How I pumped the skills of personal effectiveness

Work 24 to 7

“Hello everyone, my name is Anton, and I am a workaholic. I often work 12 hours a day. My family is suffering from this. I really want to start living like all normal people, but every time I’m losing my temper and staying up at midnight ... ”- probably I would have started my speech if I was in a club of anonymous workaholics.

Yes, I really love my work and spend almost all my time on it. I work as a technical director in an IT company, I really like the work process itself, and even more when I get some visible results.
')
I was lucky with my second half, my wife supports me and suffers. Others in her place would most likely have already hysterical. Natasha sits all day alone with her children at home, leading an older one to the circles and the preparatory class. We almost never had full holidays. On weekends, I also often worked, came home late and took work at home.

“All I do not have, I work,” I said to my own and sat down at the laptop. But the problem is that you can't explain it to children, they are pulling you by the hand, they are called to play, they get upset and cry when you refuse them. It starts to annoy you, because you need to concentrate. Then you take yourself in hand and do a favor to your child, like: “Well, let's quickly assemble your railway,” and at the slightest opportunity you try to return to your work. That is, it turns out, distracted the child and while he was sitting quietly, running to do things.

Like most people, I tried to solve urgent problems and tasks that seemed important to me. I thought that I need to do them right now, and wait for the rest. Rest in retirement, the child will cry and stop. “Wife, what do you want from me ?! You see, I constantly work and get very tired. ”

The worst thing is that such a life turns into a routine when you have a job - a house, a house - a job. A person falls into stagnation, and then can go into the stage of degradation. And it is inevitable, since the whole world is changing, and you stand still.



Probably you know? When your friends or parents call you and ask: “How are you doing?”, And you answer: “Yes, everything is fine, work is home, house is work, in general everything is like everyone else!” And in the evenings you lie in bed, watch Instagram and quietly envy those heroes who enjoy every day, go on trips with the family, perform somewhere, play sports, write books. Where did they get so much time? What they have is not 24 hours a day?
What to do and who is to blame?

Relatively recently, I looked at myself from a different angle. I realized that I was not quite a workaholic, I was a procrastinator. And I am sure that most of the so-called workaholics are procrastinators.



Often, procrastinators are compared with lazy people, but this is not true, although laziness is one of the causes of procrastination. I don't spend all day at home on the couch, I just don’t know how to manage my time properly, and I constantly save important things for later, for tomorrow.

If you look back, then the skills of the procrastinator I most of all pumped at the institute, in the hostel. I think this is familiar to many, you are preparing for exams on the last night, for a diploma - in the last week. Although I knew such people who were great, and prepared for everything according to plan. Always envied such people, but at the same time he did nothing to change.



Instead of taking and doing, for example, to break up the preparation for the exam into small tasks and teach in small portions, you look at it as one big task and maybe even begin to teach, but you understand that there is a lot to learn and you don’t have time today. It is better to start early tomorrow, and today to do something more useful (actually more interesting to you) - for example, to learn how to retouch in Photoshop or play a new toy. And so, day after day ... Then, when you pass the point of "no return", the point after which you can no longer change anything, you start trying with all your might to do at least something. For example, you sit all night and teach these unfortunate tickets, and at about 4 or 5 in the morning you realize that you don’t have time and start making “spurs”. In the morning you go to the exam as a zombie, not sleeping, there is a void in your head.



For 5 years, you get used to it and it becomes the norm, and then "adult life" begins and you continue to carry out all the other things in your life.

Then you look around, and you are already 30, or maybe even more ... and lucky if you have not yet passed the point of no return and there is still a chance to change everything, or at least make your life better.

This is a bitter truth: when you do a routine, you don’t have time to look back, analyze, think. You do similar work day after day and you don’t see that the world has already changed, and perhaps you don’t need to do it anymore, you need to change the scope of activities or carry out modernization. Through this prism you can look at absolutely all the affairs of your life. Try, look back, think, maybe you can change something now.

Perhaps, one of you already thought at some point: “Damn, I need to change!”, For example, “I'm fat, I need to start going to the rocking chair” - but since we are procrastinators, we are all important and big things, and especially if they can not be measured, set aside for later. Therefore, we say to ourselves: “Everything, from the beginning of the next month I will definitely begin,” a new month comes, and we already have a new excuse.

Personally, I can not say about myself that I am effective and a virtuoso of time management. But one thing I can say for sure, I became more efficient than I was six months ago, and even more efficient than a year ago.

It is necessary to understand that the process of becoming effective is a certain function in time, and not some stage, after which you will say: “All I have become effective!” This is a very difficult way and constant work on myself.

In order to start changing yourself you need knowledge and the development of minimal skills. You can, of course, work on yourself like blind kittens, who know the world around us, and knock on all obstacles. And you can use the knowledge that has accumulated humanity and try to find and identify the necessary tools that will help in this difficult path.

In general, I believe that time management knowledge, task prioritization, planning should be given at the institute without fail, and the base should be laid back at school.

Not reinventing the wheel

When I thought about my behavior where to start, I read the book, Getting things Done by David Allen. The main idea of ​​the GTD method, which he tried to convey - is to rid your mind of memorizing current tasks, you need to record everything, not remember.

GTD method

According to this method, it is better to break the received information into several processing steps:

• Collection
• Treatment
• Organization
• Overview
• Actions

Collection

Any incoming task or idea must be recorded on some kind of carrier, since we have a lot of tools for this today. I tried different: reminders on iOS, ToDoist, Trello, physical diary. I think that one cannot advise a specific tool for everyone, there is no silver bullet, for me personally, Trello and the calendar went best.

Treatment

Processing of the collected information should go on a specific algorithm:

• Take the top element
• If he requires actions that take a little time (up to 5 minutes), then we immediately do this task or delegate, or postpone if the task requires more time.
• If the element does not require action, then we leave it somewhere, as background information, or even throw it away, or transfer it to the list someday / maybe

Organization

In this stage to work on tasks that require further action. David Allen suggests splitting tasks into several lists:

• The following actions
• Projects
• Deferred
• Someday / maybe

This method did not fully suit me, since I had other problems: I did not know how to set goals, correctly manage time and delegate.

That is, the task list was still routine for me, and often I didn’t even understand what I had to do after I finished the tasks. I just tried to think of more tasks for myself, and then more.

Doctor, what is wrong with me?

I realized that I was doing something wrong, it was not getting any better, everything was still, only now I was still engaged in inventing and recording tasks. Tried to find other, more effective options. And ... one day I realized, I need to keep track of time. The problem is that since I am a procrastinator, I need to get the data, where I spend my time.

I read about such a technique as timekeeping from Alexander Lyubishchev, but was blown away after a week. I just physically could not make myself do all this, since the system is designed for a certain type of person: pragmatic, focused, orderly - this is definitely not about me.

The basic principle of technology is to develop a sense of time in oneself and feel discomfort when time is not spent efficiently. The first stage was to simply time-measure all actions for more than six weeks, doing nothing to change their habits associated with the use of time. In other words, everything that happens needs to be recorded in the so-called registry of time.



The idea is that every day the sense of time should increase and you can learn to distinguish between so-called “slow” and “fast” time, and eventually you can begin to understand when time is “accelerating”, learn how to slow it down and be as long as possible in a state of “slow time "and do more tasks. In the end, it becomes quite real to live 2–3 “ordinary” days every day, as Lyubishchev himself did.

It seems fantastic, but quite a real technique. If there is a desire, try maybe it will work for someone! Then I read about the 10 golden rules of Lothar Searvert. Some of them have real benefits, I try to apply them in my life.

Intentionally retire and set off hours. This rule works well when performing very important tasks.

If possible, perform only really important things. There is a Pareto principle, which states that only 20% of cases are of key importance.

Complete large tasks in small pieces.

Set yourself deadlines and priorities.

It seems everything is logical and understandable, but in practice it is very difficult, you constantly break down and begin to colorize everything. Business did not get less: I still continued to linger and take work at home.

Again, I'm doing something wrong!

Eureka!

Then I realized that the task for the task can not be done, and you need to learn how to set goals. It seems also looks like a trivial, but in practice I realized that I do not know how to set goals. And I started to figure out how to do it. Methods of whole darkness, I will not talk about everything, but I will tell you about those that came up to me.

I liked the principle of setting goals using the SMART method. I think many have heard of him. It lies in the fact that the goal should be:
Specific
Measurable (Measurable)
Achievable
Necessary, reasonable (Realistic)
Clearly defined in time (Timed)

After that, I came to an understanding of how to do tasks now, how to plan. Knowing the goal, you can always make a decomposition and figure out how to achieve it, what actions you need to take. From this point you start to invent tasks.

It became easier, but there were still a lot of tasks, and the most difficult, you do not always understand when and what task to do, and when - no. For example, you are doing some important task, and here someone comes abruptly with his problem, and it’s also an important task. You decide to help and switch, in the end you do not do your task, but you accomplished a completely different one, which you did not plan and which in the end turned out to be not mandatory.

And then I came across two methods that I think most influenced me. The first is the Eisenhower Priority Matrix.



When you take a task, you first run through this matrix and you know whether it is worth doing or not.

It became better, I began to chase all incoming tasks through this matrix and really began to realize that most of them can either be postponed or delegated, but one question remained open.

My children need attention, my wife needs help. I myself - time to go in for sports, reading, rest ... and there was still not enough time, despite the obvious changes.

Total planning

And once I came across an article that became a discovery for me, and later I read other sources on this topic. The article was about non-traditional methods of modern time management based on the principles of Stephen Covey. It turns out that you can plan not only work! :) Stephen Covey invented the principle of balance between results, resources and the means to achieve them and proposed 6 rules.

Balance - the harmonious distribution of time to achieve important goals in various spheres of life.

Concentration is the most time to spend on “important and non-urgent” matters, as they provide the most benefits. And he advises not to plan daily, but weekly, as it allows you to reserve large periods of time for important, but not urgent matters.

Flexibility - plans should be comfortable for you, according to your habits, style of work. If necessary, you can easily change the planned, without becoming dependent on the previously drawn up plan.

Humanness - in relations with other people, traditional time management for accuracy in schedule and subordination. Efficiency is much more important than adherence to rituals. For example: if your communication with a person has gone beyond the plan, but at the same time helps to establish deep and full-fledged relationships, you should not feel guilty.

Coherence - the unity between vision and mission, roles and goals, priorities and plans, desires and discipline.

Compactness - tools should be as compact and comfortable as possible. Summing up, you first need to understand, time management is not just a technical skill, it is based on the ability to recognize your own values ​​(work, family, health), set goals and set priorities.

A few words about time sinks

Doing unnecessary things
Eisenhower matrix to help you.

Execution of the duties of others
Doing something that someone else must do is sometimes very exciting. Especially when you are professionally strong in this matter.

Waste of time
You spend more time working than you need. Not organized, consider the task difficult. There is simply no information, you start acting swiftly and without thinking. Trying to do everything yourself.

Wasting someone else's time

• We give useful thoughts "after" when a person has already done most of the work.
• We forget to share new information, performers work with outdated data.
• Please help us with something that does not provide enough information.
• Allow yourself to lyrical digressions, which is why discussions become excessively long.
• We make punctual people wait, late for a meeting

What is the result?

I still still prokrastiruyu, but thanks to these techniques and constant work on myself, I do it much less, more time. There is one more secret: I have found a friend-colleague with whom we work together and do not give each other garbage. At home, I connected my beloved spouse on the same principle, although she gets it much worse and I still sometimes get free at home. I started to play sports, again life hacking - together with my colleague I chose a convenient time for this, and together we go to the gym and at the same time conduct brainstorms. Then we come to the office and are engaged in the implementation of invented ideas or a necessary routine.

Yes, sometimes I refine things that have begun, such as writing this article, but much, much less. I clearly try to separate my home and work, although being a co-founder of my own favorite business, it is simply impossible, since work is also my home.

I plan to improve my time management skills, try new techniques or other combinations, invent life hacking. As mentioned above, this is an endless process of working on yourself; as soon as you stop, you will quickly roll back into stagnation and degradation.

My goal is to learn how to manage my tasks in such a way that I have enough time to calmly engage in new ideas and directions, as well as to have a full twice a year rest with my family.