How to properly distribute your time so that you can get everything done

A missed deadline can easily turn into a disaster. The manager is unhappy, the client is shocked, the business is under threat. And the reason for this can easily be the inability to properly organize work. It doesn’t matter here whether we are talking about one specialist or an entire team - competent time management can save everyone.

How to manage time correctly to get everything done

Most of us are concerned with the question “How to distribute time so that it helps to complete planned tasks and bring significant results?”

Very often the problem of lack of time arises. Do you constantly wonder where it goes and why there is always not enough of it? The answer is simple - you incorrectly prioritize what you spend your time on during the day. Very often you burden yourself with empty tasks that do not bring any benefit, but only take away strength and energy. Therefore, it is very important to value time and learn to allocate it correctly to important things.

There are many techniques and methods on how to learn how to rationally plan your time in order to manage everything. The science of time management is very popular today.

ABC method

Take a list of tasks and assign a priority level to each with the letters A, B, C (some people also use the letters D and E).

A – important and urgent tasks, the highest priority to complete. These are those things whose failure or delay can have unpleasant or serious consequences. For example, fixing an error that caused the website to stop working, especially if the business is losing money due to delay.
B – important but non-urgent tasks or those whose failure to complete will not lead to serious consequences. An example is to implement a development that will help increase sales. This is important, but if you move it a little, it’s unlikely that anything irreparable will happen.
C – tasks that would be nice to complete: spend an evening with friends or arrange dinner for your wife.

Level D includes tasks that can be delegated to subordinates, and level E includes tasks that should be abandoned altogether.

Basics of competent time management

Time management is a collection of rules and methods on how to properly distribute your time in order to manage everything. By learning the basics of smart planning, you'll feel more confident and get the most out of every day.

To get started, it will be useful to master some time management tools:

Planning. If you don't plan things, then life will be chaos. It is necessary to plan and do it on electronic or paper media. Don't make plans in your head. Make it a habit every evening or morning to make a plan for the coming day. The plan must be clear and thoughtful. Time management experts recommend not only specifying actions, but also limiting the period for their implementation.
Prioritization. In time management, there are many effective tools for prioritizing tasks. For example, “frogs” are things that you don’t really like, but it’s good to do them in the morning. Or selecting separate work blocks. This is the time when you do only work, without distractions.
Time control techniques. For example, the popular Pomodoro planning technique.
Time management matrix (or Eisenhower matrix). This is a popular tool in which all matters are divided into 4 parts according to importance and urgency. And then each task is entered into the appropriate quadrant depending on the urgency and importance of completion

These are basic time management tools that are important to become familiar with at the beginning. If the topic of planning interests you, you can delve into it in more detail.

Advice from psychologists

Let's look at what experts recommend to increase productivity at work and at home:

As you remember, morning is an important element of a successful day. Stop reading news feeds. Better listen to music, do light exercises and eat a healthy breakfast.
To improve brain function, use color therapy. Scientists have proven the influence of color on the psyche. Thus, red stimulates focus and leadership qualities, yellow promotes emotional involvement, orange is the color of optimists, green promotes harmony, blue promotes creativity.
In addition to color, use aromatherapy. There are several types of essential oils that can stimulate brain activity. Try using citrus, eucalyptus, peppermint, and rosemary oils.
Plan not only work, but also leisure. Just the thought of an upcoming vacation at sea can already improve your mood.

How to distribute working time correctly

You may find the following tips helpful when planning your work time:

Keep a diary (paper or electronic). Write down your daily tasks and responsibilities there. And don't forget to prioritize them.
When you are at work, try to perform your job duties and concentrate on them. To communicate with colleagues on non-work topics, it is better to set aside a certain time when the main work has already been completed.
Unless your work responsibilities require it, try to stop using your mobile phone and the Internet, which are major time wasters.
Things you don't really like are best done in the morning. In time management theory, this is called “eating frogs.”
Learn to say no. First of all, fulfill your responsibilities. And then, if you have free time, you can fulfill a small request from a colleague.
Down with multitasking. Don't take on multiple tasks at the same time. This takes energy and time. Try to do things one at a time.
Watch your biorhythms. Analyze what time of day you are most active. Distribute the load depending on this.

Part 2: Planning and Priorities

The hardest thing comes first

The body's reserve of strength is not infinite, and this must be taken into account when distributing tasks for the day. The most difficult and unpleasant tasks must be done first, while there is strength, spirit and energy. If you start with easy things, you may simply not have the strength left for the more difficult ones, and you will have to put them off until tomorrow. And tomorrow the temptation will again appear to start with something easier, and again the same situation.

To avoid this problem, start checking off the heaviest tasks on your to-do list and complete them first. It is much more convenient to “shoot” difficult tasks in the first half of the day, so that later, when there is not much strength, there are easier tasks left to finish.

Use the 20/80 rule

There is one simple principle that was formulated by the Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto. According to this principle, 20% of efforts bring 80% of results , the remaining 80% of efforts bring 20% of results. No matter how strange it may sound, this rule has been proving its effectiveness for quite a long time.

To increase productivity, using this rule is simply necessary. Every time you are faced with a task, try to imagine in detail what actions need to be taken to achieve it. And from these actions, choose the one that will bring you closest to your goal, and perform it first. Proceed with the remaining steps only after completing the main ones. Apply this rule to all areas of your life, and very soon you will feel closer to being able to do everything.

Break a big task into small ones

Ever since our university days, each of us remembers how difficult it is to take on a very large task that requires a lot of time to be spent on. For example, for writing a term paper, or worse, a dissertation. The scale of such a task causes an irresistible desire to postpone this work until later. However, there is a great way to make such tasks easier.

The essence of this method is to break the task into as many small tasks as possible and write them down step by step. When you start working, you will not think about the large-scale task as a whole, but about small subtasks. This approach will make it easier and faster to complete large tasks, which will help you get one step closer to always being on time.

Eliminate unnecessary things

As we have already said, one of the reasons that prevents you from getting everything done is multitasking. The modern rhythm of life imposes on each of us a large number of responsibilities , many of which seem important only at first glance. Remember we talked about the Pareto principle? Guided by this principle, try to refuse to perform those tasks that bring the minimum result.

Of course, you need to filter your responsibilities in such a way as not to damage your goals and objectives. To make this method work as effectively as possible, try a simple rule. Every time you are about to start doing something, ask yourself 2 questions: “Will this activity help me get closer to my goals?” and “What will I lose if I refuse to do this task?” Based on the answers to these 2 questions, make decisions about the need for this work.

Optimize your business

There are a lot of daily responsibilities, each of which steals a little time from us. For example: go to the store, iron a shirt, cook food. Think carefully, is it possible to plan these things in such a way that they take less time? Let me give you a few examples.

I used to go to the store after work every day, buying a little bit of everything I needed. This took an extra 15-20 minutes of time every day. Now I have made a shopping plan, and I try to go to the store once a week on the weekends to buy everything I need for 7 days in advance. Since then, I stopped wasting an extra 20 minutes of time every day.

Or another example: in addition to the website and the 8-hour working day, I’m also working on a channel in Yandex.Zen. My usual rhythm of working on the channel: 2 articles daily. I used to write one article a day in the morning before work, and the second after work. However, I didn't like writing after work because it took up precious evening minutes. After some thought, I structured my day so that I could write a second article during my lunch break at work . This hasn't affected my productivity during the day, but I now have more free time in the evening. Think about how you could redistribute or optimize your tasks throughout the day?

Tips for planning your day

These helpful tips may help you plan your day:

Limit the number of important things you do. Their optimal number is from three to five.
Don't accumulate small things. If you can complete a task in a few minutes, it is better to do it right away, or in between major responsibilities. You can set aside a separate day to complete them.
Don't let them steal your time. Time stealers include laziness, social networks, browsing news feeds, constantly checking email, etc.
Maintain order. Clean up your desk, your home, and your thoughts. Order in the workplace allows you to concentrate better and be less distracted by unnecessary little things. Clean up your house. If you think that cleaning takes a lot of your time, use the help of cleaning companies. Order in thoughts also plays a very important role. Set specific goals, identify what is important and try to devote more time to it.
Develop good habits. Determine what healthy habits you want to learn. Think about why exactly they are important to you. For example, you want to learn a foreign language in order to travel more. In order for the habit to take root, you need to implement it into your life every day for at least a month. You can use habit trackers.
Monitor your energy levels. The amount of energy inside shows how productive you will be. If you feel a lack, you need to replenish your energy before doing important things. To do this, try to find your sources.
Time for relaxation and hobbies. Take time to relax a bit and do the things you love.
Reward yourself. For successfully completed tasks, treat yourself with small gifts or nice things. It motivates.

Time planning rules

How to properly organize your work - classic time management offers several basic principles:

Plan what you will do. This is important for ordinary office workers and even more necessary for freelancers and other free birds. Decide what you will do and in what order. This way you won’t waste time and will easily move from task to task.
Set your goals correctly. They must be specific and measurable. This will help you formulate tasks correctly.
Plan your vacation. Managing time correctly does not mean working like a draft horse. You should take rest breaks to stay productive.
Create your own rules. Analyze your experience to understand what algorithms work for you and your team. Consider the specifics of the unit and the cost at which previous results were obtained.
Focus on what's important. Some routine tasks simply waste time. If you have the ability to ignore them, do it for more important things.

How to find time to relax?

It is imperative to include time for quality rest in your daily plans.

You need to plan your free time in advance in order to spend it with maximum benefit and have quality rest.
Try to rest actively. Go in for sports, run, ride a bike, or just take a walk in the park in the fresh air. You can listen to music, read, go to the theater or cinema. Even spend your free time usefully.
During rest, put aside all matters and thoughts about problems and tasks. Try not to think about work. Dedicate this time to yourself or your family, doing your favorite activities.

With this approach to planning a vacation, you can easily fit it into your weekly to-do list. And your relatives will not feel that you are constantly busy. And your body will be ready for new achievements.

When you know how to properly distribute your time and rest, you will be able to easily cope with important tasks and solve problems faster. You will have time to relax and do your favorite things, and devote time to your family.

Where to find time for household chores

I'll tell you how to cope with your home routine without stress, spending less time on cleaning and cooking.

To avoid spending weekends cleaning, try to keep your home clean every day. It doesn’t take much time to put clothes in the closet, wipe down the stove after cooking, wash a couple of plates after eating, or sweep the floor in the hallway. All this is done in passing and does not require much effort.

Consider making your life easier with technology. A multicooker, a robot vacuum cleaner, a dishwasher - they will make it much easier and more enjoyable to cope with household chores.

Involve children in cleaning. Ask them to water the flowers, wipe the dust, clean their shoes, put away their things and toys. A small prize will be a great motivation, and working together will not only save time, but will also unite the whole family.

Semi-finished products will provide a good service in catering. They will save the situation in the event of an unexpected visit from guests, in the event of a late return home or poor health. If you're against store-bought fast food, make your own at home. For example, meat or vegetable cutlets, dumplings.

Daily routine of a successful person

To become more active and productive, it is recommended to create a daily routine and stick to it. It’s interesting that there are no generally accepted rules for drawing it up; it’s important to focus on your own goals. At the same time, you can and should look at how successful people manage their time and, based on their advice, write your daily routine for a successful person. What should be taken into account is discussed in the article.

Daily routine of great people

If you analyze the daily routines of famous politicians, writers, and film actors, you will be able to see a lot in common in them. So, these people are disciplined. They knew and know well what they want to achieve in life, and devote most of their time to achieving their goals.

Bruce Lee

To make every day successful, the martial artist, film actor and director trained a lot. He woke up early in the morning, did a warm-up, then ran, had breakfast, read books (and even while reading, he trained his arms alternately by moving a chair) or played with the children. After lunch he had his main training scheduled. Moreover, in order to stay in shape, Bruce Lee kept a diary, writing down exercises for different muscle groups that required working out. This is how the man kept himself in shape all the time.

Another mandatory part of his daily regimen is meditation. This is a mental exercise that teaches you to deeply relax or concentrate, depending on the situation. It is believed that meditation fills a person with energy, thereby increasing his inner strength.

Important! When creating your daily routine for a successful person, plan meditation for the morning, for example, immediately after waking up. This will ensure clarity of thoughts and vigor until the evening.

Benjamin Franklin

The politician, scientist and writer, whose image is imprinted on the $100 bill, highly respected order and hard work. I based my daily routine on them, according to which:

woke up at 05:00;
planned your day to be as productive as possible;
worked for about 8 hours;
analyzed how his day went in the evening, noted what useful things he managed to do and what he could not achieve, so that in the morning he could come up with a new plan of action.

It should also be noted the qualities and life principles of B. Franklin, which he followed in order to achieve perfection. Namely: determination, avoidance of empty talk, calmness in all situations, etc.

Winston Churchill

It was following the daily routine, according to the man, that allowed him to become successful and as productive as possible. But it is known that the Prime Minister was involved not only in government affairs, but also wrote books, receiving the Nobel Prize in Literature, and also painted, creating more than 500 canvases. And in order to keep up with everything, he woke up around 07:30 in the morning, after which he spent another 2 hours in bed - reading, eating breakfast while reclining, and giving instructions to the secretaries. Then he worked until lunch, and after that he preferred to nap during the day. This habit allowed him to spend the evening with his family until late at night, and then, if necessary, work until 3-4 in the morning.

Timothy Ferris

The investor, speaker, and bestselling author of time management advocates flexible daily routines. The main thing, while adhering to it, is to think through the list of tasks in the evening, guided by the Pareto principle (the 80/20 rule, according to which 20% of efforts give 80% of results, and vice versa). The Pareto principle allows you to select tasks that can be delegated, thereby reducing routine and freeing up time for business development.

Planning your daily routine

Planning is an effective tool for achieving goals. If used correctly, you can significantly increase your own productivity. To do this you need to define:

my starting point - what I have now, what my strengths and weaknesses are;
end point - what you want to achieve;
action plan to achieve goals.

When planning, you should cover all areas of life, that is, include time in your daily routine not only for work, but also for training, development, relaxation, and self-care. This will minimize the risk of burnout and make your life rich and interesting.

What to do when you don't have time to plan

People may complain about the lack of time to plan, but in reality, in order to successfully create a daily schedule and stick to it, a person sometimes only needs 5 minutes. During this time, he can determine the range of important tasks, and unimportant ones can be postponed or delegated. Another thing is that many people do not plan their day, and there are two main reasons for this.

Planning seems boring, tedious, unnecessary work.

To see that this is not the case, imagine the process of building a house. Before starting to build, they create a project - a plan with the exact number of floors, rooms, the required area for which the foundation is laid, an estimate of resource costs is formed, etc.

The plans are difficult to implement.

This happens when one’s own strengths are overestimated and a person plans more than he can manage, or when he does not take into account routine tasks (for example, checking mail, calling clients) or stages of completing important tasks. So, a meeting with a client also involves preparing a presentation, etc.

Finally, plans may be disrupted due to unforeseen situations. Unfortunately, it is impossible to predict them, but you can set aside time for force majeure.

The basis of time management is setting goals

The secret to a successful day also lies in following the principles of time management. This is the art of organizing one's time, the tools of which help a person to be more effective.

Within the framework of time management, there are several processes, the main of which is goal setting. Goals determine the direction of your work and help you use your most important resource—time—more effectively. But they need to be set correctly, and for this it is necessary to use technologies for setting goals and priorities. One of the most popular is SMART. According to it, the goal should be:

Specific - specific, that is, it is important to clearly define the result. For example, when thinking about a goal, write not just “increase profits,” but “earn such and such an amount,” “achieve sales growth,” etc.;
Measurable - measurable, each goal must have criteria by which the result can be measured, and it is best in numbers, for example, “increase sales by 2 times”;
Achievable - achievable: you should not set the goal of “winning the Olympic Games within a month” to a person who has never played sports; the other extreme is to prescribe easily achievable goals that can be achieved in any case; this deprives the feeling of excitement and the strength necessary to implement the plan ;
Relevant - significant: a person must benefit from achieving this goal, otherwise he will not have the desire to make efforts to obtain the result;
Time bound - limited in time, that is, you need to clearly determine during what period you plan to earn this or that amount, increase sales volume by 2 times, etc., if this is not done, the implementation of the goal may be postponed for an unlimited time.

It is also important to distinguish between goals and objectives. The latter represent specific steps towards the desired result. Both goals and objectives must be written down. This will allow you to concentrate on important matters, rather than keeping a plan of action in your head, all the time worrying that you have forgotten something.

10 rules for organizing the daily routine of successful people

In order to keep up with everything and not feel like a squirrel in a wheel, you should follow simple recommendations.

Wake up at the same time every day. Self-discipline helps the body get used to a clear routine and use sleep time more effectively for rest and recuperation. And this is the key to good memory, concentration, and speed of decision-making. On the other hand, getting up at strictly defined hours allows you to do more things during the day, since in this case you will have more time to work than if you woke up 2-3 hours later.
Don't check your email or pick up your phone before breakfast. Firstly, you can get carried away and lose precious time, and secondly, you can earn yourself stress and headaches in the morning, but they do not contribute to increased productivity. At the same time, thinking about good things gives a boost of energy. Interestingly, having a quiet morning, focusing on your priorities and goals is something that almost all successful people do every day. According to them, this does not allow them to stray from their intended path.
Prepare clothes in the evening so as not to waste time choosing and ironing them in the morning. By the way, in order not to devote too much time to preparing their wardrobe, successful entrepreneurs often deliberately choose simple and comfortable things for every day: jeans, turtlenecks, T-shirts (Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg).
In the evening, choose a place for breakfast. This is rather advice for those who do not like to eat at home, but prefer to have breakfast in a cafe. Needless to say, if you don’t think through this moment, you can remain hungry or get stuck in a traffic jam while heading to one of your favorite establishments.
Prefer light breakfasts. Breakfast should give energy, but not take away the body’s strength to digest food, for example, if “heavy” dishes are chosen. The best options for hearty light breakfasts, according to nutritionists: oatmeal, fruit, whole grain bread, eggs, tea, coffee, juice, etc.
Move a lot. Walking or light exercise with simple exercises gets the blood flowing, causing the brain to wake up faster, and also reduces anxiety. Interestingly, when planning their day, successful people often schedule time for running. In their opinion, it calms you down, helps you sort out your thoughts, so that you can weigh everything and make the right decision.
Maintain a positive attitude. We get what we focus on. If you think about problems all the time, their number only increases, and if you think about solutions, new options come by themselves.
Use the Pomodoro method to get more done. According to him, you need to make a list of tasks, ranking them by priority. And then turn on the timer for 25 minutes and get to work. When the time is up, take a break for 5-10 minutes and set the timer again. Every 4 cycles you can rest for 15–20 minutes. Another option is to work for half an hour, then take breaks of 10 minutes.
Alternate intense work with rest. For example, the daily routine of many successful people included time for a nap or for a run during the day.
Summarize the day. Celebrating your victories is just as important as setting goals, and some coaches recommend doing this in writing so that later, when you feel sad, you can re-read your notes and recharge your batteries. It is also important to analyze failures in order to understand why this happened and to prevent them in the future.

Daily routine for working from home

For freelancers, as well as for those who work remotely temporarily or permanently, maintaining a daily routine is very important, otherwise tasks will be postponed and accumulated. You can create a regime yourself, inspired by how the day of successful people goes. But time management experts recommend:

Wake up earlier. The optimal time is from 06:00 to 08:00. While others are sleeping, you can do light exercises, have breakfast, drink a cup of coffee in silence on the balcony, breathing fresh air, and write down a plan for the day.
Plan important tasks for the first half of the day. There is an opinion that before 12:00 the brain works most actively, which means that a person is most productive at this time, however, provided that he has had enough sleep and is not distracted by family members.
Have lunch between 13:00 and 13:30 with family or alone in your room. After lunch, it is advisable to set aside another 40–50 minutes for something that relaxes and provides a boost of energy. This could be a walk, reading a book, jogging, a hobby, etc.
Continue work from 14:00 to 18:00. At the end of the working day, take stock and thank yourself for your successes.
It is advisable to have dinner between 18:00 and 19:00. It is believed that at this time a maximum of enzymes are produced to digest dishes.

After dinner, it is better to rest, since the brain will no longer be able to engage in analytical activities, and work will not be as productive as in the morning.

It is advisable to go to bed between 21:00 and 22:00, having previously put away gadgets at least an hour before bedtime (their bright light reduces the production of melanin, which affects the quality of sleep - then it is difficult to fall asleep or the sleep is shallow, and the person wakes up several times per night).

Jack Dorsey: "8 hours for every company"

Finally, when creating your daily routine, you can use the experience of Jack Dorsey, a successful entrepreneur and one of the founders of Twitter. True, for this you need to be extremely disciplined. In an interview, J. Dorsey stated that he works 16 hours a day, devoting 8 hours to each of the companies (Twitter and Square). Interestingly, clear planning of work helps a man manage everything. He noted that Monday is management day, Tuesday is product day, Wednesday is marketing day, etc.

conclusions

Daily routine is very important for a person who wants to succeed in business and in life. The main thing is to create a routine taking into account the recommendations of already successful people. They advise including in the regime not only a to-do list for the day, but also a planning stage in order to have time to do important work, a stage of analyzing your day in order to praise yourself for your successes and work on mistakes. If desired, you can add additional stages - meditations, affirmations for a successful day, etc.

Planning your day: basic ways

Large companies have already begun to open vacancies for time managers: they are engaged in optimizing staff working time. Popular day planning methods known in psychology include the following.

Technique "Pomodoro". Aimed at helping you concentrate on a specific task. The point is to alternate working hours and breaks. A person first works for 25 minutes and then rests for 5 minutes. It is important to complete tasks with maximum efficiency and minimal distraction within the prescribed period. Thus, productivity is measured by the number of “pomodoros” completed per work shift.

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Mind maps. The technique was developed by English psychologist Tony Buzan. Externally, the map is a branching diagram. The date is written in the center of the sheet, and branches with different categories of cases are drawn from it. On such maps it is convenient to mark completed tasks and add new ones.

GTD method. The author of the technique, David Allen, is recognized as one of the best theorists of personal effectiveness. And his book “How to Get Things in Order” was called the business book of recent decades. The basis is the principle of storing current affairs not in your head, but on some external medium (for example, in a notepad). And use not spontaneous planning, but a clear system of algorithms.
Eisenhower Matrix. The method helps to divide tasks according to importance. A special table of four square fields is used as a tool.

"ABC" analysis. The technique is useful where you need to prioritize among various areas. Group A - important and urgent, B - matters of medium importance, C - additional activities.
Planning technique "1-3-5". The list includes one important matter, 3 medium and 5 small ones. They are already distributed in order of importance, and this helps get rid of the feeling of rush.
Franklin's Pyramid. At the heart of any task, according to Benjamin Franklin, are life values and moral guidelines. The scientist called them virtues and identified 13 main ones for himself. These included calmness, hard work, meekness, determination and others. In a special notebook, a page was allocated for each life principle. Thus, every day Franklin focused on one of the virtues and in the evenings he noted the mistakes made on the path to moral perfection.

REFERENCE! The technique with the comic name “Eating a Frog” is also interesting. Everyone has things that are constantly put off until later. Gradually they accumulate and begin to put psychological pressure on a person. However, if you “eat a frog” every morning (perform some tedious task), gradually everything will return to normal.

LeaderTask

LeaderTask is a personal organizer and task planner.

It is not an online service and requires installation on a computer or phone to use.

LeaderTask organizer is used for personal and corporate use.

It synchronizes data over the network, so the necessary information will be at hand, just connect to the Internet.

The Windows version is paid, but there is a free trial period of 45 days. During this time, you can test the functionality of the organizer and decide whether to purchase the paid version.

LeaderTask helps you plan things using a calendar, assign tasks and monitor their completion, add tags to indicate the importance of tasks, create complex projects, and synchronize with other devices over the network.

This is what the LeaderTask interface looks like.

The David Allen Method: Getting Things Done (GTD)

The famous American coach, who has written many books on the topic of personal effectiveness, created his own method, Getting Things Done (GTD). The technique is suitable in the following cases:

there is a feeling of depression due to a large number of unfinished tasks;
When doing work, you constantly miss small details, make “careless” mistakes;
you are trying to sit on several chairs at once, balance work and personal life;
You lose interest in the project after the planning stage is completed.

The GTD personal time management system is based on a simple statement: the more tasks on the list, the more difficult it is to solve what requires more attention.

Too large a list forces a person to spend more time thinking about how to organize his work day than on direct work. The result is a state of stress and depression.

David Allen noted that the human brain is much better at processing information than storing it. Therefore, the GTD methodology is designed to help get rid of not only the chaos in your work, but also the clutter in your head. Of course, you will have to spend time setting up workflows according to a specific algorithm.

To achieve the result you will need to take 5 steps.

Record all information.

Whatever comes to mind during the day, you should quickly write it down in your diary. If the thought is not transferred to paper, it will be lost.

Do analysis.

There is no need to schedule all the recorded tasks to be completed at once. It is better to group elements by urgency, importance, value of results.

Organize your work day.

You can use special programs for this. To get started, you can use a regular calendar. But large companies are purchasing planner applications, with the help of which bosses can find out about the current workload of their subordinates.

Periodically update the status and relevance of tasks.

You cannot blindly follow the lists compiled. After all, sometimes no one else needs to complete a task. Priority may also change. What was a matter of tenth importance yesterday will become a “hot” task tomorrow.

Act.

It’s not enough to know how to properly organize your workday; you also need to complete tasks.

The GTD technique requires prior training. All steps are described in detail in David Allen's books. But in the end, the training will definitely pay off. Because you never have to worry about deadlines. First, let's take a quick look at each step.

Step 1. Fixation

The first and most important stage of the GTD technique: stop storing all incoming information on separate pieces of paper or even in your memory. Instead, you need to record every task that appears in a notebook or in a special application. Only by writing down your thoughts can you reduce clutter.

Main note.

At this stage, you don’t need to spend a single second thinking about the feasibility, priority and necessity of the task. Analysis will be one of the next steps.

Step 2. Processing of recorded information

This stage is devoted to how to organize the working day. We'll have to deal with all the records. David Allen's books contain entire matrices for processing incoming information. You can remember the following postulates:

If a task takes less than two minutes to complete, you must complete it immediately;
if a task can be entrusted to someone else, then it is better to delegate it and immediately add control of completion to the list of personal matters;
if the task can be postponed, postpone it, but fix in your calendar the time when you need to return to the issue;
if the task is large-scale and complex, break it down into small sub-items and return to step No. 1.

You can do all of the above on paper, although it's best to experiment with software.

Step 3. Proper organization of the working day

By writing down all your tasks and analyzing them, you will receive a primary action plan. But in order to have enough time for everything, you need to create a detailed schedule. You can download applications and programs: Todoist, Asana. They will help you calculate the time required to complete everything planned, combine small tasks and monitor progress in real time.

Step 4. Review

This step is very simple, does not require additional explanation, but for some reason it is very often ignored even by experienced managers. It is necessary to set aside time at least once a week to review all tasks. You need to cross out all completed tasks, add new ones, and update unfulfilled ones. Constantly reviewing your task list will ensure that you don't waste time doing unnecessary things.

Step 5. Action

The main part during which you can evaluate how well the planning and organization process was carried out. If everything was done correctly, then the working day will be productive, without the feeling of a rolling lump of unfulfilled tasks.

People who follow these 5 steps notice that they are more productive and stress-free. The GTD productivity methodology can be used in your personal life as well.

How to carry out your plans

The main thing is to alternate work with rest so that the body can regain strength. To do this, use the following methods.

The Pomodoro method

Tasks are divided into 30-minute “pomodoros” (25 minutes of work and 5 minutes of break), after every fourth “pomodoro” you pause for 20 - 30 minutes. And so on until you complete the entire list. During a short rest, it is good to do eye exercises or exercise. The disadvantage of this technique is that after a long break, you may not want to return to business.

25 minute rule

If your list contains different areas (study, exam preparation, household chores, hobbies), you can alternate them using the 25-minute rule. You group tasks by topic and complete one task from each during this time. This way, classes don’t become boring and everything is done evenly, there is no risk of getting stuck in a hobby and not doing, for example, tests to prepare for the CT.

This rule also works as the minimum amount of time you set aside for important and long-term matters. Preparing for DT is an example of such a task. There are topics that captivate you, and you explore them with pleasure. In this case, several hours will fly by unnoticed. When you come across a task that you just can’t handle, give it 25 minutes of your time. Either the appetite will come while eating, or you will do little, but at least some part.