Book summary: Gleb Arkhangelsky - Time Drive. Gleb Arkhangelsky Time Drive Gleb Time Drive

Reviews (46)

Everything ingenious is simple or about the benefits of mechmat

I bought the book with a certain amount of skepticism, because I read a lot of Western opuses in the original on this topic, as well as all kinds of advice from domestic authors that come to me through various digest subscriptions on the topic that an expensive universe will help to live in time, you just have to put an hourglass on your desk and weave a Slavic filipovka doll out of tow, which will immediately begin to perform the functions of an assistant secretary.

I will say right away that the author does not say anything new, we all do approximately the same, as written in the advice of this book. BUT the great merit of the author lies in the generalization and systematization of all these disparate techniques, which ultimately allow the reader to form a whole system of time management.

Argumentation is also valuable, which allows you to use all the proposed methods meaningfully, that is, effectively.

I am very glad that there is no reference to any specific tools, special diaries, programs, etc. The main thing is to grasp the essence, and then the author shares examples of who had cardboard boxes at hand, who had an iPhone. Even though you cut out the reminders in the rock, the essence does not change from this.

So the book is useful, short enough, everything is written on the case, is useful and does not cause regret about the money and time spent.

For me, planning my whole life is boring. But in this book there is something important for my perception of the world: RELEASE my life from all unnecessary and wasting time. And to spend the free time on "relatives" (what a true word) goals for yourself, to do what you like! This is easier said than done. But the book is just to the eyeballs packed with the experience of managers who are brilliant in time management skills. Who else to learn from if not from them ... Not everyone will be able to live in the rhythm suggested by the author, but many will be able to draw something useful from the book.

First of all, I would like to note the structuredness of the material, highlighting the main theses at the end of the chapter and graphical display of data - it is very convenient and allows you to better perceive the material. The epigraphs to the chapters are also pleasing. Case studies are good support for theory.

Figurative comparisons ("frogs", "elephants", "the method of Swiss cheese") are well remembered, bring an element of humor and easily come to mind, while not forgetting what they mean.

In general, the idea of a competent distribution of time is relevant and important, you cannot argue with that. It's nice to realize that you have already done some of the things described in the book before, which means that you are not completely lost for time management.

But it is quite difficult to apply all the techniques, for example, I got the impression that timing for 2 weeks will take a lot of time and effort, it will be constantly distracting. Although, of course, it is clear that all these efforts are aimed at results. But human laziness is a terrible property with which it is very difficult to fight, at the time to create laziness-management. The "Rules of Creative Laziness" are also very original.

The main disadvantage that I singled out for myself is the danger that, in constant control of time, a person may simply lose the ability to relax, not think about every minute and compliance with the schedule and plan.

One also gets the impression that the book should not be read all at once, but gradually. Read part - to implement these techniques, get used to them, read more - implement more. By the way, I heard this opinion from friends.

In general, the book is very useful, practical and, if all the techniques are correctly applied, it should lead everyone to visible results.

For those who are drowning in their daily routine, who have lost self-esteem due to the fact that a lot of questions remain unresolved, deadlines are missed, promises to do something are not fulfilled, the book will allow not only to clear up the rubble, become more organized, learn to appreciate what is and someone else's time. More importantly, the author encourages you to think about whether you need to try to do everything, whether you are pursuing your goals - perhaps to the detriment of your hobbies, communication with friends and family, rest and healthy sleep, finally. What do you want from life, what do you strive for, what are your true values - it is very difficult to answer all these questions even to yourself, but without knowing yourself you cannot get out of the cycle of vanity, distractions and temptations, imposed goals. The author proposes techniques not only for more effective organization of everyday work, but also for mastering the skills of self-observation, introspection, conscious living of life.

Without answers to important questions about the system of values, about global goals and the meaning of life, the methods of time planning are meaningless - it's great that the author, without unnecessary pathos, calmly but convincingly conveys this idea.

5 more reviews

Dedicated to my grandfather, Herman of Arkhangelsky,

with gratitude for the introduction

to the tradition of managerial thinking

and for the timely donated book about Time

"This is a strange life."

From publishers

The book that saves time is the book of life!

Surprisingly, everyone will make good money on this wonderful book.

The author, Gleb, will start working. Not so much money as fame and popularity - and many new grateful students. The publishing house will earn - and again not so much money as many grateful readers. And finally, every reader will work. And - unlike Gleb and the publishing house - three times. At first, he will earn a lot of positive emotions - after all, the book is written very easily, accessible and interesting! Then, with some effort on himself, he will start earning "time points" - first hours, then days and weeks of his time. And then the most valuable "earnings" will come, which bring a lot. These are changes for the better - both in personal life and in career. You will really start to manage to live and work!

One of the readers once told me that my prefaces to books remind him of good Georgian toasts - they are rather long and interesting. Understood the hint, round off.

Well ... for a time drive!

Igor Mann

Publishing house "Mann, Ivanov and Ferber"

Foreword: our capital of time

Dear reader, we are all on an equal footing in the face of the inexorable passage of time. Whatever material prosperity we have achieved, each of us has very little time. There are no millionaires in the realm of time. The available capital of the time remaining until the end of life is approximately 200-400 thousand hours. And most importantly, time is irreplaceable. Lost time, unlike lost money, cannot be returned.

The art of keeping up, time management, time management is one of the most essential arts for a modern person. More and more diverse information. Events are happening faster and faster. It is necessary to react in time, to keep within ever more stringent deadlines. At the same time, somehow find time for relaxation, hobbies, family, friends ...

Five years ago, when we created the Time Management Community, the topic of time management was little known in Russia. It was believed that in the conditions of the “broad Russian soul” and the Russian “off-road and slovenliness” it was impossible to plan time. Few people knew that back in 1926 there was a league called "Time", which disseminated advanced time management technologies; few people were familiar with the rich history of domestic time management. The experience of the members of the TM community and corporate TM projects has shown that it is necessary and possible to plan time in Russia. You will find real examples of this in the book.

Time management is not only about diaries, plans and deadlines. It is a technology that allows you to use the irreplaceable time in your life in accordance with your goals and values. Whether you use flexible or rigid planning, timing or self-motivation, Outlook or a paper notebook, it makes no difference. The technique is secondary. It is important to find your own, "family", life goals - and allocate your time in accordance with them. Waste life's irreplaceable time on what really is want.

Three years ago, the publishing house "Peter" published my monograph "Time Management: From Personal Efficiency to Firm Development", which has now gone through two editions. It was the first non-translated book on time management in Russia over the past 30 years, summarizing my author's developments and the experience of members of the TM community. Numerous responses led me to write a second book in a more popular format.

The first book was a "maximum program" containing all the wealth of classical and modern TM-tools, setting the foundations and boundaries of time management as a new discipline in management science. The book you are holding in your hands is a "minimum program". Here, in the simplest form possible, the most necessary and widely used personal time management techniques are outlined. As in the first book - always on real Russian examples.

The unusual title of the second book was not chosen by chance. “Time” is the energetic, technological, effective “time” of the Western world, well mastered in the Russian language. "Drive" is a root that has also taken root in the Russian language and is associated with two things: management, energetic movement - and, the second meaning, vivid pleasure in what you are doing. As the Russian language has mastered these two roots, so we all, in my opinion, should learn an energetic, active, purposeful approach to our time. Let's add this energetic approach, this "time drive", to our traditionally strong trait - the ability to dream, create, set high goals. And then we will have no equal.

Establish competent rest during the working day and after hours. Human life is subject to different rhythms, so rest should also be rhythmic. For example, 5 minutes every hour.

When resting, distract yourself to recharge your batteries. Instead of surfing the internet, take a walk or do some exercise.

Make lazy creative. During periods of laziness, load your brain with information on a creative topic that is important to you and be 100% lazy without trying to solve problems or tormenting yourself with remorse.

Improve sleep efficiency by falling asleep and waking up on a schedule and optimizing sleep duration. Our sleep consists of several cycles lasting 1-1.5 hours. When the duration of sleep is a multiple of the cycle length, it is much easier to wake up. Before going to bed, ventilate the room, do not overeat and unload the brain from daytime worries - take a walk or read a fiction book.

Apply "microsleep" during the working day. Human biorhythms have two ups and two downs during the day. The first decline occurs around 13-15 hours, the second - in the evening. If you rest for 10-15 minutes during the first recession, the work will go much more efficiently.

Motivation: how to deal with unpleasant tasks

To quickly complete complex and unpleasant tasks, learn to tune in to them using "anchors", material ties - music, colors, rituals. But don't use work-related "anchor" on vacation.

Use the "Swiss cheese method" - do the task not in a logical order, but in an arbitrary order. After a while, so many holes will form in the “cheese” that it will be quite easy to “finish eating” it.

Break the task down into several parts and reward yourself by completing one part. Eat at least one frog every day for a simple but frustrating task. Usually such tasks accumulate and become a problem. If you solve one of them every morning, then they will quickly end and provide a good mood for the whole day.

Crush the "elephants" (big problems) into "steaks" (parts). If the task is huge and not feasible, break it down into doable parts. Measure the time spent on elephant tasks. Fixing a quantitative indicator pushes a person to action.

"Burn the ships" - create a situation where it is impossible to refuse any task. These situations allow certain types of people to work more efficiently.

Create a to-do table and note the completed tasks in it. Too many skips on any item will give you an alarm and force you to do the necessary.

Make a pinarick calendar. In the top line, write in numbers the years lived, in the bottom - the future, and in the rows of the table - the days of the months. Every morning, when you get to work, cross out half of the coming day. In the evening - the second half. This will help you get a feel for the passage of time.

Goals: how to bring dreams closer to reality

Define a mission, formulate personal values and set long-term goals. Instead of a "reactive" approach - a reaction to external circumstances, use a "proactive" - build life as you wish, actively influence events.

To determine your goals, imagine how you want to see your day in a few years. Try to get rid of the imposed stamps - expensive cars, watches and other attributes - if they are not of real value to you.

The memoir will help to define values. Write down the main events of your life. The Memoir will allow you to build a list of core values and encourage you to devote a few minutes each day to the question of the Essentials.

Formulate your personal mission in the form of an epitaph. What will change in the world and will remain after you when everything is over?

Look for your calling. If we can change the mission, then the calling cannot. A vocation is when you understand that no one will take this cart apart from you. It can be not only a revolutionary discovery, but also a simple life task.

Identify 5-7 key areas of your life in order to see the overall structure and establish harmony of different activities. The key areas map is like a tree. Instead of a chaos of small deeds, there are clear branches with deed leaves.

Chart your life goals by key area and future years to keep track of where and how you are going. Sometimes it is difficult to understand what you want, but it is better to make a little mistake and subsequently correct plans than to understand after years that time has passed and nothing has been achieved.

Make the closest and most understandable goals measurable using the SMART technique:

S pecific - specific
M easurable - measurable
A chievable - achievable
R ealistic - relevant
T ime-bound - limited in time

Be clear about what you want and in what time frame, and then express it in monetary terms.

The working day: how to organize it in a rapidly changing world

Contextual and mid-term planning according to the "Day-Week" method will help you always meet deadlines.

For tasks that are difficult to tie to a specific time, a contextual approach is suitable. For each such task, create a separate diary page or task category in the computerized scheduling system.

When working in a team, contextual planning boards are convenient, where projects are listed in rows, and team members are listed in columns. At their intersection, tasks are listed. The manager will immediately see the tasks for which the subordinate is responsible and the issues that need to be discussed.

It is more efficient to schedule tasks with a hard deadline for a year, a week, and a day, observing the rules for moving tasks between sections. In the evening, when planning the next day, the "Week" section is viewed. Everything relevant is transferred to the "Day" section. When planning the next week, the "Year" section is looked at.

This approach allows you not to drive yourself into a rigid framework and ensures that the necessary task is remembered while viewing the “Year” and “Week” sections.

The "Week" section can be supplemented with the following planning tools.

List of tasks for the next few weeks on a separate page of the diary.
List of tasks on stickers in a special section of the diary. Looking through the section every day, transfer the stickers with "ripe" tasks to the coming day in the diary.
An overview schedule of regular tasks.
Planning board with tasks for the next few weeks.
Planning with a list of "flexible" tasks for a week next to a "hard" time grid or a tab with "flexible" tasks.

The "long-term" section is a "strategic box" with a list of key goals for the next six months or a year. It may contain:

a plan of key events for the year;
deadlines for key projects;
a list of small tasks with a long deadline that were not included in the contextual sections of the diary;
schedule of birthdays, anniversaries, etc.

Similarly to the "Day - Week" principle, you can organize the work of employees on the planning board. To do this, list the employees in the columns, the planning horizons in the rows, and tasks at their intersection.

To control routine tasks, a table is useful, in the rows of which these tasks are listed, and in the columns - the time during which they need to be completed. Done and unfinished business are marked at intersections. Skipping such a task does not play a big role, but a large number of gaps will immediately become noticeable.

For long-term tasks, determine how much time per day it will take and put them in your weekly plan. To do this, take the total amount of work, labor productivity, and calculate how much time will be spent on the task. Then divide that time into chunks and incorporate them into your weekly plan.

Planning: how to meet deadlines

Set up your personal workday planning system using "hard" and "flexible" tasks. Take 10 minutes to create a complete picture of the tasks for the day. The plan of the day must be collected in one place and must be in writing. Choose the format and medium to taste. The main thing is that you really like him and want to return to him.

Throughout the day, adjust your plan as appropriate. The drawn up plan is not a dogma, it is needed for changeable situations.

Create a strategic box with key long-term goals. On the same sheet, you can write out tasks that are not tied to a specific day, so that they are always in front of your eyes; keep a list of relevant contacts; write out "topics for reflection", etc.

Separate the "hard", "flexible" and "budgetary" tasks in your daily plan.

"Hard" - tied to a specific moment.
"Flexible" - not tied to the exact time.
“Budgetable” are large, important, time-consuming tasks that do not have a tight deadline.

Plan hard first, then budget, then flexible.

Highlight 2-3 priority tasks on the list and start working with them. Priority cases include urgent and supervising the work of subordinates. Completing tasks in this order will allow you to do the most important things, even if some of the lower priority tasks remain unfulfilled.

Plan "tough" meetings with a reserve of time. Coordinate with your partners the accuracy with which you need to come to the meeting.

Stock up on redundant information in case things don't go according to plan. This will save you time if your partner does not meet you, your recorded mobile will be unavailable, and there will not be a single taxi at the airport at night.

Priorities: how to weed out unnecessary things and find time for the main things

Learn to filter out unnecessary tasks and highlight key tasks. Expand your arsenal of "abandonment strategies" to clear your life of unnecessary things. Teach others to a firm "no" without giving reasons.

Use "healthy indifference" and put off unnecessary tasks for as long as possible. Often times, it simply does not come to their implementation.

Buy time by hiring professionals. In this case, you can not hire permanent assistants, but limit yourself to one-time services.

When giving assignments to subordinates, do not charge them with the obligation to remind you of them. Create an overview of tasks yourself and monitor their implementation.

Use weighted grades to prioritize tasks. Determine the criteria and the significance of each of them so that they add up to 100%. Then rate the task for each of the criteria, multiply the scores by the significance, add up and get the final score. Then sort the tasks by these scores.

Info: How to Manage Creative Chaos

Implement techniques for filtering, storing, and quickly moving information to keep it under control.

Read at least one serious business or fiction book a week. Leave speed reading to specialists dealing with large amounts of information. Read less is more.

Return to key information more often - write out page numbers, thoughts, make photocopies, draw diagrams.

Put your knowledge into practice, and only then start reading the next book.

Prioritize your reading as you read - it is better to thoughtfully read a few key chapters than to skim through the entire book.

Filter out informational garbage received from the media - try to get only the information you need. Record programs and watch them at a convenient time and without advertising, spend less time in front of the TV or on the Internet.

Use email that does not require an online presence. You can write, and the addressee can read the letter at a convenient time.

Master the ten-finger touch typing method - you'll start writing quickly and save a lot of time.

Turn off the new mail notification, which distracts from the current business. Check your mail 3-4 times a day. Agree with your colleagues about a clear check-in time. Set up automatic email sorting and give it priority in order of priority.

Use email folders as a Day-Week monitoring tool. Distribute letters to thematic folders and leave no more than 15-20 of the most important messages in the "Inbox".

"Cultivate" order in the documentation by the method of limited chaos:

Create a "place of chaos" - the inbound bin where all documents are stored.
Clear the “place of chaos” by choosing the most easily identifiable types of documents, and a “place of order” will begin to form next to the place of chaos.

Create a card index of thoughts. The accumulated thoughts can combine with each other and give birth to new ones. As you develop any ideas, highlight them in separate directions.

Organize the information space in accordance with the structure of the person's attention. Consciousness can work with only one object, preconsciousness - with 5-9, subconscious - with an infinite number. If you bring something closer to the center of your attention, be sure to move something away from it. This will allow you to optimally spend your attention.

Allocate an area on the desktop for 5-9 main current tasks, inbound and outbound drives, contextual trays, and check trays using the "Day-Week" method. At the end of the working day, arrange the documents from the outgoing drive into thematic folders.

Absorbers: how to find reserves of time

Use sink identification techniques to utilize slack. Track your time for 2-3 weeks to see where you are spending it. Record all cases approximately once an hour with an accuracy of 5-10 minutes. Check the margin for small breaks.

Form 2-3 quantitative performance indicators and track them over time. As soon as you begin to visually record a quantitative indicator, it will begin to change for the better.

Re-timing periodically to stay "in good shape" and correct imbalances in your personal time budget in time.

Travel time is a typical reserve. Fill your transport and travel time with things that are useful to you.

Have a plan for technical force majeure. The computer has broken down - do what there was not enough time for. And be sure to back up important data.

Conduct meetings more efficiently:

Define the format of the meeting and do not mix different formats within the same meeting;
define the circle of participants, a leader who guides the course of the discussion and makes decisions, and a secretary who draws up the minutes;
make a list of questions for discussion;
Determine the duration of the meeting and appoint a person responsible for the time;
arrange furnishings, equipment and distribution of information materials;
present all the issues discussed at the meeting in the form of diagrams;
Record and circulate decisions made so that you can refer back to them at the next meeting.

Remember that the time management system requires constant improvement.

"TM-bacillus": how to convey a TM-idea to others

We will not achieve 100% efficiency if we do not coordinate our personal time management with the people around us. Communicate the "TM Bacillus" to those around them so that they use the time wisely. Calculate the value of your time and fight for it as hard as money.

When offering TM ideas to your manager, show them usefulness for the business, not comfort for you. Start with tools that are useful and cheap for the boss. Present them “in practice”, not in theory. Your idea should come to the head by itself - this will make it easier to accept.

Convince subordinates of the effectiveness of time management by example. Motivate its application - employees need to understand why time is necessary and can be managed. Suggest new techniques regularly.

Implement TM techniques gradually using a minimum of tools. Come up with simple and quick sticks and cakes. Try the techniques on one employee or department so everyone can see the real pros and cons.

To implement time management in personal relationships, learn to negotiate. Do not try to impose your preferences on your partner; look for compromises to accommodate the tastes of both parties.

Take time to restore your energy and performance. The obvious to you is sometimes not the same to the other person, so be clear about or write down the principles of the relationship.

Offer time management to children in a playful way, developing a “proactive” approach to life.

TM-manifesto: from instrument to ideology

Applying time management techniques without understanding ideology will only allow you to use a fraction of their potential. But having understood the ideology of TM, you will learn how to manage your personal time and reach a new level.

Time management is a multilevel system that can change a person's values. You will move from technical time management to thinking about your goals and priorities.

Time management axioms:

you always have freedom of choice;
only you are responsible for your actions and choices;
without constant development, you are just an amoeba.

Even small actions change the world for the better. Evolve, move, never stop.

Time drive Gleb Arkhangelsky, how to manage to live and work.

Knowing the secrets of time management will help you find time not only for what is important, but also for what is enjoyable.

We have about 200-400 thousand hours left until the end of our lives, says Gleb Arkhangelsky, a leading Russian time management expert, and our task is to manage this time wisely.

Time must be found not only for making money, but also for family, friends, recreation, reading books and thousands of other activities. Most people do not think that time, unlike money, is an irreplaceable resource, and they continue to waste it recklessly.

The author in an accessible form acquaints the reader with the secrets of time management, or techniques for managing personal time. The strengths of the book are the ability to apply its recommendations in practice right now, the clear structure of the presentation, as well as the author's numerous references to examples from Russian history and modern business life.

Arkhangelsky suggests simple solutions to the problem of lack of time, over which many readers have probably been racking their brains for a long time. However, it should be noted that most of the recommendations presented in the book are well known in the business literature.

From the summary of the book, you will learn:

What is time management and what is it for
What techniques and methods help to save or use time more efficiently
What are "time absorbers" and how to deal with them

Key ideas

Time management techniques and methods allow a person to find time for the most important and interesting things in his life.
The use of psychological anchors helps to tune in to work.
Doing unpleasant or large-scale work is facilitated by the “frog-eating” and “elephant-eating” methods.
Plan your working hours by including in the plan and periods of rest.
If you have several tasks at once, choose the highest priority. In doing so, rely not on intuition, but on the criteria of importance.
The ability to say “no” on time saves time and effort.
Before starting a routine or low-skill job, consider whether you can outsource it to other people.
When there are too many unsorted materials on your desk, sort them out by isolating separate types of documents.
Think over tactics of dealing with the main “time wasters”; estimate time leaks using the daily timing of your actions.
The value of time management skills as a leader is best illustrated by example.

Summary of Time Drive Gleb Arkhangelsky

What is time management

When a person comes to understand how much time he has left for an active life, he begins to seriously worry about the most useful spending of this time.

After he gets used to thoughtfully and painstakingly planning his working day, week, month, he often finds that he has much more time than before for rest, “creative laziness” and calm thoughts about anything.

Managing personal time is not a kind of triviality and stinginess, as it might seem to someone, but a unique opportunity to free up time not only for the most important, but also for the most enjoyable things in order to live in accordance with personal values and priorities.

In other words, time management is one of the paths to a free and harmonious existence.

Self-motivation

Psychologists are well aware that with the help of simple techniques, which most often act on the unconscious part of the psyche, a person can be attuned to effective work even when he is not interested in work.

One of these techniques is the use of psychological anchors, that is, the purposeful creation of the necessary associations in the mind. For example, if you are used to doing business accompanied by a certain melody, then listening to it in itself can invigorate and tune in to a working mood.

Sometimes a cup of strong coffee, which is drunk upon arrival at work, also acts as such an "anchor". Psychological anchors should be handled with care, as the associations formed by them can disintegrate.

"There are no millionaires in the realm of time ... Wasted time, unlike lost money, cannot be returned."

Sometimes we find it difficult to get down to business when we understand that it is not easy and will require significant effort. Use the “Swiss cheese method” in this case.

Imagine that your task is a piece of cheese from which you can bite off small pieces, that is, to carry out the easiest or most enjoyable stages of the work.

After a while, you will notice that almost nothing is left of the main body of work. After completing a stage, reward yourself - say, bite off a piece of chocolate after writing the next page of the report.

One popular way to force yourself to do unpleasant tasks is to “eat a frog”. Imagine your worst part of the job is a cold, nasty frog that needs to be eaten.

After you are done with the hardest, everything else will seem much easier to accomplish.

"" Drive "is a root that has also taken root in the Russian language and is associated with two things: management, energetic movement - and, the second meaning, vivid pleasure in what you are doing."

Another variation of this method is “eating an elephant”. When you are afraid to start a task because of its magnitude, think of it as an elephant that you cut into pieces to eat one at a time each day.

Create a table in which to enter the "elephants" and "frogs" eaten as they come in. Give yourself a small reward for successfully absorbing a certain amount of them — for example, a pleasant purchase.

A table view of time is an effective time management tool that helps you create a picture of the inexorable passage of time in your mind.

"A person is constructed in such a way that the very fixation of a quantitative indicator is already pushing to action in the right direction."

Time management in the office

One of the axioms of time management is that every day should have a plan. This plan acts as a kind of scheme that helps the consciousness to preliminarily calculate all actions.

Always have a planner with you, where in the evening or in the morning, write down the plan for the upcoming day. When calculating your daily “budget” of your time, do not forget to include in it such unforeseen time expenditures as traffic jams or organizational miscalculations.

It should also be remembered that a plan is not a dogma, but a preliminary scheme that needs to be adjusted along the way. The disadvantage of plans is that they can get frustrated due to unforeseen little things.

Think over your actions in this case and insure against surprises - for example, collecting as much additional information as possible about planned events.

“A lot of people in the post-Soviet space do not manage their lives, but go with the flow.”

Some of the tasks that must be completed will not relate to a specific day, but have a cross-cutting nature. For example, remind someone of something if they call, or wash your car if you drive past a car wash.

It is convenient to put the list of such cases on a separate card used as a bookmark in the diary - “strategic cardboard”. These types of planned actions depend on the opportunity to arrive.

To remember the "contextual task" at the right moment, create a system of "rolling" reminders that you can write down, say, on small sticky notes and attach first to one page of the diary, and then transfer them to the next.

“Every day we are taught what a“ right ”successful person should want. Although the real successful people did not start their path to success with the purchase of a jacket from Armani ”.

When planning your day, you should take into account another condition for effective work, which few people think about. This is a rest to recuperate. Chaotic switching of attention does not help to relax - rest should be regular and planned.

Set a rule for yourself to break away from work for exactly five minutes every hour. In the “five-minute rest”, make tea, talk to a friend, surf the Internet, or just walk down the hallway.

The best form of short rest during work hours is sleep. Instead of nodding off after dinner, painfully trying to focus, find an opportunity to take a nap for at least half an hour.

This can be done in a study, an empty meeting room, or a car. A nap in the afternoon will quickly refresh your brain, and you'll be ready to get to work with renewed vigor.

"The first thing to start with prioritization is clearing your life of imposed cases."

The art of prioritizing

The ability to find the main thing among things and first of all deal with it, and put off all secondary tasks for later is of enormous importance not only for work, but also for life in general.

The most common reason for failure is our natural desire for everything at once. Choosing a priority case at the moment is the essence of time management.

However, in order not to be mistaken with the choice of priority, one should not rely on intuition, but formulate criteria of importance (source of the problem, contribution to the overall result, complexity, and so on).

The criteria matrix should become a “sieve” through which you will “sift” tasks and goals on a daily basis.

“In any case, in the evening or in the morning, a day was planned, - in no case should the plan be regarded as a law. The plan must be constantly updated as circumstances change. ”

When a person begins to seriously deal with what matters are of paramount importance, and which will wait, he may have conflicts with others. Everyone believes that his problem or question should be solved first.

Your task is to throw off a mountain of small, secondary matters that take up valuable time and drain energy, but at the same time do not spoil relations with colleagues. There are three following techniques to help do this:

A polite and convincing refusal. Nothing saves time and effort like the ability to say no. Learn to give up on time to do things that do not align with your priority goals. So that the person who was denied his request does not harbor a grudge against you, come up with a plausible reason. If circumstances permit, try to provide a logical reasoning for your refusal. Or prove to the person that in fact what he asks of you does not need or is not profitable for him.
"Healthy indifference." In some situations, you should not rush to complete the task - tomorrow it can be solved by itself, without your participation. Before taking on any business, ask yourself whether it is necessary to do it at all and whether it is you who should be doing it. There are probably people around you who are just waiting to shift their work onto your shoulders.
Delegation of work. Before doing routine (or unskilled) work, consider whether it is possible to transfer it to other employees or seek the help of people who provide professional services. When you delegate a task to subordinates, do not forget to monitor how they are doing it, and if necessary, remind them of it. Do not rely on memory, but record orders on cards or in an organizer (paper or electronic). Let your coworkers and employees know that you never forget what you asked others to do.

“If your plans and agreements are confirmed by e-mail, it will be much easier to resolve controversial issues“ if something happens. ”

How to beat chaos

One of the main reasons for the leakage of precious time is the presence of a mass of information garbage around us, through which we have to wade to really important information.

Learn to organize online access to the necessary information and do not clutter your head with a mass of unnecessary ones. When you have too many unread documents, unread letters, and so on, apply the “limited chaos” method.

It consists in the fact that all incoming materials are placed in a common "drive" (folder, trash, electronic folder). Then sorting is performed: we select the main type of materials from the mass of papers (or the one that is easiest to isolate) and create a separate folder for it (for example, “Agreements”, “Financial reports”).

Then we select the next array of documentation - and so on until the blockage is disassembled. The method of moving from chaos to order is much better than initially following certain principles of sorting documents, which in the end often leads to duplicate folders and even more chaos.

"The main rule of attention management: if you brought something closer to the center of attention, be sure to remove something from it."

"Time absorbers"

One of the main sources of information waste in human life is television and other media. Take a close look at your desire to watch the news bulletins regularly.

So do you need to know about the hostilities in the Middle East, about the divorce of a pop star, or any other event that you personally and your company have nothing to do with?

Break the habit of turning on the TV in the morning and evening, using it as background sound. Hide the remote control away so as not to provoke an obsessive desire to constantly change channels.

Watch TV selectively and purposefully: if there is a program in the program that is of interest to you, then record it on some digital carrier to watch it at a convenient time.

"One of the most common time-wasters is public transport or automobiles."

Defeating this kind of time waster requires a systematic approach. Try to measure exactly how much time you spend on certain tasks every day.

For example, carry a notebook with you and for several days in a row, pedantically write down in it what you are doing and how long it took (with an accuracy of 5-10 minutes).

Check the boxes for short distractions from work that take less than five minutes, and in the evening multiply the number of these checkmarks by 2-3 minutes to see the scale of these small time leaks.

Careful, patient monitoring of your personal time allows you to see clearly how much time you have left.

Compare the time spent on priority and important tasks with the time taken by the “sinks”. When you have quantitative indicators, you will be surprised how quickly the waste of time on sinks will begin to decrease.

“We don't think of brushing our teeth or showering every day as 'straining' because it's become a habit for a long time ... It's the same with personal time management - it's better to do it for 15 minutes every day than in big swoops, but irregularly.”

With daily timekeeping, you may know for the first time exactly how long it takes to commute to and from work.

Think about how to fill this “dead” gap with something useful, such as reading books, listening to audio recordings, or learning a foreign language.

Finally, when traveling on public transport, just sit back and try to get some rest - it will be just as efficient a use of your time as reading a book.

“Imagine a person walking through a cemetery. Will he stop at your grave, take an interest in the inscription on it? "

In time management it is like in sports: if a person does not move forward, he moves back. Set a goal for yourself to take at least a small step every day to save your personal time.

Transform time management and resource seeking into a routine, routine activity like washing your face and brushing your teeth. Make it a rule to deal with at least one information block every day (cleaning your desktop, sorting incoming emails, and so on).

Try out a new time management technique weekly - for example, monitoring the time spent on current tasks or keeping an organizer. Once every three months, conduct a "disciplinary week" during which you strictly adhere to all your plans, do not give yourself any indulgences and do not be distracted for a minute from your business.

Time management culture

Although we all know that time is money, the loss of money is perceived by us much more painful than the loss of time. Individual efforts to save personal time often crash against the wall of collective indifference.

The ideology of time management should be embedded in the corporate culture of any organization today. The easiest way to spark the interest of company management in implementing its principles is to calculate the financial loss from unproductive time spent on the scale of one department or the entire organization.

Let subordinates be convinced by the example of their boss that they need to fight for time no less fiercely than for money. The leader must show in practice that he values the time of his subordinates.

The obvious advantage of time management is that there is hardly a single person who will agree to calmly watch his life drain pointlessly. More often than not, people just need to tell what to do to save time.

* * *

Dedicated to my grandfather, German Arkhangelsky, with gratitude for the introduction to the tradition of managerial thinking and for the timely donated book about Time "This Strange Life"

From publishers

The book that saves time is the book of life!

Surprisingly, everyone will make good money on this wonderful book.

The author, Gleb, will start working. Not so much money as fame and popularity - and many new grateful students. The publishing house will earn - and again not so much money as many grateful readers. And finally, every reader will work. And - unlike Gleb and the publishing house - three times. At first, he will earn a lot of positive emotions: after all, the book is written very easily, accessible and interesting! Then, with some effort on himself, he will start earning "time points" - first hours, then days and weeks of his time. And then the most valuable "earnings" will come, which bring a lot. These are changes for the better - both in personal life and in career. You will really start to manage to live and work!

One of the readers once told me that my prefaces to books remind him of good Georgian toasts - they are rather long and interesting. Understood the hint, round off.

Well ... for a time drive!

Igor Mann,

publishing house "Mann, Ivanov and Ferber"

Foreword. Our capital of time

Dear reader,

we are all on an equal footing with the inexorable passage of time. Whatever material prosperity we have achieved, each of us has very little time. There are no millionaires in the realm of time. The available capital of the time remaining until the end of life is approximately 200-400 thousand hours. And most importantly, time is irreplaceable. Lost time, unlike lost money, cannot be returned.

When we created the Time Management Community, the topic of time management was little known in Russia. It was believed that in the conditions of the “broad Russian soul” and the Russian “off-road and slovenliness” it was impossible to plan time.

Few people knew that back in 1926 there was a league called "Time", which disseminated advanced time management technologies; few people were familiar with the rich history of domestic time management. The experience of the members of the TM community and corporate TM projects has shown that it is necessary and possible to plan time in Russia. You will find real examples of this in the book.

Time management is not only about diaries, plans and deadlines. It is a technology that allows you to use the irreplaceable time of your life in accordance with your goals and values.... Whether you use flexible or rigid planning, timing or self-motivation, Outlook or a paper notebook, it makes no difference. The technique is secondary. It is important to find your own, "family", life goals - and allocate your time in accordance with them. Waste irreplaceable life time on what really is want.

Several years ago, the publishing house "Peter" published my monograph "Time Management: From Personal Efficiency to Firm Development", which has now gone through two editions. It was the first non-translated book on time management in Russia over the past 30 years, summarizing my author's developments and the experience of members of the TM community. Numerous responses led me to write a second book in a more popular format.

Our time capital is small. This applies not only to each of us individually, but to the entire nation as a whole. We have little time - the 21st century is in the yard, and in this century we need to make up for a lot, to learn a lot. Stop worrying about past failures, not be afraid to set daring goals - and achieve them. To learn not only to dream that we can do well, but also to make dreams come true in an organized, purposeful manner.

I wish you, reader, to find a common language with Time and help your loved ones do this. Then the time of all of us will always be filled with that "drive" that makes our life bright and interesting!

Acknowledgments

The author thanks the members of the Time Management Community who were at the origins of the formation of the TM theme in the new Russia and helped to promote the theme in society at the most difficult stage, in the first five years. Especially:

Olga Strelkova, the initiator of the creation of the TM-community and TM-club, who gave a lot of intellectual and energetic stimuli to both my first book and Time Drive;

Vitaly Korolev, the constant ideological inspirer of the TM-community from the first days of its existence, the “parent” of the idea of the TM-manifesto;

Sergey Kozlovsky and Alexey Babiy - aksakals and patriarchs of the TM theme in Russia;

Nikolay Vodolazsky, Vadim Ivanov, Anna Ivanova, Dmitry Litvak, Alexander Miskaryan, Elena Nabatova, Nikolay Pavlenko, Maria Sharova - active participants in the TM-community and TM-club;

The author thanks the clients of the "Organization of Time" company, whose invaluable experience can now be available to other managers. Especially initiators and managers of corporate TM projects (in reverse chronological order):

Victoria Petrova, deputy. General Director for Human Resources, Russian Aluminum;

Alexandra Selyutina, deputy. Director of the Informatization Department of RAO UES of Russia;

Nadezhda Popova, Manager of the Training Department, PricewaterhouseCoopers;

Natalia Becker, Manager of the Corporate University of Wimm-Bill-Dann;

Nikolay Gordeev, General Director of Lomonosov Porcelain Factory OJSC;

Eduard Faritov, Development Director, Russian Standard Group;

Elena Lebedeva, Head of Training Department, Sbarro;

Alexandra Malakhova, key account executive, Mars;

Valentin Iskandarov, Development Director of the SoyuzSnab Group of Companies;

Gulmira Tuleshov, Head of the Motivation Department of the National Bank of Kazakhstan;

Vladimir Nyukhlov, deputy. General Director for Information Technologies, OJSC Nizhny Novgorod Oil and Fat Plant;

Boris Dyakonov, Executive Director of OJSC Bank24.ru;

Lyubov Yulis, Commercial Director of Comstar - United TeleSystems;

Mark Fedin, President of Mago Smart Phones;

Alexander Mondrus, managing director of the MC-Bauchemie-Russia Group of Companies.

Special thanks go to those who provided invaluable assistance in the work on this book, namely Igor Mann and Mikhail Ivanov, the initiators of the book's publication; Ekaterina Kraus, sociologist of the Rossiya TV channel, head of focus groups and polls, who made a significant contribution to improving the text; as well as all of their contributors, whose valuable thoughts and feedback helped improve the original version of the book.

To all of you, friends and associates, thank you very much for the fact that thanks to you, time management in Russia is developing - and yielding results!

Feedback

Dear reader, we are all unique as individuals, we act in a wide variety of conditions and circumstances. Therefore, your practical experience in the implementation of the TM-technique is invaluable.

Cases, your experience in the practical application of time management;

Notes on the text of the book and suggestions for improvements;

Suggestions on topics for new chapters and sections.

Write me an e-mail: [email protected] and on Twitter twitter.com/glebarhangelsky.

Lovers of communication - come to my blog glebarhangelsky.livejournal.com. Participate in discussions, become the authors of the site, contribute to raising the culture of attitude to time in our society!

And remember our motto, which gave the name to the Internet project: Everything Has Room for Improvement! There are always reserves of time and efficiency!

Best wishes - to have time to live and work,

Gleb Arkhangelsky

Steps to Create Your Personal Time Management System

Dear reader, this is a quick overview of the chapters ahead. Each of them corresponds to a logical step in building a personal time management system. At the end of each chapter, the corresponding step will be detailed into a few specific guidelines.

1. Rest: how not to turn into a "driven horse"

On Friday most of the time you want a drink.

On Monday, you most often want Friday.

Anecdote.ru

We will start our conversation about time management in an unusual way - with organizing recreation.

Remember, dear reader, did you ever feel tired and exhausted at work, having lost all taste even for your favorite work? If so, you are not alone. This is a common problem in our time. In Japanese, she even gave birth to a special word "karoshi" - "death from overwork at work."

In competent personal time management, not only the amount of time is important, but also the quality. Therefore, it is worth thinking about how your vacation is organized, the restoration of your energy resource.

Rhythmic rest during the working day

Try to recall: how were your rest breaks distributed during yesterday's work day?

Most likely, the rest took shape spontaneously. I was distracted for a few minutes by an interesting discussion on the Internet; an acquaintance called - chatted with him; went out to smoke; closed his eyes and dreamed; drank a cup of coffee.

This spontaneous rest has a number of disadvantages. First of all, he is non-rhythmic, and man is a biological creature, accustomed to different rhythms. Therefore, the first principle that I recommend to adhere to when organizing rest during the working day is rhythm... Simply put: use a small planned rest at strictly defined intervals.

As a rule, the optimal regimen is about 5 minutes of rest every hour. Perhaps 10 minutes in 1.5 hours. Duration from an hour to one and a half is the most comfortable interval of continuous work for a person. Remember school and university: lesson - 45 minutes, "couple" - 1.5 hours.

No matter how busy your working day is, no matter what kind of rush reigned in the office - still allocate these 5 minutes per hour. Invest time in these five minutes of rest, work without them is extremely ineffective.

In the MC-Bauchemie-Russia Group of Companies, time management seminars were held in the evenings. At one of the seminars, the following dialogue took place among the participants:

"It's strange, for some reason, English classes are also held in the evenings, at the same time, but we get tired of them much more." - “Naturally, in time management in the middle of the lesson, we definitely take a break for 15 minutes. And in English we work all 4 hours in a row without interruptions. "

"Maximum switching" at rest

You need to rest rhythmically during the day, five minutes per hour. But how exactly do you rest during the working day, how do you fill these five minutes, what holiday scenarios using? Each of us usually has several such typical scenarios. For example:

I'll call a friend;

I'll go out for a smoke;

I will look at something interesting on the Internet;

I will water the flowers;

I'll have a cup of tea.

Let's try to assess the degree of “switching” that different scenarios give on a five-point scale. For example:

1 point. Staying at the same workplace, in the same position (sitting), looking at the same computer, straining the same intellect - to read something not on the Internet.

2 points. Staying in the same workplace, turning away from the computer, talk to a colleague about non-work topics.

3 points. Walk to the "smoking room" and discuss work and non-work issues there; have tea with colleagues. We have changed the location, perhaps - changed the themes with which our brain is "puzzled".

4 points. Leave the office on the street, admire the blue sky and green trees, completely disconnect from the office environment.

5 points. Go outside, do a few simple exercises that allow you to stretch your joints, give rest to your eyes tired from the monitor, completely forget about all your work problems.

The stronger the switch during the five-minute rest, the better you will rest and recuperate. Be sure to leave the workplace, take a "physical culture break". If there is no way to go outside - walk along the corridor. If you worked with people, be alone. If you analyzed the numbers, call a good friend and discuss something emotionally pleasant. I also recommend doing some simple physical exercises: bends, squats, etc. This will perfectly restore your strength and energy to work!

The famous Soviet poet Vladimir Mayakovsky, who knew well and supported the movement of the scientific organization of labor, expressed the principle of maximum switching in a simple slogan:

Comrade, remember the simple rule:
You work while sitting -
Rest while standing!

Creative laziness

Speaking of rest, it is impossible to ignore the topic of laziness. Laziness is not always a bad thing. This is often a normal defense reaction in our body. Its reasons may be:

Overwork, objective exhaustion of the body, waste of physical, energy and emotional resources.

The discrepancy between our “must” and our “want” is when we spend the time of our life on things that are not “native” or desirable for us.

An intuitive feeling that the task being performed at the moment is unnecessary.

A fourth reason is also possible. Your subconscious mind gives you a signal: "Wait, don't fuss, cleanse your soul of small current thoughts, give a place for the birth of something new." It is often in this state that the best ideas and creative insights come in.

The rules for creative laziness are simple:

If you are really lazy, then 100%, without trying to do something else at this time, think, solve problems, etc. Pure laziness is a pure feeling of the fullness of being and the universal harmony of the universe.

Consciously make a decision: "I want to be lazy - and I will do it." Without hesitation and remorse.

Before creative laziness, load the brain with information on an important creative problem for you. But do not think about the problem during laziness itself!

If you follow these rules, creative laziness will become an inexhaustible source of beautiful ideas and solutions. And also - wonderful rest and recuperation. The main thing is not to overdo it and not to confuse creative laziness with ordinary laziness.

Effective sleep

"You rarely get enough sleep!" - Participants of time management seminars often complain. Sleep is the most important way to rest and recuperate. But do we always organize it competently? Even without increasing the amount of time for sleep, you can significantly improve its quality.

Sleep efficiency is greatly enhanced by consistent bedtime and wake-up times. Your body gets used to a certain time, it becomes easier to fall asleep and wake up. It is also advisable to ventilate the room well and not eat for several hours before bedtime.

I recommend finding and using the best way to switch to sleep mode for you. For example, in the last half hour or hour before bedtime - quiet reading, a walk, music, light gymnastic exercises, etc. The activity can be anything you like, as long as it helps you relieve your brain from daytime worries, switch to a slower rhythm.

The duration of sleep can be different, it is important to determine the optimal one for yourself. How to do it?

Our sleep consists of several cycles of alternating "fast" and "slow" sleep. The duration of one cycle differs from person to person and ranges from 1 to 2 hours. It is desirable that the total sleep duration be a multiple of the duration of one cycle. For example, if your cycle is 1 hour 30 minutes, then it is better to sleep 7 hours 30 minutes than 8 hours. When the duration of sleep is a multiple of the cycle duration, a person wakes up with a feeling of vigor, freshness and well-restored strength. Watch yourself, try varying the length of your sleep, and you will soon determine the optimal sleep duration for you.

Marshal Vasilevsky shares his experience in planning a sleep regimen. “… In especially tense days, Stalin repeatedly told the responsible employees of the General Staff that we must find at least five or six hours for rest for ourselves and for our subordinates a day, otherwise, he stressed, fruitful work could not work. In the October days of the battle for Moscow, Stalin himself set a rest for me from 4 to 10 in the morning and checked whether this requirement was being fulfilled. The incidents of violation generated extremely serious and highly unpleasant conversations for me. The most intense work, and sometimes the inability to organize their time, the desire to take on many responsibilities, often forced responsible workers to forget about sleep. And this, too, could not but affect their performance, and therefore, in practice.

Sometimes, returning from Stalin at about four o'clock in the morning, in order to implement the decisions taken at Headquarters, I was obliged to give the performers or the fronts the necessary instructions. Sometimes it dragged on for as long as four hours. I had to go for the trick. I left at the Kremlin telephone at the desk of the adjutant of senior lieutenant A.I. Grinenko. When Stalin called, he was obliged to report that I was resting until ten. As a rule, the answer was: "Good."

(Vasilevsky A.M. The work of all life. In 2 books. Book. 1. - M .: Politizdat, 1988.)

It is important to organize not only the sleep process, but also the awakening process. I advise you to set several different melodies in your alarm clock or mobile phone and use them to make the waking up process gradual. For example, you need to wake up at 8:00. Let the first melody play at 7:30, pleasant and calm, on which you wake up, rejoice that you do not need to get up yet, and fall asleep again. At 7:45 am - something more cheerful, perhaps with words to which the brain reacts more actively than to a melody without words. And at 8:00 - the most joyful and energetic melody on which you finally wake up, get out of bed and gladly meet the new day of your life.

Sleep use during the working day

Have you, reader, nodded in the afternoon trying to focus on an important task? What to do when you get sleepy at work?

Look at the average chart of a person's daily biorhythms.

Diagram of human daily biorhythms

It is believed that our capacity for work and activity during the day has two recessions and two rises (for "larks" the first rise is higher, for "owls" - the second, falling in the evening). It is easy to see that one of the recessions occurs just in the afternoon.

The simplest solution to the problem is a nap, covering the afternoon biorhythm decline. Consider the famous Latin American siesta, the obligatory nap in the afternoon heat. Let us also recall British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who lived to be 90 years old, despite an unhealthy lifestyle and a huge burden of worries and responsibilities. His assistants had the right to interrupt his obligatory daytime sleep for no less than the beginning of the war. Daytime sleep was also an indispensable element of the routine of the Russian Boyar Duma before Peter I.

An example of a corporate organization of daytime sleep was given by a participant in a corporate seminar at Sibirtelecom OJSC, Novosibirsk. “In China, in the city of Shenzhen, we were brought on an excursion to a telecommunications equipment plant. At the equipment testing tables, we noticed strange devices. It turned out to be folding folding bunks embedded in tables. Lunch for workers lasts two hours, of which an hour is officially allocated for sleep. "

What if you do not yet have your own office with a comfortable leather sofa and cannot afford a full day's sleep?