Good afternoon, Habr! I, like most of you, have tried countless time management techniques in my life and the vast majority of them have not taken root for a long time. There were various reasons for this, some techniques are too cumbersome, others are too abstract, and still others do not provide enough flexibility, but somehow using each technique I had a clear feeling that they interfere under my feet rather than actually contribute to creation .

But as a result of my wanderings and busting through a huge number of variations, I came to my own time management technique. I have been using it for almost a year now, the primary euphoria has long disappeared, but the technique has taken root quite deeply, and I have no desire to refuse it. Moreover, she so succinctly formed the basis of my work, that without it I can no longer imagine my working day. And the most important thing is that there is no feeling that this is some kind of surrogate concept that interferes under your feet.
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I implemented this technique in the form of a mobile application, which I called Achievator . I’ll say at once that the application is absolutely free and has no advertising, my motivation is not to get income, but to share my work, I’ll just be pleased if it turns out to be useful for anyone else.

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What it is

Achievator is a tool for achieving goals through proportional time management. Proportional time management is a time management technique based on the fact that the amount of rest should be proportional to the amount of work. Achievator may be useful to you if:

“You often find yourself stopping to reach your goal halfway.”
- You realize that you could use your time more efficiently.
- You need an external incentive to work effectively.
- You have tried a large number of different time management techniques and none of them took root for a long time.
- You are just looking for new ways to increase your own efficiency.

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How it works

In the first step, the goal is first created (to do this, you need to fill four fields: NAME , LETTER OF SUCCESS , LETTER OF VALUE , COEFFICIENT ), then go to the achievement step. The task at the achievement step is to prevent the amount of earned time from dropping to zero. You can influence the amount of time earned while in one of two modes: REST MODE and WORK MODE . For each second in the working mode you earn the FACTOR the number of seconds, and for each second in the rest mode you lose one second of the earned time.

You choose the coefficient yourself based on the pace at which you are comfortable working (it is set in the first step, and you can also edit it in the process, if you suddenly realize that the load does not match your capabilities).

To go to the operating mode, you must first declare SPRINT . Sprint is a declaration to yourself how long you will be in operation. This is done with the motivation that when there is intensive work, you must clearly see the finish line. Sprints are the functionality created exclusively for convenience. The essence of the application is to ensure a proportional ratio of work and rest, and sprints are just a utilitarian functionality that indirectly helps maintain this ratio.

During the operating mode, any activity should be done in the direction of the final goal, including the satisfaction of physiological needs (sleep, food, toilet). Ideally, the satisfaction of physiological needs should be transferred to the rest mode, because their satisfaction does not directly lead to the achievement of the goal. And only if this is not possible, they are satisfied in the working mode without interrupting the sprint. For example, if you work in sprints for 100 hours, then you need to sleep during the working mode, and you need to sleep in the most efficient way towards the end goal (for example, polyphasic sleep or wake up strictly on an alarm clock). While if you have sprints of 8-12 hours, then the satisfaction of the need for sleep is easily transferred to the rest mode.

In the rest mode, you do those activities and in such a way that you prefer without regard to whether they are effective for the final goal or not. For example, you can cook a tasty dish that takes you 2-3 hours, or watch a movie that is absolutely unacceptable in the working mode.

If suddenly at some point in time you continue to rest when you do not have any time left, then this time will be interpreted as lost. If this happens, then you are doing something wrong, most likely you have set too high a ratio, which you cannot pull.

Upon reaching the goal, you change its status to SUCCESS or FAILURE and proceed to the last step, in which you read the letter of success or failure, which you wrote to yourself in the first step.

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Why does it work

1. Proportionality of leisure work

The fact that the amount of rest is proportional to the amount of work is a more correct approach than, for example, working every day for 8 hours. Due to proportionality, there is also a great value for rest, because you actually earned it. It's about how to compare the value of the money that you won in the lottery and the value of the money that you earned yourself, like the amount is the same, but the latter bring much more moral satisfaction.

2. A single common denominator

In fact, all the equipment is based only on one digit - the amount of time earned. Absolutely any activity, be it business, programming, floristics, sweeping the streets can be presented as work. And also absolutely any type of leisure can be represented as a rest. And accordingly Achievator can be used as a tool for time management in absolutely any field.

3. Minimum bureaucracy

I call bureaucracy actions that are performed to maintain the system and that do not produce an actual result. When using a large number of other time-management systems, you need to devote a large amount to planning, prioritizing, categorizing cases, and so on. Due to this, the impression that the system “interferes under your feet” begins. In Achievator, in order to maintain the system, you just need to create sprints and monitor the balance between work and rest, and performing these actions does not create the feeling that you are more involved in planning than actual work.

4. Maximum flexibility

For example, you can earn a certain “airbag”, so that during force majeure, in which case the rest time would not end. Or, if you want to have a good rest, you must first earn an appropriate amount of time. If you feel bad, or just want to make a little rest, then you can do it at any time. The most important thing is to maintain the balance of work and rest, when you work and how much you decide. This is a very important difference in comparison with the approaches, where you strictly prescribe exactly what kind of business and when exactly you will be doing.

5. Crushing achievements

In Achievator, goal achievement is broken into sprints, and each sprint has its own finish line. It is much more convenient to focus on this finish line than on the subjective “I work until I feel good”. Thus, one big goal is split into its component parts, which individually are much easier to accomplish than if you try to reach the goal at once.

6. Only one goal

A very big mistake is to achieve several goals at the same time. A classic example is the creation of resolutions that people write for the new year, such as: read more, lose weight, monitor health, and all this at the same time. At each moment of time there should be one and only one point to which you move . Then you can concentrate all mental and physical energy only on this one point. If you have several goals, then you need to achieve them one by one. When using Achievator in principle, it is impossible to simultaneously achieve several goals.

7. Clear criteria

Since the entire application is built on only one variable, you can determine whether you manage your time effectively or inefficiently simply by looking at this variable. This is much more convenient than determining the effectiveness of subjective feelings. Based on objective criteria, time management becomes much more efficient.

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Comparison with alternatives

1. TODO lists

This whole class of techniques, here I put the following theories: GTD from David Allen, Matrix Einhauser, business management using a calendar, and so on. A common feature of all the techniques of this class is the need for preliminary preparation, categorization, prioritization of the list of cases.

The fundamental problem of TODO-lists is that they are very often used where there is essentially no need for them. TODO-sheets is a tool that is necessary for organizing a large number of cases .

If you work as a builder, designer, hairdresser, then you (most likely) do not have such a large number of cases in which it would be advisable to use TODO sheets. You can just hold the necessary things to do in your head, and this will be more than enough. If you plan to open your restaurant, then you have a much larger number of cases, you need to conduct interviews, arrange repairs, undergo checks, and so on. In this case, the use of the TODO-list becomes more reasonable and necessary. If you want to write an AAA-class computer game, then the number of cases becomes just beyond the limit, you need to organize not only your own affairs, but also the affairs of programmers subordinate to you, and it is already advisable to use the TODO-list on steroids such as bug tracker. You must select the TODO-list that corresponds to the number of cases that you need to organize . In most cases, the banal retention of cases in the head, or the creation of a simple to-do list without any priorities, categories, matrices, using a simple text file or a notebook with a pen is more than sufficient.

Achievator is a tool for balancing the amount of work and rest, not a tool for organizing affairs, so Achievator does not conflict with TODO lists, but rather complements them when you go into work mode, then you can use any system for organizing affairs that expedient for the goal.

2. Stupidly figachit

“All these techniques are needed for lazy people who just want to justify their laziness, you just need to pull yourself together and fuck” - this is a very common approach to organizing time (judging by the number of people who put a plus on this post Time Management: evolution ). And his popularity can be understood if a person came to this conclusion, he tried a number of unnecessarily confusing techniques (most likely TODO-sheets), none of them worked, and he hits the opposite extreme - a complete denial of any techniques. The complete denial of any technique is as extreme as absolutely thorough planning. And just like any other extreme, this approach is not effective.

Achievator takes exactly the golden mean in this regard, it organizes time using only one single variable and at the same time does not bureaucratize the achievement of a goal to a level at which more time is spent on planning than on actual work.

3. Just do what you like.

Many people try to manage time according to the principle of enjoying the process. To be honest, this is some kind of global misconception that the process of achieving the goal should be enjoyed, but nonetheless this error is very popular. “Just do what you like” sounds about the same as if you say to the captain of the ship: “Always sail in the fair wind.” But this is nonsense, the task of the captain is not to sail in the fair wind, but to sail to the destination, and if there is a fair wind, then good, then it will be easier to sail, if you don’t have it, well, then it’s not nice, but to the point destination you still need to get there.

Exactly the same situation and with pleasure from the process. You need to achieve the goal, regardless of whether you enjoy the process or not. If it is good, then it will be easier to work, if it is not there, then this is bad, but you still need to achieve a result. And if you do actions only when you enjoy their performance, then you will never sail anywhere.

This can be described as the fact that it is always necessary to focus only on one point. You either focus on getting pleasure, and at the same time do not pay attention to efficiency in relation to the result, or focus on what would get to the result, and at the same time do not pay attention to the enjoyment. If you focus simultaneously on getting pleasure from the process and on achieving the result, then none of these goals will be fully achieved.

4. POMODORO

In a nutshell, POMODORO is a technique in which you start a timer for a certain time and work this time with full immersion in the task (you can read a more detailed description here ).

The advantage of POMODORO is that there is a clear declaration of intention to work for a certain amount of time (which is implemented in Achievator as a sprint). And another plus is that the level of bureaucracy is too low - you just need to start timers. The disadvantages of POMODORO in comparison with Achievator is that timers do not in any way ensure the proportionality of work and rest, and should not ultimately be converted into any tangible result. Accordingly, you begin to focus more on the implementation of timers than on what to achieve your goal.

5. Goal frame

The goal frame is a term from popular psychology. Its essence lies in the fact that you sit down at the table and paint on a piece of paper certain aspects of the goal (visualization of the goal, the first step, beliefs that help achieve the goal, and so on).

The fundamental disadvantage of this approach is that the use of this technique is distributed in such a way that it is expected that after writing the scope of the goal, the goal will be achieved as if by itself (that is, a lot of attention is paid to setting the goal, while the process of achieving not given enough attention). But hoping that everything will happen by itself after setting a goal is a losing option, so the scope of the goal is ineffective.

6. MIND MAP

MindMap is not really a direct alternative, but some still use MindMap to manage time. A huge disadvantage of MindMap is that you start to concentrate on a huge amount of useless tinsel: what color should you choose felt-tip pens, drawing pictures, draw beautiful arrows and do a lot more crap, which has a very mediocre relation to actual progress. If the excessive bureaucratization of the TODO sheets can still be somehow substantiated, then the waste of time on drawing is just a clinic. The problem is that all this tinsel distracts you from the actual things you need to do. MindMap is a presentation tool. It needs to be used when you want to create a beautiful picture that other people will later look at.

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Summary

Achievator is not a magic tablet, which in a moment will make all your goals start to be achieved, there will be enough time for everything and you will create a new Google. Achievator can only help to do this. I hope this approach to the organization of time will appeal to you. Thank you for attention.

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Links to the application

ios
android