a day, a week, a month, a quarter, or six months. The most common type of planning. It is used both by ordinary people in everyday life and by leaders of various organizations.
• Medium-term planning - calculated for a period from 1 year to 5 years. This form of planning is common in the activities of government agencies, firms and enterprises, but is often used by strategically thinking people. In some cases, it can be combined with current planning, which in its entirety is rolling planning.
• Long-term (long-term) planning - usually calculated for several (5, 10, 20) years in advance. Most often, this type of planning is used at large enterprises in order to perform tasks of a social, economic, scientific and technological nature, etc.

• Strategic planning is mainly long-term. With its help, the main directions in the activities of organizations are determined: expanding activities, creating new directions, stimulating the work process, studying the market and its segments, studying demand, characteristics of the target audience, etc. Widespread in the activities of organizations.
• Tactical planning is most often also long-term. Its main goal is to create the necessary conditions for the implementation of opportunities found through the use of strategic planning. As a rule, tactical planning is used when planning the economic, social, and production development of an organization. Widespread in the activities of organizations.
• Operational calendar planning is the final stage of strategic and tactical planning. Serves mainly to implement the process of achieving the desired results. With its help, all indicators are specified and the work of the organization is directly organized. Operational calendar planning involves determining the time for completing assigned tasks, preparing for the implementation of the process, maintaining records, monitoring and analyzing the process. Widespread in the activities of organizations.
• Business planning - serves to assess the feasibility, relevance and effectiveness of planned activities. The preparation of a business plan is done very carefully, taking into account all kinds of indicators, opportunities, proposals, etc. It is widespread in the activities of organizations and the work of businessmen.

In addition to the considered types of planning that take into account primary aspects, there are also those that take into account secondary ones. They, in turn, differ:

By coverage

• General planning - covers all the details of the context.
• Partial planning - covers some details of the context.

By planning objects

• Target planning - involves determining the goals required to achieve.
• Planning of means - implies planning of the means necessary to achieve the result (finance, information, personnel, equipment, etc.).
• Program planning involves the development of programs necessary to achieve results.
• Action planning involves determining the actions necessary to achieve a result.

By depth

• Aggregated planning occurs taking into account general parameters.
• Detailed planning takes place taking into account all the details and features.

By coordinating plans over time

• Sequential planning involves a long process that consists of several smaller stages.
• Simultaneous planning - implies a one-time short stage.

Taking into account data changes

• Rigid planning implies mandatory adherence to specified parameters.
• Flexible planning implies the possibility of non-compliance with specified parameters and the emergence of new ones.

In order

• Orderly planning - implies the sequential implementation of plans, one after another.
• Rolling planning - involves extending the plan for a subsequent period after its completion in the current period.
• Extraordinary planning - implies the implementation of a plan as the need arises.

Prioritization

Prioritization is the process of setting priorities - an indicator of the predominance of the importance of a particular plan item over the rest. Prioritization is important because among large quantity There are different nuances and features, both those that have the least significance and have minimal impact on the process of achieving the goal, and those that play a dominant role in this process. The ability to prioritize can be called another indicator of the effectiveness and efficiency of any planning process, because The emphasis on the most significant points of the plan is often decisive in the question of whether the goal will be achieved or not.

As you can see, planning as a process is characterized by a considerable number of different nuances. Any of the types can be used separately, or maybe in combination with others. The main thing when choosing is to take into account all the features of your activity. But, no matter how many types of planning exist, no matter how many we consider them, no matter how many examples we give, all this will have no value if we do not understand why we need to plan anything at all, what advantages it has how will this help us in life? It is these questions that we will try to answer in the next section.

Why do you need planning?

Considering that our trainings are devoted to methods of increasing personal productivity, here and further in the lesson we will consider planning in relation to the activities of a person, and not organizations, firms, enterprises, etc.

Planning is the factor that largely determines not only whether a person achieves what he wants, but also what he achieves at all. The fact is that the planning process itself does not have some single and narrowly targeted effect, but has a complex effect, influencing many personal indicators of a person, the direction of his actions and his lifestyle in general. Below we list just a few of the positive aspects of planning and the benefits it provides.

Specification of the goal

As soon as a person begins to plan his activities, his thinking is activated, his creative potential is activated, and his brain activity increases. You can want something and “sort of” imagine it, while thinking that you know exactly what you want. But as soon as you sit down to draw up a plan and begin to think it through carefully, your goal begins to transform from abstract to concrete. Gradually you begin to imagine it in detail, take into account its features, and somehow vary it. There is a saying that says that a ship that does not know where it is going will never reach its destination. So is a person - if he does not know what exactly he wants, he will never achieve it. Planning makes it possible to understand and realize what you really want and achieve a specific goal.

A clear action plan

Even if we know what we want, we may never achieve it if we don’t know what we need to achieve it. Our goals can be mega-global, good and wonderful, but they will remain just a picture of what we want to have and do. This state of affairs can be corrected through planning. Firstly, it allows you to determine the specific steps that need to be taken in order to achieve the desired result. Secondly, it helps to identify the resources needed for this and their sources. Thirdly, it makes it possible to set a time frame. This way, once you have an accurate plan, you will know what you need to do to implement it, who or what you will involve in it, and most importantly, when you want to do it. Planning significantly speeds up the process of achieving a goal, because... is a practical guide to action.

Action, not thoughts about action

Until we have a plan to implement what we want, we are constantly thinking about this topic. We think about how much we want it, how nice it would be if we had it, we reflect on how we lack it now, perhaps we even imagine ourselves in the process of doing it. But there is one BUT - besides thinking, we do nothing else. And this indicates that, most likely, this will all end. It is important to understand that when you start planning, you are already taking the first and biggest step towards realizing your plans. This alone moves you forward significantly. And then a chain reaction begins: after drawing up a plan, you begin to carry out specific actions, the first point is followed by the second, the second by the third, etc. If you can instill in yourself the habit of planning even the smallest things, you will immediately notice how your desires begin to become reality. Another proverb can be applied here: “Water does not flow under a lying stone.” Get off the ground and start taking action. Planning creates the energy potential necessary to achieve a goal.

Possibility of maneuvering

Without knowing specifically what needs to be done to achieve the desired results, we can neither determine nor coordinate our actions. We can have a rough idea of ​​what we need to do, but if we act without a plan, we risk reaching a dead end or even moving further away from the goal. When you have a plan and begin to act, you can, so to speak, manage the entire process online: it doesn’t work this way, try it differently, one thing doesn’t work, think about what can replace it. Having a clear plan will allow you to maneuver along your path, vary different methods and methods. As a result, you will have a comprehensive plan that will take into account all possible nuances and options for the development of events. The ability to plan is the ability to be flexible and ready for any situation.

High probability of success

And, perhaps, the most important advantage of planning is that, although not a 100% guarantee, it is still a huge probability of success. How many people we see who want very little, but without a plan, never achieve anything! And, in contrast to them, there are a huge number of examples of people who have fantastic goals that seem unattainable, despite everything they achieve them and even more. What distinguishes the former from the latter is the ability to plan and prioritize. Determine your goals, start making a plan - after a while you will see that you have reached your goal, and thousands of onlookers without a plan remain in their places. Planning will make you a leader in any field!

Surely, now it has become much clearer to you why you need to plan and think through all your steps. Planning is carried out by businessmen and entrepreneurs, heads of huge corporations, creative people, writers, actors and show business stars, in general, all those who are commonly called successful people. Planning is part of the life and activity of any person who wants to increase their productivity and achieve serious results. It is for this reason, in addition to sitting down at the table, taking a pen and a piece of paper, and starting to plan something, today there are specially developed planning techniques that have proven their effectiveness more than once. We will give a brief overview of the most popular of them in the next section.

Planning techniques

ABC planning

The prerequisite for this method is experience that clearly shows that the percentage ratio of important and unimportant matters is always approximately the same. Any tasks, based on their importance in achieving the set results, should be distributed using ABC letter values. It follows from this that the tasks that have the greatest importance and significance (A) should be completed first, and then all the others (B, C). You need to plan your time using this technique, taking into account the importance of the tasks, and not the effort required to complete them.

The ABC method is based on three basic rules:

• Category A - the most important matters. They make up about 15% of all the things you do, but they produce about 65% of the results.
• Category B - important matters. They make up about 20% of your total business and produce about 20% of your results.
• Category C - matters of the least importance. They make up about 65% of all your business, but also bring about 15% of your results.

You can find out more about this technique here.

Eisenhower principle

This technique was proposed at one time by the American General Dwight David Eisenhower. It is an excellent additional meter for quickly making the most important decisions. This principle involves setting priorities according to the criteria of importance and urgency.

You must divide all your tasks into four main categories and perform them in order of priority:

• Category A - the most urgent and important matters.
• Category B - urgent but not important matters. It is important to be able to separate them according to the criterion of importance from the first category, otherwise you can waste time on them, leaving the really important things for later.
• Category C - not urgent, but important matters. Here you need to take into account the urgency factor: due to the fact that these things are not urgent, they are often put on the back burner, after which they become urgent, which is not a good thing. Therefore, their implementation should never be neglected. Such tasks, among other things, can be delegated - entrusting their implementation to someone else.
• Category D - non-urgent and non-important matters. Often, a person is most concerned about such things and spends most of his time on them. Learn to accurately identify cases in this category. They should be done last, when the previous ones are completed.

You can learn more about the Eisenhower method here.

Pareto rule

This rule is sometimes called the “80/20” principle. It was formulated by the Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto. Its basic premise is that the smallest amount of action produces the greatest amount of results, and vice versa.

Visually, this rule looks like this:

• 20% actions = 80% results
• 80% actions = 20 results
• 20% of people own 80% of all capital
• 80% of people own 20% of total capital
• 20% of customers generate 80% of revenue
• 80% of customers generate 20% of revenue
• Etc.

Apply this rule to your daily activities, and you will see that 80% of everything you do in a day is only 20% of the result you need, and 20% of well-planned actions bring you 80% closer to your cherished goal. Based on this, remember that you need to start the day with the few, but most difficult, important and urgent tasks, and only then take on the easy and no less important, but present in a much larger volume. It is very convenient to apply the Pareto rule in combination with the ABC technique or the Eisenhower principle.

You can read more about the “80 to 20” principle.

Timing

The term “timing” refers to a method designed to study the time spent. It is carried out by recording and measuring the actions performed. The main goals of timekeeping are to determine how time is spent, identify “time sinks,” find time reserves, and develop a sense of time.

Keeping timekeeping is quite simple: experts advise recording all your actions with an accuracy of 5 minutes for 2-3 weeks. Visually it looks something like this:

• 8:00-8:30 - woke up, stretched, washed
• 8:30-9:00 - drank tea, turned on the computer, checked email
• 9:00-9:30 - went to social network
• 9:30 - 10:00 - prepared documents for work
• Etc.

Entries can be supplemented with comments and additional parameters. There are several ways to keep track of time:

• On paper - in a notebook, notebook, notebook
• Using a gadget - mobile phone, e-reader, tablet
• Using a voice recorder
• Using special software on a computer
• Online - special Internet applications
• Gantt chart (see below)

Based on the data obtained through timing, you will be able to identify important features in the distribution of your time and adjust them. Read more about timing.

Gantt chart

The Gantt chart is a bar chart method developed by American management specialist Henry Gantt. It is used to illustrate plans and schedules for various projects. The diagram consists of stripes that are oriented along the time axis, and each of them displays a separate task that is part of the project. The vertical axis is a list of tasks. In addition, you can mark various indicators on the chart - percentages, pointers, timestamps, etc.

Using a Gantt chart, you can clearly track the process of project implementation and the effectiveness of the actions performed. But, in any case, this method will have to be supplemented with others, because the diagram is not synchronized with dates, does not display the resources spent and the essence of the actions performed. It is best used for small projects. The diagram itself is often included as an add-on to various project management applications.

SMART technology

The SMART goal setting technique is recognized as one of the best in the world. It originates in NLP and we discussed it in detail in one of our lessons. Here we will give only a brief description of this technique.

The word “SMART” itself is an acronym formed from the first letters of five words that define goal criteria. Let's look at them in a little more detail.

• Specific - the goal must be specific, i.e. when setting it up, you must clearly imagine the result you want to achieve. For example, “I want to become an anthropologist.”
• Measurable - the goal must be measurable, i.e. you must represent the desired result in quantitative terms. For example, “by 2015 I want to earn 50 thousand rubles monthly.”
• Attainable - the goal must be achievable, i.e. you must take into account the characteristics of your personality: abilities, predisposition, talent, etc. For example, if you have a hard time with mathematics and you absolutely do not understand this science, it is better not to set yourself the goal of becoming an outstanding mathematician.
• Relevant - the goal must be relevant to your other goals. For example, achieving a medium-term goal should implicitly include the achievement of several short-term ones.
• Time-bounded - the goal must be defined in time and have a clearly defined time frame. For example, “I want to lose weight from 95 to 80 kg in six months by such and such a month.”

All together, this will allow you to determine the necessary actions to achieve the desired result, take into account the maximum number of factors and constantly monitor your progress. Read more about the SMART technique.

List of goals and objectives

The simplest technique with which you can plan time and tasks. It's just a list of things to do. Such lists are very convenient because they do not require any additional resources, such as a PC, mobile applications or the use of complex schemes, but they also allow you to clearly display everything you need to do and control this process.

Making a list of goals and tasks is very simple: you can simply write down on a piece of paper everything that you need to accomplish and when, and upon completion, simply cross out the completed items. Or you can make it a little more complicated: make a table in which there will be columns: “task”, “priority”, “due date”, “completion mark”.

All presented techniques can be used individually or in combination. Try all the options - for sure, after a while you will select the most convenient and suitable one for yourself, and maybe even create some of your own based on them.

To make things easier for you when planning your activities and time, we would like to conclude this lesson by presenting to your attention some very effective principles that you can use in your daily life.

Planning principles

• Try all the planning methods discussed and choose the one that suits you best. Use it daily and in all matters.
• Don't try to remember everything - take notes. As the saying goes, “the dullest pencil is better than the sharpest memory.”
• If you have a lot of things to do, don’t try to do everything. Take the time to identify the most important and priority ones and start implementing them. Finish the rest later.
• At the end of one week, make an action plan for the next. Do the same at the end of each day.
• Get into the habit of carrying a notepad and pen or a voice recorder with you to record interesting thoughts that come to you.
• Keep a “success journal” in which you will note all your successes, no matter how small, every day. This will keep you constantly motivated and remind you that you are on the right track.
• Learn to say no. This ability will save you from wasting time, striving for unnecessary goals and communicating with unnecessary people.
• Always think before you do anything. Weigh the pros and cons. Try not to commit rash actions and actions.
• Always when you are in the process of something, remember yourself, be aware of what you are doing at the moment. If you feel that you are not moving forward, quit this activity.
• Look critically at yourself: identify your bad habits that waste time, things that you like to do, but that do not move you towards your goal. Then gradually and one by one replace these habits and activities with new ones that are effective.
• Determine your main priorities in life and live in accordance with them. This way you can always be focused on the main thing and won’t waste time.
• Do not perform unnecessary unnecessary actions, do not do other people’s business. You must move forward yourself, but do not allow yourself to be used as a tool to achieve other people's goals if you yourself are not happy about it.
• Regularly and systematically allocate time for self-improvement: reading books, watching educational and motivating videos, training your skills, etc.
• Don't stop there - having achieved one goal, set another, more serious one. This way you can always be in good shape, have incentive and motivation.

Applying all of the above recommendations will allow you to be successful in any field and achieve your goals in the shortest possible time. The most important thing is to constantly work on yourself and put into practice the acquired skills. In order for everything you learned from this lesson to begin to bear fruit, you need to start planning your future activities today. Start with any method, practice, hone a new skill and make it a habit. Of course, it’s impossible to plan everything in our lives, but a lot can be done.

You can find additional interesting materials regarding planning and efficiency on our 4brain resource:

Test your knowledge

If you want to test your knowledge on the topic of this lesson, you can take a short test consisting of several questions. 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. The points you receive are affected by the correctness of your answers and the time spent on completion. Please note that the questions are different each time and the options are mixed.

INTRODUCTION

The working hours of most modern managers are compressed to the limit, the working day is not standardized, and yet it is often not possible to complete all the planned tasks by the given deadline. At the same time, there is a growing feeling of helplessness in the face of an avalanche of problems that urgently require your intervention and the feeling that a lack of time, like a lack of air, leads to the fact that problems will simply overwhelm a person. All this leads to a stressful state, which further aggravates the situation.

This situation in modern society is widespread and not only among managers. Surely every person can remember many cases when in one day he had to solve a lot of problems, visit many places, while he could not decide in what order it was best to do all this and the realization that it was impossible to solve immediately and quickly the problem of time management, that because of this you may not have time or miss something important, it is very depressing, makes you nervous, spoils your mood, which ultimately negatively affects well-being, performance and reduces the likelihood that everything planned for the day will be realized .

In such a situation, the only solution can be the use of special techniques and methods, generally called time management. The word “time management” itself is translated from English as “time management,” but it should be noted that it is impossible to manage time. Indeed, each person has a strictly defined amount of time, and it is the same for all people. It is impossible to somehow influence its quantity or the speed of its flow. “Time management” is just a loud name for what essentially is managing oneself, an organization, people in order to speed up the solution of problems, implementation of events, performance of work, actions. This is management for the most efficient use of time.

WORKING TIME AND ITS PLANNING

The biological rhythm of a manager's work

A person’s performance during the day usually changes along a physiologically determined M-shaped curve, on which there are two clearly defined peaks of activity. These peaks correspond to maximum performance between 10 and 12 hours and 16 and 18 hours. Minimum performance, as a rule, occurs at 14:00, and after 18:00 there is a decline in business activity.

But these are general trends that are observed in the majority, however, each person is individual and has his own M curve.

In addition, it has long been known that almost all people can be classified as either “larks” or “night owls”. “Larks” wake up early in the morning and feel cheerful and energetic in the first half of the day. Their performance during this time interval is high, but in the evening it drops, then drowsiness sets in, and they go to bed early. “The morning is wiser than the evening” is their main motto.

"Owls" usually fall asleep quite late and naturally wake up late. They get up with difficulty because they fall into deep sleep in the morning. The efficiency of "night owls" increases gradually from lunch to evening.

Scientists also identify a third type of people - arrhythmics, whose performance is almost the same throughout the day. This type mainly includes people engaged in physical labor.

An individual rhythm may differ significantly from the beginning and end of the working day, the established lunch break in production or in a company. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a program for studying personal biorhythms, which allows you to find out how performance, productivity, and attention change during the day, by day of the week and by month. The easiest way is to include these measurements in your daily timing plan. We'll look at how to do timing later. After taking weekly measurements, construct your own M curve. Compare individual results with the dependence that is observed in most people.

The results obtained are very important, since it is now possible to adapt to the operating mode of a production or company. Some managers have adjusted or are adjusting the work of their subordinates to their biological rhythm.

Uniformity of loading by the hour. Knowing the general laws of movement in nature, including the execution of planned tasks, it is advisable to work evenly. Here it is appropriate to draw an analogy with the movement of a car. Efforts, creative or physical, will have maximum effectiveness if you work throughout the day without “acceleration” and “braking.” Therefore, a practical recommendation is to load as evenly as possible by the hour.

"Compacting" the schedule. When a work plan is formulated, it is possible, and most likely certainly, that there will be some tasks left that will not be included in the schedule. In these cases, it is recommended to “condense” the schedule.

It is recommended to consider options for combining two or more cases. For example, while cleaning, putting things in order, etc., listen to a foreign language course. However, if you do several things at the same time every day, sooner or later psychological fatigue will set in. Therefore, it is recommended not to overuse this technique.

When drawing up a schedule for the coming day, it is advisable to take into account the accumulated experience of many businessmen, managers and middle managers. For example, you cannot plan more than 3-4 meetings, you can have a maximum of 10-15 telephone conversations, or 1-2 meetings, or conversations with no more than four subordinates (from 10 to 45 minutes for each conversation).

Time management

Time management as a time management system includes a number of elements that, when used, together provide a significant reduction in the time required to carry out various production processes. These elements include analysis of the use of working time, setting goals that the manager wants to achieve while using time management, planning working time, developing various methods of dealing with the causes of irrational use of time resources. However, despite such a rather coherent system of time management, one should not take it as an axiom, because each person is the only one who can solve the problem of rational use of time in the best possible way and therefore the most effective is personal time management, which in everyone individual case is individual. However, in general, you can apply the above elements of time management.

Analysis is a process that allows us to identify the irrational use of working time, its causes, and also to isolate from all the reasons the main ones that have the most adverse impact on the use of time.

Setting goals is a necessary stage in time management, during which it is necessary to answer the question of why time management is needed at all for a specific person or at a specific enterprise. Setting goals helps you further navigate which time management methods you should use and which you should not use.

Planning is a process during which a list of tasks is compiled that must be completed in a certain period of time. Working time planning has some specific features.

The development of methods to combat the causes of time loss assumes that during the preliminary analysis these causes were identified and it is necessary to eliminate them. For typical causes, there are various typical ways to combat them, but it should be remembered that each specific case is individual and individual approaches to each cause are required in each case.

Time management is a holistic structure and should be applied without excluding any of its elements. The use of time management requires that a person be creative in its use.

Reasons for lack of time

There are a large number of different factors that lead to wasted time. Some of these factors are a consequence of the manager’s illiterate actions, some occur independently of him, and some are directly related to the leader’s personality, but most of them the manager has the ability to influence or at least reduce the loss of time that occurs due to the influence of these factors. Let's consider these groups of factors.

1. Reasons that are a consequence of the manager’s illiterate actions. These include:

1) Unplanned work. It is the result of the lifestyle of not only the leader himself, but also the general lifestyle of the organization. The unplanned nature of work leads to constant breaks for various kinds of “clarifications” and clarifications necessary for the further work of various departments, divisions and individual workers. At the same time, not only those who turn to information are distracted, but also those to whom they turn for information.

2) Poorly organized exchange of information in the organization. When transmitting information, any person is always sure that its recipient is fully aware and understands its meaning, but this is not always the case. Everyone has their own frames of perception that can distort the information received. Not all modern managers have solved this problem for themselves and their employees and introduced a unified system for receiving and transmitting information at their companies. In many organizations, information exchange between departments occurs in the form of a broken phone, often in the process of informal communication. Another example of the lack of standards for transmitting information is the lack of a uniform standard for explaining the location of an organization to a client over the phone - “everyone explains as best they can.”

3) Lack of a clear distribution of work according to their degree of importance. This often results in a manager doing things that don't really matter that much first. At the same time, they spend a significant amount of time necessary to solve really important problems.

4) Performing tasks that can easily be completed by subordinates. Most often, a manager performs such tasks if he does not trust his subordinates, believing that they will be able to complete this task as well as he himself, that is, we are talking about a lack of confidence in the proper qualifications of the organization’s employees. An example is the reception of clients by the manager, and not giving any employee the authority to work with clients, personal handling of mail, and not entrusting the secretary with sorting incoming correspondence.

5) Weak work motivation. Weak labor motivation leads to low labor productivity, to a greater extent this concerns not the head of the organization, but his subordinates, however, this problem can occur in an enterprise and low labor productivity will lead to a lack of time.

2. Reasons that do not depend on the manager. Consider these factors:

1) Work with correspondence. Research shows that a manager spends 20 - 30% of his time parsing correspondence, looking through up to 100 documents a day, of which only 30 are truly needed. It is estimated that in business correspondence the volume of unnecessary information reaches 15-20%, and through all channels 30% of information comes from internal sources, and 40% from external sources.

2) A large flow of routine tasks, often urgent, the work on which takes a lot of time. Examples include such matters as the design of premises in which repairs are being carried out, the choice of furniture, the need to personally check various parameters of the organization’s activities, often due to the incompetence of subordinates or their reluctance to take responsibility when they themselves turn to the manager with “requests for help” ".

3) "Thieves of Time". “Time thieves” are unforeseen matters, most of which require urgent solutions and cannot be delegated to subordinates. All this takes a lot of time and distracts from really important things. There are many different types of "time thieves":

a) telephone calls;

b) people visiting us;

c) problems with computer equipment;

d) change in the order of work imposed by colleagues;

e) lack of organizational planning;

f) inability to listen to other people;

g) unsatisfactory organizational structure;

h) correcting errors that could have been avoided;

i) indecisiveness in business matters;

j) poorly organized and coordinated meetings;

k) distractions in the workplace;

l) excessive office bureaucracy;

m) useless discussions about your work and the work of others;

3. Reasons directly related to the personality of the leader. Consider these factors:

1) Constant rush. In a state of constant haste, the manager does not have time to focus on the task he is performing at the moment. He follows the path that first came to mind, instead of thinking about other, perhaps more rational ways to solve a given problem.

2) Constant improvements to the house. Constant improvements at home give rise to a vicious circle, when a person does not have time to complete his business and solve all problems during working hours, as a result he is forced to solve them at home at the expense of his free time, rest and personal life. A person does not have the opportunity to fully live, relax, and as a result, his productivity decreases, which leads to shortcomings and again to the need to improve the house. This vicious circle is a consequence of improperly organized working time, and it can be very difficult to break it.

3) Fussiness. Fussiness is the result of poor organization of the workday, it also depends on the impulsiveness and characteristics of the person. It’s hard for a fussy person to choose which business to take on; he often “throws around” between two things that are equally urgent and equally time-consuming to resolve; he can’t choose which one to take on, and because of this, time is wasted.

Time planning

The main method that helps to use working time effectively is time planning. Planning is the structuring of time for its most economic use in achieving any goals and objectives facing the manager or organization. Planning can be long-term, medium-term and short-term.

The main advantage achieved by scheduling work is that planning saves time. Experience shows that increasing the time spent on planning ultimately leads to saving time overall.

Obviously, the time spent on planning cannot increase indefinitely; there is an optimum, after which further increase in planning time becomes ineffective. You should not spend more than 1% of your total planning time on planning.

Planning is always carried out based on goals. The basis for any planning is a long-term goal or long-term goals. Based on long-term goals, medium-term and short-term goals are set. This happens as follows: based on the goals of life or the mission of the organization, a number of subgoals are identified, the achievement of which should contribute to the achievement of the main goal of life. These are long-term goals. Each of these goals identifies a number of subgoals, preferably on a temporary basis (to be implemented in the coming years), the achievement of which should contribute to the achievement of long-term goals. In the same way, based on goals for the year, goals for the month, decade, and day are distinguished. Next, an analysis is made of the strengths and weaknesses of the person or organization that may be relevant to achieving the goals. This is done to encourage strengths and work on weaknesses. This analysis serves as the basis for medium- and short-term planning.

The planning process itself consists of formulating results and setting deadlines for achieving them. Results must be consistent with goals. In this case, it is advisable to follow some planning rules.

1. Planning should be done in writing. For the plan to be more than just a list of things that need to be done in a day, it is also worth making it a motivating tool - focusing it on results. This is one of the strong motivating tools.

2. The results of the previous analysis of the use of working time should be taken into account. In the process of this analysis, errors inherent in a given manager in planning his working time and ways to neutralize the consequences of these errors are identified.

3. You should not plan your entire working day. It is believed that you should plan no more than 60% of your time, and leave 40% unplanned: 20% unforeseen time and 20% spontaneous time.

4. It is necessary to establish clear time standards for completing tasks and solving problems that would not allow for the completion of unfinished work and the solution of unsolved issues at an unplanned time. If these matters and issues were to be resolved at the scheduled time. Practice shows that on any task, exactly as much time is spent as is available, therefore, clear time frames should be established that would allow the necessary to be completed, and at the same time not exceed the time required for completion.

5. To resolve the issue of reassigning cases, cases should be divided according to the degree of their urgency and importance. At the same time, the most urgent and important tasks should be solved by the manager immediately. Important, but not urgent, can be postponed, while the remaining 2 categories of cases (unimportant, but urgent and unimportant and not urgent) should be transferred to subordinates for resolution. Non-urgent tasks should be ranked according to the time required for each of them, and when free time appears, you can start reducing this list - for this it is advisable to always have it at hand.

6. Plans should be regularly reviewed, since in view of the constant change in the environment, it may turn out that some plans of the organization's management and manager will no longer correspond to the goals of the organization and will accordingly need to be adjusted.

7. Plans must be realistic and consistent, and consistent not only with each other, but also with the plans of colleagues, subordinates, and higher levels of management.

CONCLUSION

This work examined one of the pressing problems of modern managers: effective planning and use of working time.

In the information age, it is increasingly difficult to keep up with everything, and this is very important for any leader. Today the price of time is becoming more valuable than money. Managing an organization or a small department, or simply working, carrying out assignments, and at the same time fully devoting time to family and recreation is the task of any manager.

I really want to do everything: get work done, sleep, and communicate with family and friends. When we are in a hurry, fussing, time flies unnoticed, so it is necessary to plan and use it correctly. After all, time is an irreversible resource of our life. But, unfortunately, many, realizing that there is not enough time, do not want to change anything.

At one time, Nietzsche said that “a person who cannot spend more than 16 hours a day on himself personally should be called a slave.”

Time is a specific resource that is irreversible. It goes away, so its effective use is important, especially at today's pace of life.

This problem is of great practical importance, both for managers and for any person.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Arkhangelsky G. Organization of time: from personal effectiveness to company development. – M.: AiST-M, 2003. – 455 p.

2. Vesnin V. R. Fundamentals of management. - M.: "Elite-2000", 2001. – 472 p.

3. Vikhansky O. S., Naumov A. I. Management. – M.: Gardariki, 2003. 528 pp.

4. Gamidullaev B.N. Saving time and indicators for its evaluation in enterprise management processes. – Penza, 2000. – 253 p.

5. Gerchikova I. N. Management. – M.: UNITY, Banks and exchanges, 1994. 480 pp.

6. Zavelsky M.G. Economics and sociology of labor. – M.: Logos, 2001. – 208 p.

7. Richard L. Daft. Management. – St. Petersburg: Peter, 2001. – 832 p.

8. Travin V.V., Dyatlov V.A. Enterprise personnel management: Educational and practical work. allowance. – M.: Delo, 2002. – 272 p.

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Who among us has not wondered what is the greatest value? Quite often, opinions differ on this matter. Some believe it is information, others believe it is time. Despite the fact that modern society has enough opportunities to save time, for some reason there is just not enough time. And the thoughts immediately come to mind: “Why is technological progress playing a cruel joke?”, “How to have time to do everything and do it well?”, “How to distribute and plan your day in order to at least partially relieve yourself?” Everything is very simple. You just need to learn how to plan your time correctly.

Rules to follow if you want to do everything

To keep up with everything and have time to relax, you should:

• develop a specific plan;
• prioritize matters that are minor in importance, without leaving them for later;
• do not waste working time on unnecessary things;
• analyze completed tasks daily;
• depending on the importance, correctly distribute priorities;
• to keep order;
• develop the willpower to follow new habits.

How to learn to plan your day: stages of planning a manager's time

It seems that it is not difficult to correctly distribute working time and determine the sequence of daily work, however, not everyone can do this. If thoughts come to mind about how to do important things on time and not get tired, it is important to learn how to plan and manage time correctly. A properly drawn up daily routine plan plays an important role here.

Do not forget about such an important factor as limited time. Time cannot be stopped, changed, or returned, which means the same applies to work, business, and our lives in general.

There are the following stages of working time planning:

• developing discipline (learning to control your day is an important task for a successful leader);
• determining the degree of importance of matters (it is allowed to plan no more than 3 urgent matters per day);
• rational distribution of tasks into important, urgent, easy, simple, insignificant;
• drawing up a step-by-step work plan;
• getting rid of simple, small, easy tasks that take less than 10 minutes to complete (unloading the next days);
• the manager’s refusal to do activities that “steal” time (watching TV series, spending many hours communicating on social networks, hanging out with friends);
• determination of each thing in the house and at work its place;
• getting rid of work trash (10 minutes a day is enough to sort through documents and throw away unnecessary things);
• choosing a hobby for leisure.

In order not to lose friends and properly save time, you need to follow the rule: visit pages on social networks 2 times a week, set aside weekends to meet with friends, plan personal meetings in advance, reduce the time of “empty” telephone conversations to 15 minutes a day.

How to make a work plan

Fruitful planning is possible if you adhere to the following sequence of work:

1. Determine goals and objectives on the basis of which to develop a work plan. It can be short-term (for a week) or long-term (for a month, quarter, year).

Attention: A successful leader cannot deviate one step from the plan. You can make adjustments to it, for example, swap tasks, days of important meetings, plan events at a different time, but under no circumstances should you radically change them.

1. Distribute tasks and determine deadlines for their completion. It is important to learn to first carry out tasks that have a limited time frame and those that require a lot of effort. You can then plan for mid-term tasks and work that requires standard functions. Low-value work should be done last.

1. Mandatory marking of urgent matters that arose on the eve of execution in your diary or calendar (allows the manager to manage to do everything on time, without missing important points).

1. Analysis of all tasks, reducing the list of tasks (as far as possible).

To unload your day, it is important:

1. Follow the limitation of completing tasks: no more than 3 urgent ones, no more than 10 in total per day.
2. When planning, adhere to completing complex tasks at a more favorable time, preferably in the first half of the day, and performing easy tasks at the end of the work shift.
3. Do not carry out the next job without completing the previous one (it is important to plan tasks step by step, completing those previously agreed upon).
4. Do not leave unfinished tasks, do not postpone them to the next working day.
5. If there are still unfulfilled tasks, it is recommended to make a note about them in the calendar of important tasks, where you especially note them. If the same task “lives” stably in the diary for several days in a row, it is worth thinking about how to refuse it or simply transfer it to another person performing it.

Secrets of rational planning

You can plan your day correctly by:

• assessing the work plan, adjusting tasks, creating a daily routine;
• monitoring the execution of tasks, eliminating the simultaneous performance of several tasks (otherwise there is a risk of low productivity);
• completion of started tasks;
• eliminating obstacles that prevent the manager from completing assigned tasks, distract attention, and affect plans;
• alternating work with rest;
• time planning analysis;
• continuous improvement of your work results.

Secrets of saving time for a manager

1. It is important to combine similar tasks, for example, combine negotiations, sort out correspondence, answer emails.
2. Creating a calm environment is equally important. This is necessary so that nothing distracts you from your work.
3. Limiting your working time will help you avoid unproductive results from business meetings.
4. The ability to prioritize is an important indicator of rationality and consistency of affairs, which affects the achievement of set goals.
5. Doing exceptionally important things allows a manager to achieve high performance in his work.
6. Distributing tasks among employees will help save a significant amount of time.
7. Step-by-step work is no less important. It is much easier to move towards your goal if you climb the ladder, starting with small things and reaching great heights.
8. Keeping a diary of important tasks will help eliminate the overlap of some tasks with others, and the accumulation of tasks at the end of the month.
9. It is better to make important decisions in the morning. This way you can create a feeling of success throughout your working day.
10. When making plans and schedules, it is important to take into account the true level of ability to work, since it is this that affects the final result of the work.