Time management planning examples. Time management for the week: step-by-step plan

If you are constantly short of time, then most likely you are simply spending it irrationally and not paying enough attention to planning it. Learn to manage your time correctly with the help of specialized computer programs and online services.

The pace of development of the modern world has been accelerating over the past hundred years... Accordingly, the rhythm of life of an ordinary person is increasing. Many of us work most of the day, then run home, somehow cope with everyday household chores and go to bed, only to repeat it all again the next day...

It’s also good if you manage to allocate at least some time on the weekend to engage in your favorite hobby or just have a good rest. Many of us fail to do this, since the weekends are devoted to solving everyday problems. That is, we are experiencing a total lack of time!

However, if you look from the other side and analyze at least a couple of your everyday days (or better yet, weeks), it turns out that we spend most of our time not on completing tasks for the boss, not on the way from/to work, or even on household chores , but for various, essentially meaningless things!

Useless conversations in the “smoking room”, browsing social networks or just aimlessly sitting in place - these are all the things that take away our precious time, which we could spend usefully for business or our body!

If you constantly feel a lack of time and have seriously decided to do something about it, I suggest you learn rational time management using modern computer technologies!

A little about the theory of time management

The history of domestic time management begins in the 20s of the last century, when, under the conditions of the new economic policy, the concept of “scientific organization of labor” (SLO) appeared. Its main goal was to optimize the working day of workers with maximum benefit for production and minimal stress on people.

Over the entire period of development of NOT, many different schemes and principles have been developed, however, almost all of them boil down to the fact that all tasks and the time spent on their implementation must be carefully planned. The general algorithm for such planning can be presented as a step-by-step diagram:

Based on this scheme, before taking on any business, you should first analyze all possible ways of its successful completion. Then define goals and break down the entire process of implementing your plans into small tasks. Only after carefully planning everything and choosing the most successful algorithm of actions can you start doing the work.

An important point is also the final monitoring of the implementation of assigned tasks. Thanks to control, you can analyze your time costs and, perhaps, in the future, when performing similar work, optimize your labor costs even more.

Today there are quite a few time management techniques. However, in essence, they all come down to one of three main ones, which differ in the principles of the approach: the “Eisenhower Matrix”, the “Timekeeping” technique or the “Pomodoro” method. I propose to consider each of the methods and select programs for their implementation.

This planning technique got its name in honor of the American president and famous military figure Dwight Eisenhower, who knew how to manage his time quite successfully.

The Matrix is ​​based on the principle formulated by the late 19th century Italian sociologist Vilfredo Pareto that only 20% of all efforts produce 80% of the results (also known as the 20/80 principle). Eisenhower slightly revised the Pareto principle and made it more utilitarian, sorting his affairs in the field of a similar graph according to their degree of urgency and importance:

The matrix is ​​a regular coordinate system, where horizontally we display the importance of things, and vertically their urgency. The intersection of these two axes divides the sheet plane into 4 parts, different in priority level:

1. Important and urgent matters. This category includes those tasks that require solutions as quickly as possible and are important in your field of activity. For example, this could include things like calling clients, completing current projects, etc.
2. Important but not urgent matters. In this section you will have tasks that are important for your work in general, but their execution is not urgent. For example, these could be tasks that are regularly repeated or planned for the near future.
3. Not important, but urgent matters. Here you may have matters of secondary importance that have virtually no bearing on your work or do not affect its results, but require our prompt response. For example, you need to congratulate a colleague on his birthday, meet an aunt from Bobruisk who suddenly came to visit, or buy bread on the way home.
4. Not important or urgent matters. The most extensive section of activities that do not in any way affect the results of our work are not urgent, but “devour” the lion’s share of our time. These are meaningless conversations, and unsystematic wandering on the Internet, and useless computer games and a lot of other things that we really want to do, but they are of little use.

Thus, using the principle of Occam's razor, you can identify only the most important and urgent tasks that will bring real benefits to the business you are doing. You will learn to limit other activities that are not urgent and important over time, respectively, getting more time at your disposal for productive activities.

If you decide to use this planning method, then a program called Chronometer can help you with this:

This program does not require installation, so it can be launched from any media, but on some systems (for example, Windows XP) it cannot automatically create a database. If you encounter such a problem, simply create an empty text document and rename it, changing the extension from txt to sqlite. Or just download the finished file from our website. Specify the downloaded file as the program database and everything will work.

When the program starts, you can create your first to-do list and tasks for it. Please note that each task can be marked as important and/or urgent, and you can also set deadlines for it. This is necessary so that the Chronometer can automatically sort all tasks in the form of an Eisenhower matrix:

As you can see, the matrix representation here is slightly different from what we discussed above, but the principle is the same. The coordinate axes are simply swapped. By looking at the matrix, you can quickly decide on your priorities and complete important and urgent tasks as quickly as possible, so that you can move on to unimportant and not urgent ones :)

Timing

If you like to do everything thoroughly and consistently, perhaps a technique called “Timekeeping” will suit you. This technique became famous in the USSR in the 70s thanks to D. Granin’s book “This Strange Life”.

“Timekeeping” is based on the principle of recording all actions performed by a person over a certain period of time (optimally two weeks). At the end of each day, a person must conduct a current analysis of the work done and identify those actions that take away time but do not provide practical benefit.

At the end of the two-week observation, a general analysis is performed. As a result, we have two benefits. Firstly, we get complete information about how our time is spent, identify its main “eaters” and see where we can save it. Secondly, during the period of observation we learn self-discipline and develop the right sense of working rhythm.

You can record your actions in any way convenient for you: on paper, in a text document on a PC, in a phone notebook, or even using a voice recorder. However, if you have access to the Internet, it is best to do this using special services, like Time-Master.ru

This service is a kind of online organizer in which you can record any of your already completed actions and tasks that have yet to be completed.

By default, the "Working Day" tab is open, where you can enter all current actions (in the terminology of the service - "Events") and tasks. To enter, you can use the “Schedule” tab (all data is entered using a pop-up window as in the screenshot above) or use a simplified entry type in the “Diary” tab.

In addition to the current day, you can also plan goals for longer periods of time using the Calendar tab (monthly or weekly). It is convenient to monitor completed actions using the “Tasks” and “Diary” tabs:

The service is quite powerful and functional, so if you decide to use it, it is advisable to read the presentation that will be shown to you after registration. Otherwise, you risk losing the opportunity to use many useful features!

Pomodoro method

For the most impatient and those who can’t stand tedious planning, there is another time management technology - the Pomodoro method (or “Pomodoro”, to use the original terminology)!

The method received its name in honor of a kitchen timer in the form of a vegetable of the same name (these were popular in the 80s in Europe and America). And it was invented by the then Italian university student Francesco Cirillo.

The essence of the method is that you formulate a current task for yourself (“Pomodoro”) and set a timer for 25 minutes. During this time you must have time to complete the assigned task. After completing one pomodoro, you have a short break of 3 - 5 minutes, and after completing 4 - a long break of 15 - 30 minutes.

The Pomodoro Method, for all its simplicity, allows those who use it to have maximum self-discipline. After all, 25 minutes is not so much, but you definitely need to meet the deadline :)

Due to the ease of implementation, there are quite a lot of programs and services that use this particular method for time management. True, most of them are English-speaking. However, there are also Russians. I propose to consider some of them.

Pomodoro for Windows

There is a small free program for PC called Tomighty:

This is the development of Italian programmers, but it is almost completely Russified and quite easy to use.

After installing and launching it, a small tomato-shaped icon appears in the tray, which can be left-clicked to start the timer or right-clicked to access the context menu with settings.

By the way, about the settings. In the first tab you can change the default time intervals, and in the second I recommend unchecking the “Hide window automatically” option and activating the ability to drag the timer window (“Allow dragging the window around”). Now everything is ready and you can open the main window and start the timer itself:

Tomighty will be displayed on top of all windows and notify you of task start and end events with sounds. During operation, the timer will tick. If this annoys you, simply disable this option in the settings on the “Sounds” tab.

Upon completion of one "pomodoro" the program will ask you to take a break - agree :) Rest for 5 minutes and go back to work. When you complete 4 tasks, take a long pause of half an hour, after which the timer will start counting down the next 4 “pomodoros” again.

Pomodoro for Android

Due to the mobility of the Android system, there are the most different timers for it. Just go to Google.Play and enter the word "Pomodoro" in the search bar to verify this.

Unfortunately, due to the fact that I have an old version of Android on my phone, I was able to test only two applications of this kind (and both were in English). And I would call the best of them Simple Pomodoro:

After launching the application, we are taken to a screen with a timer. If you tap on it, your device will go into lock mode and a 25-minute countdown will be displayed on it in full screen. If you press the Back button, you can either turn off the timer or switch it to the background to perform other actions.

In addition to the main screen with a timer, Simple Pomodoro has two more screens: task scheduler (swipe right from the default screen) and statistics (swipe left). In planner mode, you can not only create tasks in the application, but also import them from Google Calendar!

As with all similar programs, Simple Pomodoro has settings that are available in the menu on the statistics screen or by pressing the "Menu" system button:

In these settings, you can change the time intervals for task completion and rest, set sounds, blocking parameters and other parameters.

Pomodoro online

If your work involves a computer and you have constant access to the Internet, then the Russian-language Pomodorka service would be an ideal choice for time management:

This service is not just a timer that you can turn on whenever you want, but a tool focused on solving specific problems! To use Pomodoro, after registration you need to go to the “Tasks” section and set at least one goal for yourself, and then send it for completion and go to the “Timer” section:

The newly created task should appear in the list and to start the timer for it, you just need to click on the “Play” button. In the running timer mode, you have the opportunity to pause or complete the current task ahead of schedule, which many analogues do not have. You can control your performance in the “Statistics” section.

If you need to change the standard timer intervals, you can do this using the "Customize Pomodoro" link in the lower left corner of the page.

It should be said that the Pomodorka service is quite young and is actively developing, so it may soon acquire some additional functions that its large English-language counterparts have (for example, synchronizing to-dos with Google Calendar or importing/exporting task lists and statistics).

So it is quite possible that we will have at our disposal a worthy domestic answer to “foreign tomatoes”, which will be completely free (at least that’s what the author says)!

conclusions

I would like to end our article today with one anecdote:

How many psychologists does it take to change a light bulb?
- One is enough if the light bulb is ready to change!

The situation is similar with time management. If you have seriously decided to start organizing the waste of your own time, then it does not matter which method or program you choose for this - you will achieve success in any case.

However, if there is no special desire to self-discipline, then no matter what you choose, it will not be of any use. Therefore, before looking for a miracle program for time management, ask yourself whether you are ready to change. If the answer is yes, then go ahead! I wish you to spend all your time as rationally and profitably as possible!

P.S. Permission is granted to freely copy and quote this article, provided that an open active link to the source is indicated and the authorship of Ruslan Tertyshny is preserved.

The article brought to your attention will not touch upon the basics of time management, methods of dividing tasks into primary and secondary ones, principles of organizing working time, etc. Enough has already been written about this, and I can’t give better advice than reading specialized books on time management (primarily those presented on this site). The purpose of this article is to familiarize yourself with a very specific system of recording and organizing time that I myself use.

The proposed system for recording and organizing time was developed during 2004. The diary began in February 2004, and this practice continues to this day. Gradually, the system underwent some changes, was trimmed and adapted to current tasks. Today, she has finally gained enough slenderness and strength for me to risk bringing her to the public court. I hope that the proposed system will be useful for people who want to establish some order in their own lives. At least my experience allows me to hope so.

The diary is kept in a regular Excel file. The capabilities of this program allow you not only to conveniently plan your day, but also to sort tasks, maintain an archive and monitor the time spent.

TIME ACCOUNTING

By plotting an Excel sheet in a certain way, you can easily and conveniently take into account the time during the day. To do this, use the following diagram:

In the figure, each hour (the top line indicates hours) is divided into 4 columns, that is, the accuracy of time recording is 15 minutes. Greater accuracy makes accounting inconvenient, while less accuracy allows for too large losses during accounting.

The leftmost column reflects typical time expenditure graphs (chtn - reading, rbt - work, doc - maintaining documents, everyday life - solving everyday problems, lchn - personal time, rzvl - entertainment, dv - movement, nchg - nothing, loss of time).

Over the course of the day, the elapsed time intervals are filled in. To simplify calculations, the number “1” is used as a placeholder. Then, using Excel formulas entered into the appropriate columns (the formulas are written in the example file attached to the article), it will automatically calculate the time spent on a particular type of activity.

At the end of the day, the time sheet looks like this:

This scheme, if desired, allows you to restore the entire day (overslept, quickly got ready, went to work, worked, chatted with a colleague, worked, had lunch, worked, went to a meeting, waited for a late partner, held a work meeting, returned to the office, reported to the boss, went home, had dinner, read, watched a movie, got ready for bed, read before bed, summed up the day, fell asleep).

But in practice this is rarely required, so most days are left with brief summaries of the time spent. They look like this:

Such summaries allow you to soberly assess how much time is spent on a particular type of activity, and, in addition, derive an average based on the results of the week or month. Further, if desired, you can draw conclusions about the need to devote more or less time to one or another type of activity.

PLANNING

Let's start with a regular daily task sheet. In my version it looks like this (SEG tab, today):
As you can see, the sheet uses 4 working columns: St – status; Вр – time;

Fri – priority; and a column to indicate the day and describe the task.

A detailed discussion about the “Status” column will follow below. The “Time” column, I think, requires no explanation. Now we will focus on looking at the “Priority” column.

It uses the following signs:

! – main task for the week

!! – part of the weekly task to be completed on the current day; or a secondary task for the week

30 – priority tasks for a specific day (tasks for which the time is determined or subject to determination)

40 – priority daily tasks

70 – summing up the day

80 – tasks to determine the results of the week

90 – summing up the week

Knowing this classification, it is quite easy to both distribute tasks for the day and plan them for the week. The weekly plan in my file looks like this:

The actual weekly plan can be seen at the bottom of the page. Immediately below the column indicating the first and last days of the week, tasks for the week are written down.

This is followed by the designations of each individual day, under which specific tasks for that day are written.

The columns at the top of the page are daily and weekly tasks, which are simply copied into the corresponding sheet when drawing up a daily plan.

The monthly plan is drawn up using the following scheme:

EFFICIENCY MARK

Now let's return to the analysis of the "Status" column. It is this column that allows you to evaluate the effectiveness of your days. The “Status” column indicates whether the intended task has been completed or not. There are 3 possible signs used to indicate status:

V – completed

B – partially fulfilled, or not fulfilled due to objective reasons

N – not completed

During the day, as tasks are completed, the sheet takes on the following form:

Using the “sorting” function (menu item – Data), you can automatically sort tasks:
With this sorting (Status => Priority => Time), all completed tasks will be at the top of the list. You can no longer pay attention to them, focusing it on the remaining tasks.

At the end of the day, when all the columns are filled in, the proposed system allows you to impartially and objectively assess the effectiveness of time use.

The task sheet at the end of the day looks like this:
Using different colors after sorting allows you to clearly show the effectiveness of the day.

In the example given, out of 13 tasks for the day, 9 were completed, 3 were not completed, and 1 was not completed due to objective reasons. Considering that points “B” are counted as 0.5/0.5, the results of the day look like this: total – 13; plus – 9.5; minus – 3.5. I consider the day successful if there are more than two-thirds of the total number of “plus” tasks; half successful - from half to two thirds of the total; unsuccessful - if there are more than half of the “minus” tasks. Other proportions are possible, depending on your demands on yourself.

A similar system is used to evaluate the effectiveness of the week. In the archive, the past week looks like this:

In the same way, it is possible to sum up the results of a year, a decade, and so on, right down to summing up the results of your whole life :)

You can also store your own telephone directory in one file with task and time sheets.
It is especially convenient to use the proposed system if you have a pocket computer.

In this case, the file with task and time sheets will always be with you, and you can make changes to it as the day progresses.
You can simply print task and time sheets on a printer. I recommend leaving a certain number of boxes empty so that you can fill in any tasks that arise as the day progresses.

I hope that the system outlined above will be as useful to you as it helped me organize my life. Good luck! Alexey Fedorov, December 2004 Contact:[email protected]
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Editing – Gleb Arkhangelsky,

The article was written specifically for the site. Document address on the website:

Publication in free online publications is permitted without additional approval from the author, while maintaining the integrity of the text, including this notice, and working hyperlinks. Publication in paid online publications and paper media requires approval from the author.

It would be great to always have a universal time management tool on hand. We have prepared a universal list of 25 time management techniques, divided into categories for prioritizing, planning and organizing the process of work and rest.

Prioritization

1. ABC Analysis

This technique is based on expressing the most important and least important items as a percentage. All tasks are divided into three classes depending on their importance:

A. The most important cases, which make up 15% of the total number of cases and their contribution to achieving goals is 65%.

B. Important tasks – 20% of their total number, significance for achieving the goal is 20%.

• C. Less important tasks are equal to 65% of their total number, and their importance is 15%.
• To use ABC analysis, you must do the following:
• make a list of all future tasks;

divide them by importance and establish a priority;

evaluate tasks accordingly according to categories A, B and C;

2. Eisenhower Matrix.

Tasks are divided into groups according to urgency and importance:

A – Urgent and important matter

B – Not urgent, but the matter is more important

C – Urgent but not important matter

D – Not urgent or important

The Pareto method is a distribution of tasks according to the 80/20 principle: 80% of problems can be solved in 20% of the time spent; The remaining 20% ​​of tasks consume 80% of the time spent.

Planning

4. List of all things to do

Writing down absolutely everything will help when planning the amount of work for the day, week, month. You will also be able to clearly see your workload and the ratio of important and not very important tasks. Moreover, if such a list is always at hand, the question “What to do?” will be resolved immediately.

5. Accounting for biological rhythms

When planning your tasks, you should take into account not only whether you are a morning person or a night owl, but also your peak productivity. It can be determined by observing your performance throughout the day. It would also be a good idea to determine a suitable time for lunch. rest and self-development.

6. Keep diaries

Organize previously recorded tasks into the system: an entry in a diary, an excel table, an application on your phone, etc. The main thing is that you have an idea of ​​the amount of work for the day and do not forget even the smallest assignment.

7. The right tools

All kinds of applications are our weapon in the fight against procrastination and time traps, so it’s better to update your arsenal. Read the most convenient and proven programs and applications for making lists and teamwork.

8. “Timekeeping” technique

The “Timekeeping” technique is the recording of time for any task, even such primitive ones as morning exercises or lunch. You write down every task you spend time on, so within a week you can solve the following tasks:

• determine where your time is being spent;
• identify chronophages, that is, “time eaters”;
• develop a “sense of efficiency” and a “sense of time.”

9. Formula 10-3-2-1-0

To use this technique, you need to remember the formula that describes a healthy work and personal time schedule and stick to it when creating a daily plan.

10 hours before bed: no caffeine.

3 hours before bedtime: no food or alcohol.

2 hours before bed: no work.

1 hour before bed: no electronic gadgets.

0 times: This is the number of times you can press the snooze button on the alarm clock.

10. Gantt chart

A Gantt chart is a reliable technique for visually displaying tasks and time. On one scale of the schedule, tasks are indicated, and on the other, the time to complete them. Ideal for lovers of graphs that can be compiled in MS Project, Excel.

Organization of work and rest

11. Pomodoro technique

How to do it: set a timer for 25 minutes, work concentratedly, without distractions until the timer rings, then take a break for 5 minutes. After 4 repetitions, we take a long break - 20-25 minutes. This way you constantly alternate between work and rest, change activities and avoid overwork.

12. Eat a frog

A frog is the most unpleasant thing. It's best to deal with it first. After completing it, the task itself will seem less scary and disgusting, and other tasks will seem completely easy.

13. Salami method

How to eat a stick of sausage without being noticed? Cutting off small pieces. You need to do the same with all complex, multi-component tasks: divide them into small parts and complete one every day.

14. Delegation

If you are a manager, delegate those tasks that take a lot of time and are not important, and focus on more strategically important tasks.

15. Keep things in stages

Strive to do things sequentially, finish one thing first, and only then start another. We have already told you that when switching from one task to another, it takes about 10-15 minutes to fully concentrate on the process. Constantly jumping from task to task, you waste time, although it creates the illusion of hard work.

16. At least 10 minutes

This technique does not relate to work matters, but rather to personal growth and self-development. For example, if you have long wanted to learn or remember a foreign language, try to devote at least 10 minutes a day to it. The same goes for sports, books, etc.

17. "Found Time"

The essence of the technique: identify in advance a list of 15-20 small tasks for which you do not have enough time, and be ready to do them when you have any suitable “window”. Constantly add to the list.

18. Work is the best way to start doing something.

There are days when productivity is at zero and work is hard. In this case, to overclock it, it is better to start working with small tasks: mail, calls, tasks that will take no more than 20 minutes to complete.

19. Make important appointments in the morning

20. Divide your work time into blocks

Divide your work processes into blocks: calls and mail, meetings, work on a project, etc. This will help you create time for focused work throughout the day.

21. Set deadlines for everything

Even the smallest task must have a deadline, otherwise the flow of tasks “for later” will drag on forever.

22. Immersion in work

Set aside a day or two to complete your priority tasks, eliminating distractions such as calls and meetings.

23. Say “no”

“No” is a powerful word. When you say no to a new commitment, you show respect for the ones you've already made and give yourself the opportunity to successfully keep them. Remember that when giving consent, you must refuse or cancel something.

24. Fight the “tyranny of the urgent”

The “tyranny of the urgent” refers to small, unimportant tasks that need to be completed right now. This creates a big problem because immediate action usually has very little effect. Having succumbed to the “tyranny of the urgent,” it will be difficult to get rid of it and, accordingly, to allocate time for something more important.

25. Prepare for tomorrow before leaving the office.

A great way to end your workday is to prepare for the next one. Summarize the day, make a plan for the next day, put your desk in order.

Time management for managers

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Wake up on time, no problem - a task for morning time management.

First What you must remember: the later you go to bed, the more difficult it will be to get up. In order to go to bed earlier, you should practice time management, figure out why you don’t have time to finish your work by ten o’clock in the evening and calmly go to bed at 23:00 in order to meet the morning at 07:00. This path is not easy, but effective.

If communication on social networks or watching exciting TV series at night greatly enriches you and helps you find the meaning of life, then you shouldn’t worry about morning torment. You know why you are suffering, right? But if you are a reasonable person, and I know a lot of such responsible people, then every evening you will ask yourself the question: “What is more important for me now: to look at the news from the lives of my countless virtual friends or to go about my life and get some sleep?” So solve the problem of bedtime yourself in accordance with your priorities.

No matter what time you go to bed, on a working day you still have to wake up early. But how much time will you spend lying in bed? To minimize it (especially in autumn and winter) and spend your free 20 minutes, for example, on breakfast and a contrast shower, buy yourself a light alarm clock. It will help you wake up more comfortably with a powerful lamp. Scientists have already proven that waking up from sunlight (or its imitation) is much easier and more pleasant than from various alarm clock sounds in the dark.

When you woke up and got to work, an important question of daily time management arises: how to start the working day? Here is my version of starting the working day.

So, you come to the office, pour yourself some coffee and sit down at your desk. Now, before you turn on your computer and dive into social media, think about your plans for the day. To somehow motivate you, I will say that in 2012, the research service of one large company conducted a survey of 2,147 managers and found out that almost half of them plan their working hours every day. And since they have become leaders, having such a habit, it is not a sin for us to try to introduce it into our daily practice.

I like the I-shaped daily routine system, which is very simple and does not take much time. It's called that because it consists of three parts, like the English letter I: a 15-minute morning planning (horizontal bar of the I), a long check-in phase that lasts your entire work day (vertical stick), and a final review (second horizontal bar). .

Top of the I-shaped daily routine- This is the time to create a plan for the upcoming working day. In these 10-15 minutes, you must decide on those tasks that have already been assigned and very accurately estimate the time required for them. It is important not to forget to take into account travel time if you have to travel somewhere.

Write down all expected or predictable events. They can happen with varying degrees of probability, but you must be prepared for them and set aside time for this. This includes telephone calls, correspondence with clients, etc.

And very important in advance, right in the morning, allocate time in your plan for lunch and warm-up. Then later you will not be able to refer to your employment. Because organized people manage to take care not only of completing tasks on time, but also of their well-being, on which this effectiveness largely depends.

And don't try write down lunch and warm-up in the “expected events” block! If you want to improve your personal effectiveness, consider them "already assigned."

Another important point- Schedule time free from work. No, not for relaxing at work! And to complete unexpected or urgent tasks. This will be your emergency reserve, your reserve, your secret weapon against the unexpected. After all, if your day is scheduled minute by minute, you have no room for mistakes, standing in traffic jams, delaying negotiations, or partners being late. You must be responsible for everything. But this usually only leads to stress and a feeling of loss of control over the situation and complete helplessness. Doesn't that sound a lot like smugly ticking boxes of completed tasks on time?

So leave 30% of your working time for unforeseen circumstances. And if such things don’t happen, just continue doing your business. I suspect you have more things to do than dig from here to lunch, and you always have something to do.

But a brilliant plan- that's just part of the success. The plan must be carried out. So jump straight into the second part of the I-shaped daily routine. This stage begins almost immediately after completing the first and lasts 8-9 hours, when you continuously monitor yourself and your plan: note changes, change the time allotted for some tasks (except lunch and warm-up!), rearrange, add and cross out tasks and actions.

Regular control will help you learn to plan your working days more clearly and move more tasks from the “expected” block to the “assigned” block. After all, honestly, your days at the office aren’t all that different from each other?

So By monitoring and editing your plan, you will get to the bottom of the I, which involves (of course!) summing up the day. 10-15 minutes before the end of your working day, remember everything that happened and adjust your work schedule in retrospect, trying not to miss a single event.

Does this seem like a waste of time to you? You are wrong. In reality, you are doing two important things at once: you are completing today's tasks and preparing for tomorrow's, moving unfinished or uncompleted tasks to other days so that nothing is missed. Second, you gain experience for continuous improvement by noting the actual duration of each event, the likely problems and your planning errors.

Adjusting the schedule of the past day, ask yourself what you can do to improve it. For example: “Why did today’s meeting take so long? Is there a way to shorten the duration of the meeting next time?”, “How much time did you spend traveling around the city today? How can you plan your route better and fit it into your work schedule?”

Certainly, I understand that by the evening you are already quite tired and want to quickly leave the empty office. But remember that successful athletes, doctors, psychologists, and coaches always spend a lot of time analyzing past events, since learning lessons from the past is part of their work and the key to stellar success. Why don't you use these I-shape capabilities to continuously improve and work more efficiently?

Well now, after work or study, your personal time begins. And, oddly enough, it also needs to be planned. We’ll talk to you about how to do this in another article.

What questions will you find answers to in the article “Time management in a week: step-by-step plan”

You can often hear from business owners that they are so busy that they simply have no time to plan their time. This creates a kind of vicious circle: there is no time to manage time. To solve this problem, you need to understand: spending 25 minutes today on planning for tomorrow is not a waste, but an investment. By planning your tomorrow, you will be able to allocate time to solve your main tasks, so there is no need to put off learning time management and wait for a more favorable moment: it is unlikely to come soon.

Time management can be compared to physical exercise: you need to increase the load gradually, and train constantly. The more regularly you exercise, the better your physical fitness. Therefore, the ideal option for introducing a time management program into your life is to master the techniques step by step, day by day.

Time management: weekly program

Monday. Planning the manager's working time

The basis of effective work is planning. It is time management (working time planning) that becomes the basis for organizing your affairs. Most people face many different tasks every day, some of which must be completed in a very short time frame, while others can wait. Organizing these tasks into a convenient and effective system becomes the basic principle of planning your time.

I recommend that on the eve of the work week, on Sunday, you divide the planned tasks for Monday into the categories of “hard” and “flexible”. Rigid ones have a specific time limit (for example, a meeting at 14:00), while flexible ones have a deadline (“preparing a report by Friday”). To organize this scheme, it is better to use the following principle. In your planner or diary, you should divide the page vertically in half - along the line on the left we list our “hard” tasks, on the right side - “flexible” ones, without tying the latter to a specific time. By distributing your day in this way, you will be able to see that between “hard” tasks there is an interval of time that can be devoted to “flexible” tasks.

Such time management will allow you to get the whole picture of the coming day - a person gains confidence that he is sticking to a planned, effective scheme. There is no need to worry if there are violations in your plan - because life always makes adjustments. You just need to adapt to the circumstances by making necessary changes to your plan. It is also important to take into account that it is unrealistic to “rigidly” plan more than 40-60% of working time. The more flexible the day is, the better.

I recommend planning your next day the night before - the evening of the previous day. In the morning you will feel much more comfortable. You definitely need to indicate in your list of “flexible” things – “make an action plan for the next day.”

Tuesday. Principles of time management and prioritization

After training on Monday in drawing up a technique for planning “hard” and “flexible” tasks, you should move on to a new level of time management - taking into account the priority of your plans. Quite often, compiling a list of “flexible” tasks is done quite chaotically - urgent tasks are listed at the end, and secondary plans are placed at the top. This approach will definitely lead to chaos in the implementation of your plans the next day.

To avoid this problem, you need to list things based on their importance. Priorities are set based on certain criteria. For example, if a task is posed by a business owner, it will need to be resolved immediately. If the matter does not relate to your professional duties, then it can wait. The list of such criteria will be individual for each person - you need to think through them in advance.

On Tuesday morning we prioritize our “flexible” tasks. Various techniques can be used for this. For example, we arrange things on our list in accordance with the priority of tasks, or we paint columns in different colors that correspond to a certain degree of importance. The most important tasks can be displayed in red, less important ones in yellow, and things that can wait in green.

This approach allows you to achieve detailed planning of your day. But it is worth understanding that in detail does not mean minute by minute. You will just know what you have to do tomorrow, what you will need to start with, what you will need to finish with - the whole day is already planned out.

Wednesday. Goal setting and “memoir”

Goal setting is an important time management technique in terms of organizing work time and in philosophical terms. After all, life is given once, so it must be devoted to the most important things. This requires the ability to plan and set goals. However, some caution is necessary - do not get too carried away by fashion trends. For example, at our seminars, many participants noted that in the near future (5-10 years) they set themselves approximately the same goals - amazing, a snow-white office, many subordinates and the best car. Of course, such dreams cannot be called bad, but often a person cannot answer the question - what exactly is he doing that will allow him to achieve such wealth, an office and a car?

Therefore, it is recommended to keep a “memoir” (for example, a separate file on a computer or a notebook, it all depends on personal preferences). Indicate in it every evening the key event of the past day, and at the end of the week we determine the key word of the week, then the month. Only one specific event should be selected - positive or negative, related to work or other areas. The main condition must be really key. You should start your “memoir” on Wednesday. But before that, you need to write down your goals for a certain period - for example, for 1, 2 or 10 years. Then we conduct a periodic analysis of our “memoir”. Thanks to this, it will be possible to understand the key interests of your own life - what really belongs to the category of importance. Accordingly, it will be possible to assess the correctness of your movement towards the goal. Or it may be revealed that you are only moving away from your goal or it turned out to be completely unnecessary. In my practice, every day I look at notes that were made on the same day, but in previous years - I manage to compare and analyze my own values ​​and the changes that have occurred with them.

Thursday. Time management and long-term goals

When you understand your priorities and your vision of the future, you can talk about your readiness to take the next step - a map of long-term goals. The map outlines a person's long-term goals as follows. There are 2 axes placed horizontally – years (starting from the current one) and the person’s age. Key areas are indicated vertically (family relationships, career, personal development, etc.). You should indicate approximate targets at the intersection of your years and key areas. An important advantage of drawing up such a map is the unification of professional and personal goals on a common plan.

Of course, certain changes to your card are possible from time to time. However, thanks to it, a rough sketch of the future is possible, depicting your approximate route for further travel. Therefore, this Thursday we are drawing our first map of long-term goals.

Friday. “Elephants” and “frogs”

We already have a to-do plan and a list of goals at our disposal, so on Friday we begin to think through the necessary motivation to achieve our goals. To draw up such a plan, we can recommend a fairly simple technique based on the conditional division of your tasks into “frogs” and “elephants”.

“Elephants” are any difficult, voluminous tasks that still need to be done (conditionally “eat”). Initially, it may seem that “eating such an elephant” is simply impossible. But...an elephant can be cut into pieces to prepare many small “steaks” for your daily menu. The problem is similar with complex, voluminous tasks - which are completely divided into components that can be dealt with separately. For example, at the end of the year there is a need to prepare an annual report. We have truly large-scale work ahead of us - with the search for complex materials, organizing activities, etc. We need to divide the overall complex task into separate parts - for example, write 3 paragraphs every day or describe a separate topic. Thanks to this, you will be able to cope with the preparation of the report on time without constant worries and stress. Experience confirms that thanks to this approach, you can solve your complex problems faster, spending less effort.

The situation is similar with “eating frogs.” The term “frog” implies a small but unpleasant matter. Although there is no choice, it must be done. Such a “frog” may well become an “elephant” over time if it is not “eaten” in a timely manner. For example, you need to express dissatisfaction with the accounting department with expense reports or sort out the bottom drawers of your desk. When properly organized, “frogs” also become tasty “steaks,” into which we divided “elephants.” To use this technique in practice, we take an “elephant”, which we divide into parts. Then we indicate the list of “frogs” and arrange all this information in the following table.

On the left side are all the “steaks” and “frogs” for each day. On the right side, the fulfillment or non-fulfillment of these goals is indicated. If a certain job was not expected that day, leave an empty space. If it was intended, but could not be completed, you need to put a dash. When achieving a specific goal, you need to put a plus or a tick. There is no need to be upset about your dashes, but still, if there are a lot of them in a certain column, then you should think about it and get down to business. Place this table in a visible place or in your diary. It is important to see your table several times a day - without forgetting your goals and for additional motivation.

Saturday. Rhythm in rest and resource activities

The work week ends with the arrival of the weekend. You can relax and get acquainted with more pleasant, suitable time management techniques for competent and complete organization of your vacation. On Saturday this week, 2 time management techniques can be recommended.

Rhythm in rest. A person cannot concentrate his attention on one subject for more than 40 (rarely 80) minutes. Therefore, you should give yourself a 5-minute rest approximately once an hour. For example, while reading a book or looking at business magazines that have accumulated during this work week, you need to get rest every hour - by being in silence, taking a walk, etc. This experience can be adopted for the workplace from next week.

Resource activities. They are capable of revitalizing or calming (maximum switching, promoting more effective and rapid rest). For example, some prefer to walk along the stairs from the 1st floor to the top and back, others embroider crosses, and still others take a break while enjoying coffee with rum. Here it is important for a person to decide on a suitable activity that will contribute to the most effective restoration of internal energy. The effectiveness of restoring one’s performance depends on the quality of rest. You can devote your whole Saturday to walks and relaxation in the park or a trip to the entertainment center with the whole family. You should consider what resource activities you can include in your work schedule for the next week.

Sunday. Pamper yourself, time management system is ready

Sunday is a great day to congratulate yourself on a successful week-long course, thanks to which you managed to set up your time management system. It doesn't hurt to pamper yourself a little. To do this, you can adhere to the technique of intermediate joys. Choose something especially pleasant for yourself - something you love, but cannot afford every day. For example, supplement your diet with something expensive and tasty, visiting your favorite places, chatting with people dear to you, sunbathing, spending time in nature, simply giving an hour of idleness, etc. Such joys are established for yourself through a certain amount of work. Use this diagram to plan your working day, week or even year. To do this, you can create a table indicating the reward for your achievements. Additional motivation appears and work becomes much more interesting. At the end of Sunday, you need to make a work plan for Monday, based on the time management techniques we discussed.