Time management in modern society. Why people don't have enough time and how to learn to keep up with everything. Basic rules for effective management of a temporary resource. Time management is the ability to control the amount of time spent on certain activities, manage it wisely, analyze the effectiveness of your work and find additional resources, thereby increasing productivity. Such skills give a person the opportunity not only to keep up with the planned activities, but to do it efficiently and have fun. The science that studies the process of planning and managing one's own or someone else's time resource is called time management.
The need for time management
The issue of time management at the state level arose and began to be seriously studied in Russia back in the 1920s. Various theories and methods of increasing the efficiency of activity were proposed, including by organizing the personal effectiveness of each individual person.
In the 70s of the twentieth century, the idea was introduced that the personal time management system should be based on the effective thinking of the individual, which needs to be developed. Only in 2007 a department of time management appeared in one of the Moscow universities. On the one hand, time is not a limitless resource, so it is not surprising that we often lack it. But, on the other hand, for everyone in the day the amount of time is the same. So why, at the same cost, some manage to do much more than others, and as a result get a higher result? It's not about the number of hours, but the efficiency of their use.
Many people are mistaken in thinking that time management is necessary only for managers at work and people who pathologically do nothing. In fact, everyone must learn the art of managing their time in order to be successful not only in work, but also in life. The task of time management is not to drive you into some kind of framework. On the contrary, planning allows you to expand this framework, since you yourself do not notice how much time, if spent correctly, can be freed up. To master the science of time management, it will take some weeks for someone, and months for others. It all depends on several factors:
- Strength of will … Without this character trait, in principle, it is difficult to achieve any results. Therefore, if something did not work out the first time, there is no need to give up. You need to figure out why it didn't work out and do it again.
- Previous planning skills … If a person knows how to plan some of his actions, for example, shopping, recreation, holding events, then he should be familiar with the basic principles of planning. In this case, it will be easier for him to learn how to manage time than for someone who lives impromptu all his life. Nevertheless, nothing is impossible for the second category of people, it just may take a little longer.
- Support … How often does a person do something for the company: starts or quits smoking, goes to the gym, attends any events. It is very important to have support from loved ones. Therefore, if the whole team or the whole family make a decision to comprehend the art of time management, then the result will be achieved much faster.
Taboo when planning your time
Before learning how to manage your time, you need to analyze what it takes 24 hours. Having scribbled at least one of your day in hours and minutes, you can see that most of the precious resource is wasted.
Let's consider the main taboos in time management:
- Long sleep … You can't go anywhere - you need to sleep so that you have the strength to effectively spend the rest of the time. Healthy sleep is 8 hours. But sleeping before lunch is an unwise time management.
- Telephone conversations … The phone both saves and wastes your time. On the one hand, information can be received or transmitted as quickly as possible. But, on the other hand, empty talk sometimes takes away most of the day.
- Watching TV and playing games … Of course, you need to rest, and everyone understands the meaning of this word in their own way. But watching the next series or a new "shooter" will not be able to charge with new strength, nor be of any use.
- Bad habits … People with unhealthy habits such as smoking take a lot of time during the day to take smoke breaks. It would seem that drinking a cup of coffee or smoking is a matter of 2-3 minutes, but our day consists of these minutes.
Everyone can find a few more points in their routine, where they spend their time, and try to remove them from their lives, or at least reduce them. The sooner a person understands this, the sooner he learns to value and spend his time wisely.
Advice! There is no need to regret the time that has passed. This is a completely useless exercise, since it will not come back. It is better to learn from now on not to allow its useless waste.
Features of teaching time management
There are various techniques that teach the basics of time management. A lot of thematic information on this issue can be found on the Internet. But it's better when a professional will share the secrets with you. The increased demand for the study of this issue creates a supply. And today in our country, literature is printed in large quantities and various trainings on time management are held.
Training is one of the teaching methods that allows you to acquire the necessary knowledge, skills and abilities through direct practical training. Its huge advantage is that the student not only perceives any stated information, but can also immediately apply the knowledge gained in practice. There is live communication with the coach and with a group of like-minded people.
Despite the fact that the basic principles of time management are the same, trainings can be structured in different ways. Each trainer determines for himself how it will be easier for him to convey his experience to the trained audience. Time management classes offer a number of rules or activities that should be followed to help develop the ability to manage time.
But you need to understand that the trip to the training itself, even if it is conducted by a highly qualified specialist, without efforts on its part will be useless. Planning, dividing plans into important and not so important, urgent and delayed - all this will have to be done on your own.
Another more accessible way to get information on how to manage life and time is specialized literature. Many books have been written on this topic by both foreign and domestic authors. Many of them are lead trainers, so you can familiarize yourself with the material before attending the relevant training. The advantage of the book over the training session is the lower price, the ability to read it at a convenient time and re-read it, make notes.
Popular books in 2016 that tell you how to effectively manage time are:
- "Maximum concentration". Written by Lucy Joe Palladino;
- "An easy way to stop procrastinating." Written by Neil Fiore;
- "Muse and the Beast". Written by Yana Frank;
- "Essentialism". Written by Greg McKeon;
- "How to put things in order." Written by David Allen;
- Time Drive. Author Gleb Arkhangelsky;
- “365 days of a creative person. Diary ". Written by Yana Frank;
- "Good year. Marketer's weekly ". Posted by Igor Mann;
- “How to work 4 hours a week”. Written by Tim Ferris;
- "The Art of Keeping Up". Written by Alan Lacaine.
Basic rules for effective time management
If a person took the first step, saw the problem of improper planning of his time and wants to solve it in the near future, then it is necessary to comprehend some secrets of time management. The following guidelines will guide you on how to properly manage your time.
Elimination of "cases-parasites"
The challenge is to analyze your day, scheduling it in as much detail as possible. It is necessary to write down not only useful deeds that have been completed. This should also include rest, communication, and other activities. Now you need to mark those points that could save time without any damage. These are "parasite cases" that steal precious minutes. To exclude all useless activities, you need to analyze more than one of your days, but the result will not be long in coming. Spending a week on your to-do list can save you a lot more time in the future by cutting out unnecessary things from your schedule.
Scheduling a schedule
By eliminating "parasite cases" from your schedule, you can start rational time planning. Successful people constantly plan their time, thus increasing the productivity of their activities.
Planning should not be done in your head, but on paper. It doesn't matter if it is a leather-bound diary or an ordinary piece of paper. It is necessary to write the cases in order of their importance. If a new task arises during the day, it should also be written into your plan, taking into account the priority in relation to the previously planned. Completed cases should be deleted from the list. This gives strength and stimulates to fruitful activity.
Planning should be from more to less. From plans for the year, smoothly move to plans for every day. Specific deadlines should be set for each task.
In time management training, coaches often recommend drawing a tree as the embodiment of the main big goal. The branches extending from it are small tasks that need to be solved on the way to achieving it. Each branch can branch many times until the tasks are divided into small, clear and understandable ones. Of course, drawing trees when planning for every day is not necessary, but visualizing your plan is worth it. There is a 10/90 rule in time management. It is phrased as follows: 10% of the time you spend scheduling a task will save 90% of the time it takes to complete it.
Building willpower
It is not enough to learn how to properly plan your time. It is necessary to follow the outlined plan. But it often happens that in the morning you got up with a sore head and did not want to do exercises; came home from work tired and did not go to courses; your favorite movie is on TV, and you've rescheduled the appointment. Organizing your day begins with organizing yourself. If at first it is difficult to sacrifice watching your favorite show, you can watch it by putting the TV on in the kitchen and preparing dinner at this time. If you don't feel like doing your planned run in the morning in the drizzling rain, you can take your music player with you and your mood will rise. There is no need to abandon the planned cases, it is worth looking for a compromise and fulfilling them with pleasure.
Prioritization
The most difficult part of the art of managing your time is to prioritize correctly, highlighting the main goal and the secondary ones. This allows you to correctly arrange tasks in the list.
Having identified the main tasks, it is necessary to analyze what consequences will occur if they are completed or not completed on time. If you correctly highlight the main thing, then you can see that the violation of the deadlines for the implementation of the main task will have serious consequences.
The most important and difficult things are best done in the morning. During these hours, the brain is rested, consciousness is clear, attention is maximally concentrated. There are situations when less time is planned to complete a task than is actually spent for reasons beyond the control of a person. Therefore, if you plan important things for the afternoon, they may not be done in time, as a result of which serious consequences will ensue.
All cases can be conditionally divided into four groups: urgent and important; important but not urgent; urgent but not important; not urgent and not very important. It is recommended to enter things into your diary in the following order:
- important and urgent;
- urgent but less important;
- important but not urgent;
- other.
According to one of the rules of time management (Pareto rule 20/80), correct prioritization can save up to 80% of resources. It is formulated as follows: 20% of the activities spent on the main tasks, bring 80% of the effectiveness; in turn, 80% of the activity spent on the implementation of insignificant tasks will bring only 20% of the result. This again suggests that it is necessary to be able to highlight the important and discard the unnecessary.
Determination of terms of work
To develop the ability to manage time, you need to set clear deadlines for each task. Otherwise, it can be postponed indefinitely. Having a specific deadline for completing a task, a person strives to be in time. This is evidenced by the increased productivity of students the day before the session, this example is often given during training sessions. Sometimes it is useful to set such deadlines on your own in order to concentrate as much as possible on the completion of the task, to mobilize all your potential. Don't overuse experiments with deadlines. This can lead to overstrain, loss of strength and other negative consequences. In turn, doing the work as it comes in will help save not only time, but also energy. If all the minor difficulties that arise on the way to the main goal are solved as they come, then they do not have time to turn into a snowball of insoluble problems. If all the tasks have been completed, but the strength and time allow you to cope with the additional task, then there is no need to postpone it. Having done the task today, scheduled for tomorrow, a person will be sure that he will have time to complete all the activities planned for the next day. You should not postpone the completion of cases started today and not completed within the deadline set for yourself. Any task is solved faster, as long as you are focused on it. Postponing the completion of work until tomorrow, a person forces himself to re-tune and focus on it, and this is time-consuming.
Delegation and automation
There is no need to be afraid of help. Moreover, if there is an opportunity to entrust the execution of any tasks to another person, it must be used. Not always a good result can be achieved only on your own. It is more profitable to spend time teaching another person a certain task once, than to constantly do it yourself. Especially if it is not included in the category of the main ones. Thus, the freed up time can be spent on more important tasks.
Automation of certain processes plays an equally important role in the process of effective time management: automatic sorting of email notifications, automatic regular payments, and so on. Anything that can work without your participation saves additional time.
Full rest
You need to plan not only your working time, but also your rest. Moreover, many experts recommend starting from this point to start filling out your diary. Without proper rest, a person cannot work productively, so this component of success must not be forgotten.
Some people, in an effort to be in time as much as possible, deliberately deny themselves all the pleasures, trying to spend every minute on business. As a result, productivity drops because a tired person cannot concentrate and make quick and wise decisions.
Rest should be complete. When spending time with family or friends, you need to enjoy communication, and not think over new business schemes or a meeting plan with a partner in your head. And this will not help the cause, and it will provoke discontent of close people. How to manage time - look at the video:
The ability to manage your time allows a person to be successful and happy. Therefore, it will not be superfluous to comprehend this art not only for the head, but also for the housewife. In different sources, you can count a different number of methods, techniques and rules for effective time management, but they all boil down to the same principles: competent planning and prioritization. Having mastered the basics of this science, everyone will be able to formulate their own rules on how to manage life and time.
