Command and Control Objectives
Hello! In the last article, we looked at why task managers do not make us productive. This will only practice: we will try to plan things in such a way as to actually achieve their goals.
A small note: in my program My day planning , the most basic functions have been implemented so far, so besides it we will use Trello and Excel. Trello requires registration, but is available on different devices. We have enough free version of this program. If there is no Excel, you can use LibreOffice Calc, tables in Google Docs or OnlyOffice . Another option is to start Yandex Disk or Mail.ru cloud . These services allow you to not only store files, but also create and edit them in the online free version of Microsoft Office.
Action plan:
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Set goals
Good planning begins with goals. In the last article, we discussed that we need a vision and goals that are grouped by time and areas of life. To do this, create a label as shown below:
For convenience, I have created in advance an Excel file: Objectives.xlsx .
Each column corresponds to one area of ​​life. Spheres of life should not be more than 7. This is not only because a person can process a maximum of 7 elements in the mind. If there are many spheres of life, then you will be scattered, and control over affairs will be difficult. I already wrote 6 spheres of life in the tablet. You can use ready-made or create your own.
In the first line we write down how we see ourselves in a particular area of ​​life. Vision is our deepest dream. It should not be limited to any framework. For this reason, there is no need to wonder whether we have enough time and our abilities to implement it. Many ideas initially seemed to people to be nonsense, but over time, it came to be understood that if there is a desire, everything is achievable.
On the following lines we write long-term, medium-term and short-term tasks. It is important that the long-term goals serve the realization of the vision, the medium-term goals serve the achievement of the long-term goals, and the short-term goals serve the medium-term ones. This subordination of goals to each other and vision allows you to not go astray and to choose the right priority.
This table allowed me to see weak spots and even white spots in my target system. In some areas of my life, I had neither goals nor a vision. After I filled out the table, I had a feeling of increased control over life as a whole.
The goal table only works if it is regularly accessed, re-read and clarified. In My day planning, I plan to additionally add a reminder to regularly review the table, as well as checking that each goal meets the criteria, for example, SMART .
Select the main task for the day.
After creating a system of goals, My day planning comes onto the scene. For each day, there should be one and only one task that will bring the greatest result and will serve the earliest achievement of the goal. This task should be allocated most of the day, always in the morning.
Let me explain what is the trick here. Unproductive people are far from lazy. Just different things not only have different value, but also bring different results. There is the principle of "20 to 80", otherwise called the "Pareto principle." According to this principle, the implementation of only 20% of cases will give 80% of the result. Just think: we can not work on the overwhelming majority of tasks and get almost the entire result!
But we’ll act smarter: from 20% of cases, once again we single out 20% of cases that will bring us the greatest result. We will repeat this process until there is 1 task left. For example, we have 100 tasks. We have identified 20 tasks. Of these 20 tasks - 4 tasks. Of the 4 tasks selected one. It is sometimes difficult to do 3-5 important tasks in a day, but we can cope with one thing for sure.
The main task is to be recorded in My day planning in the "Goals for the day" section. There you can also write less important tasks that you need to remember to perform.
Planning a day or part of the day.
In the last article, we discussed that a single to-do list is not enough — you also need to estimate how much time is allocated for each task. After assessing the time, it usually turns out that we will have time to do less than we would like.
I advise you to plan a new day in the evening, so your brain will tune in to sleep at work, spreading out the tasks on the shelves and selecting the biorhythms of the day. In terms of the day we allocate time for the main task, family and rest. The rest of the time we fill in less important tasks.
In order for the day plan to be flexible, it is advisable to set short breaks between tasks. In this case, it is not scary if we finish the work a few minutes later.
My day planning has a “Plan of the Day” section where tasks fit in, how long they will take, and their value. There are 4 values:
Planning a day in high uncertainty.
Ideally, you need to plan the whole day. However, there are situations when uncertainty is too great to estimate the time for a task. In this case, you can usually make a plan for half an hour, one, two or three hours ahead. Accordingly, we plan in My day planning part of the day and make sure that the main task for the day is completed, and most of the day goes into tasks 1 and 2 of value.
The main thing in this situation is to first figure out what to do and then act. Otherwise, you will grab the first task.
Control of movement to the goal.
When we walk down the street, we look where we go, if there are obstacles on the way, etc. If we are driving in a car, we follow the road, road signs and the navigator. Also with planning: it is not enough just to set tasks and goals, there must be feedback.
How do we evaluate our own or other people's work? According to the result: is it or not. We ask: “What have you got? How are you? It turns out or not? ". This is natural for us, so we will control the movement towards the goal through the achievement of results.
Here we need Trello , which we will use to conduct electronic reporting. Imagine a school board with several columns of cards stuck on it. The whole board is dedicated to achieving some goal. Each card corresponds to one job or a small goal. Columns of cards answer the question "How are you?". One column of cards is scheduled tasks, the other is the tasks being worked on, the third is completed tasks. The structure of the cards is shown schematically in the table below.
We create a board in Trello, and give the name “Reach the goal X” (“Accumulate X rubles for an apartment”, “finish the university”, etc.). On the board itself create columns:
Usually the card is initially in the "Scheduled" column. When work has begun, it is dragged to the In Work or Delegated list. When the goal is reached, it is included in the “Completed” list.
In addition to these lists of cards, I additionally create two more: "Information" and "News." In the list of information I put cards with a detailed description of the goal or sphere of life for which I created the board: why do I need this goal, what do I want to receive. Card assignment in this list can be any. For example, you can create cards “Why do I need this goal”, “Criteria for achieving the goal” or “General plan for achieving the goal”.
The list of “News” cards is news for a loved one: I fix the main or important achievements on the way to the goal. This list is reminiscent of Twitter, and each card in it corresponds to one news. Sample card "Jan 25, 2016 Published article in Megamind."
Now you can create cards. The name of the card is the name of the goal or task. After creating the card, click on it to open it. The card has a field "description" ("Description"), which is located immediately after the title. Usually I use this field for a detailed description of the task and criteria for achieving it. If the achievement of the goal can be divided into steps, add a list (button Checklist) and prescribe a plan. Comments (Activity section) I use as a log. When I did something for a task, I immediately write it in a comment. Then I see the history of my work. When I see the log, I understand that the work goes on, and time is not wasted. This fact allows me to maintain motivation.
Please note: no need to write every small task in Trello - write large ones. We use Trello as a report or journal to monitor movement towards a goal. With small tasks, you can mess around in the task manager - it's perfect for this.
Now I have described the very minimum of actions in Trello, so that you can control your work. If you are not lazy to define the boundaries of the task and write to the log what has been done, then it will be very easy for you to report to the management and yourself. More information about working at Trello will be in one of the following articles.
A few words about self-motivation.
Our system will not be complete if we do not pay any attention to motivation. Motivation serves as a fuel for tasks and self-discipline. If there is no motivation, then everything that I wrote above is useless.
It is necessary to write about motivation and self-discipline separately, and now I will share a simple but effective method. Create a note “My achievements in 2016”. Estimate, that the first there can be written down. Estimated? Record! I did this. In the past tense, as if it had already been done.
Despite the simplicity, the reception is working for the following reasons:
It is good to make such a list not only for a year, but also for a month and a week. When you see that the goals have been fulfilled or are being fulfilled (the log in the card in Trello), there is a motivation to continue the work and bring it to the end.
For now, for now. Thank you so much for your interest in my article. On the basis of their workings out, the program My day planning is developed, which should help a person to plan correctly. I created a board in Trello , so that everyone could follow its development. Registration is not required to view this board. To be honest, I'm still very far from calling myself productive. But I do not want to waste my life. I would be grateful if you help me in testing time management practices, share what has got accustomed and what is not. It is important for me to know the weak points. My contacts are in profile .
A small note: in my program My day planning , the most basic functions have been implemented so far, so besides it we will use Trello and Excel. Trello requires registration, but is available on different devices. We have enough free version of this program. If there is no Excel, you can use LibreOffice Calc, tables in Google Docs or OnlyOffice . Another option is to start Yandex Disk or Mail.ru cloud . These services allow you to not only store files, but also create and edit them in the online free version of Microsoft Office.
Action plan:
')
- We set goals.
- We define the main task for the day.
- Planning a day or part of the day.
- We control the movement to the goal.
Set goals
Good planning begins with goals. In the last article, we discussed that we need a vision and goals that are grouped by time and areas of life. To do this, create a label as shown below:
For convenience, I have created in advance an Excel file: Objectives.xlsx .
Each column corresponds to one area of ​​life. Spheres of life should not be more than 7. This is not only because a person can process a maximum of 7 elements in the mind. If there are many spheres of life, then you will be scattered, and control over affairs will be difficult. I already wrote 6 spheres of life in the tablet. You can use ready-made or create your own.
In the first line we write down how we see ourselves in a particular area of ​​life. Vision is our deepest dream. It should not be limited to any framework. For this reason, there is no need to wonder whether we have enough time and our abilities to implement it. Many ideas initially seemed to people to be nonsense, but over time, it came to be understood that if there is a desire, everything is achievable.
On the following lines we write long-term, medium-term and short-term tasks. It is important that the long-term goals serve the realization of the vision, the medium-term goals serve the achievement of the long-term goals, and the short-term goals serve the medium-term ones. This subordination of goals to each other and vision allows you to not go astray and to choose the right priority.
This table allowed me to see weak spots and even white spots in my target system. In some areas of my life, I had neither goals nor a vision. After I filled out the table, I had a feeling of increased control over life as a whole.
| Using the target table allows you to see the weak points in the system of goal setting. |
The goal table only works if it is regularly accessed, re-read and clarified. In My day planning, I plan to additionally add a reminder to regularly review the table, as well as checking that each goal meets the criteria, for example, SMART .
Select the main task for the day.
After creating a system of goals, My day planning comes onto the scene. For each day, there should be one and only one task that will bring the greatest result and will serve the earliest achievement of the goal. This task should be allocated most of the day, always in the morning.
| 1 day = 1 most important task. |
Let me explain what is the trick here. Unproductive people are far from lazy. Just different things not only have different value, but also bring different results. There is the principle of "20 to 80", otherwise called the "Pareto principle." According to this principle, the implementation of only 20% of cases will give 80% of the result. Just think: we can not work on the overwhelming majority of tasks and get almost the entire result!
But we’ll act smarter: from 20% of cases, once again we single out 20% of cases that will bring us the greatest result. We will repeat this process until there is 1 task left. For example, we have 100 tasks. We have identified 20 tasks. Of these 20 tasks - 4 tasks. Of the 4 tasks selected one. It is sometimes difficult to do 3-5 important tasks in a day, but we can cope with one thing for sure.
The main task is to be recorded in My day planning in the "Goals for the day" section. There you can also write less important tasks that you need to remember to perform.
Planning a day or part of the day.
In the last article, we discussed that a single to-do list is not enough — you also need to estimate how much time is allocated for each task. After assessing the time, it usually turns out that we will have time to do less than we would like.
I advise you to plan a new day in the evening, so your brain will tune in to sleep at work, spreading out the tasks on the shelves and selecting the biorhythms of the day. In terms of the day we allocate time for the main task, family and rest. The rest of the time we fill in less important tasks.
| To have time for family and rest, this time needs to be planned. |
In order for the day plan to be flexible, it is advisable to set short breaks between tasks. In this case, it is not scary if we finish the work a few minutes later.
My day planning has a “Plan of the Day” section where tasks fit in, how long they will take, and their value. There are 4 values:
- Tasks that are directly related to the goal. For example, the goal is to “launch an online store” and the task “to create a website for a store”.
- Tasks that indirectly help in achieving the goals. For the purpose of “launching an online store,” it might be “explore book X marketing.” Learning marketing is not part of the store launch, but it makes it easier to achieve the goal.
- Tasks that do not advance towards the goal, but are necessary for implementation. Unfortunately, we cannot move to the goal 24 hours a day: we need to eat, sleep, relax, spend time with family and friends. Sometimes there are problems that require our intervention and cannot be entrusted to others: a program or computer breakdown late in the evening, a pipe began to run out and an urgent need to be repaired before plumbing arrived, etc.
- Tasks, the implementation of which leads us away from achieving the goal. For example, you need to work on a project, and we are sitting at the TV.
Planning a day in high uncertainty.
Ideally, you need to plan the whole day. However, there are situations when uncertainty is too great to estimate the time for a task. In this case, you can usually make a plan for half an hour, one, two or three hours ahead. Accordingly, we plan in My day planning part of the day and make sure that the main task for the day is completed, and most of the day goes into tasks 1 and 2 of value.
| You can plan part of the day, but make sure that the main thing for the day has been met. |
The main thing in this situation is to first figure out what to do and then act. Otherwise, you will grab the first task.
| First planning, then action. |
Control of movement to the goal.
When we walk down the street, we look where we go, if there are obstacles on the way, etc. If we are driving in a car, we follow the road, road signs and the navigator. Also with planning: it is not enough just to set tasks and goals, there must be feedback.
How do we evaluate our own or other people's work? According to the result: is it or not. We ask: “What have you got? How are you? It turns out or not? ". This is natural for us, so we will control the movement towards the goal through the achievement of results.
Here we need Trello , which we will use to conduct electronic reporting. Imagine a school board with several columns of cards stuck on it. The whole board is dedicated to achieving some goal. Each card corresponds to one job or a small goal. Columns of cards answer the question "How are you?". One column of cards is scheduled tasks, the other is the tasks being worked on, the third is completed tasks. The structure of the cards is shown schematically in the table below.
We create a board in Trello, and give the name “Reach the goal X” (“Accumulate X rubles for an apartment”, “finish the university”, etc.). On the board itself create columns:
- Scheduled
- In work
- Delegated
- Done
Usually the card is initially in the "Scheduled" column. When work has begun, it is dragged to the In Work or Delegated list. When the goal is reached, it is included in the “Completed” list.
In addition to these lists of cards, I additionally create two more: "Information" and "News." In the list of information I put cards with a detailed description of the goal or sphere of life for which I created the board: why do I need this goal, what do I want to receive. Card assignment in this list can be any. For example, you can create cards “Why do I need this goal”, “Criteria for achieving the goal” or “General plan for achieving the goal”.
The list of “News” cards is news for a loved one: I fix the main or important achievements on the way to the goal. This list is reminiscent of Twitter, and each card in it corresponds to one news. Sample card "Jan 25, 2016 Published article in Megamind."
Now you can create cards. The name of the card is the name of the goal or task. After creating the card, click on it to open it. The card has a field "description" ("Description"), which is located immediately after the title. Usually I use this field for a detailed description of the task and criteria for achieving it. If the achievement of the goal can be divided into steps, add a list (button Checklist) and prescribe a plan. Comments (Activity section) I use as a log. When I did something for a task, I immediately write it in a comment. Then I see the history of my work. When I see the log, I understand that the work goes on, and time is not wasted. This fact allows me to maintain motivation.
Please note: no need to write every small task in Trello - write large ones. We use Trello as a report or journal to monitor movement towards a goal. With small tasks, you can mess around in the task manager - it's perfect for this.
Now I have described the very minimum of actions in Trello, so that you can control your work. If you are not lazy to define the boundaries of the task and write to the log what has been done, then it will be very easy for you to report to the management and yourself. More information about working at Trello will be in one of the following articles.
A few words about self-motivation.
Our system will not be complete if we do not pay any attention to motivation. Motivation serves as a fuel for tasks and self-discipline. If there is no motivation, then everything that I wrote above is useless.
It is necessary to write about motivation and self-discipline separately, and now I will share a simple but effective method. Create a note “My achievements in 2016”. Estimate, that the first there can be written down. Estimated? Record! I did this. In the past tense, as if it had already been done.
Despite the simplicity, the reception is working for the following reasons:
- When you re-read what has been done for the year, strategic planning will automatically work: you will try to achieve the goals for the year in advance, and not in the second half of December.
- What will you imagine when reading the list of upcoming achievements? That's right: a holiday table, a Christmas tree, Putin, and, most importantly, the fact that you yourself are satisfied with the past year. Well, how can you not try for yourself beloved, especially since this picture will cause pleasant emotions?
It is good to make such a list not only for a year, but also for a month and a week. When you see that the goals have been fulfilled or are being fulfilled (the log in the card in Trello), there is a motivation to continue the work and bring it to the end.
For now, for now. Thank you so much for your interest in my article. On the basis of their workings out, the program My day planning is developed, which should help a person to plan correctly. I created a board in Trello , so that everyone could follow its development. Registration is not required to view this board. To be honest, I'm still very far from calling myself productive. But I do not want to waste my life. I would be grateful if you help me in testing time management practices, share what has got accustomed and what is not. It is important for me to know the weak points. My contacts are in profile .
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/298128/
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