Time management or time management is becoming more and more popular. This area of knowledge allows you to optimize the working day, make it more eventful and productive. Using the basic principles of time management, you can free up a few hours for what is really important for the business: communication with your family, recreation and travel.
You need to understand that time as such cannot be managed, a person controls himself, correctly planning the day and optimizing his activities. Therefore, time management is, first of all, the art of managing your discipline and motivation.
All tasks
First, you need to identify all the tasks that you need to deal with. It doesn't matter if it takes five minutes or a few days. It is necessary to accurately determine the scope of work. This is the primary task from which almost all modern time management concepts are based.
Take a piece of paper or a computer and write down all the things that come to mind. The tasks then need to be categorized into three categories: fast, medium, and long. Fast tasks include all tasks that can be completed in 20-60 minutes, medium - in a week, long - in a month or more.
List medium and long tasks into sub-points. The more detailed the decomposition is performed, the more chances you will successfully cope with the goal.
Priorities
One of the most important problems in time management is prioritizing well. You are unlikely to be able to do absolutely everything, so you should choose the really important tasks and focus on completing them. Number all goals in descending order of importance.
Then put the list aside and come back to it in half an hour. Reconsider your priorities carefully, maybe something will change. Choose one main goal on which you should focus the most attention and 6-8 additional ones, which are also very important to you.
Planning
Usually, planning takes place a week in advance, but you can choose your own periodization (for example, for a day, for three days, or for a month). First, write down all the "hard things" from your to-do list. That is, such things that must be completed at a strictly defined time. For example, go to a Wednesday meeting at 5pm.
Then write down the tasks that you just need to complete on a specific day. This may include training, preparation for classes, and reporting. For them, you also need to specify the execution time, just not strict, but approximate. For example, go to the gym from 8 to 10 pm on Wednesday.
The last point is tasks that do not require strict binding. Sometimes they are called "contextual", that is, things that are performed depending on the location. This can include reading books in traffic or buying groceries at the store.
Time killers
If you really do not have enough time, then for sure you often do unnecessary things and do not notice it. For example, instead of preparing a report, you are talking on the phone. To identify such killers, you can use the following method.
Take a piece of paper, break it into 15 minute intervals, and constantly write down what you did in each time period. For example, from 14:00 to 14:15 I was drinking tea with a colleague. This way, you can identify and eliminate the main time killers, as well as determine how long you actually worked.
