Time management: a simple experiment

Sooner or later, many of us think about the impermanence of everything, about how days go in vain, how rich and happy we were to be now in the view of that past “I”, how we were six months or a year or two or more ago ... But, instead of turning your dreams into reality, to get new skills and change the boring and hopeless work, to think out and complete your brilliant or just a good project that can benefit people, and just make a lot of money or money. it's just that something has finally changed for the better in our life, we get up and go to this work, we get home tired, run World of Tanks on the computer or go to a bar with friends and tell ourselves that today we are obliged rest, but tomorrow we will definitely start doing something.
Or the day after tomorrow, because tomorrow is still a full day of action with a tripled experience ...

And I am not an exception.

To break this vicious circle, I decided that the first thing I needed was to become more organized and effective, begin to plan my life and do what I had planned. And, as you could guess from the article tags, my eyes fell on time management and the GTD methodology.

Of course, we all read stories more than once about how a guy who has a mess in life, suddenly decided to change, introduced this or that time planning technique, and he became happy / rich / famous / just cool guy. But what is the problem with these articles? First, the fact that these methods often require their thorough study and serious preparation, which can take even several hours (for example, as David Allen suggests: take a bunch of boxes, folders, write everything down on pieces of paper and with each to do something ...), which is for us, who love everything uninteresting and unpleasant to do tomorrow, only a reason to postpone everything until better times, when there is more free time (although, often, it is already so full). And secondly, the observance of all the rules with the unaccustomed may seem very tedious and quickly lead to the idea "why waste time, anyway, no results are noticeable." All the activities of the authors of these stories were based on high motivation, and the question of how to achieve such a motivation, to come to realize how bad and hopeless the current situation is, is left aside.
')
And in order to stop postponing for tomorrow and after not breaking down and not spitting on everything, introducing one of the countless number of the only true and super-effective methods, I thought that a good motivation for this would be an option in which I start small and then analyze results.
For this, I decided to check how much more effective my life would be if I just started planning my next day and trying to follow the plan, and also decide whether to just keep a to-do list or better plan my day by the minute. I did a little experiment that took me 3 weeks.

Week 1

In the first week I decided not to do any planning, but at the end of each day I wrote down what was done and what was not done during what was needed during the day. That is, I did everything as before, which allowed me to begin the experiment without any special volition, and, as you know, to begin is the most difficult thing in any business.

Next, let's see how conscious and responsible I was during the first week.

I want to note that hereinafter I did not write down tasks that are obvious and will be fulfilled in any case (such as “go to work”, “meet with friends in the evening”, “pass the exam”, “buy beer”, etc. .) or not urgent and optional tasks (for example, “read the hanging week in tabs with an article from Habra”, etc.), and also did not carry out work tasks, since they arose spontaneously and were usually solved during the same day. I listed the tasks that need to be carried out necessarily or desirable on this day, but which I could forget to perform or which I could be too lazy to perform. Tasks that were not completed were usually transferred to another day.


As you might have guessed, I was not at all conscious and responsible: I either did not remember performing many tasks, or remembered too late for them to be / would be desirable. Many tasks were transferred to another day (and sometimes more than once). It was also difficult to set aside time for such ongoing tasks as working on a project or studying preparation for exams, since in view of their indestructibility it was difficult to force myself not to postpone everything until tomorrow.

Week 2

Having clearly seen what a slob I am, I was in a sufficiently fighting mood to begin making a simple plan for the next day in the second week. To do this, at the end of each day I compiled a to-do list the next day (I immediately wrote down some tasks for other days), which I would like or would like to do very much. I didn’t soar over the system of priorities, but I simply noted particularly important matters (usually this way: “!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”).

During the day, I would occasionally look at the list and carry out affairs from it or plan to carry them out for the next hour or two.
Has this changed my life and has it led me to wealth and fame? Let's get a look.


So what can I say about the past week? No, I didn’t become great, but the results turned out to be very positive: looking at the list during the day helped not to forget to complete tasks tied to a place or time, as well as distribute longer tasks (such as preparing for the philosophy exam) in all day for greater efficiency. Problems arose except that at the end of the day, when I had to fight with laziness, in order to finish all the tasks to the end, and not to score for everything and play tanks. But by the 4th day it had already become a habit.

Week 3

By the third week I was ripe to try the next level of planning. This week I decided to make a tough schedule of tasks for the next day, listing all my free time. Even at night (yes, I just wrote that at this time I was sleeping).

Now I’m surely doomed to success, do you think? I will not torment you, I will say right away.
So.
Inspiring intrigue ...
Compared to the previous week ...
I can say…
What…
Drumroll…
Nothing really changed! Yes, that is right. Sadness

Why, you ask, what is wrong? It was a brilliant and perfect plan in its thoughtfulness, what went wrong? Let's take a look at my compressed daily routines that I made during the week. Also, next to the scheduled time of each task, I wrote the actual execution time, if it was different, as well as unexpected itching that occurred unplanned or canceled as planned.


Of course, maybe I did something wrong, or I just have such an extremely complicated and eventful life (sarcasm), but I (like any ordinary person) occasionally had unforeseen affairs, or a scheduled time for Either the task was simply not enough, which led to a shift in the rest of the schedule, which was not always easy to align (I often did not even notice a shift of 5-10 minutes, it was in the order of things). And this is an extra hurry, stress and dissatisfaction from the past day.

Well, let's analyze all of the above and see what happened in the end.

findings

The effect of the introduction of a time management system is quite noticeable. The number of outstanding tasks (forgotten or due to laziness) has decreased significantly. I found the time and effort to move forward in some of my endeavors (such as English classes and work on the project) than in all previous times, and redid a lot of things that have been delayed for weeks to come.

As you can see, keeping a simple task list for the day is at least simple in execution, but not the most effective option.

Strict planning of the day is unnecessary, because it is not always possible to accurately estimate the time for completing the task, and there is always the likelihood of the appearance of unplanned cases and the occurrence of various situations, due to which the routine is lost and you have to give up some cases or squeeze others. There are also tasks that can be completed in 5-10-20 minutes, and it often does not make sense (and just lazy) to plan them for a definite time, and it is better to just perform them in a free period or immediately in a pack at a time (I combined such things the item “Minor cases”, which I initially signed in detail for the first couple of days). It is easier to carry out these matters when there is a break between the required tasks or to allocate time to immediately perform “bundles” of such tasks (which again, such are not always possible).

So, the most successful is the combination of the second and third methods: the tasks that need to be completed at a certain time are entered into the plan for the day, other optional or not time-bound ones simply follow a separate list. This allows you to control your day and also provides enough flexibility to abandon the least important tasks in case of unforeseen cases and to avoid unnecessary haste when doing other things.

Of course, I cannot assure you that this system is an indisputable truth, which overlaps in terms of significance and effectiveness all other long-term developments in the field of time management, and that it is suitable for everyone and everyone. Why did I write this article, you ask (besides, of course, to get an invite)? Then, in order to inspire others by our example, to show that everyone, having conducted such a simple experiment, not only stop postponing everything for tomorrow and take the first steps in organizing and planning their lives, but also come to understand which principles and methods are appropriate You. After all, this experiment is simply the first step, which allows you to get the initial time planning skills and motivation to further study the various techniques and select the most suitable for you.

Thanks for attention.