How to succeed?
Every day, we can spend more than 70% of our time unproductively, constantly postponing important things for later and being distracted by various trifles. Disorganization deprives us of career growth, academic success and other areas of life. Learn to plan your day so that you can do everything and spend more time the way you want.
The modern pace of life makes us run with all our might just to stay in place. The moment we realized this, it was time for time management.
Time management is a technique for the most efficient use of time, involving the ability to analyze tasks, set priorities, and control the achievement of goals.
Today, when time is an exhaustible and scarce resource, a huge number of employees of leading companies around the world are trained in its methods. Now there are dozens of effective techniques, tips and even applications that will help you manage your time and spend it usefully.
How to plan your time and do everything: tips
How do truly successful people differ from others? How much they succeed. Remember all the presidents, public figures, artists, athletes who won in serious competitions. The success of each of them is comparable to how much they did daily. We share tips on how to improve the situation if you do not have time to do anything.
Understand where you are comfortable planning
Perhaps the best tools for you so far are a notepad and a pen. For some, these are exel tables on a computer, someone likes a Google calendar. In recent years, dozens of applications have appeared for maintaining a to-do list for both the day and the month, setting goals for the year, etc. Some of them remind you of things to do, others allow you to track the amount of time it took to complete a task. Among the proven options are Google Tasks, Any.do or Trello.
Plan in the evening
Sketch out things in general terms, you don’t need to write about everything in detail. In the morning it will be possible to revise, supplement with what was forgotten the day before, deal with what lies ahead. Write down even small tasks: they can unexpectedly take up half a day and cause delays and missed deadlines. In addition, you will have an overall picture of your activities. For example, you spent the whole day answering letters, but did not have time to complete an important project. You will be able to figure out what went wrong.
Prioritize
Define criteria of importance and prioritize. Do what is important to you, what needs to be done to achieve your goals, what needs to be done now. Sweep away useless things that do not bring pleasure. Ruthlessly put off non-urgent tasks that just seem easier and more attractive to you. Do the most boring, difficult, but important things first. After that, with a clear conscience, move on to more enjoyable tasks. Don’t forget to reward yourself for accomplishing your goals: buy a new book, watch a new movie at the cinema, have a cup of tea at your favorite cafe, etc.
Use the 1-3-5 rule
Plan for a day one large task that takes a lot of time, 3 medium and five small ones. Sometimes we feel like we need to do everything at once. So, how much we would not like to do, everything has limits, including our forces. Perhaps for some period of time it will be possible to work 14 hours a day, but then the body will definitely give up.
It is better to distribute the load evenly: as a rule, to achieve something you need to run a marathon, not a hundred meters. You will not be happy if you leave the race too soon.
Celebrity Tips
Benjamin Franklin technique
As the son of an artisan and working part-time at his brother’s printing house, he became a leading publicist, scholar and diplomat. He went down in history as a person who participated in the creation of the most important historical documents. Until now, in the United States, it is seen on 100-dollar bills.
Even in his youth, he created the pyramid of productivity – his time management algorithm. At the base of the pyramid are the life principles that guide you. Then came global, life goals, followed by strategies to achieve them, that is, master plans. In the middle of the pyramid were long-term plans for 3-4 years, and at the very top, plans for a year. In Franklin’s notebook, 13 pages were allotted for the foundation, and every day in his diary, he wrote about what he succeeded and what did not work out.
The Stephen Covey Method
Stephen Covey has become a world-renowned management expert and has written best-selling books. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People was written back in 1989, and 15 years later it gained popularity.
Kovey says that it is very important to constantly improve yourself, to talk about your life position. In addition, success is gained by those who strive for mutually beneficial activities. He draws attention to the fact that you need to have a clear idea of the ultimate goal, be able to listen and prioritize.
A simple chart borrowed from the 34th President of the United States will help you prioritize. All tasks are divided into groups. These are urgent and important, not urgent but important, urgent but not important, not urgent and not important.
Successful people do Type 1 and Type 3 tasks first, then Type 2 tasks and eliminate or delegate all others. At the same time, they spend most of their energy on not urgent, but important things, since most often it is they who set the vector of movement.
Gleb Arkhangelsky’s method
Coach, experts in the field of time management, Gleb Arkhangelsky talks about possible techniques in the most accessible way and adapts them to modern realities.
Firstly, according to Gleb Arkhangelsky, you need to eat the Frog, that is, do a boring task in the morning. Then they will not strain the rest of the day, and things will gradually come in order. Secondly, you need to make "anchors", that is, to tie music, spaces, light, etc. to some processes. This will help you quickly tune in to solving any problems or start relaxing without thinking about work.
Third, eat the elephant piece by piece. We are often intimidated by the scale, so it’s worth breaking big tasks into small ones.