Freelancing is often like juggling. Not only are you working on multiple projects at the same time, but you also probably have projects that are in various stages of development.

Starting new projects, completing others, and constantly getting deeper into work can make organizing and planning difficult task. You will constantly be faced with the challenge of effectively managing your time in order to balance all your clients and keep completing assignments.

If you're like me, then there's nothing more satisfying than completing a task and checking it off your list. Of course, not such a great satisfaction when you get paid for the work, but still. Personally, I find it much easier to function effectively when I have a complex yet realistic to-do list for each day and each week. Without planning for the use of my time, I tend to lose focus and spend my time less productively.

At the moment when I create a list of tasks for each day and allocate my time for each task, I need to prioritize. Efficient distribution is a must for freelancers to maximize their efficiency and productivity. However, we are all different and what works for me may not work for you. There is no right or wrong approach, but we must all find our own ideal method of prioritization.

Before getting into the details of prioritization, we need to define the difference between “important” and “urgent”. The main difference is the time sensitivity. An urgent task must be done in a short time, while an important task, although critical for some reason, does not need to be completed immediately. It is worth understanding that your tasks can be urgent and important at the same time, only urgent or important, and not even the same.

By prioritizing, we hope to find a balance that will allow us to complete the most urgent and important tasks. However, sometimes a difficulty arises when one has to compare one task with another.

An example of an urgent task of relatively low importance would be the approaching deadline of a small project for a client that you are unlikely to work with again. It must be completed on time, so there is clearly more urgency than importance.

On the other hand, an example of an important task with low urgency would be a high-paying job for a regular client who is not very picky about time.

Factors to consider when setting priorities:

Deadline

Deadlines are something we all deal with on a regular basis and they often play a huge role in determining the urgency of a task. Of course, the closer the deadline, the greater the urgency. You may or may not have enough time to work ahead and avoid urgent tasks. But if you are still able to do this, you will be able to eliminate most of the urgency, and therefore you will have more freedom in planning.

Consequences

What happens if you miss the deadline? In some cases this isn't even an option, but other projects will have a very loose deadline and the client won't be bothered by an extra day or two to work on the project. Not all deadlines are the same, so if you're not likely to get everything done on time, try to assess the impact of not meeting each deadline and prioritize your tasks.

Stages of development

While the deadline may not be on the horizon, major projects should be well planned and executed accordingly. If you only look at deadlines, you may not see relevance, which can put you quite far away from getting things done on time. One proven method you can use to deal with this is to set multiple deadlines for small milestones throughout the project, which will help you stay on track and make it easy to track progress.

Payment

Let's face it, money can be a determining factor in both importance and urgency. It may be the amount of the fee, which is very important to you, or the time when you will be paid.

Clients

Is it a regular client providing you with a considerable amount of work? Is this a new client with whom you would like to strengthen relationships and establish cooperation? Is it a customer problem that always has delays in paying on time? Is this a new client that you are unlikely to do business with again? All of these things can be an important factor in how you prioritize.

Your words

Although you don't have a hard deadline, did you tell the client that you could do something by a certain deadline? Or did you say you want to do something specific that isn't finished yet? Your word plays an important role in building reputation and repeat cooperation.

Tips for planning your time

Breaking the project down into smaller parts

Don't look at the entire project, look at what you need to do on a given day or week to make progress.

Prepare ahead of time

This helps to plan things for the day or for the week ahead of time. Typically, you spend a small amount of time on the weekends planning your overall priorities for the coming week, and lay out a plan each evening with what you need to do the next day.

Having a plan made ahead of time helps you start productively each day, rather than procrastinating and weighing all your options before deciding what to work on. This may or may not work for you, but everyone will likely benefit from such planning ahead.

Analysis

At the end of each day, take a few minutes to review what you've done and evaluate how it fits into the goals you had for that particular day. This can be helpful in prioritizing the next day, because now you know which things have more urgency because you couldn't get to them today.

Estimating time costs

Prioritization and planning needs an estimate of how much time each item will take.

It helps a lot to keep up the pace when things slow down and it also helps to evaluate how much you really got done in a given day or week.

It can also be useful for evaluating future projects. Perhaps you really underestimate or overestimate how long a task takes to complete, and this will help you determine deadlines in the future.

Know your strong periods

We all have several periods during the day or week when we are more productive than at other times. If you are aware of these periods, you will be able to adjust your schedule so that you take advantage of your strong periods for work, and less challenging tasks leave for unproductive periods.

Obviously, the answers to emails or sending out invoices will not require as much concentration from you as other work.

Keep track of your mood

Sometimes you may have several different projects with the same level of importance and urgency.

I have found that I work better when I choose a job that appeals to me more at one time or another. There are some points where I planned to write an article, but I just don't feel like I can be as productive as if I were doing something else. If the situation allows, change plans and use the productivity of work time for something else.

It's not always possible, but I've found that it helps with the quality of the work, the amount of time it takes to get the job done, and it also helps with my state of mind at the time.

Plan your time and prioritize correctly!

We have all seen people who cannot even sit still for a minute doing nothing. They work from morning to night all their lives. They don't even retire.

But here's the paradox - their life is not getting better!

Bad luck?

Nah ... They have another problem - priorities. Or rather, their absence.

We'll talk about priorities today.

I am sure that this square, which is reprinted from book to book, has already blurred your eyes:

Popular sign. And for good reason.

As you know, success lives in the second quadrant. You need to regularly invest time in things that are not urgent, but important.

What are these things?

For example, reading books. Nobody is forcing you to read. It is not urgent. But only a person who reads can succeed "in the long game."

Another example is sports. Out for a run? This will only add 0.1% health to you. And the effect can be seen only years later. But the years will still pass. You will stand next to the "sofa Schwartz", and the changes will be oh so noticeable.

Why am I doing all this?

Losers (and they like to blame bad luck) have no concept of “importance” at all. They live in a house with a sign "Urgency".

Is it urgent? So it's important! Does not burn? So, it will still wait.

The affairs of the most valuable quadrant - the second - are not performed.

They never have time for books. But they will be the first on the sale of irons.

How will be correct?

Do the important things first.

It's common sense, damn it!

You woke up in the morning, rubbed your eyes and immediately begin to think in the direction of important matters. Do them first and only then - everything else.

How to prioritize a case?

I like the Agile Results system in this regard. Simple as boots. It pulls the thread from your goals for the year to your goals for the week and then for the day. And ties them all together.

Doing something during the day, you understand that it is a little bit, but it brings you closer to your goals for the year. It's also very motivating!

How to implement all this in practice?

I'll show you how I did it.

My tasks have only three priorities: very important (!), important (*) and unimportant:

And in the end we have this:

This is my tab with important things. Tasks are sorted like this:

• very important and fast;
• very important;
• important and fast;
• important.

And I just do tasks from top to bottom. Well, what could be easier?

I try to spend most of my time in this tab.

As you can see, I am not a supporter of a complex system of priorities (from 1 to 100, for example). I am sure that for 99% of people two or three degrees of task importance will be enough.

By the way, in the same way, you can organize everything in a paper organizer, although I don’t have it for you.

Summary

It is not enough to simply write out all your cases. It's not enough to plan them out. It is not enough to bring them into a rigid system and set reminders.

Be sure to weave PRIORITIES into your time management system! Only they distinguish the eternally busy loser from the person who achieves his goals.

Fast management. Managing is easy if you know how Nesterov Fedor Fedorovich

Choice of priorities

Choice of priorities

The choice of priorities is the most important aspect of the work of a leader, which is far from ideal for everyone. We are surrounded by so many things that we physically cannot do even a small part of them. The natural desire is to do everything. But this is impossible, so each of us has a list of unfinished business. And this list really gets on our nerves and creates a feeling of discomfort.

To get out of this psychological hole, you need to accept two things for yourself:

Agree that it is impossible to do all the things, and allow yourself to do only the important ones, and not do the rest at all;

Learn to choose the right things to do - prioritize.

According to the legend, The best decision in this area was suggested by Dwight Eisenhower, who during the Second World War was the commander-in-chief of the allied forces in Europe, and later became the president of the United States.

He came up with the idea of ​​dividing all his affairs according to the parameters of urgency and importance. Accordingly, all cases were divided into important and unimportant, as well as urgent and non-urgent. The result was a combination of 4 categories of cases (Table 4.1).

It seems to be easy and obvious. And it is quite clear what to do with what. But in practice, everything is more difficult.

Exists a big difference between people's idea of ​​what they do and how it actually happens. If we conduct a survey of managers about what matters take them how long, then we will get approximately the following picture (Table 4.2).

Table 4.2. Expected and actual distribution of time of managers on cases of different priority

Why is this happening? Why do leaders wishful thinking? In order to understand this, you need to learn to distinguish one thing from another and see the whole process in dynamics.

What is an “important but not urgent matter” (VNC)? This is what needs to be done today to get results tomorrow. Accordingly, an “important and urgent matter” (BC) is something that had to be done yesterday in order to get a result today.

An important and non-urgent matter - like an important, but quiet visitor: he came quietly, stood in a corner and, if he was not noticed, quietly left. And unimportant, but urgent (nVS) is a noisy, impudent, but not important visitor: he ran, shouted, pushed everyone aside and made his way to our reception. And when he got through, he talked about some nonsense. What he came, what he shouted - it is not clear. Just wasted time.

Every day there are some unimportant urgent matters, so the fuss constantly strives to occupy all the time of the leader. Sometimes the leader knows and sees his important tasks, but every day he persuades himself that he will deal with them tomorrow, not wanting to notice that tomorrow there will be other unimportant urgent matters. Therefore, the main part of the leader's time is occupied by unimportant urgent matters.

Tomorrow never comes for important but not urgent matters. Sometimes important things do survive to the point that they turn into urgent ones ( roasted rooster sometimes pecks, and it hurts). Then they have to be done. But most of the important things are never implemented.

Unimportant, but urgent matters can and should be delegated to subordinates. True, in order to be able to do this, one must first perform an important, but not urgent, task: to teach subordinates to independently do the tasks assigned to them. Who found the time for this? Nobody. Therefore, the majority of unimportant, but urgent matters, an ordinary boss cannot simply entrust to his subordinates and must do it himself.

What follows from this? An ordinary untrained leader is constantly overwhelmed with cases. He's all in a rush. And often at the same time he himself knows that he is doing nonsense, but he cannot change anything.

This situation is sure to get on the leader's nerves. Guilt eats him up. He was torn to pieces all day: first unimportant and urgent matters, then important and urgent ones. At the end of the day, there is no longer a living place on it. Therefore, there comes a moment when he abandons all his affairs and shouts: “Damn it all to hell! I need to rest! Everyone get out!" – sits down to do something pleasant (not important and not urgent) to calm down and restore his nerves. That is why unimportant and non-urgent things that, in theory, do not need to be done at all, take so much time.

Example

To illustrate, let's take an example from agriculture. In order to harvest in the fall, you need to sow the field with seeds in the spring. If this is not done, then there will be nothing to collect in the fall.

In January, preparations for the sowing season begin (so far, an important and non-urgent matter, since the sowing season is in March). It would be necessary to start preparing (buying seeds, storing fuel, repairing equipment). But then the guests arrived and stayed for a long time. In this case, it does not matter what category this case is - unimportant and urgent (after all, they have already arrived) or non-urgent and unimportant (but pleasant). Both options make little sense.

February has come, and the sowing season is only in March: it is still an important and non-urgent matter that can wait. And then there are unimportant, but urgent matters: Valentine's Day, March 8, etc. - in general, the celebration continues.

And "suddenly" comes March 1! And tomorrow we have to start sowing! And the sowing from an important, but not urgent matter instantly turns into an important and urgent one. We immediately give up all other things - we need to sow. Where are the seeds, where is the fuel, where is the tractor today? The seeds had to be pickled in advance ... It's a pity, but there is no time anymore - so we leave the ground, maybe they will sprout ...

But what if March is over and we haven't sown? All! An important and urgent matter is over, it is no longer relevant. Another important, but not urgent matter appears - what will we eat in September and until the next harvest?

To change the situation, the leader needs to learn to categorize tasks and change the order in which his tasks are performed so that he devotes himself to the most important things first.

Let's take as an example the working day plan of a real manager and analyze it (Table 4.3).

Table 4.3. Initial plan of the working day of the director of a mining enterprise (stone quarry) (before processing)

See how the director himself distributed these cases in terms of importance and urgency (Table 4.4).

Table 4.4. Plan of the day of the director of the quarry (after processing)

Now look at what his real priorities are (Table 4.5).

Table 4.5. Plan for the day of the quarry director after setting priorities by the group

What happened as a result? All the “turnover” was collected in two time blocks of 30 minutes each. The rest of the time the head devoted to the organization of sales in the domestic market. And in just a few weeks, such a focus on one specific case gave its results - sales appeared on the domestic market, the income from which allowed the company to receive funds to finance current activities.

The most difficult thing about prioritizing is learning to distinguish one thing from another in relation to yourself. It is very difficult for a person to look at himself from the outside. Therefore, it is imperative to review our cases in writing and regularly compare one record with another to make sure that our priorities are set correctly.

It is even more helpful to discuss your results with other leaders or get regular feedback from your coach or trainer. While studying at the F. Nesterov School of Management Technologies, you can get both.

What will we get as a result of the fact that we will try to do only important and non-urgent things? How will this manifest itself in practice?

The advantage of important and non-urgent tasks is that they are not urgent. If you really do them, then you don’t need rush jobs: you can do them a little earlier or a little later - it doesn’t matter. The main thing is that they should be done at all.

The most successful companies and people do this, and therefore, in a certain sense, they are similar to each other - they are not in a hurry and work without fuss. Everything happens smoothly and slowly. They simply have nowhere to rush, because they are busy with important and non-urgent matters.

And if you do not waste time on nonsense, then there is a lot of free time and its additional reserve that has appeared can be used for pleasant things (nVnS). And even to think about how to benefit from them.

Example

There is a practice in which successful companies allow their employees to do what they like part of the working time.

In company Google(USA) has a "Rule of 20%". It says that programmers are free to devote a fifth of their working time (or one day a week) to those projects that are of personal interest to them. The "20% Rule", as conceived by the company's founders S. Brin and L. Page, should encourage company employees to develop new ideas.

In company Terrasoft(Ukraine) is the “10% Project”. Its main idea is that any employee can take part in the formation of the company, create its history "with his own hands", namely, actively propose and implement his own ideas. At the same time, the company is ready to help in this, providing the main thing - a temporary resource and, if necessary, financial support for such undertakings.

author Gorelkina Elena

Choice from price and choice from format When purchasing restaurant equipment, entrepreneurs often make a serious mistake, according to suppliers, they choose based on price, not quality. As a rule, the same position for equipment

From the book Marketing Arithmetic for CEOs author Mann Igor Borisovich

Balance of priorities First of all - marketing of the company's solutions, marketing of the company, marketing of employees. Then - marketing of marketing (which also needs to be dealt with). And only then - marketing yourself,

From the book KPI and staff motivation. Complete collection of practical tools author Klochkov Alexey Konstantinovich

2.7. Balancing principles (priority selection) KPI In addition to balancing the needs of the present and the distant future, managers must also balance goals. What is more important: expanding markets and increasing sales or a higher profit margin?

From the book Fundamentals of Project Management author Presnyakov Vasily Fedorovich

Stage 2: prioritization One of the main tasks of the project manager is to manage the relationship between time, cost and

From book Practical psychology for manager the author Altshuller A A

The Priority Principle The Priority Principle is effective method arranging tasks in order of importance. The strength of this method is in its simplicity. It is as simple as it is effective. Make a list of all the things you plan to do during the day

From the book EXHIBITION ACTIVITY IN RUSSIA AND ABROAD author Gusev E. B.

10.2. CHANGE OF PRIORITIES During the country's transition to a market economy, traditional economic ties between enterprises, regions, etc. collapsed. At the same time, newly emerged commercial organizations opened up opportunities for entrepreneurial activity and

From the book Inspirational Manager author Leary Joyce Judith

Imbalance of priorities As is often the case in life, it is difficult to achieve balance, but it is easy to break it. The same can be said about the work of the manager: if you leave the scales in a "skewed" state, this can lead to one of two things:? in case of excessive concern for

From the book Fast-management. Managing is easy if you know how author Nesterov Fedor Fedorovich

Separation of your priorities and the priorities of your department The priority of tasks for yourself and for the department is different. Important matters for the department can be divided into a sequence of actions, each of which can be separately delegated

From the book Development of Leaders. How to understand your management style and communicate effectively with people of other styles author Adizes Itzhak Calderon

From the book Handbook on internal audit. Risks and business processes the author Kryshkin Oleg

From the book Management Elite. How do we select and prepare it? author Tarasov Vladimir Konstantinovich

From the book Faster, Better, Cheaper [Nine Methods of Business Process Reengineering] author Hammer Michael

3.4 Prioritization We chose the stewardesses as a tool for establishing the authority of the organizers. We foresaw the problem that the composition of the organizers (with the exception of the author) was as young as the composition of the participants, among whom the vast majority were

From the book Gamestorming. Games that business plays by Brown Sunny

From the book Time Trap. The classic guide to time management author Nickerson Pat

From the book The Perfect Sales Machine. 12 Proven Business Performance Strategies the author Holmes Chet

Vlad, I sympathize with your situation. As I understand it, you have one big project that needs to be submitted in two months. It doesn't make much sense to change jobs, because there is only a little time left until the deadline. So now I will talk about 11 ways to prioritize that will allow you to focus on the most painful place, i.e. on your project.

Causes of Failure - Wrong Priorities

At work, there are often many additional tasks, phone calls, unscheduled meetings, etc. We try to do everything, but it doesn’t work out, and then we get upset that we didn’t have time to send Commercial offer a key client or make an important phone call.

Why did we miss important things, but managed to do minor ones? It is human nature to disperse one's attention to do things that don't matter at all. This is because many minor things do not require much effort. And we try to follow the path of least resistance, that is, we take on those things that are easier to do, and not on what is really important. But sooner or later, you still have to start those tasks that seemed difficult, just not on time and the chances of success drop sharply.

One of the Causes of failure is - incorrectly placed priorities. The methods described below will help you distinguish the important from the urgent, the main from the secondary. Things that bring lasting effect from short results. How to prioritize correctly?

1. Start with the most important things

Move on to less important things only when more significant ones are done. How to assess the importance of a task? To do this, you need to assess the consequences that will await you if you fail to complete various tasks. Just ask yourself the question: “What will be the consequences if this is not done?” The worse the consequences, the more important the task and the higher its priority. In unimportant cases, the consequences of not doing them are minimal.

For example, regular disease prevention is extremely important, because without it, there can be serious health problems that will negatively affect your whole life. This means that the prevention of the disease has a high priority and this business should be started as one of the first.

And now imagine how they affect your life: computer games, Internet surfing, alcohol, etc.? If their influence on your future is small, then the priority will be appropriate, if you refuse them, then nothing bad will happen, but on the contrary, you will get extra time that can be spent with benefit.

Therefore, we go to the social network or go to a restaurant only when more important things are done.

2. Start your day with planning

Before you get started, ask yourself these questions: What are the most important tasks you need to get done today? What matters are secondary and can be started only after the completion of the main one? If you have more than 4 tasks per day, then write them on a piece of paper because our brain cannot operate effectively and prioritize in the mind when there are more than 7+-2 tasks. Remember how long it takes you to memorize the usual city 7-digit? How much time to write? Therefore, it is much more efficient to plan on paper rather than in your head.

3. Say no to minor matters

Secondary tasks can be done incompletely or, in general, they can be abandoned. When there is not enough time, it is better to do the main thing well than to try to do everything.

If there is enough time, then doing everything is the best result, this is indisputable. But in conditions of limited time, you can not even start the most unimportant things from the end of the list or not do it completely. It's like in chess - the sacrifice of a piece for the sake of victory. Also in business, learn to sacrifice the secondary to work with the main.

In practice, it can be difficult to give up everything planned and you begin to sacrifice time for rest, prevention of your illness, etc. In general, you do urgent things instead of important ones. To eradicate this habit, every day in the morning write a to-do list for the day and next to each item indicate a priority from 0 to 10. In this list for the day, the last thing that has the lowest priority - do not do it, because it is the least important for you . Thus, you will learn to say no to secondary tasks, on which little depends, and you will feel much freer.

4. Don't do it until you write it down

Write down each new task first and only then decide when to start. When a new case appears, it seems to be more important than it actually is. and all for the same reason that our brain cannot work mentally with more than 7+-2 tasks. Therefore, the rest is simply forgotten and it does not work well to compare the degree of importance of several tasks. Also, the effect of importance can enhance the emotions that inevitably appear with everything new. When you write down a new task, you will be able to find more important cases in the neighborhood and by comparing you can better estimate how long it took to work on it.

It often happens that you are busy with something and they call you and ask you to answer an email, find information, etc. Often such requests seem more important and urgent than they really are due to the emotional component that is present in any human communication.

Learn not to start asking immediately, so that emotions do not distract from the important to the secondary. Say that you are very busy right now, but you will be free in a few hours and you can help with this request. Even if you are not busy right now, say that you will call back in a few minutes, this time may be enough to assess what time is best to help so as not to disrupt your schedule.

There are times when it is desirable to give an answer right away, then say: "I'll look at my diary now and see if I can help now." In any case, it will be better, because you have the opportunity to compare the degree of importance of the case with those planned earlier and make a more informed decision.

In many cases, you may not even answer the phone. And you can call back when you're free..

5. Separate important from urgent

Urgent tasks are not always important. Just like important tasks may not necessarily be urgent. You need to start with important tasks and only then move on to urgent ones. Important tasks are often strategic and do not require great urgency, for example, learn English for a promotion at work, quit bad habits, lose weight. etc.

Urgent things that need to be done right now, as a rule, appear as a result of external forces, it can be a phone call, a request from colleagues, etc. Often urgent things are not important, so you should not start them if you can not have time to do something important .

6. Learn to say no

Things are simple - because they themselves do not cause you emotions. And when someone asks you for help, you experience emotions, a feeling of pity, all this can bring down your plans and instead of something important, you will start doing something urgent, which may not be important at all.

There are situations when you can do harm with your help, this is called doing a disservice. For example, a drug addict asks for money for a new dose, from which he can die. Or you are asked to participate in illegal cases. In such cases, you need to learn how to say no. For example:

- "I can't now."
- "Why?"
“Personal reason, I can’t say.”
- “Maybe you can help out of friendship?”
- "Oh please".
- "-/- We repeat the same thing."

Learn this dialogue by heart or make up your own and then you can say no more gently, which, you see, is important.

I pay attention when you do not have a good reason or you understand that you can offend another person if you say true reason then say: "You can't for personal reasons." A personal reason is also personal, that it should not always be said and this will meet with much more understanding than just the word “no” or a reason that may not seem so good to the interlocutor.

7. Don't be influenced

It happens that the requests of colleagues or personal requests are insignificant and can distract you from more important matters. In this case, refuse. But do it carefully and only in cases where you can help later or there is a higher priority for which you are giving more help.

Why is it impossible to completely refuse to help others? And all the time to spend only on yourself? The fact is that helping raises our morale, we become kinder. And the people around tend to cooperate with the decent and avoid the proud and arrogant. That is success in any business depends on morale.

You can refuse Help if you help in another better!

8. "A", "B", "C", "D" tasks

Make a list with all the things that need to be done and write one of the letters next to each task. Each letter is a priority. "A" is the highest, "D" is the lowest.

The letter a". The most important things on which your future depends greatly. All important matters are divided into urgent and non-urgent. Urgent ones are marked with the addition "Ac", and non-urgent ones are simply "A". First, do all the important and at the same time urgent “A” tasks, and only then move on to the important and non-urgent “A”.

Important and urgent, i.e., “Ac” refers to: going to the doctor during acute pain, handing over a work project, the deadline of which is today, etc. If there are several such cases, then set the priority of execution, for example, “Ac1 ”, “Ac2”, “Ac3”, ... The worse the consequences of not completing the task, the more important and higher the priority.

Important and non-urgent ones include: learning English for a promotion at work, paying taxes, etc. When there are several cases, we also note their priority: “A1”, “A2”, “A3”, ...

The order of the list "A" will be as follows: First, we make urgent and important "Ac1", "Ac2", "Ac3", and only after they are completed, we proceed to important and non-urgent "A1", "A2", "A3", ...

Urgent and unimportant cases, from the failure of which little will change, do not belong to this list. For example, watch KVN or buy seasoning for dinner.

If a task requires a lot of time, for example, to learn English, then agree to do it for a certain time every day, for example, 30–60 minutes. and consider completed on the day you give it the scheduled time, then continue, but only the next day.

Letter "B". Not very important tasks that are desirable to do, but in extreme cases, you can refuse. If you do not proceed to such matters, then there may be minor troubles, but at the same time without serious consequences. It is important to observe the following rule - do not proceed to the "B" tasks until the "Ac" and "A" tasks are completed.

The letter "B". Things that would be nice to do, but at the same time there will be no unpleasant consequences - for example, read the news, grease the door in the house. We proceed to them only when "A" and "B" tasks are completed.

The letter "G". Unnecessary tasks and unnecessary actions that are performed out of habit. Try to identify activities that are irrelevant to you and not perform them, because the more time you save on empty activities, the more you can do more meaningful ones.

9. Delegation

How more tasks you can delegate to someone, the more productive you become. But it is important to follow 2 rules:

The quality should be at a similar level as yours or higher;
- your time is worth more than the cost that you have to pay for delegated work.

Delegation will empower you and increase the amount of free time you can spend on achieving your goals.

10. Do what works well

Look for your calling. The most important tasks for us are those that make the most of our talents. Prioritize those things that you are good at and you do them very well. And vice versa, do not do what you don’t like or it’s not for you. This process is slow, but necessary. I searched for myself for about 15 years, trying different fields of activity, until I determined my vocation. John Keynes' words: We must think about the future, because there we will spend the rest of our lives».

11. Don't start small

We are so arranged that we strive to do everything through the least resistance. On a subconscious level, we choose the easier task. So, instead of doing important tasks that greatly affect our future, you can spend the whole day doing insignificant things that are of little value. Resist the temptation to start small.

P.S. If you have any difficulties or questions on the article you read, as well as on the topics: Psychology (bad habits, experiences, etc.), sales, business, time management, etc., ask me, I will try to help. Skype consultation is also possible.

P.P.S. You can also take an online training "How to get 1 hour extra time". Write comments, your additions;)

Subscribe by email Add yourself

An interesting material from TNW on the topic of task scheduling and how a startup can learn to distinguish between “important” and “urgent” came to the attention of the editors of the CPU. After all, not everything that seems urgent is actually important for the work of the project.

The feeling of being driven out begins to haunt a startup when, instead of a proactive mode of operation, he switches to a reactive one. Having become a "reactive worker", a person begins to act "according to the situation" instead of clearly following the planned plan of affairs for the day.

Having strayed from the planned work schedule into constantly “putting out fires” and “plugging holes”, the developer or manager begins to snatch time from some tasks to complete others. As a result, he accumulates a mountain of unfinished tasks along with a growing shortage of time.

The peculiarity of human thinking lies in the fact that, as a rule, we are bad at managing time. Plans often turn into illusions, illusions are crushing, there is not enough time, and in reality nothing works out.

Urgent and important: how to distinguish?

It is a mistake to perceive tasks received by mail marked “Important” as those that require an urgent solution. The formula "do it now" seems simple and straightforward: why delay when it's important?

And here it is necessary to correctly approach the definition and essence of two concepts: “urgent tasks” and “important tasks”. “Urgent” means that the performer of such a task requires an immediate response and immediate action. "Important" means that the parameter or task that in question, plays a key role in the success of the entire project or a significant part of it. Value and responsiveness should not be confused.

The shift in focus from importance to urgency is different for everyone and depends on the level of professional training, practical skills and the area for which a particular employee of a startup or company is responsible.

To make it easier to understand the difference between urgent and important tasks, Stephen Covey, in his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, proposed a matrix for time management. It consists of 4 quadrants with the following parameters:

1. Urgent and important.
2. Not urgent, but important.
3. Urgent but not important.
4. Something that is neither important nor urgent.

The general view of the matrix is ​​shown in the diagram below:

To begin with, we deal with the tasks from the first quadrant: they are vital in order to continue working on the rest. The second quadrant contains important tasks that can be put off and not done right now. Covey explains that the second quadrant is the "heart" of effective personal management.

Most get stuck in the third quadrant. Tasks “live” in it, which are created and require fulfillment at someone’s request, instruction, or due to external circumstances that have arisen. And in the fourth quadrant, everything that makes no sense to waste time should be collected. The prioritization method for tasks is also called the "Eisenhower matrix" because Dwight D. Eisenhower followed a similar decision-making method.

Everyone is used to determining the level of urgency subjectively, and therefore it makes sense to trust not only the direct definition of “urgent matters”, but be guided by the criteria for the importance of even the most urgent tasks.

1. Find out what is truly important to you and your project

It is worth taking a little time to determine what is of real importance for your startup or for the type of activity that an individual or the whole team is currently involved in. What is important and valuable? How will the fulfillment of these tasks contribute to the qualitative and quantitative prosperity of a startup?

What is constantly spinning in your head, but before that "hands do not reach"? Oddly enough, such tasks can include not only professional goals or certain performance indicators of a startup, but even purely personal ones (for example, reading, spending time with loved ones, learning new things). foreign language or additional technologies that may be useful in the work).

Compiling and filling out such a list is boring, but you can save time and resources if you carefully plan your weekly and monthly plans. In addition, in the process of compiling a list of important tasks, you may find that a number of responsibilities and intermediate tasks can be delegated to subordinates or colleagues, which will relieve the personal and professional schedule of the day.

2. Important questions should be given well-defined time in advance.

To move from the first to the second quadrant and not get stuck in the third, there are a few simple but powerful steps. To get started, set clear deadlines and intermediate milestones, break all tasks into discrete segments and tie them to these deadlines.

Behavioral economist Dan Ariely explains why this way of scheduling time and tasks works best. According to him, the deadline perfectly clears our thoughts and allows us to outline a plan of action. And it is always better to point to yourself and subordinates with colleagues on specific actions that must be completed by a certain date, than to be in a state of eternal uncertainty, focusing only on some abstract goal.

Schedule your day, week, and month. Tie calendar dates and even specific hours to the setting and completion of specific small, intermediate and final tasks in the work. Move between these checkpoints gradually. Constant and gradual movement will facilitate the implementation of even the most complex and intricate processes in development, negotiations and marketing.

And while people aren't usually good at predicting, psychologist Dan Gilbert says that a person's ability to look into the future and think about things that will make us feel successful and happy in the future helps us achieve goals in the present that leave us feeling satisfied.